Tesla Inc. has opened the first batch of its Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs as part of a pledge to share its fast-charging network in exchange for subsidies as part of a $7.5 billion federal program to expand EV infrastructure.
Tesla said on its official Twitter account that “select Superchargers in the U.S. are now open to other EVs” in a post on Tuesday afternoon.
The announcement came a day before Tesla’s Investor Day event, where CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to lay out the company’s future products and programs.
Prior to Tuesday, Tesla only allowed Tesla vehicles to charge at its stations.
Tesla, which had about 65 percent of the EV market last year, has only committed to opening 3,500 current and future charging stalls to non-Tesla EVs, a small fraction of its total network capacity. Tesla has not said where the select chargers would be located.
Through its @TeslaCharging Twitter account Tuesday, the automaker posted a video showing how EV owners from rival brands can access the Tesla charging stalls.
Because Tesla uses a proprietary charging plug, the EV maker has modified its charging units to include an adapter for non-Tesla vehicles that use the CCS plug, which is significantly larger than Tesla’s plug. Most non-Teslas use the Combined Charging System standard, with the exception of a few EVs that use the CHAdeMO connector.
The Supercharger units that can accommodate non-Tesla EVs have a special dock that can either release a Tesla plug — or a Tesla plug with a CCS adapter on top of it. The type of plug is selected in the Tesla smartphone app.
The Tesla app shows a map of locations where the CCS adapters are present. For example, in Silicon Valley, the Tesla app shows “select” location in Scotts Valley, which is just south of San Jose, Calif., a major tech hub.
EV owners can download the Tesla app, create an account and choose “Charge Your Non-Tesla” from the menu. The app includes a “wallet” for payment using a credit card or Apple Pay.
Tesla did not say on its Twitter account how many Supercharger stations were open to rival brands as of Tuesday.
In California, which has the largest concentration of Superchargers in the country, the Tesla app listed a second station near Sacramento as open to non-Teslas.
The Tesla app also showed several shared locations near Tesla’s factory in Buffalo, N.Y., where it makes the Supercharger units. There were no units open to non-Teslas near the company’s headquarter in Austin, Texas, where Musk is expected to lay out the company’s future plans on Wednesday afternoon.
In a mid-February report, iSeeCars estimated that Tesla’s network represented 60 percent of all fast-charging stalls nationwide with 17,248 individual chargers. The Level 3 fast-charger units generally fill an EV battery in less than an hour. Tesla also has a network of Level 2 chargers, used to charge overnight, at locations like hotels.
Rival charging networks that serve non-Tesla EVs represented 40 percent of fast-charge stalls nationwide at 11,479, iSeeCars said. One non-Tesla network, EVgo, also has some charging units with Tesla plugs.
If Tesla were to open its entire network to non-Tesla EVs, it would immediately solve a serious issue facing EV adoption: the lack of reliable fast-chargers for non-Tesla brands, said Karl Brauer, executive analysts at iSeeCars.com.
“Elon Musk could flip a switch, in theory, and add 150 percent to the fast-charger network of the United States” for non-Tesla vehicles, Brauer told Automotive News.
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