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Tesla will let other electric cars use its Supercharger stations for the first time ever
Tesla just launched its pilot program in the Netherlands.
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It’s no secret that Tesla’s Supercharger network is part of the reason Tesla out-sells the rest of the EV market, at least here in the US. The thing is, it’s also exclusive to Tesla owners, but that might change in the future. Tesla just launched a pilot program in the Netherlands that lets non-Tesla EVs use its Supercharger charging stations.
The pilot is fairly small in scope, with only 10 Supercharger stations in the Netherlands being made available for use by non-Tesla EVs. If you live near Sassenheim, Apeldoorn Oost, Meerkerk, Hengelo, Tilburg, Duiven, Breukelen, Naarden, Eemnes, or Zwolle, you’ll be able to charge your non-Tesla EVs at the Supercharger there.
You’ll need the Tesla app for either Android or iOS and a payment method attached to your account. When you park at the Supercharger, tap the “charge your non-Tesla” option in the app, and start the charging process inside the app.
When finished, tap inside the app again to end charging, which is slightly annoying as Teslas automatically start and stop the charging process for you.
That’s not to say testing will stay limited to the Netherlands, as CEO Elon Musk tweeted out in July of this year that the Supercharger network will be opened to other EVs in all other countries “over time.”
Why the Netherlands and not the US? Well, when Tesla launched the Model 3 and the Supercharger V3 in Europe, it decided to change the power connector to use the CCS standard.
The company also retrofitted existing Superchargers in Europe with “dual charge cables,” so both the older, proprietary Tesla connector and the CCS standard were supported.
CCS is used by many other EVs, including the BMW i3, VW e-Golf, and the Jaguar I-Pace, so opening the pilot in a European company made more sense.
In North America, chargers use a different plug so non-Tesla EV owners would probably need an adapter to use the Supercharger network. Then again, maybe Tesla will retrofit their Superchargers with the commonly used plugs, as getting charging revenue from non-Tesla EV owners could be a lucrative business model.
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