Tesla will open up its Supercharger charging network to all electric vehicles starting this year, CEO Elon Musk announced this week.
In response to a fan tweet that laid praise on Tesla’s proprietary SAE J1772 charging connector, Musk revealed the automaker is planning to let all EV owners access the automaker’s Supercharger charging network. A separate Twitter user then asked Musk if this will be the case in all countries where Tesla currently operates or only certain ones, to which he replied“over time, all countries.”
We created our own connector, as there was no standard back then & Tesla was only maker of long range electric cars.
It’s one fairly slim connector for both low & high power charging.
That said, we’re making our Supercharger network open to other EVs later this year.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2021
Some Tesla owners on Twitter seemed upset over the decision to allow all EVs to tap into Tesla chargers, as the wide-ranging Supercharger network is viewed as one of the major advantages of buying a Tesla over a competing EV model. The Supercharger network consists of over 2,500 charging stations and over 25,000 individual vehicle chargers spread across the United States, Canada, Mexico and throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia. In the U.S., many Supercharger stations are located along Interstate highways, allowing Tesla owners to travel long distances by highway without experiencing range anxiety.
In Europe, Tesla Supercharger stations use a Combined Charging System (CCS) style connector, which is also shared among many other new electric vehicles from a variety of automakers. In North America, however, the charging stations all use the aforementioned J1772 connector, which is only compatible with Tesla vehicles. Automakers or third-party companies would therefore have to offer a J1772 adapter in order for non-Telsa vehicles to use the network in North America.
General Motors doesn’t have its own Tesla-style charging network, although the automaker has signed agreements with multiple third-party charging networks, including Blink Charging, ChargePoint, EV Connect, EVgo, FLO and Greenlots, allowing GM EV owners to view real-time charging location and availability via its various vehicle brand mobile apps. This makes it easier for GM EV owners to locate a third-party charging stall when they need it.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM-related Tesla news, GM electric vehicle news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Double the charging rate price for other brands to plug in I bet, not a complaint just an a realistic guess.
And that guy on twitter needs to reallocate his lip’s priorities, sheesh Tesla diehards are worse than early Prius adopters.
The article is reversed. SAE J1772 Type 1 is the standard North American charge port. All modern EVs except Tesla use this port for 120V/240 V AC Level 1/2 charging. It is due to a CARB regulation.
In North America, Tesla uses a proprietary charge port which can be used with an adapter for J1772 AC charging. The proprietary Tesla port also handles DC fast charging, whereas US and European makes use the J1772 CCS1 standard, which is the J1772 connector with two additional DC pins on the bottom.
Asian makes (Nissan/Mitsubishi/Kia) have a incompatibility as well, in that they use the Japanese CHAdeMO standard. They have 2 sockets, J1772 and CHAdeMO.
Recent NA Teslas can DC fast charge from J1772 CCS1 and CHAdeMO with an appropriate dongle, though I believe they’re only selling the CCS1 adapter in Asia.
The issue here seems to be that real estate owners can’t justify expensive infrastructure and reserving limited parking spots for one brand, particularly publicly owned locations like municipal parking garages.
Tesla’s are ugly and build quality is worse then gm.
It would’ve been foolish of Tesla to not open it up to other brands. Tesla won’t be on top forever. Eventually, more people will navigate to competitors. Not a knock on Tesla. Just a reality. Might as well keep making money off those individuals.
the tesla snobs are going to be up in arms if they have to rub elbows with the hoi polloi.
The money in the future will be made my those catering to the EV industry.
Much like the Gold Rush of 1849 the miners made little but those who sold supplies and tools to the miners are the people they names s hooks and cities after in California.
Charging now is expensive away from home. As more places go on line the prices will get more competitive. If one company can take a lead in this price and location wise they will win this game as the leader.
I don’t think any company is going to take the lead. All they’re doing is buying a charger, a parking space, and reselling power from the power company, which sets the ultimate price. There’s no inherent barrier to entry since somebody can put up another charge station across the street and buy the same power at the same cost.
This is just like we have numerous gas station brands with typically little loyalty since they’re selling the same fungible stuff they got out of a pipeline.
Worse, the majority of people will do most of their charging at home anyway. That’s obviously more convenient than going somewhere. Charging stations are only for long trips, so the number of times you use charging station will be far less than gas station trips today.
@C8.R
Supercharging with Tesla is not expensive. They chose to charge a slightly higher rate than the average price per State that you are charging at.
All the other Companies rip off their customers. As a Tesla owner (as long as Tesla keeps producing the Stations at the current Pace every year) am very excited for Tesla to open up their Supercharger Stations. As of right now what is the reason fro EVGo and Electrify America not to keep charging insane rates to their customers? They have nowhere else to go. I absolutely love this decision by Tesla if it does become a reality….Competition is key.
As a side note though, ALL other Automakers were too slow to start the shift and now potentially their Own customers might one day be at a TESLA branded in BOLD red letters right in front of their face to charge their cars. It should have never come to that point. They were just too slow and that is a shame.
Imagine someone with say a Cadillac charging at Tesla and seeing a Model S Plaid for the first time, will they be more open to switch? If I was a Legacy Automaker this decision by Tesla is my worse nightmare going forward. A Network that pretty much always works, is pretty much all over the World, and I just plug and walk away….man that is a problem. How many sales will Tesla get just from the connivance of their Network.
Genius move by Tesla If they do indeed go through with it and an absolute nightmare for every other Automaker.
This article has one major flaw (aside from flipping the chargers around, as already noted). The Tesla supercharger network of stations can easily be upgraded to provide CCS charging ports.
It’s literally a cable swap. They don’t even need a software update.
Anyone that has been to the newer stations could see Tesla was planning for additional vehicles beyond their own fleet.
This was part of Tesla due diligence to its investors, because it was always part of the business plan to make these stations available to other vehicles, particularly if Tesla needed the money.
I also think they finally got another manufacturer to invest into the network. Why choose now to open up if not.
I can see power outages for several days during bad storms and lots of EV’s on the side of the road if the owner did not charge overnight. They do need to make the cars better looking. I will take my GMC Yukon anytime since I am in sales and it holds all my material which would not fit in a EV.
Oh, just like the nationwide gas shortages, because thereby are Not enough safety qualified truck drivers to transport large amounts of a flammable substance to gas stations around the country? In Las Vegas, there were a few stations that didn’t have any gasoline except for premium. Not even diesel.
I think this is a good thing – it levels out the playing field. I drive a Bolt and I’m sick of seeing so many Teslas hogging public charging spaces, using their own adapters to access the public chargers.
Why can’t Tesla owners utilize say ChargePoint locations in public?
What is your seasoning for that thinking? I am just curious.
I would think that say ChargePoint could care less which Brand vehicle is plugged in.
I did not say Tesla owners cannot use ChargePoint public stations. But when I go looking for an open station, finding none available and notice that half or more are occupied by Teslas, I do find it rather rankling considering there are several Tesla Supercharger stations around my community.
Like I did say – opening up the Tesla Supercharger network levels out the playing field. Somewhat.
Some ChargePoint locations, depending on the owner of that charging station, may offer cheaper or even free DC fast charging. I know Irvine Spectrum Center in Irvine, CA offers 72kW free charging for a flat $5.
Bugs me to no end when I see ten Tesla charging stations open and the one working Chargepoint station is being taken by a Tesla.
Tesla screws it’s customers again!!
@ Daniel
How is Tesla screwing over their Customers?
If anything, they will be bringing in more revenue which in theory will translate to better vehicles.
And potentially get into more vehicle segments than currently in.
Nowhere do I see anything that says it will happen this year.