According to a “fact sheet’ published by the White house, Tesla is planning to open up its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US in late 2022. The company has been allowing non-Tesla owners to use its Superchargers all over Europe as a pilot program, but nothing has been said about when this would extend to the US.
“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,” the White House states.
Tesla has made no comment on these claims, however Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has talked for years about opening his Superchargers to other companies. The Supercharger network is often held up as the best possible example for an EV network, although Tesla’s network has been exclusive to their car owners meaning owners of Fords, Volkswagen and other vehicles were unable to use the system.
However, last year, Tesla enabled all cars to use their charging network, in a new pilot program throughout Europe which enabled all electric car owners to use their chargers. This started in Norway and expanded to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and many more!
If the pilot program is extended to the US, non-Tesla EV owners will need to download the most recent version of Tesla’s smartphone app in order to access the stations. The company has said that they would use this to monitor each site for congestion and other concerns
Tesla uses a proprietary connector in North America, so non-Tesla vehicles here will need an adapter in order to access the company’s Superchargers, of which there are over 6,798 plugs in the US, according to the Department of Energy.
There are approximately 41,000 public charging stations, including Superchargers, in the United States, with more than 100,000 outlets. The Biden administration has said it will spend $5 billion to grow that number to 500,000 chargers by 2030. According to new standards laid out by the White House, federal money will only be available to install charging ports that can be used by the broadest number of vehicle owners.
