Last year, Tesla announced plans to open its fast Supercharger network to all EVs instead of only its own vehicles. The first rollout started in the Netherlands, then all EVs in Europe, and now Elon Musk is sharing details on how it’ll work in the United States.
At a recent Future of Cars conference, Elon Musk answered some questions regarding the Supercharger rollout, and it should have all EV owners excited. One specific video clip posted on Twitter confirms that Tesla will likely add the industry-standard CCS connectors to its Supercharger stations in the United States.
Here’s @elonmusk on Tesla’s decision to open up its Tesla Supercharger charging network to electric vehicles from other brands.
What do you think about this move? Genius, or idiotic? Financial windfall, or financial disaster? What do you think as a customer? $TSLA #FTCar pic.twitter.com/MWR8KlPcxm
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) May 10, 2022
Previously, Elon Musk mentioned the company would be adding a Tesla to CCS adapter, also known as a CHAdeMO adapter. However, now it looks like the company might have an even better plan and will be adding complete CCS connectors to all Supercharging stations in North America.
Here’s what Musk had to say:
“It’s a little trickier in the US because we have a different connector than the rest of the industry, but we will be adding the rest of the industry connectors as an option to Superchargers in the US.” Then went on to say, “we’re trying as best as possible to do the right thing for the advancement of electrification, even if that diminishes our competitive advantage.”
For those unaware, Tesla uses a proprietary connector on both vehicles and Supercharger stations in North America. This makes it so other EVs from Ford, Rivian, Hyundai, and more can’t take advantage of its faster charging stations. As a result, Tesla owners must charge from a Tesla-compatible station.
In Europe and many other regions, almost all EVs and charging stations use the same CCS connector, similar to how all modern Android phones have USB-C, making things easier and ensuring any EV owner can charge at any station. In Europe, Tesla adopted that new standard, but that’s not the case stateside.
We’re not sure if new Supercharger stations will get both Tesla and CCS connectors in the U.S. if they’ll add them to existing Superchargers, or stick to having adapters available for those that need one.
Elon Musk didn’t share any timeline on when it’ll add CCS connectors to U.S. Superchargers, but we’ll keep an eye out for more information.
via Reddit
