Electric cars other than those made by Tesla will be able to use the firm's Supercharger network from later this year, CEO Elon Musk has said.
The network - which consists of 2500 stations with 25,000 charging points worldwide, including more than 600 across the UK and Ireland - is currently exclusive to Tesla drivers.
Opening these up to all brands would represent a significant boost for EV drivers. Zap-Map estimates that only 1137 of the near-25,000 charging devices in the UK are capable of ‘ultra-rapid’ rates of 100kW or more.
“We created our own connector, as there was no standard back then and Tesla was only maker of long-range electric cars,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “It’s one fairly slim connector for both low and high-power charging. That said, we’re making our Supercharger network open to other EVs later this year.”
Asked if the network would be open to all EVs in specific territories, Musk replied: “Over time, all countries.”
While Musk has a habit of making impromptu announcements on Twitter, his tweets are often taken with a pinch of salt. In 2019, he and Tesla were each forced to pay a $20 million fine by the US Securities and Exchange Commission after he falsely claimed that he had “funding secured” to take the company private, damaging investors.
The deal with the SEC compelled him to step down as Tesla chairman for at least three years and his tweets regarding the company now have to be pre-approved – although the regulator believes the latter term has been broken at least twice, according to documents recently seen by the Wall Street Journal.
In any case, Musk’s latest claims don’t go into detail about the difficulties of opening up the Supercharger network to all electric cars. In the UK, Superchargers offer both Type 2 (for the Model S and Model X) and CCS connectors (for the Model 3), but charging points in the US would need an adapter.
The move could also prove unpopular with Tesla owners, who view the exclusive Supercharger network as a key benefit of buying one of the American manufacturer's cars.
There’s also the issue of pricing: certain Teslas can use the Supercharger network for free, while others are charged a rate of 28p per kWh after exhausting an annual allowance of 400kWh.
It’s not clear if non-Tesla drivers would be charged more or if they would be entitled to the same charging speeds of up to 250kW that equate to 1000 miles of range per hour on some models.
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As a Tesla driver I'm not too worried about this. Firstly, the opening up that's happening this year is at a specific government-subsidised Norwegian site. Secondly, Tesla have always been up for sharing the supercharger network with other manufacturers as long as they contribute to the infrastructure costs and their cars can charge fast enough. Tesla won't do anything to alienate their core base, so at worst it will mean sharing with one or two additional manufacturers in the medium term, who contribute to expanding the network. My best guess is that it'll be something fairly niche to start with like Rimac.
Tesla just think stuff through properly... Superchargers are often vacant firstly because they went superfast from start instead of the short sighted mass of so called rapid 50kw that others installed and are now woefully inadequate speed within just a few years for the battery capacity of current EV's let alone tomorrows..Secondly the Tesla app notifies you when your charged and if you don't move off the charger within a few minutes you carry on getting charged so it reduces unnecessary charger sitting.
I hope they do charge premium rates for non Tesla vehicles.
My guess that the catch will be more expensive to charge a non Tesla vehicle at one. Besides, it makes sense for Tesla to do this. While I do see the chargers being used, there are generally far more empty chargers than ones being used. By opening it up and charging other vehicles, they can make some money from existing infrustructure