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Tesla Starts Supercharger Pilot Program for Non-Tesla EVs in the Netherlands

Tesla says that sharing its Supercharger network has always been a company’s ambition. Sure: this is why it waited almost ten years to start doing so, not because the U.S. government promised incentives only to charging networks that are not brand-exclusive. Curiously, it created a pilot program in the Netherlands to test the idea, but there are good reasons for that.
Tesla Supercharging Stations in the Netherlands That Accept 22 photos
Photo: Tesla
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The first is that Tesla does not use its charging standard in Europe. The company adopts CCS2 connectors there, which other EVs also use. That prevents owners of EVs from different brands from needing adapters to use Superchargers.

The second is that Europe has way fewer Tesla vehicles than the U.S. Evaluating how things go on a small scale can help solve them before expanding the idea to Supercharging stations with more demand. That's a clear concern for the company: it said it “will be closely monitoring each site for congestion and listening to customers about their experiences.”

The list of Supercharging stations confirms that. Tesla opened the Apeldoorn Oost, Breukelen, Duiven, Eemnes, Hengelo, Meerkerk, Naarden, Sassenheim, Tilburg, and Zwolle stations to EVs from other manufacturers. As the map shows, most of them are not that close to major cities such as Amsterdam and have high evaluation scores, according to Google Maps. The high scores show these are locations less prone to present problems.

The pilot program is limited to people resident in the Netherlands, which means tourists and visitors will not be able to charge their EVs from other brands in these stations.

The EV users willing to use Tesla Superchargers will have to download the app, create an account, pick the option “Charge Your Non-Tesla,” add a payment method, select a stall, and click on “Start Charging.” This is the first point in which Tesla expects people to notice the difference between having a Tesla and an EV from another brand: the process to Supercharge a Tesla is seamless.

Another differentiation Tesla plans to offer its customers is lower prices for charging: the same ones they face nowadays. The explanation is simple: Tesla will charge more from non-Tesla owners.

People who have Teslas and EVs from other brands will be able to charge their other EVs in Superchargers with the same Tesla account. Idle fees will also apply to non-Tesla EVs so that they will not occupy a stall without adequately using it. That may catch some of these customers off guard.

If Tesla manages to avoid getting Superchargers so crowded that it will hurt the experience its regular customers have, sharing the network may be a great way to present the advantages of its products. It may also be an issue if Tesla customers are not that friendly to these new users or decide to share their problems with Tesla cars. Whatever the result is, Tesla will not reveal it to the press: we’ll have to wait for tweets from users and Elon Musk to discover how things are going. We’ll follow that anyway: it will be interesting to watch.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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