Cathie Wood shares her take on General Motors partnering with Tesla

Shares of General Motors Co (NYSE: GM) are up more than 5.0% this morning after the legacy automaker announced a partnership with Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA).

Details of the Tesla-GM deal

On Friday, the car manufacturer said its electric vehicles will soon be able to use the vast network of about 12,000 fast chargers that Tesla has laid out across North America.

In 2025, GM will also switch from CCS port (current industry standard) to North American Charging Standard or “NACS” that’s found in a Tesla. According to CEO Mary Barra:

We have a real opportunity here to drive this to be the unified standard for North America, which will enable more mass adoption. So, I couldn’t be more excited.

In the meantime, its EVs will use an adaptor and a charging app to access Tesla’s network. The Detroit automaker’s stock is up 10% year-to-date at writing.

Cathie Wood reacts to the partnership

CEO Barra also confirmed in an interview with CNBC that partnering with Musk & Co will help save as much as $400 million.

Shares of Tesla Inc are also in the green today suggesting the agreement that will go live next year is a positive for the electric vehicle behemoth as well. According to Cathie Wood – the Founder and CEO of Ark Invest:

It does help Tesla underwrite the charging station expense. Tesla sales are highly concentrated on the coasts. Now, it’ll make more sense for Tesla to roll out charging stations much faster throughout the country.

It is also noteworthy that Elon Musk has recently signed a similar deal with rival Ford Motor as well. In total, Tesla says it has about 45,000 supercharger connectors worldwide.