“To accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, we are dedicated to elevating the entire EV-experience for our customers – including fast, convenient, and reliable charging solutions wherever their Mercedes-Benz takes them. That’s why we are committed to building our global Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging Network, with the first sites opening this year.”

So said Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

Mercedes will be opening in North America a “High-Power Charging Network” that will include more than 400 charging hubs and more than 2,500 high-power chargers.

This won’t all be up and running until the end of the decade. Some will open this year.

Källenius went on to say, “In parallel, we are also implementing NACS in our vehicles, allowing drivers to access an expansive network of high-quality charging offerings in North America.”

Yes, Mercedes is signing on to the Tesla Supercharger network—more than 12,000 Superchargers (considerably more than the 2,500 Mercedes plans to have in some six years). Starting next year, they’ll be equipping their vehicles with the socket and software to take the Tesla juice.

So now there are Ford, General Motors, Volvo, Rivian, Mercedes, and probably more by the time you read this all planning on having their vehicles charging at the network created by what is arguably the world’s most desirable electric vehicle company (how else to explain the market dominance it continues to have—and when you hear about how its market share is declining, realize that the market is getting bigger, so while its slice may be smaller from a percentage standpoint, the real thing to pay attention to is the number of vehicle it is selling vis-à-vis the other companies).

This strikes me as something analogous to Apple in its early days saying that it would offer Windows as the operating system and then trying to persuade users to switch to its OS.

What would be the point?

These OEMs are taking a short-term gain and will experience a long-term disadvantage.

If someone buys a Mercedes rather than a Tesla it is probably because they think the Mercedes is a superior vehicle.

And there’s Mercedes saying, “Yes, our vehicle is great but our charging system isn’t, so go use the system from the other brand.”

Isn’t that admitting that the other brand is technologically more capable?