Tesla is slowly letting other people into its walled garden of EV rapid charging as non-Tesla EV owners in France and Norway can now take advantage of its popular Superchargers.
The company shared the news on its official Twitter handle for charging. However, from the screenshots accompanying the tweet, EV owners will have to locate eligible charging sites. Apparent, Tesla has opened up 20 of its locations in France and 15 in Norway.
If you want to take advantage of these fast chargers, you can find them using the Tesla mobile app.
The first time non-Tesla EVs could suck up electrons tethered to a Supercharger was last November when the company began trialing the service in the Netherlands. The test run covered 10 stations.
Tesla only supports the CCS standard for now, and non-Tesla EV owners will pay an additional fee which Tesla justified as a support for “charging a broad range of vehicles and adjustments to our sites to accommodate these vehicles.”
Tesla cars can continue to charge normally with the Superchargers, although the stalls might get more crowded. However, the company has tried to prevent congestion at the charging sites by implementing several policies.
Eventually, all Superchargers worldwide will be opened to all EVs, although drivers in North America might have to wait to join the charging party or be ready to use adapters. According to the company, it has long wanted to open up its chargers as doing so will help the CEO, Elon Musk, achieve his ambition. Musk wants to encourage as many people as possible to switch to battery-powered cars to stop environmental pollution.
Renewable Brief 