Official: Tesla Superchargers Will Be Open To Other EVs This Year
Jul 21, 2021 at 9:58am ET
Does this mean that the company will switch to CCS Combo 1 plugs at Superchargers?
Later this year, Tesla will open its proprietary fast-charging network – the Supercharging network – to other electric vehicles.
The intention was officially announced by the company’s CEO Elon Musk in one of the latest tweets: “we’re making our Supercharger network open to other EVs later this year.”
Elon Musk explained also that the proprietary charging connector [in North America] was introduced because there was no other solution for fast charging. Actually, there was the CHAdeMO connector, but it was bulky and its first version supported only 62.5 kW (later 100 kW or so), while Tesla quite quickly moved to 120 kW. It was a great move at the time.
“We created our own connector, as there was no standard back then & Tesla was only maker of long range electric cars.
It’s one fairly slim connector for both low & high power charging.”
We guess that Tesla will now switch to a new connector that will be compatible with the CCS Combo 1 (SAE J1772 Combo) because otherwise, other EVs (with CCS1 inlets) would not be able to use Tesla chargers. Superchargers in Europe were already retrofitted with CCS Combo 2-compatible plugs.
The opposite way – to open the network and continue to use a proprietary connector – would require other EV manufacturers to leave the CCS standard, and they are not willing to do it.
Our dream ultimate solution would be to switch everything to the CCS Combo 2 globally (Tesla could theoretically consider it), but unfortunately the general industry failed to find a common solution in the early days.
According to Elon Musk, the opening of the network will be gradual – starting with some undisclosed initial markets and then expand globally.
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