Tesla has been testing the EV charging of its Superchargers in select locations in Europe. Now the automaker plans to offer the US Supercharger stations to other EV owners. The White House states that the services will begin later this year.
Furthermore, the White House added, “Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers.” It was first revealed a fact sheet on EV charging was sent out on June 28. The news remained unnoticed or unannounced till Thursday. It could not have been expected from any EV enthusiast that Biden’s administration. Especially considering the chilly relationship between those two entities.
In May, Elon Musk said that non-Tesla charging will come to the US. However, there was no timeline or any official information further. One major challenge for this transformation is that the US Superchargers have proprietary connectors, unlike the ones in Europe. As a solution to that, Musk said at the FT Future of Cars Conference, “we will be adding the rest of the industry connector as an option to Superchargers in the US.”
Superchargers for other EVs in other locations
In November, Tesla opened a pilot in the Netherlands that allowed third-party electric vehicles to recharge at Supercharger stations. It has since expanded(Opens in a new window) to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
A recent proposal from the administration, meanwhile, would require chargers funded through last year’s infrastructure law to support DC fast charging via standard CCS connectors. Tesla did open up its Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs and offer to recharge at no cost to people fleeing Ukraine in March 2022, so it seems the company has figured out how to make it work. Now it’s unclear when in 2022 this functionality will come to North American Superchargers.
The memo did not mention how much money Tesla will invest in adding stations to its fast-charging network, but said that the EV maker is ramping up production of “power electronics components that convert alternating current to direct current, charging cabinets, posts, and cables.” The patchwork of different charging networks in the U.S. is a clunky problem for a growing number of automakers and consumers. In June, GM said it plans to equip its new EVs with a “Plug and Charge” capability that lets drivers plug in and automate payment at a range of different charging stations.
