GM CEO Mary Barra says Tesla charging deal will save the automaker up to $400 million

DETROIT — General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the Tesla charging deal announced Thursday will save the automaker up to $400 million from its planned investment in building EV charging stations in the U.S. and Canada.

In October 2021, GM said it planned to spend $750 million on electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the two countries. That includes home, work and public charging in the U.S. and Canada, GM said at the time.

“We think we can save up to $400 million in the initial three-quarters of a billion dollars that we set aside for this because we’ve been able to do it faster and more efficiently,” Barra said Thursday in an interview with CNBC’s Fast money.” “We’re really looking at ways we can be more capital efficient as we go forward.”

Barra, in response to a question about licensing other Tesla technologies, said the Detroit automaker is “always looking for ways to be more capital efficient” and “if there are other partnership opportunities, you know, we will be very open to them.”

The deal between GM and Tesla will give GM EV owners access to more than 12,000 of Tesla’s fast chargers starting next year using an adapter. It will also feature GM’s take on the Tesla charging port instead of the current industry standard.

The GM deal follows crosstown rival Ford Motor announcing a similar deal with the Elon Musk-owned automaker. The CEOs of the two Detroit automakers announced the deals along with Musk on Twitter.

Wall Street analysts hailed the Tesla-Ford deal as a “win-win” when the deal was announced last month.

Shares of GM and Tesla rose more than 3% in extended trading on Thursday.