Telsa sets to open its supercharger network to other EVs for the very first time in the company’s history. The company will be rolling out a pilot program in the Netherlands. The program that is set to kick off in the Netherlands will open ten of the company’s supercharger locations to electric vehicles that are not of the Telsa brand for the first time ever.
Telsa Sets To Open Its Supercharger Network to Other EVs
According to the Telsa’s Netherlands website, drivers with non-Telsa vehicles will now be able to use the company’s supercharger locations. And to do this, these drivers will have to first download the Telsa app on their devices and then create an account with the company and from their accounts, they can select the “charge your non-Telsa” option, search for a location, add a payment method and lastly start charging. It’s that simple.
Drivers of non-Telsa brands however may not experience the seamless charging experience of Telsa EV owners. While Telsa owners may simply plug in and out, other non-Telsa brand drivers will have to indicate when to start the charging session and also when to stop. The price also on the other hand will be different for both Telsa brands and non-Telsa brands.
The company says that non-Telsa brands will have to incur additional expenses and costs including those, “associated with charging a large number of different cars and made to make the locations suitable for cars from other brands.”
What You Need To Participate In the Pilot Program
According to the Telsa Company, only electric vehicles with a CCS standard connection will be eligible to participate in the program. Telsa superchargers in the US make use of a proprietary connector. Elon musk however has indicated that an adapter could be sold or offered at the company’s charging locations in North America should the network open in the US in a second-quarter earnings call.
CEO Elon Musk also suggested that the company could maybe on busy periods implement dynamic pricing. On the company’s website, the company explained that the pilot program will allow Telsa to “gain experience, monitor flow at the loaders and collect user feedback.”
The company is encouraging drivers to continue using the 10 locations like always and also ensuring that it is getting good data on how the new users are affected. The matter of non-Telsa vehicles charging slower than Telsa vehicles, the pilot program also will measure the impact of slower charging times on other users.
The non-Telsa’s supercharger pilot as the company calls it has been previously cited by Elon musk that it might eventually be introduced by the company. Elon musk back in July confirmed that the network would be open to non-Telsa EVs by the year’s end. The company on its website noted that this is just the beginning as it will add additional countries to the program in the nearest future.
What Telsa Had To Say about the Expansion of Its Supercharger Program?
The supercharger network by Telsa includes more than 25,000 fats chargers and will be by far the largest network owned and operated by an automaker on a global scale. In an official statement, Telsa said that “our ambition has always been to open the supercharger network to non-Telsa electric cars in order to encourage more drivers to make the switch to electric driving.”
Telsa’s senior VP of powertrain and energy engineering, Andrew Balingo during the earnings call back in July cited that opening the supercharger network to non-Telsa brands could overall lower electricity costs.
He said that, “increasing the utilization of the network actually reduces our costs, which allows us to lower charging prices for our customers and make the network more profitable, allows us to grow the network faster…and no matter what, we are going to continue to aggressively expand the network capacity, increasing charging speeds, improving the trip planning tools to protect against site congestion using dynamic pricing, as Elon mentioned.”
