WHY! Opening up Tesla Superchargers to any EV is a bad idea!

[Adrius42]

On the way up to Orkney, I came upon the Aviemore Superchargers, found one of the chargers faulty, a Tesla on one of the Chargers and a Mini blocking the other two!
So I had to negotiate with the Mini owner to park sideways onto the end charger, so that I could use the other one. Happily she obliged. I fear this is going to be an ever increasing issue. Can I suggest at the very least that Mini owners are required to get an extension cable prior to be given access to the Super Charging network.

Preferably this weird experiment should be ended.. One of the key reasons I purchased the Premium Tesla EV was to gain access to the Premium Tesla Supercharging Network on my drive up to Orkney. I suspect as the issuE of queuing to get on Tesla Chargers packed with Mini’s grows Tesla Owners will start to make their feelings known!

BTW does the rumour that there is a bug the allows Non Tesla Owners to charge free have any base in reality?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

It’s official: Tesla opens up UK Supercharger network to non-Tesla drivers | Electrifying

For the first time ever in the UK, non-Tesla drivers will have access to the US brand’s coveted high-power Superchargers | Read more on Electrifying.com

www.electrifying.com

Aviemore is one of the included sites.

I assume they fixed the bug. It was discovered 9/2020.

 

[GtiMart]

Pretty sure the bug has been fixed a long while ago.

The Tesla Supercharger network is indeed to best one there is so far, it's the reason I bought a Tesla, and the same for you... which is why it shouldn't be kept exclusive. Imagine the same thing with gas stations years ago... It doesn't make any sense. Following your reasoning, people at other charging sites should be very mad when a Tesla uses their chargers. I don't think that makes sense either.
The biggest hurdle to EV adoption is charging: providers, apps/cards/payment methods, various connectors, broken chargers, various speeds, gaps without infrastructure.


Now, if the Tesla superchargers all become full because of this, that's a separate (nice) problem that Tesla will have to solve. They might have to install additional ones, add new sites etc. The testing they're doing is certainly to solve the protocol problems mainly but I'm sure they'll see these annoyances too...

 

[srs5694]

Look at it this way: Full interoperability (non-Teslas able to charge at Superchargers and Teslas able to charge at non-Supercharger DC fast chargers) means that you are not held hostage to charging network quality when you choose what EV to buy. This is a huge benefit to you as a consumer, especially the next time you buy a car.

 

[moa999]

Elon wants it so it's happening.
And "Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy"

I think in most places the premium price over other options will keep non-Tesla usage limited.

And we might get stalls with longer CCS2 cables for other cars in most places (and I suspect CCS1 cables in the US)

 

[Mockingbird]

That's just a station design issue.

All Tesla has to do is add longer cables.

 

[rhumbliner]

And we might get stalls with longer CCS2 cables for other cars in most places (and I suspect CCS1 cables in the US)

Without longer cables I fear we’ll be seeing a lot of ugly confrontations at SuperCharger sites.

I recently received my Rivian R1T and was contemplating trips using non-Tesla charging networks. It occurred to me that if Tesla opened up their SuperCharger network then I could charge my R1T there, but with one big problem. The R1T‘s charge port is on the front driver side so I would have to park nose-in at a stall and then use the charge cable of the stall to my immediate left thus blocking 2 stalls. Ouch.

And this just one example. Since there is no standard location for charge ports on EV’s the only real solution is for Tesla to provide extra long charge cables.

 

[strider]

And this just one example. Since there is no standard location for charge ports on EV’s the only real solution is for Tesla to provide extra long charge cables.

Or make all of the stations pull-though vs putting them at the end of the spot. That way people can pull in either direction depending on which side their charge port is on - like a petrol station.

I know everyone is freaking out about opening the SC network but this is a positive for the industry and the extra cashflow will allow Tesla to add more pedestals and create more stations. Here in the states (and likely elsewhere), opening up the network will allow Tesla more access to sites (like motorway rest areas).

Will there be some bumps and challenges along the way? Yes. But ultimately it will improve the breed.

 

[Genie]

I know everyone is freaking out about opening the SC network but this is a positive for the industry and the extra cashflow will allow Tesla to add more pedestals and create more stations. Here in the states (and likely elsewhere), opening up the network will allow Tesla more access to sites (like motorway rest areas).

Will there be some bumps and challenges along the way? Yes. But ultimately it will improve the breed.

“extra cash flow”? Haven’t there been enough price increases on every model and FSD for the world’s richest man? Profit margin on vehicles reportedly triple of legacy mfgs and still need charging revenue from non Tesla cars to add stations? Supercharging rates are increasing, I think the increased cashflow is just as likely to build rockets as Superchargers.

 

[!igs]

“extra cash flow”? Haven’t there been enough price increases on every model and FSD for the world’s richest man? Profit margin on vehicles reportedly triple of legacy mfgs and still need charging revenue from non Tesla cars to add stations? Supercharging rates are increasing, I think the increased cashflow is just as likely to build rockets as Superchargers.

He needs to fund the mission to Mars.

 

[strider]

“extra cash flow”? Haven’t there been enough price increases on every model and FSD for the world’s richest man? Profit margin on vehicles reportedly triple of legacy mfgs and still need charging revenue from non Tesla cars to add stations? Supercharging rates are increasing, I think the increased cashflow is just as likely to build rockets as Superchargers.

I was talking about increased cashflow from more SC users vs price increases. But fair point about Elon funneling cash into pet projects like robots. I keep forgetting that when it comes to Elon, I need to think like an 11-year-old.

 

[Silicon Desert]

Starman was complaining that there was no charging station on Mars during his trip around the solar system.

 

[cleverscreenam]

On the way up to Orkney, I came upon the Aviemore Superchargers, found one of the chargers faulty, a Tesla on one of the Chargers and a Mini blocking the other two!

The irony of a "MINI" blocking multiple parking spots

 

[bradtem]

Charge cord length is going to be a difficult issue. There are many advantages to shorter cords -- they are cheaper, they are less attractive to steal and harder to steal, they don't tangle, they don't lay on the ground where they can be driven over and they can be more easily liquid cooled as needed for really high power. But it's certainly not that easy to make extension cords (especially with liquid cooling) and drivers won't be that keen to carry them, though they could be in a lockbox at stations. Long cables fail more often for the reasons above, and that takes out a whole station.

Tesla could have slightly longer cables to cover vehicles that have the port near the rear left or front right corner, but if it's in the middle that's going to be a challenge. Indeed, you want to lock out cars that can't reach because if they plug in it's only by blocking 2 stations probably. Not great. Of course Tesla could revel in this, say they made their station open to all but if the customer didn't have a car with the port in a place that reaches, that's the customer's problem.

 

[ucmndd]

The rumored/leaked “v4” supercharger pedestals are clearly designed to help alleviate the cable length issue.

 

[moa999]

The rumored/leaked “v4” supercharger pedestals are clearly designed to help alleviate the cable length issue.

And looking at the various permit diagrams leaked they look like they sit on an identical pedestal to the V3s - so should be a relatively simple change to swap out a few V3s at each site for example.

 

[KJD]

I thought that Tesla was supposed to open up the superchargers by the end of last year. What happened ?

Where are all those V4 charging stations ?

 

[srs5694]

I thought that Tesla was supposed to open up the superchargers by the end of last year. What happened ?

To the best of my knowledge, the only source that even hinted at any such deployments by the end of 2022 was this White House press release (dated June 28, 2022), which includes the following sentence:

Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers.

This statement was widely over-interpreted to mean that deployments would begin "in the wild" by the end of 2022; but it says no such thing. It says that Tesla will begin production of equipment able to charge non-Tesla EVs by the end of the year. Actual deployment could plausibly lag production by weeks, if not months, particularly if deployment got hung up on red tape issues like approval from government regulators.

What's more, this is one sentence in a White House press release. It's not an official Tesla press release. (Does Tesla even do press releases? Certainly they have no PR department; they seem to rely instead on Twitter pronouncements from Musk.) AFAIK, this one sentence is the only source for the claim that Superchargers would be made available to non-Teslas by the end of the year, and the phrasing is such that, even if deployments were to begin tomorrow, the opening-up might well apply only to some new stations. Yes, Musk has Tweeted that Superchargers would be opened up worldwide, but AFAIK those tweets gave no timelines.

IMHO, people have read way too much into this. There are more questions than answers about non-Teslas charging at Superchargers in North America, and the amount of speculation dwarfs both.

 

[MP3Mike]

It has gone live. 8 sites in NY, 2 in California. Tweet with a picture of it:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1630713248851849217

Pricing seems to be $0.10/kWh more than a Tesla driver pays. (You can subscribe for $12.99/month to get the Tesla driving pricing.)

 

[cleverscreenam]

Where can you find the list of live sites?