"The right to build a charger comes with responsibility to service electricity to any EV car."
The EU, and in particularly Germany, is strongly nudging Tesla that, if they do it now, then right now at least they can do it in their own terms, and existing experience can flow into legislation.
If they wait, then they will need to complain with whatever is legislated, and without any experience, they won't have a seat at the table (while other EV charger systems with experience will).
I see it more like: Tesla has good charging infrastructure and Tesla can scale chargers faster than cars (with cars production they are battery constrained).
If even Shell and BP are installing electric chargers at their gas stations to get a small cut of this market it's a no-brainer for Tesla
Who really knows the strategy behind their moves, but legislation forcing their hand certainly feels plausible. Which company wouldn't want to own a proprietary network of chargers all over the world and extract as much money as possible?
That's why it's opening it up first in the EU.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/1/22757159/tesla-supercharg...
But while any CCS vehicle was technically capable of plugging in to Tesla's CCS superchargers, until now only Tesla vehicles could charge there because the supercharger's software would recognise a non-Tesla vehicle and not allow it to charge.
There isn't a mandate that requires charging stations must be public and available to all vehicles. However, by converting the supercharger network into an open charging network, Tesla should be eligible to bid for government funding for charger network expansion, which was not available to a Tesla-exclusive charging network.
One still wonders whether this just was a strange bug or some undercover test arranged by Tesla :)
http://www.avere-france.org/Site/Article/?article_id=7989
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000043475363
That's why tesla charger are on private managed lands (hotels, stores, ...).
Also it has taken time for open standards to be developed to allow "Plug & Charge" operation:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_15118
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Charge_Point_Protocol
There are of course charge stations where you use an app or kiosk to enter your user account/payment information.
So you're telling me that instead of a specific kind of government regulation, another kind of government regulation got Tesla out of the walled garden? Got it!
> Tesla uses the CCS standard in Europe, allowing a wide range of cars to charge in stations without an adapter that uses a similar connector.
That also explains the announcement first in Europe as well.
They are in no way the "dominant charging provider", probably not even for Tesla's.
What's more likely is that there are so many public and private EV chargers in the Netherlands that the superchargers sit mostly idle and Tesla needs to open them up to try and recoup some of the capex.
[0] https://www.acea.auto/press-release/risk-of-two-track-europe...
Whenever I've plugged my Model 3 in at superchargers in the Netherlands, they're not mostly idle.
Additionally, opening up the network should be beneficial for Tesla's cash flow - not that they'd need it these days, though.
Do you have any source for this?
From what I see Ionity (https://ionity.eu/) has around 400 stations and Tesla has around 600. So the difference is not crushing. Plus Ionity has huge backers: https://ionity.eu/en/about.html
"On the other hand, the number of 1,211 chargers"
ionity has 4 stalls per station on average
https://insideevs.com/news/496754/europe-600-tesla-superchar...
"The number of Tesla Supercharging stations in Europe has recently exceeded 600 in 27 countries (with more than 6,000 individual charging stalls). On average, that's 10 stalls per station."
The other thing in practical experience is that tesla superchargers are super reliable and ionity not so much.
Didn't the EU tell them they had to?
If I'm wrong, please provide a source.
Furthermore, this 2021 European Court of Auditors special report pushed for the same [1].
A Supercharger station gives access to private users with an authorisation or a subscription so it's considered accessible to the public. All charging stations accessible to the public should to allow multistandard recharging.
[0] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELE...
[1] https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/SR21_05/SR_Elec...
https://ecomento.de/2021/06/16/tesla-soll-supercharger-fuer-...
So, I think the logic was: eventually it will happen anyway - so it's better for Tesla to do it themselves before they are forced to, so that they can do it on their own terms. For example, so that Tesla drivers will never have to wait longer than x minutes.
Is it $10/kWh 'premium charging' or is it $0.10/kWh 'encourage EV's pricing'.
This is only slightly higher than what Tesla owners are charged, arguably to cover the additional overhead.
Also, it's competitive: The comparative fast-charger network Ionity charges €0.79 per kWh, or €0.35 kWh with a €17.99 subscription.
Ionity is an outlier with its extreme pricing.
Maybe they could also increase the reliability 10 fold by making them default to giving away free electricity if it can't contact the providers services, I refuse to believe that the core electrical pieces of a car charger are anywhere near as unreliable as the infrastructure people keep throwing up in front of it.
As far as payment for charging is concerned, EVs seem to be really backwards compared to to the existing fuel station networks.
Also intriguing how Tesla is able to sell a legal requirement as a great initiative on their behalf.
It’s going to be good business for operators as Tesla owners are in the high earn/spend bracket and it will allow Tesla to significantly expand its brand’s footprint (not that they need it) while reinforcing the perception that driving Tesla is more superior to other experiences (even if it might not be true).
The incremental revenue from franchises is also nice. And it would allow Tesla to deploy more batteries and solar panels.
Some gas station usage disappears entirely due to at-home charging and destination charging (i.e. opportunistically wherever the car is parked). You simply don't visit a special place to charge.
Remaining usages are for longer-range road trips, which are already served adequately by bigger service stations along highways. The rest is for users who don't have at-home charger and need a 45-minute weekly charge, but for this the ideal model is not a charger with a gas-station like shop, but a mall that happens to have chargers.
> the ideal model is not a charger with a gas-station like shop, but a mall that happens to have chargers.
I own few Teslas for last decade or so. Last year took a trip with wife across the Pacific Northwest. The mall concept is extremely annoying because it's the most congested area of the city. Gas station model is superior for road trips, as one needs a place to stop, use restroom, stretch legs, grab coffee/bite.
What we experienced were chargers in middle of nowhere with no services or ones in parking lots of hotels and malls. Malls were crowded and hard to get into. Hotels were angry that we are using their services. Empty lots were, well, empty.
EV infrastructure in EU is incredibly fragmented. Nice that Tesla chargers are becoming accessible, but we still have fragmentation of apps and charging subscriptions/accounts (Tesla app/account is another one you need to have): https://svedic.org/tech/daddy-did-you-really-need-electric-c...
In practical terms, expect to see some challenges reaching the charging port on non-Tesla vehicles...
