Tesla announced that it is expanding access to the Supercharger network for non-Tesla electric cars to all stations in the Netherlands.
Over the last year, we have been reporting on Tesla ramping up its effort to open the Supercharger network, its extensive global network of fast-charging stations, to electric vehicles from other automakers.
In November 2021, we saw Tesla take the first step in that direction with a pilot program running at 10 Supercharger stations in the Netherlands where non-Tesla EV owners can charge using the Tesla app.
When announcing the new pilot program, Tesla said that it planned to slowly expand it as it tests the user experience for both new non-Tesla EV owners being onboarded on the network and current Tesla owners who are going to see more traffic at those charging stations.
Last month, the automaker announced that the program is expanding to more stations in Norway and France.
It looks like the program is going well because Tesla announced today that it is expanding the program to all Supercharger stations in the Netherlands:
Tesla operates 36 Supercharger stations in the Netherlands covering the whole country.
This might automatically turn Tesla into one of the biggest fast-charging EV network operators in the country.
As we previously reported, Tesla is gradually opening more sites to test how other EVs are affecting the overall experience and increasing traffic at the stations.
Now that non-Tesla EV drivers have access to all stations in the Netherlands and are not restricted to a select few, it should give Tesla a better idea of how welcoming those EV drivers will have a larger-scale impact on a country-wide network.
EV drivers simply need to download the Tesla app and have a vehicle with a CCS connector to use those select Supercharger stations.
Tesla is expected to eventually give EV drivers access to more if not all stations in Europe and use the new revenue to accelerate the expansion of the network.
The automaker is expected to also do the same in North America, but it is going to be more complicated in the market since Tesla uses its own proprietary plug instead of the CCS standard.
Non-Tesla EV drivers are going to need an adapter the use the existing Supercharger stations.
We previously noted that being used by EVs from more than one automaker is a requirement to get access to the $7.5 billion that the US government recently announced to be investing in electric vehicle charging infrastructure as part of its broader infrastructure bill that passed last year.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
