Tesla Superchargers Are Being Tested by Other EVs

For years Elon Musk has mentioned the idea of opening up Tesla’s Supercharger network to other EVs, and now it appears to be happening, at least on a pilot level. Months after Musk mentioned that the process will begin this year, Tesla has announced that it has opened up 10 of its stations to other EVs—in the Netherlands.

The process is happening on an admittedly small scale for now and outside the US, albeit in an EV-friendly country, with the automaker eager to gauge the scale of traffic that its stations are likely to see. It’s worth noting that Holland has a much wider variety of EVs on sale than the US does, so there is a methodology at work here, even if stateside EV owners will still feel left out. The fact that Tesla Superchargers in Europe use CCS connectors—as opposed to the proprietary ones Tesla vehicles stateside get—also helps explain why it’s happening there first.

“With this pilot, 10 stations are now accessible to Dutch Non-Tesla EV drivers via the Tesla app (version 4.2.3 or higher),” the automaker said. “Tesla drivers can continue to use these stations as they always have, and we will be closely monitoring each site for congestion and listening to customers about their experiences.”

The possibility of the automaker opening all of its stations has drawn mixed opinions from Tesla owners over the years. On the one hand, having a proprietary charging network has been a selling point for Tesla for years, and some owners have mentioned that they would feel that the convenience would be diluted by other EVs crowding Tesla stations. On the other hand, Tesla owners tend to have chargers at home, as do many other EV users, so the frequency of Supercharger usage is not really an absolute necessity for a lot of Tesla owners.

The timing of this move is likely deliberate, too. It is only in the past couple of years that Tesla has started to face a multitude of competitors in Europe, but before the onslaught of competition, confining Superchargers to Tesla cars was seen as a selling point for the brand. Now that there are about a dozen companies in Europe with EVs on offer, the strategy could be changing toward making money from opening access to other users.

“It’s always been our ambition to open the Supercharger network to Non-Tesla EVs, and by doing so, encourage more drivers to go electric,” the automaker added. “This move directly supports our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

The trial rollout in the Netherlands should demonstrate how the process is likely to unfold in the US, when and if it happens. In Europe, EV owners will need to download the most recent version of Tesla’s app to their smartphones, and will click on “Charge Your Non-Tesla” to locate a compatible Supercharger station. The timing of a possible wider rollout in the US remains a bit murky for now, as non-Tesla EVs stateside would need, at the very least, an adapter for the proprietary connectors at Superchargers, so there are some hardware roadblocks to overcome. So the issue does not appear entirely decided for US owners of non-Tesla EVs.

But as more EVs appear on the market, a proprietary standard that would exclude other EVs could eventually leave Tesla in the minority when it comes to charger availability. This is one of the things this experiment is about.


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