In a rather significant move, Tesla has confirmed to Norwegian officials that it plans to open its Supercharger network to other automakers from September 2022. As reported by Electrek, the California-based EV maker was in discussions with the governing body of the Vestland county in Norway about securing incentives to deploy charging stations.
“The condition for benefits is that infrastructure must be developed with a publicly available offer. Tesla applied for benefits to expand five fast-charging stations. Tesla’s charging stations today are just available for Tesla cars,” read the minutes of a council meeting obtained by the publication.
“That type of infrastructure is then only open for use by one group and not for the general public otherwise. In the application, Tesla describes the relevant charging stations will nevertheless be publicly available from the third quarter of 2022,” it continued.
“The administration considers that the charging stations for which benefits have been applied for will then be eligible for the scheme, provided that the benefits paid out after Tesla opens the charging offer for all car brands no later than the end of September 2022. The administration recommends that Vestland County Municipality take note that the benefit can be removed if the conditions are not met,” it ended.
Tesla has previously invited other automakers onto its Supercharger network in the past, but none have taken up the company’s offer. Unlike most automakers, Tesla isn’t reliant on third-party charging networks, instead owning and operating its own Supercharger network, of which there are over 25,000 fast chargers at over 2,700 locations around the world.
However, while third parties like Ionity, Electrify America, EVgo or ChargePoint have chargers that can support various EVs from brands, the Supercharger network has long been known to only play nice with Tesla vehicles. The news from Norway indicates that this will change by next year, although it remains to be seen if opening the Supercharger network to EVs from other brands will only take place in Norway.
It’s certainly possible for Tesla to expand this initiative to the whole of Europe (previous reports indicate Tesla is looking to do the same in Germany), as its Supercharger network uses the CCS connector that is standard in the region. It’ll be more work to replicate the move in the United States, as the Superchargers there use a proprietary plug, which will require an adapter for non-Tesla EVs.
The post Tesla to open its Supercharger network to EVs from other automakers from September next year – report appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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