Tesla has significantly expanded its Supercharger pilot program for non-Tesla EV owners to several more European countries, including the UK and Spain.
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 its 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.
In January, the automaker announced that the program is expanding to more stations in Norway and France, and a month later, the program was expanded to all Supercharger stations in the Netherlands. Now Tesla has expanded the pilot program to some Supercharger stations in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and Austria.
Here’s the updated list of countries with Supercharger stations opened to non-Tesla owners:
- France
- Netherlands
- Norway
- UK
- Spain
- Sweden
- Belgium
- Austria
Except in the Netherlands, not all stations are accessible to non-Tesla EV owners, but it was a significant expansion nonetheless.
Tesla is gradually expanding the pilot program to study the impact of onboarding non-Tesla EV owners on the network. It 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 this market since Tesla uses its proprietary plug instead of the CCS standard. However, Musk recently hinted that Tesla will be adding CCS connectors to new Supercharger stations in the US.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
