For years, Tesla had repeatedly announced its Wanting to open up the Supercharger infrastructure to other brands as well. The project has been more specific since December 2020. In 2021, Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) joined the discussion and asked Tesla to open the European charging infrastructure regardless of the brand. It always consists of over 6,000 superchargers at over 600 European locations.
Opening of the Supercharger announced for years
Elon Musk had promised this several times, but always demanded that the interested carmaker should contribute to the costs of setting up and operating the supercharger network. Even if that has not happened so far, the US carmaker has now decided to open locations in the Netherlands for testing purposes.
Tesla’s pilot project specifically affects ten locations in the Netherlands, namely the superchargers in Sassenheim, Apeldoorn Oost, Meerkerk, Hengelo, Tilburg, Duiven, Breukelen, Naarden, Eemnes and Zwolle. Those wishing to charge with non-Tesla e-cars can now charge their vehicles there, provided they are registered in the Netherlands and have installed the current Tesla app from version 4.2.3 and saved a valid payment method.
More on the subject
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Test phase should reveal possible bottlenecks
Tesla would first like to see how the opening will affect the ten locations. It is important for the car manufacturer to always ensure that its own customers can charge preferentially and without major delays. Overloading the locations by users of other brands would run counter to Tesla’s interests.
Tesla seems to want to regulate this mainly through the price. The provider emphasizes that “the prices will vary depending on the location” and that you can see them in the app before the start of the charging process. On Twitter, however, the first users are posting that Tesla drivers will probably have to spend 0.24 euros and users of other brands 0.57 euros per kilowatt hour.
Tesla on this: “The prices for non-Tesla drivers reflect the additional costs incurred by supporting the charging of a wide range of vehicles and adapting our locations to these vehicles.” Apparently participate not the manufacturers of other brands at the Supercharger locations – but their customers …
By the way: If you like the expansion status of the Supercharger network, it is advisable to follow this Tesla Twitter account, which gives exactly this information.