Tesla announced that it installed a new Supercharger station in Hawaii, which means that the Supercharger network is now “officially” in all 50 states.
I say “officially” in quotes because technically, there was already a station in Hawaii, but there was a big caveat.
Electric vehicle adoption is starting to ramp up in more significant volumes, and the charging infrastructure is following to support those new EVs.
Just a few years ago, people were still talking about EV adoption and charging infrastructure as a chicken or egg problem.
But as with most new technology in need of infrastructure, they both have been growing simultaneously.
Tesla has been a good example to follow with its Supercharger network, the most extensive global fast-charging network.
The automaker invested heavily in the network in the US, its home country and a huge market for Tesla.
In November 2021, we reported that Tesla had finally expanded the Supercharger network in all 50 states with a new Supercharger in Alaska, the last state that didn’t have a Supercharger.
Technically, Hawaii already had a Supercharger station on the island of Lanai, but it was built for Tesla board member Larry Ellison who owns most of the island.
So with a new station launching in Aiea, Hawaii today, Tesla announced that it has “officially” expanded the network in all 50 states:
Tesla previously announced that it reached the new milestone of 30,000 Superchargers worldwide.
Earlier this summer, we reported on how Tesla is gearing up for a giant Supercharger expansion ahead of opening the network to other EVs.
Following Tesla’s confirmation of this, the automaker started hiring many new charging design managers – in charge of opening new stations in the US.
As we noted, the move coincides with a new $7.5 billion federal program to fund EV infrastructure that is currently being adopted, and one of the requirements to get access to the funds is that the charging stations are open to vehicles from more than one automaker.
By opening its network, Tesla will increase traffic, but it will also have access to more funds to grow the network faster. And Tesla plans to grow its Supercharger network quickly.
Last year, Tesla announced plans to triple the size of the Supercharger network within two years.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
