At the dawn of the age of the modern automobile more than 100 years ago, automakers missed out on what was to become a multi-billion dollar industry – the petroleum industry. By relying on third parties to supply fuel for the vehicles rolling out of their factories, the automakers effectively handed the petroleum industry to others – on a silver platter.
When Elon Musk founded Tesla – being the avid student of history that he is – the serial entrepreneur was not about to make the same mistake as the legacy automakers who preceded him. Instead, Tesla set out to build its own charging network, both out of necessity and the realisation that it presented the company with a once-in-a-century opportunity to control both vehicle supply and vehicle charging, with charging infrastructure set to replace the current petroleum infrastructure over the next two decades – the difference being that, unlike the petroleum industry that licences filling stations to individual operators, and in return have to share the profit pie, Tesla own and operate its entire charging infrastructure.
Following its Non-Tesla Supercharger pilot program, announced last year, Tesla has now opened its Supercharger network to five additional countries in Europe, affording more non-Tesla owners access to the Tesla Supercharger network. Excluding North America, where Tesla has been conducting a similar pilot program, the newly added countries now bring to eight the total number of countries, namely France, Netherlands, Norway, UK, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and Austria.
“We plan to provide third-party vehicle access worldwide, not just in Europe, where our original pilot was. We are working on solutions in North America, which is a little bit more problematic with our connector being different than others, but we are moving in that direction,” says Musk.
“It’s always been our ambition to open the Supercharger network to Non-Tesla EVs, and by doing so, encourage more drivers to go electric,” Tesla states on its website.
