But it’s still not the US.
Electric vehicle owners in Britain woke up to some good news today. Tesla has opened up its Superchargers in the UK to non-Tesla vehicles. Well, at 15 locations in Aberystwyth, Adderstone, Aviemore, Banbury, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dundee, Flint, Folkestone Eurotunnel, Grays, Manchester Trafford Centre, Thetford, Trumpington, Uxbridge, and Wokingham. UK-based EV owners now have access to 158 new individual charging points. For reference, Tesla currently operates 780 Superchargers at 87 locations in the UK.
This latest expansion comes as part of Tesla’s pilot program to open the Supercharger network, which was launched last year in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims he will open the Superchargers in the US, but that will likely require a switch to the industry standard CCS plug, which is already used universally in Europe.
If you drive a rival EV like the 2023 Jaguar I-Pace, Tesla will charge a £10.99 (around $13.65) monthly fee. That monthly costs enables a lower price per kWh for electricity. EV owners who do not pay the monthly subscription will be charged approximately £0.60 ($0.74) per kWh, which is more than double the £0.26 ($0.32) that Tesla owners pay. It’s unclear if monthly subscribers will receive that lower Tesla owner price or some middle ground number. Tesla has also failed to specify if other EVs will be able to charge as quickly as native Tesla vehicles on the network.
“It has always been our ambition to open the Supercharger network to non-Tesla EVs and by doing so encourage more drivers to go electric. More customers using the Supercharger network enables faster expansion,” Tesla said in a statement. “Our goal is to learn and iterate quickly, while continuing to aggressively expand the network, so we can eventually welcome both Tesla and non-Tesla drivers at every Supercharger worldwide.”
Our take: It’s nice to see this pilot expand to a new country. However, Tesla has a lot of work to do before any US Supercharger stations can be opened to other makes and models.
