Tesla is working on a new Supercharger membership to offer non-Tesla EV owners as it prepares to open its Supercharger network in the US.
After opening a network in Europe where Superchargers use a standard CCS outlet, Tesla is now preparing to open the network in North America by introducing a new CCS adapter for non-Tesla electric car owners.
The move is expected to take place before the end of the year because the opening of the network is a mandatory requirement access to new federal funds to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations.
The idea of opening up the Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles is causing some controversy in the Tesla community, as the network, which is far larger than any other fast-charging network in the US, is one of the biggest advantages of operating a Tesla, but sometimes here it’s already crowded, and adding more electric cars won’t help solve that problem.
Tesla is still working on its plan to open up the grid to other electric vehicles, and we saw it last night when Tesla briefly allowed people in the US to sign up for a Supercharger membership in the country:
Tesla quickly removed the option from the app, which is thought to have been released prematurely, as there are still no stations in the US open to third-party electric vehicles.
The $0.99 membership is also likely not the final price and was just a placeholder in the unfinished version of Supercharger’s in-app membership.
However, the concept of a pay-as-you-go and membership model where the cost per kWh is lower is probably what Tesla is really working on, which is why it appeared in the app.
Electrek’s Take
My guess is that Tesla will charge a higher price per kWh to non-Tesla EV owners on a Pay per Use model, and the Supercharger membership will give them the same price as Tesla owners who don’t need will pay membership.
I would estimate a membership to cost between $5 and $10 per month.
Depending on if Tesla releases a CCS adapter that non-Tesla EV owners can purchase, or if it places it at stations when it opens them up individually to the public, I’d probably hold off on membership because it may take some time before you can get significant value offline.
But we’ll have to wait for more details on the plan, which Tesla has yet to explain.
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https://electrek.co/2022/08/17/tesla-preparing-supercharger-membership-non-tesla-ev-owners/