Elon Musk confirms Tesla plans to open Superchargers to other automakers later this year



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Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla plans to open its Supercharger network to other automakers later this year.

This is something that has been in the works for some time.

It’s hard to put a figure on that value, but there’s no doubt at this point that Tesla’s Supercharger Network is the world’s largest electric vehicle fast-charging network.

Instead of relying on third-party charging networks like most other automakers, Tesla developed its own network from scratch, which was more of a necessity, given Tesla’s seniority with electric vehicles. .

Ten years after the deployment of the first Supercharger, Tesla now has more than 25,000 Superchargers in more than 2,700 stations around the world.

Unlike third-party networks like Ionity, Electrify America or ChargePoint, only Tesla vehicles can charge on the Supercharger network.

However, Tesla has often indicated that it is open to the idea of ​​sharing the Supercharger network with other automakers, but that would depend on reaching a cost-sharing agreement.

The automaker has reportedly been in talks with other automakers to make such a deal in the past, but we have never seen any real results.

Last year, CEO Elon Musk even said Tesla superchargers are now being used “inconspicuously” by other automakers.

Last month, Electrek reported that Tesla had in fact confirmed to the Norwegian government that it was planning to open up the network to other automakers in order to gain access to subsidies.

Some thought it would only be for a few stations in Norway, but we reported on the Electrek podcast that Tesla was planning a wider opening of the network via an adapter and an update to its mobile app:

Musk has now confirmed his intention to open the network for now and has even attached a timeline.

The CEO commented on Twitter while discussing Tesla’s proprietary connector:

We made our own connector because there was no standard back then and Tesla was just a maker of long-range electric cars. It is a fairly thin connector for both low and high power charging. That said, we are opening our Supercharger network to other electric vehicles later this year.

In North America, Tesla uses its own connector and will have to offer an adapter to other owners of other electric vehicles so that they can use the network.

In Europe, Tesla now uses the CCS standard and it will be easier for them to open the Supercharger network to the market.

Taking Electek

With a schedule now confirmed for the network to open by the end of the year, Tesla will need to release more details on the plan.

As we discussed earlier, sources familiar with the matter said Electrek that Tesla was planning to implement a major update to its mobile app to open it up to non-Tesla owners.

It would include the integration of access to the Supercharger network for non-Tesla owners.

This is how they will manage their charging sessions and their payment.

However, how they will be added to the network remains to be seen.

It should be handled with care as it would be easy to just make an adapter available and open the app, but it could overload the network, which is already at full capacity in some areas.

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