As is well known, Tesla boss Elon Musk is always good for a surprise.
Now he has written on the short message service Twitter in response to a request from an interested party that Tesla will also open its fast charging stations to the competition.
“We designed and built our own pillars, there was no prototype or standard at that time because Tesla was the only manufacturer of long-distance electric cars.
With this in mind, we will also open our network of superchargers to electric cars from other brands by the end of the year, ”writes Musk.
Holger Appel
Editor in business, responsible for "Technology and Engine".
Follow I follow
He leaves it open whether this should initially only apply to the American market or immediately to all around 25,000 pillars in the world.
A company spokesman, apparently also surprised by the announcement, said at the request of the FAZ that details are not yet known, they will be informed in due course.
It is therefore also unclear what the intention is.
Selflessness is hardly to be suspected, Musk may be about the user data.
In any case, the approval would be a considerable step, since a dozen Tesla pillars and only one or two pillars of the competition have often been set up along the highways so far.
As the number of vehicles increases, the threat of waiting times is added to the well-known hurdles of electromobility.
Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) recently called this on the scene, who reported in mid-June of his efforts to convince Tesla, among other things, of the opening of the existing infrastructure.
The US manufacturer's charging network is much more sophisticated
With its network of fast charging stations along the highways, Tesla has so far been superior to all other providers. Most recently, 6039 Superchargers were in operation at 601 locations in Europe. The competition from Ionity has 358 charging parks in operation and a target of 400. When Tesla opened its network in 2013, the average size of a Supercharger site was seven pillars. Today the largest location in Europe in Nebbenes in Norway has 44 superchargers. Tesla also operates one of the largest supercharger locations in Europe in Germany. 40 fast charging stations are available in Oberhonnefeld, southeast of the Cologne-Bonn region.
Of course, the charging and billing processes are different, which raises the question of how foreign customers should pay at Tesla stations in the future. The charging process at stations from providers such as Ionity, EnBW or Allego is usually started via an app that requires a one-time registration beforehand. QR code readers or a special charging card often also work. In rare cases, credit cards are accepted. There is no staff on site at the stations, so a hotline has to be called in case of doubt.
Tesla goes a different way. The buyer of the car is registered. The plug of the charging station, which is equipped without any screen, and the parked car recognize each other, the charging flap on the vehicle opens, plug in, and charges. At the end of the charging process, the plug is removed and billing takes place automatically via the stored credit card. This often works without any problems and is much easier than the other methods. Only a few of the other manufacturers are approaching this billing method in the future.
However, the days when Tesla gave a lifetime of buying electricity as a gift are long gone. 37 cents per kilowatt hour are currently billed. The greatest competition arises from the Ionity consortium, which is supported by Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Hyundai and Porsche, which is a deterrent with prohibitively high prices of up to 79 cents per kilowatt hour. Customers who stop by at least spontaneously will be billed at this rate. With a realistic average consumption of 25 kWh including charge loss, costs of just under 20 euros per 100 kilometers arise. Any diesel and most gasoline engines can do that cheaper.
It is cheaper if you conclude a contract, the tariff jungle is similar to that of the mobile phone providers. The price per kWh is then usually around 30 cents, but there are also basic fees of 10 to 17.50 euros per month at Volkswagen, depending on the model. Competitor customers can often not use the other network, unless via a platform such as Plugsurfing, which then charges a brokerage fee for your brokerage.
What they all have in common is charging performance and thus charging times, which in reality deviate from the promised standard values. Even at Tesla. There are two versions of the fast charging stations known as Superchargers, V2 is the older and slower, V3 is the newer and faster. The peak power of the V2 supercharger, which is most widely used in Europe, is now 150 kW. The V3 pillars achieve 250 kW. Ionity creates up to 350 kW. But it depends on how quickly the car can take up the electricity. The brand new electric S-Class from Mercedes-Benz, called EQS, creates 200 kW, the Porsche Taycan 270 kW.
The Tesla base model 3 can charge with 170 kW, the more expensive models allow up to 250 kW. How fast the current flows also depends on the weather conditions and whether the battery has been sufficiently preconditioned during the journey, which is usually controlled automatically after the destination has been entered in the navigation system. As a rough guide, under good conditions, depending on the model, a 100 to 250 kilometer range can be recharged within 15 minutes along the trunk road. If a column is free.