Tesla expands program to open Supercharger network to electric cars from other automakers in Norway and France
Tesla has officially expanded its pilot program to open Superchargers to electric vehicles from other manufacturers in Norway and France.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 plans 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, we reported that Tesla was in talks to expand the program in Norway.Today, Tesla announced the official expansion of the program to select charging stations in Norway and France:
With the expansion, the automaker has significantly increased the number of stations as part of the program from just a dozen in the Netherlands to now over 40 Superchargers:
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.
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 access to EV drivers 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.