The Tesla Supercharger network will soon be offered to all manufacturers
Rumor has it for some time that Tesla will make its charging network public Supercharger electric vehicles from other manufacturers. It is now official: in 2022, the South Californian manufacturer plans to offer access to its charging stations to electric vehicles of other automobile brands. Tesla will however go gradually and start in Norway.
Why Norway? In addition to being a large consumer of electric vehicles, the Scandinavian country offers subsidies to manufacturers of charging stations on the condition that they are public and unrestricted.
However, Tesla, which only reserves its terminals for the owners of its vehicles, is not currently eligible for these subsidies. However, the media Electrek has obtained information from the Norwegian government to the effect that Tesla plans to extend the offer of its Supercharger to vehicles from other manufacturers from September 2022, in order to be able to benefit from government subsidies and to expand its network in Norway.
It should be remembered that the Supercharger network is currently the largest and best organized in the world, with more than 25,000 terminals in service all over the planet. As one of the pioneers in the mass commercialization of electric vehicles, Tesla had no choice but to set up its own network in order to convince consumers to buy its products. Today, this strategy gives it a considerable lead over other automakers who rely heavily on third-party networks.
Although Tesla is confirmed to be opening its network of stations to vehicles from other automakers in Norway, the automaker has yet to mention anything about the possibility of doing the same on this side of the Atlantic.
It is also unclear whether Tesla will impose user fees on the competition, or whether the competition will agree to charge its vehicles to a Supercharger network. There could also be ethical issues attached to the potential monopoly of a private company that controls a single charging infrastructure.
