| Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg's newsletter on what's reshaping the auto world. Read today's featured story online here. Hours before Tesla and Ford announced their surprise charging partnership, Ford's chief executive officer offered his take as to why the US has been so slow to adopt electric vehicles. The problem isn't the cars, but the plugs that power them, Jim Farley said during a Morgan Stanley summit last week. Survey after survey show that America's patchwork of often shoddy chargers is the biggest obstacle to consumer acceptance of EVs. Farley then proceeded to hand a major victory to his counterpart Elon Musk in a broader EV tussle reminiscent of the entertainment business battle between Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS. Starting early next year, Ford owners will get access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers. Ford, in turn, will begin equipping its EVs with built-in ports for connecting to Tesla's proprietary North American Charging Standard, or NACS, from 2025 onward. This will eliminate the need for adapters that Ford vehicles will have to use to tap Tesla's chargers initially, since Ford and the rest of the industry have used a different kind of connector called Combined Charging System, or CCS.  A Ford Mustang Mach-E plugged in during last year's New York International Auto Show. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg Ford's announcement is a shot across the bow of EVgo and ChargePoint, as well as Electrify America, a Volkswagen subsidiary set up in the wake of its diesel-emissions scandal. If these companies are unable to step up their game and deliver better charging experiences, there's a risk Ford's defection to NACS won't be the last. "This is at once the most pragmatic and revolutionary step that Ford has made on EVs," Reilly Brennan, a founding general partner of Trucks Venture Capital, wrote this week in his Future of Transportation newsletter, comparing it to the company's decision to offer an electric version of its best-selling F-150 pickup. "The other automakers who have been pretending that EVgo, ChargePoint and Electrify America are 'good enough' must now finish up their tummy time and arrive at something that is equal to or better than accessing Tesla Superchargers." In the 1970s, home entertainment was a growing revenue stream for movie studios, but it wasn't initially clear which videotape format would prevail. Sony had an edge because it dominated the consumer-electronics business, and its Betamax product had better picture quality. But JVC's VHS tapes won out — they were much cheaper, and unlike Betamax could record a full two-hour movie. Tesla's Superchargers have demonstrated similar superiority in reliability and ease of use, ranking No. 1 in a J.D. Power survey of consumers' experience with EV fast-chargers. In a November blog post announcing that it was opening NACS and inviting charging network operators and carmakers to adopt its connector and port, Tesla boasted that there were 60% more NACS posts in North America than all CCS-equipped networks combined.  A Tesla Supercharger station in Santa Monica, California. Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg Farley experienced the ubiquity of Tesla's chargers firsthand while driving a Ford Mustang Mach-E electric SUV on vacation with his family from Lake Tahoe to Monterey, California, last year. "My kids kept looking at me and going, 'Hey dad, there's another Supercharger, can we stop there?'" Farley said during a Twitter Spaces conversation with Musk last week. "I was like, 'No, we have to go over here behind this other building.'" Tesla has a first-mover advantage with its network of chargers, which generally are in prime locations that are safe and convenient, according to Gary Silberg, global automotive sector leader for consultant KPMG. Tesla's chargers are simple and elegant to use and "a fantastic secret sauce," he said. "GM and others are going to have a big choice to make," Farley told CNBC last week. "Do they want to have fast charging for customers, or do they want to stick to their standard and have less charging?" — By Keith Naughton - Toyota and Daimler agree to merge truck units.
- GM secures support for EV battery plant in Quebec.
- Musk echoes Apple and Mercedes CEOs on China ties.
 An empty car carrier trailer passes the construction site of Nissan's new battery factory in Sunderland, England. Photographer: Joanne Coates/Bloomberg Washington in northeast England likes to boast of its US connections. George Washington's ancestral home lies at the heart of the old village; the family coat of arms greets visitors to the municipality; even the local golf club is named after the first US president. Yet for all the historic affinities, government actions in the US capital now pose a threat to the economic lifeblood of its diminutive English namesake. Up the road from Washington is the UK's largest car plant, run by Nissan of Japan. How long that factory can remain viable is unclear as a result of President Joe Biden's policies that are upending the global auto industry. | 
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