Ford's future EVs will have access to 12,000-station charging network

Update: Ford clarified that the charging is not free. The complimentary access only allows owners the ability to pay to use the charging network for two years. After that, owners will need to pay for a membership in order to use those chargers. The story below has been updated to reflect that.

Ford is sweetening the deal for its future electric car owners. The “Mustang-inspired” EV crossover that’s on its way will come with access to 12,000 charging stations Ford is calling the “FordPass Charging Network.”

While they might have the Ford name attached to them, these stations were not built by Ford, and the Blue Oval also won’t be building any new ones itself. However, Ford EV owners will have access to all of them for the first two years of ownership. Some of the 35,000 plugs among the 12,000 stations will be DC fast chargers built by Electrify America. With one of those 150 kW chargers, Ford says its electric cars will be capable of gaining 47 miles of range in just 10 minutes. A charge from 10 percent to 80 percent will be a 45-minute wait, according to Ford. One can likely thank the recent Ford-VW partnership dealings for this Electrify America (a VW subsidiary) access, as the two companies continue to share more technology and resources with each other.

The FordPass app and FordPass dashboard assistant will help make charging easier, as well. Despite Ford saying owners will have "complimentary access" to the charging network, owners will still have to pay to charge. This can be done via the FordPass software baked into the car's infotainment system. It also has a trip planner to help identify charge points along your route, similar to Tesla’s navigation system. You’ll be able to tell if a charger is available or not on your vehicle’s dashboard, and it’ll also point out things you can do in your immediate surroundings as you wait for the car to charge.

At-home charging will be similar to most other EVs on the road. Ford is including a charger with each electric car it sells, capable of plugging into a 240-volt or 120-volt outlet. You’ll also be able to have a Ford Connected Charge Station installed at your home — Ford is partnering with Amazon for the installation of that device. It’ll be capable of giving the car a full charge overnight, adding 32 miles of range per hour on the charger. The 240-volt charger is only capable of adding 22 miles of range per hour. Ford says these charge rates are for its EVs with the “premium 300 mile extended-range configuration,” so we have that to look forward to, as well. Charging rates for other vehicles was not provided. Pricing and timing for the Ford Connected Charge Station isn’t available yet, but the Mustang-inspired EV crossover won’t be shipping until 2020 anyway.