Tesla’s Supercharger network is far superior to every other existing charging network. Why? Tesla chargers are located in useful places. They almost always work. There are many of them. These facts cannot really be said of any other charging network.
Credit to InsideEvs, which spotted this White House fact sheet, which all but confirmed what we’d long suspected: Tesla is going to open up to its vast Supercharger network to non-Tesla EV drivers. Specifically:
Tesla is expanding production capacity of power electronics components that convert alternating current to direct current, charging cabinets, posts and cables. Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers.
There’s already been a pilot program of this in Europe and, of course, with a CCS adapter you can charge your Tesla on most CCS charger networks(Electrify America, ChargePoint). This is, seemingly, good for everyone.
Allow me to explain:
NON-TESLA OWNERS
- Access to a reliable grid in places there are currently not chargers, or not many chargers.
- Competition for Electrify America and Chargepoint that, hopefully, encourages them to improve reliability and access.
- The kind of inoperability that EV adoption is going to require.
TESLA
- To use their service, likely, you’ll need to download their app. The data given to Tesla will be enormous to them.
- Money. Tesla is a company. It needs to make money.
TESLA OWNERS
- Always nice to have buddies at the charging station I suppose?
The major downside here, probably, is for anyone smug about the superiority of their network (some CCS chargers are faster, slightly, than Superchargers). There’s also the possibility of increased traffic at Superchargers, but it’s a small price to pay for buddies.
