Today’s news is sensational: after years of pressure, questions, indiscretions and hopes, Tesla has also opened its Superchargers to rival cars. The cost of energy is not cheap, and for now it can only be done in the Netherlands and in 10 selected stations. Despite this, however, this novelty could change the future of the electric car. Why? Let’s see all the details together.
Tesla opens its Superchargers in the Netherlands: here are the 10 stations and terms of use
After years in which the pioneers of the electric car and several state governments have called for the opening of charging at Tesla Superchargers to outsiders, the House of Elon Musk seems to have finally decided to open its stations to cars not produced by the Californian company. But there will be some among you who don’t know what are Superchargers. Simply put, it is one network of charging stations built by Tesla around the world. Widespread, with numerous stalls, powerful and reliable, they have always been one of Tesla’s great merits, which however today decides to share its brilliant intuition with rival companies.
On a technical level, in fact, there have never been problems: both technically and electronically it would always have been possible to charge non-Tesla cars to Superchargers. The only obstacle was the choice, certainly acceptable, of the Palo Alto House of maintain the exclusive use of an infrastructure realized by one’s own intuition, and independently financed around the world.
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In recent years, however, something has changed. Tesla, now far from the status of an “emerging house” and established as one of the most important companies in the automotive world, through its CEO and co-founder Elon Musk has opened the possibility of extending charging to non-Tesla cars. More, some governments like the Norwegian one have asked the House to share their charging network. The reason? Helping the spread of charging stations and, consequently, electric cars.
Precisely for this reason, Norway seemed to be the candidate state to act as a tester for this novelty. In reality, however, Tesla departs from Holland with a test program of this new feature. In 10 Dutch Superchargers it will therefore be possible to use the Superchargers with any competing electric car. The stations, in particular, will be usable only by Dutch citizens, and they are found in these orange cities:
- Sassenheim
- Apeldoorn East
- Meerkerk
- Hengelo
- Tilburg
- pigeons
- breakage
- naughty
- Eemnes
- Zwolle
The methods and the price: from the Tesla app you pay € 0.60 per kW, € 1 per minute for stalling over charging. But with a subscription you pay as much as a Model 3
But how do you use a Tesla Supercharger with a car not produced by the Californian brand? Simple: like any other Tesla. In fact, we must use the dedicated application, and until now only open to Tesla customers, to access the charging system. As soon as the app is open, it will obviously be necessary select the dedicated section “Recharge a non-Tesla vehicle”.
Once done, you will need to enter a payment method, accept the terms and conditions, select the desired column and, once done, click on “Start recharge”. To identify the column chosen, simply read the code present at the base of the column itself, for example ‘3A’. Through the app it will then be possible to see the actual availability of the recharging points in the Superchargers, which Fremont cars are able to do from the infotainment.
But the costs? If you don’t sign up for a subscription, the costs aren’t exactly cheap. While Tesla didn’t disclose the costs right away, Dutch customers with other electric cars found that one applies rate of € 0.60 for each kW supplied. It is a rather high price, which however must be contextualized. The latest generation Tesla Supercharger columns are able to reach a 270 kW. A power lower only than the very powerful Ionity, which reach 350 kW, while the cost is lower than the average of the Fast columns, which stood at € 0.79 per kWh. It will then be possible to subscribe a monthly subscription of about 13 euros, which allows you to lower the tariff to € 0.37 per kWh, that is the same amount “paid out” for the recharges of Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. A really affordable rate if you consider the power and reliability of Tesla columns.
The American company then announced that it has also planned one extra fee, a kind of “penalty ”for those who park their car longer than necessary beyond charging. A penalty that is already present for the cars of the brand, but which becomes much more salty for the cars of the competition. If you leave the car parked after the charging time, in fact, instead of the € 0.50 per minute provided for Tesla cars the penalty is 1 euro for each extra minute of parking. And if the stalls were all occupied, Tesla provides a penalty of 1 euro per minute for its cars. That competitor cars can reach 2 euros?
The flaws of the openness to non-Tesla models of Superchargers: short cables and only Combo charger. And what a blow to Tesla owners!
We therefore have a rather clear picture of the situation: although they are not exactly cheap, Tesla Superchargers have opened their doors to everyone. All gold what glitters then? Not really. Before talking about the undoubted merits of this revolutionary decision, it is better to see the critical points of this novelty. First of all, it must be said that in the Netherlands Tesla is experimenting with this solution. Only if there are no problems, criticalities and everything goes well, could you think of extending this possibility to Superchargers all over the world.
In addition to this nature of “beta tester” of the Dutch stalls, after the first uses the first criticalities were noticed. As you can well imagine, in fact, Tesla Superchargers were designed and engineered with Tesla cars in mind only, precisely. And, if you notice, every car of the California house has its charging socket in the tail, on the left side and very far, included in the lines of the rear lights. This has allowed Tesla to have a unique standard for its sockets, and therefore to be able to make stalls and cables perfect for its cars. This led to Superchargers having gods cables integrated in the column and very short. For cars with front charging sockets, or with original “fillers”, this could be a big problem.
Tesla is in fact well aware of this problem, and has specified to customers that “some configurations of the Supercharger site may not be suitable for some cars. Please do not obstruct other cars by parking above the lines if the cable cannot comfortably reach the vehicle. ”. In addition, the Tesla columns are direct current. This cuts out cars lacking this technology, and even those not equipped with the related CCS Combo socket. The latest electric cars, however, are all equipped with this fast-charging technology.
Finally, we cannot forget perhaps the biggest problem with Tesla’s decision: the dissatisfaction of Tesla customers themselves. For years, in fact, we have said that the cars of the American company had an enormous advantage in Superchargers, almost unbridgeable over the competition.. Owning a Tesla meant owning the only cars that, in practice, allowed you to travel without worries and with simplicity. Today, opening the incredible Supercharger network to everyone, this uniqueness is lost, even going to devalue the cars of the House. Why choose a Tesla if you no longer have the enormous plus of exclusive Superchargers? This will be a detail that Tesla should not underestimate: it will be essential to find a way to further enhance its cars, especially if this opening really spreads to the rest of the world.
Why do we call it a revolution? By diffusion, power, number and reliability, Tesla Superchargers could change everything
But, as they say, mors tua vita mea. For dozens of Tesla customers disappointed by this choice, shall we say, including the Elon Musk brand, there are hundreds of electric car users cheering. But why is this plan so striking? A number and a photo are enough to make people understand the importance of this decision: they are present in the world 2,500 Tesla Superchargers and over 25,000 charging stalls, distributed almost equally here around Europe. In Italy, there is at least one per large city, with several large centers having more than one.
In the map above, then, you can see the Superchargers already present in Italy in red. In gray, however, we find the charging points that will be built within the next 12 months. For example, a Supercharger is under construction in Turin near the Le Gru Shopping Center by 2021, while in 2022 Superchargers will arrive in Genoa, Alessandria, Naples, Perugia and Palermo. Thanks to this incredible diffusion with about 45 Superchargers currently active on the Italian territory, Tesla proposes itself not only as an automobile manufacturer, but also as an electricity provider.
FRANKFURT, Germany – August 2021: Tesla cars from the American company Elon Musk, an electric vehicle manufacturer, stand in line at the TESLA Supercharger, electric energy storage concept
And we are talking about an absolute level provider. Together with the aforementioned charging power, which reaches up to 270 kW on the most powerful columns, almost 10 years have passed since the launch of the first Superchargers. This means that the American company has a lot of experience in the field, and today the American columns are among the most reliable and efficient in the area. There is no doubt that the number and the diffusion of these cars is their real plus: thanks to this feature, Superchargers have always been among the main reasons for buying a Tesla.
Could this be the real springboard for electric cars (with all due respect to Tesla customers)?
Now, if the American columns really open up to other electric cars, they could convince even skeptics to choose the electric car, not necessarily Tesla. We always say that it is essential for the spread of electric cars that there is a development of infrastructures. And as they say, If you can’t beat them, join them. Tesla has built an empire that is hard to reach for anyone today, even the …