Tesla announced yesterday that it has started the pilot program for letting other electric vehicles charge at its Superchargers. Initially, this service is enabled for 10 select locations in the Netherlands.
Tesla will most probably decide to expand this non-Tesla EV Supercharging service upon the success of this pilot program.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising to open the Tesla Supercharger network to other EV manufacturers in the past, now Tesla is showing its commitment to the mission of sustainable transportation.
Following Tesla’s announcement of allowing other electric cars to use the Superchargers in the Netherlands, some Dutch EV owners rushed to see how it all works.
Steven Blink, who is a Tesla Model S owner, was able to take a few photos of an Audi e-tron and Polestar 2 EVs charging at one of the pilot program Superchargers. Unfortunately, he was not able to capture a video of other EVs charging at this Tesla Supercharger.
Other EVs charging at Tesla Superchargers can also create stall availability and space blocking issues. In the pictures above, the Audi e-tron is blocking 2 parking spaces. If Tesla allows other EVs at its charging stations at scale, these sorts of issues will rise in numbers and result in Tesla owner frustration.
Tesla is currently only charging the same idle fees to other EVs as its own customers. This will at least stop the abuse of the charging spaces for long periods of time.
List of non-Tesla EV Supercharger locations in the Netherlands
- Sassenheim
- Apeldoorn Oost
- Meerkerk
- Hengelo
- Tilburg
- Duiven
- Breukelen
- Naarden
- Eemnes
- Zwolle
Only Dutch non-Tesla EV owners are able to charge their cars at the above Supercharger locations. EV owners visiting from other European countries are currently not allowed to charge their cars via this service.
Back in 2018, Tesla started retrofitting its Supercharger stalls with the CCS2 connectors. Following this transition, Tesla vehicles exported to Europe were also fitted with the CCS2 charging port as opposed to the Tesla proprietary charge port design used in North America. So Europe-made electric vehicles are easily able to connect to Tesla Supercharger stall cables.
How to charge a non-Tesla EV at a Tesla Supercharger
Tesla has posted the following instructions on how electric vehicle owners other than Tesla can charge their vehicles.
How do I charge if I don’t drive a Tesla?
Download the Tesla app (version 4.2.3 or higher) for iOS or Android and create a Tesla Account.
Select ‘Charge Your Non-Tesla’ and find your Supercharger site.
Add your payment method, plug-in your car, select a stall and tap ‘Start Charging.’
Select ‘Stop Charging’ to complete your session.
How do I know which Supercharger post to select in the Tesla app?
Each Supercharger post has a label with a unique identifier at its base. If you are taking the cable from post 4A, simply select post 4A in the Tesla app to begin charging. Please note that if you don’t plug in within two minutes of selecting a post, your session will time out and you’ll need to start over.Will Tesla drivers see Supercharging for Non-Tesla vehicles in the app so they can charge other EVs and access their Tesla products from one account?
Yes. All Tesla products and services can be accessed via the Tesla app. Tesla owners can use their existing account to charge Non-Tesla vehicles.Can I see site availability and service information in the app?
Source: Tesla support website.
Yes. You can view Supercharger site availability information in the Tesla app.
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One thing this will cause, Tesla Super Chargers are almost always working properly. Some of the other charging companies do not keep their maintenance up and it time will find they will lose customers as theose people move to the charger brands that have high reliability.
This is a smart move by Tesla, when customers get to know the Tesla Supercharger reliability and meet with Tesla owners, they will definitely recline towards the company and many might leave their current auto manufacturer.
That’s the optimistic view.
The pessimistic is: when frustrated tesla owners let out their feelings… not sure it goes the way you foretell…