Why can't other cars use Tesla's charging network?

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

I suspect it's because Tesla don't want other cars to "catch up" with them in regards to the market share, but Elon did say that if his brand meant more companies produced EVs then that's what mattered, so if that's the case, why are other cars stuck with a pretty lousy charging network?

[aizvara]

I think they are in the process of opening it up to other manufacturer's EVs, aren't they?

[paradigital]

This is being trialled in select countries in the EU at present. It will (unfortunately) come at some point in the UK.

[Scrump]

Tesla opens up chargers to other cars:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59122605


That was late last year, I have not heard how the pilot went.

[vikingaero]

Scrump said:

Tesla opens up chargers to other cars:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59122605


That was late last year, I have not heard how the pilot went.

I wonder how popular it will be when a Tesla owner rocks up at a Supercharger and finds no spaces because of other Teslas (fine) and a mixture of Kias. Hyundais, Fords and VWs in the remaining slots?

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

paradigital said:

This is being trialled in select countries in the EU at present. It will (unfortunately) come at some point in the UK.

Why unfortunately? Surely it's a good thing for the wider population? We don't limit petrol stations for certain brands.

[CheesecakeRunner]

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

paradigital said:

This is being trialled in select countries in the EU at present. It will (unfortunately) come at some point in the UK.

Why unfortunately? Surely it's a good thing for the wider population? We don't limit petrol stations for certain brands.

Tesla supercharger are already pretty heavily used by Teslas. Queuing is starting to happen a lot. But that’s not really a huge problem.

The key problems are

• Length of charging leads. Superchargers are designed to be reversed (for the most part) into and the car having the charge port on the rear left/near side. So the lead is only long enough to suit this. Cars with ports on the rear right/offside or front left/near side will need to use the ‘wrong’ stall, thus blocking a charger. Cars with ports on the middle of the sides may even have to park sideways to get the cable to reach, potentially blocking even more stalls.
• Teslas charge fast for the most part. Turnover at chargers is pretty quick, so even if there is a queue it tends to move fast. When you get cars that aren’t capable of high charging speeds, or worst case, a hybrid that can only charge at 3.6kw or 7kw, it’ll really slow things down

[paradigital]

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Why unfortunately? Surely it's a good thing for the wider population? We don't limit petrol stations for certain brands.

If BMW rolled out their own petrol stations at great cost, would they open them up to VW?

Would owners of BMWs that used to have a USP over VW now be annoyed because they have to queue behind a glut of non-BMW cars at the petrol station they used to be able to exclusively use?

[paralla]

Car companies don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35030461/why-ot...

[limpsfield]

paradigital said:

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Why unfortunately? Surely it's a good thing for the wider population? We don't limit petrol stations for certain brands.

If BMW rolled out their own petrol stations at great cost, would they open them up to VW?

Exactly this - commercially I think it is pretty obvious why it is Tesla only, but as mentioned it is being talked about.

I really hope they don’t. I’ve only had my model 3 for 15 months but have seen the chargers get much busier in that time.

Amesbury at 2:45 yesterday

[Scrump]

paradigital said:

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Why unfortunately? Surely it's a good thing for the wider population? We don't limit petrol stations for certain brands.

If BMW rolled out their own petrol stations at great cost, would they open them up to VW?

Would owners of BMWs that used to have a USP over VW now be annoyed because they have to queue behind a glut of non-BMW cars at the petrol station they used to be able to exclusively use?

British Airways should allow EasyJet passengers to use their departure lounges, it would be a good thing for the wider population.

Jonny Smith’s latest YouTube video is him doing a week long trip in a model Y Tesla. He says that after such a long journey he can see why the ease and convenience of the teslas chargers would make people buy a Tesla over other manufacturers cars (even if those other cars may be cheaper/better).

[gmaz]

CheesecakeRunner said:

.

• Teslas charge fast for the most part. Turnover at chargers is pretty quick, so even if there is a queue it tends to move fast. When you get cars that aren’t capable of high charging speeds, or worst case, a hybrid that can only charge at 3.6kw or 7kw, it’ll really slow things down

Also, if you have a non-Tesla you have to use an app to charge the car, so may be delays in getting the app to work, adding credit etc.

If I was Tesla I'd make the pricing significantly more for non-Tesla, so they are only used as a last resort.

[768]

paradigital said:

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Why unfortunately? Surely it's a good thing for the wider population? We don't limit petrol stations for certain brands.

If BMW rolled out their own petrol stations at great cost, would they open them up to VW?

Yes.

[ajap1979]

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

paradigital said:

This is being trialled in select countries in the EU at present. It will (unfortunately) come at some point in the UK.

Why unfortunately? Surely it's a good thing for the wider population? We don't limit petrol stations for certain brands.

Because owners are no longer going to be able to use "the supercharger network" as justification for choosing a Tesla... Seems to be a big USP trade off IMO.

[TwoManyCars]

gmaz said:

CheesecakeRunner said:

.

• Teslas charge fast for the most part. Turnover at chargers is pretty quick, so even if there is a queue it tends to move fast. When you get cars that aren’t capable of high charging speeds, or worst case, a hybrid that can only charge at 3.6kw or 7kw, it’ll really slow things down

Also, if you have a non-Tesla you have to use an app to charge the car, so may be delays in getting the app to work, adding credit etc.

If I was Tesla I'd make the pricing significantly more for non-Tesla, so they are only used as a last resort.

Tesla to Tesla is free charging for life isn’t it? Surely opening up to other marques provides additional income for Tesla to add more and thus dominate the charging market????

[somouk]

TwoManyCars said:

Tesla to Tesla is free charging for life isn’t it? Surely opening up to other marques provides additional income for Tesla to add more and thus dominate the charging market????

It was only free early on in the Tesla world, everyone pays now if you buy new, some older cars still have free forever charging.

Talking to a Tesla employee the other week there will be a 2 stage pricing structure, Teslas will be cheaper to charge, other brands will cost more to use their infrastructure. It will also only be limited charging bays where they know they have the capacity to allow more people without it becoming a problem for Tesla owners.

The sell from tesla is that it will mean those non-Tesla owners will be paying a big chunk of money in to the kitty to improve the infrastrucure for everyone.

[gangzoom]

CheesecakeRunner said:

Tesla supercharger are already pretty heavily used by Teslas. Queuing is starting to happen a lot. But that’s not really a huge problem.

The solution to queuing is to build more SCs, alot more. There must be dozens of petrol stations between each SC on the major M-ways. What needs to happen is for all DC-rapid chargers to become as common at petrol stations.

Tesla will have to open up the network I suspect if they want access to more SCs they will need to allow other manufactures access.

Edited by gangzoom on Monday 4th April 11:01

[gangzoom]

Scrump said:

Tesla opens up chargers to other cars:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59122605

That was late last year, I have not heard how the pilot went.

It's gone 'live' in pretty much all of the Netherlands I believe, and a number of sites in Norway. So I can only presume the pilot went well.

The difference however is if you look at the Netherlands SC sites have 10+ and often 20+ charging spaces. Here in the UK due to land/power/shenanigans getting even a x6 new DC rapid charger site seems all but impossible. The likes of Shell/BP still seem happy to put in x2 or even x1 chargers at new sites, which is mad. Given EVs do take longer to refuel, and most petrol stations have x6+ petrol pumps, DC EV refueling sites need to have x10-20+ chargers to deliver the same convivence of road trip refueling we are all use to with combustion cars.

[gangzoom]

limpsfield said:

I really hope they don’t. I’ve only had my model 3 for 15 months but have seen the chargers get much busier in that time.

But as you have already seen/experienced, Tesla have zero chance of keeping with up with the demand without been able to access/install new SC sites, its simply impossible. The reason there is queing/congestion at SC sites is because regardless of which Tesla you own if you want to go from London to Fort William, there are only a handful of locations you want to stop at. The way you reduce congestion is by offering up alot more SC sites, at as many M-way services at possible.

The ONLY solution is to get legislation/power distribution in place to allow a far more rapid expansion of DC rapid charger sites, especially at M-way service stations. However there is zero chance Tesla will get any where by continuing to ask permission to build a service that only serves a small group of EV owners. They have to open up the SC network inorder to gain the support needed to build more sites.

Edited by gangzoom on Monday 4th April 11:08

[dapprman]

I'm not sure how they will do it in this country if they do roll out. For the present chargers there will need to be an app else there will be no way to start a charge (Tesla cars handshake with their own unique IDs) and going forwards any new Tesla chargers after that point would need credit card swipe on them (which would quite probably require a major redesign as it will not simply involve adding a credit card reader).

Side note - I'm not doing long journeys much but in recent months I have also noticed Tesla stations being near full or worse. I even saw a charging queue at the new Rugby services at around 9pm on a Saturday (19th of February). Was actually surprised none of the queueing cars used the spare Gridserve slots as there were about 4 chargers free. Does show that there are still well behaved EV drivers out there (and tbh I'd have had no problem is they did charge on the Gridserve units though it may have looked a little odd/bad once the Tesla chargers started to be freed up. By the time I left around 40 minutes later (most spent in the services reading a book) there were spare spaces in both sets.