Elon Musk says Tesla will open Supercharger to different automobiles in 2021

Tesla Supercharger Station

CNBC | Andrew Evers

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that the company’s network of DC fast charging stations for its electric vehicles, also known as the Tesla Supercharger Network, will be open to other types of electric vehicles in 2021.

In response to a Tesla fan on Twitter, where Musk has 58.3 million followers, the CEO specifically wrote, “We’re making our Supercharger network available to other electric vehicles later this year.”

Musk didn’t say where in the world Tesla would make its DC fast charging stations available for use with other electric vehicles, or what makes and models would be compatible with Tesla’s on-the-road chargers in 2021.

He said Tesla intends to eventually make Supercharger available to other electric vehicles in all countries.

Previously, Tesla marketed its vehicles at a huge advantage – compared to other brands of battery electric vehicles – due to the company’s exclusive charging stations on the street.

The Tesla charging network is available to Tesla car drivers without any membership fees. Tesla charges drivers for charging to the minute or per kilowatt hour for “supercharging”, depending on local law.

While Teslas can supply almost any charging station for electric vehicles with power with adapter cables, Tesla owners have the company’s Level 3 and newer Supercharger stations to themselves for the time being.

The connections with which they are plugged in and switched on on newer superchargers while on the move make Tesla’s stations incompatible with the electric vehicles of others and theoretically keep the lines shorter and the chargers more available for Tesla drivers.

Musk’s Tuesday promise is more detailed than an earlier remark he made to YouTuber MKBHD, Marques Brownlee, in December 2020 “to be made available to other electric cars.”

Earlier reports from Reuters and others said Tesla had talks about setting up fast charging stations for electric vehicles from other companies in Germany, Sweden and Norway.

Competitors in the United States have long focused on charging stations that service battery electric vehicles from a variety of automakers. These include: Aerovironment, ChargePoint, Electrify America, Volta, eVgo, Sema and many others. (In China and some parts of Europe, the expansion of the charging infrastructure was even faster than in the USA)

According to Tesla’s website, the company now operates more than 25,000 charging stations worldwide.

If Tesla opens a significant number of its charging stations in the US – especially if it can power cars from renewable energy sources there – it could tap into new government grants like grants, tax credits, rebates or green energy credits that it can sell to companies that need them. to offset their own environmental impact.

The exact nature of the loans would be at the discretion of the various state and federal agencies running environmental programs and green credit systems.

In the first quarter of 2021, Tesla reported $ 518 million in revenue from regulatory loan sales. The company is expected to release its second quarter earnings update on Monday, July 26th, including new Supercharger numbers and revenue from regulatory loan sales.