The electric car maker plans to open 3,500 new charging stations and existing Superchargers along highway corridors to non-Tesla cars as well. Apart from this, the company will also be offering 4,000 slow chargers at places like hotels and restaurants.
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This move to open up Tesla EV charging stations for each EV will give an upper edge to the vehicles made by the company, after opting for competitive pricing for its car. Currently, Tesla is the only EV company with such a large network of high speed superchargers in the US.
Tesla Chief Elon Musk gave this information while retweeting the update shared by the Twitter account Tesla Charging to update all the information related to superchargers.
“Tesla Superchargers almost everywhere,” said Elon Musk retweeting the thread.
“Our US network will more than double by the end of 2024 to support our growing Tesla fleet and new EV customers,” Tesla Charging tweeted.
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Informing about the deal, United States President Joe Biden informed that opening a “large portion” of Tesla’s network to all drivers was a “big deal” that could make a “big difference”.
In response, Tesla Chief Executive Musk said, “Thank you, Tesla is happy to support other EVs through our Supercharger network.”
Read also: Elon Musk donated about $1.95 billion in Tesla shares last year
American subsidy to Tesla
A White House official pointed out that for opening up its EV stations to rival EV makers, Tesla would be eligible for subsidies. The subsidy will also include retrofitting its existing fleet. The subsidy, if granted, will be provided to the EV manufacturer only as long as its charging stations are open to other vehicles with CCS, the federally supported charging standards, for charging.
Until now, Tesla had not committed to adopting CCS as its standard. But the company needs to comply with the requirements to qualify for the funding.
Tesla has 17,711 Superchargers, which make up 60% of the total US fast chargers. In addition to Superchargers, there are about 10,000 ‘destination’ chargers with Tesla plugs that provide overnight charging.
Tesla’s EV charging key to building USA’s EV chargers federal program
The government’s push, prompting Tesla to open its charging stations to all EVs, will help the US government achieve an ambitious federal program to build 500,000 EV chargers by 2030. Currently, there are 1,30,000 chargers in the country.
“A selection of Tesla Superchargers across the US will soon be open to all EVs,” Tesla wrote on Twitter. It already had plans to double its US Supercharger network by the end of 2024.
All EV drivers will need to install the Tesla app or website to access these stations. Connecting non-Tesla owners may require a different plug and pay method. Like the USA, the company had also opened some Superchargers in Europe and Australia to non-Tesla owners from 2021.
The Universalization Of Superchargers Threatens Tesla’s Brand Exclusivity
Experts believe that despite paving the way for its subsidies by opening up EV chargers to all EVs, the move could end Tesla’s brand exclusivity.
Chris Harto, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports, said, “There’s no doubt that the $7.5 billion in federal charging investment threatens Tesla’s competitive advantage. That’s really the whole point of the program.”
The move could increase the company’s revenue, but it would make it more difficult for Elon Musk to manage the network. Sam Abuelsamid, who works at Guidehouse Insights, said strong customer satisfaction due to the charging network could be affected if the network remains open to all EVs.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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