Tesla to open Supercharger network to non-Tesla vehicles

[Joe schmoe]

For those of you who have used Tesla charger network extensively, how reliable have they been. 90% of the time the chargers working, nearly always delivering rated capacity, etc.?

I don’t do a lot of cross country driving in my Tesla, but have made several 1000+ mile round trips in the eastern 1/3 of the US, using a couple of dozen different supercharger sites.

I have never encountered a non-functional supercharger in eight years. I did have an issue one time, but it turned out to be the car’s onboard charger. I was close enough to limp to a Tesla service center, where they knew I was coming and had a fully charged loaner for me to complete my trip.

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[HyperionMark]

For those of you who have used Tesla charger network extensively, how reliable have they been. 90% of the time the chargers working, nearly always delivering rated capacity, etc.?

Virtually flawless. If there are slow speeds there is usually a good reason for it (old chargers or car, car or handle is too hot, sharing power).

 

[HyperionMark]

TESLA opening up their network is going to be very very messy.

They know exactly what is plugging into their network now and can optimize speeds, battery conditioning, etc. because they can control all of that since they are in a walled garden.

What happens when a rando EV from a rando manufacturer plugs in? Will it give you peak charging for that specific battery/manufacturer?

Will TESLA have to open up support hotlines to deal with the influx of non-TESLA EVs who will invariably run into issues?

TESLA didn't promise a specific charging rate, so I suspect the rate will be slower and the cost will be higher. Which means an EV at that station will take longer to charge than a TESLA which means more stalls will be occupied overall.

If this isn't executed extremely well it is a recipe for disaster.

My guess is that the "network" doesn't mean every charger. It probably means select chargers that are either installed to handle all EVs/Plugs or are are retrofitted.

I agree. That's why I'm willing to put money down on a V4 charger that will be meant for this system. The old system will stay as is IMO.

 

[Big_Ike]

For those of you who have used Tesla charger network extensively, how reliable have they been. 90% of the time the chargers working, nearly always delivering rated capacity, etc.?

In six years I've waited once in Cabazon, CA (spelling?) and was subject to really slow charge speeds in Quartzite before all the new chargers went in. Other than those incidents, my experiences have been exceptional.

 

[ccmun]

I have encountered more issues in one wkd trip using EA charging than over 3 years experience with Tesla SC. The NYTimes just did a piece on SC reliability and quoted a report that stated 25% unavailable rate for SC stations nationally. That has been my experience with CCS chargers. I think it will improve, but to say that there are no issues with CCS charging especially EA is myopic. In my neighborhood, I have yet to find an EA station with all chargers available at any given time.

 

[SASSquatch]

I have encountered more issues in one wkd trip using EA charging than over 3 years experience with Tesla SC. The NYTimes just did a piece on SC reliability and quoted a report that stated 25% unavailable rate for SC stations nationally. That has been my experience with CCS chargers. I think it will improve, but to say that there are no issues with CCS charging especially EA is myopic. In my neighborhood, I have yet to find an EA station with all chargers available at any given time.

You do realize that EA stands for Electric Attempted charging, right?

As a non-Tesla EV owner, I cannot put into words the sense of relief I experience when I roll up to a charger, jump through all the hoops, watch the little spinning wheel of doom, and actually end up with a successful charging session.

I wonder how many years of my life I'm losing from all of this anxiety relative to a Tesla owner who rolls up to a Supercharger and doesn't have a care in the world because they just KNOW everything is going to be alright....

 

[RivianNE]

For those of you who have used Tesla charger network extensively, how reliable have they been. 90% of the time the chargers working, nearly always delivering rated capacity, etc.?

In probably 4 years I never had an issue. I did encounter some chargers that are broken but those were clearly marked as unavailable on the map and to Tesla’s credit, it was due to car accidents (someone hitting the charger with their car).

 

[ajdelange]

I have encountered more issues in one wkd trip using EA charging than over 3 years experience with Tesla SC.

Same here! But the problems were relatively easily overcome and at the second charging stop a guy wandered up, admired the truck and said he'd been following it but had never seen one and was most interested as the president of Rivian was his lab partner at RPI (this was near Troy, NY).

I have seen Tesla dispensers knocked over (not a problem as there are always lots of others) but I did have to move to another dispenser once as a cabinet had limited output. This is the only real problem I ever experienced with the Tesla system, and, of course, not having to fiddle with apps, load your "wallet" find your RFID card and, best of all, not being charged for charging are great. Of course as a Rivian driver using the Tesla network I will have to deal with all that stuff.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Virtually flawless. If there are slow speeds there is usually a good reason for it (old chargers or car, car or handle is too hot, sharing power).

Those are exactly the reasons I've ever experienced a CCS station being slow. It's nice that Rivian actually lets you know it's the station doing it instead of the vehicle.

 

[Smithery]

For those of you who have used Tesla charger network extensively, how reliable have they been. 90% of the time the chargers working, nearly always delivering rated capacity, etc.?

5th year of Model X ownership.
We've road tripped 10's of 1000's of miles. About 50% of the charging in our car has been Supercharging as opposed to L2/L1 somewhere else.

We've never needed to charge at a Supercharger and been unable to.
And with *two* exceptions, we've never even waited in line.

The quality and number of charging sites is Tesla's only remaining advantage IMHO.

Not having Superchargers was the single biggest hesitation we had when committing to a non-Tesla EV.

 

[Harvest]

It's good to hear such positive stories on the Tesla charging network from those of you with extensive experience. It gives me hope that the future of charging networks can be high quality. Obviously some of the existing non-Tesla networks have installed in too much of a slapdash fashion, leading to unreliability. I have to say this might be a situation where stronger government standards are needed for chargers, since the private marketplace doesn't yet seem to be enough incentive for these other companies to get their acts together when it comes to reliable chargers. Hopefully Rivian chargers will be of comparable quality and maintenance to the Tesla network, and hopefully Rivian will have many of their own fast chargers in place in the next 18 months or so.

 

[jjswan33]

So really curious to know, seems many of you think CCS charging infrastructure is unreliable. What makes it unreliable? Have you relied on a charger, confirmed on the EA app that it is up and running and then been stranded?

It does seem that Tesla does a better job of maintenance based on the comments above.

In my experience over the last 3 months I have charged at >30 different EA stations, yes a stall or two may be down, seen slow rates on a few that were quickly corrected by stopping/starting or switching chargers. Never been stranded and only once did I pull in to a EA station and have it unusable (under construction and listed as offline in the EA app but not the Rivian). Never even had to wait for an open spot. So that is why I say EA is reliable, that is a lot of data points to say I have been lucky.

 

[ajdelange]

So really curious to know, seems many of you think CCS charging infrastructure is unreliable. What makes it unreliable?

In my experience over the last 3 months I have charged at >30 different EA stations, yes a stall or two may be down, seen slow rates on a few that were quickly corrected by stopping/starting or switching chargers. Never been stranded and only once did I pull in to a EA station and have it unusable...

This has been your experience and you have always gotten by and so it seems the CCS network is reliable and, as far as you know it is. Most of the people here who call it unreliable are doing so having come from Tesla's system where the kind of performance (or lack thereof) commonplace at CCS stations is rare. It's a relative thing.

 

[mini2nut]

Yes, Tesla will open up their Supercharging to non Teslas but it will come at a price.

BEV owners will most likely pay a monthly subscription fee AND pay a higher KWh price than Tesla owners.

Charging stations are profitable. It’s the reason petroleum companies are getting into the charging station business.

 

[ajdelange]

Charging stations are profitable. It’s the reason petroleum companies are getting into the charging station business.

I really question that. Elon Musk has always said that the SC network has never been (it used to be free to everyone) and never will be a profit center for Tesla. Now if he allows other makers' vehicles to use it it will have to make a profit on those users so rates will have to be higher for them.

Musk built the SC network because he was perceptive enough to know that he had to in order to sell cars - not to make a profit. It was a marketing expense. There is no other maker of DCFC systems so motivated that I am aware of except Rivian. The only way I can see to get the CCS net into shape is have a consortium of OEMs buy EA and manage it as if their lives depend on it which will probably, at least for a time, involve operating it at a loss.

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