Tesla reveals details on opening Superchargers
During the Tesla earnings call last night, the company also provided details on the planned opening of the Supercharger network to third parties. Central to the idea is the Tesla app to facilitate drivers of electric cars from other manufacturers to supercharge.
Third-party users will have to register as such through Tesla and leave their credit card details. The app also manages the charging process since non-Tesla cars cannot communicate with the Superchargers by plug and charge as the Teslas do.
Elon Musk had announced that Tesla would open the Supercharger network to other electric car drivers on Twitter last week as reported. As the Tesla CEO explained during Monday’s Q2 earnings call, Tesla wants to implement it in all markets in which it already relies on the CCS standard, Europe, for example. In the US, Tesla is using a proprietary standard. Still, according to Musk, the company is working on selling an adapter to enable vehicles from other manufacturers, i.e. with a CCS1 connection, to plug in and pay at Superchargers with the Tesla standard. The cost of the adapter has yet to be disclosed.
Talk about cost. Musk made some statements on pricing and plans to introduce a more advanced dynamic pricing based on charging speed and traffic at certain stations to encourage shorter charging sessions. In other words, those who charge more slowly (and thus occupy the charging station longer) should pay more. The price per kilowatt-hour could also be raised during peak periods to manage utilisation.
Musk did not specify a price range. However, this practical implementation is likely to be decisive for the steering effect that such a dynamic pricing model could have. Especially in the U.S., the utilization of the Supercharger is much higher locally, and at peak times, there are sometimes waiting times with Tesla vehicles alone.
Here, SVP of powertrain and energy engineering Drew Baglino projected that Tesla would continue expanding network capacity, increasing charging speeds, and improving trip planning tools further. Tesla, of course, also hopes to use any extra income from third party charging to add more Superchargers in turn.
Details which markets may come first remain undisclosed. Rumour had it that the first Superchargers will be made accessible to third parties in Norway and Sweden by September 2022.
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