Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla’s Supercharger network will be open to other EVs sometime in 2021.
For years the Tesla Supercharger network has been one of the most robust across the world – especially in Australis where public charging is comparatively small.
It’s also generally much faster. As a colloquial example, when I have used the free public charging at Broadway with review vehicles it has always beem exponentially faster to charge a Tesla than other EVs. It’s the difference between waiting one hour for a full charge and 4+ with other chargers.
Of course, the actual charge time depends on a number of factors, including the battery size, what percentage of charge was left and the charger speed.
This has often made people wonder why this level of quick charging can’t be opened up to other manufacturers. While Tesla has every right to do what it wants with its inventions, surely it would help EV adoption if the best possible technology was available to all?
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Tesla Superchargers will finally be compatible with other EVs, eventually
Well, now it looks like it will be. Musk has now said on Twitter that its Supercharging network will be opened up to other EVs sooner than we thought.
Musk dropped the news in response to a tweet that defended Tesla for having its own proprietary chargers. In addition to saying that there was no standard back when Tesla created its connector, it was going to open up its network quite soon.
“We created our own connector, as there was no standard back then & Tesla was only maker of long range electric cars,” Musk said in the tweet.
“It’s one fairly slim connector for both low & high power charging. That said, we’re making our Supercharger network open to other EVs later this year.”
We created our own connector, as there was no standard back then & Tesla was only maker of long range electric cars.
It’s one fairly slim connector for both low & high power charging.
That said, we’re making our Supercharger network open to other EVs later this year.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2021
But before you get too excited, this won’t happen in all countries right away. It’s also unclear if this will only be applicable to new EVs that are made to be compatible or if older EVs will also be able to access Tesla Superchargers via an adaptor or similar.
When a Twitter user asked Musk about international rollout, the Tesla CEO said “Over time, all countries.”
While this doesn’t reveal much, it’s probably safe to assume that it will at least be rolling out across the U.S. first.