In Preparation For Model 3, Tesla Plans To Double the Size of Its Supercharger Network This Year (fortune.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Tesla says it will double the number of electric vehicle chargers in its network this year as the automaker prepares for the production of its mass-market vehicle the Model 3. The plan, announced Monday in a blog post on the company's website, will grow its global network of Superchargers from more than 5,400 today to more than 10,000 by the end of the year. Tesla, which had previously announced in its annual shareholder letter plans to double the network in North America, did not disclose the cost of such an ambitious expansion. Many sites will soon enter construction to open in advance of the summer travel season, according to Tesla. The company says it will add charging locations within city centers as well as highway sites this year. The goal is to make "charging ubiquitous in urban centers," Tesla says in its blog post. The company says it will build larger sites along busy travel routes to accommodate several dozen Teslas simultaneously. These larger sites will also have customer service centers.

Comments

Re:Okay, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Tesla did one big thing : it freed their supercharger patents. The proverbial ball is in the other vehicle's camp.

The EV charging landscape is currently a mess. It differs continent from continent, maker from maker.

Re:Okay, but...

[DrXym]

In Europe they will be compelled to because the bloc has take the sensible decision to mandate a charging standard (CCS type 2) and require that all stations charge all vehicles on a non-discriminatory basis through common payment methods. i.e. it works like a petrol station. It doesn't stop stations offering other charge formats but with a common standard those other formats will die out over time, e.g. chademo is basically just the Nissan Leaf at this point and will probably die with it.

The US should do similar to put an end to all of these competing charging formats and vertical markets. It's not like Tesla will lose out because they stand to profit regardless of which vehicle is charging at their stations.

Re:Sigh

[Rei]

Global network.

10,000 chargers.

That's one every 5750 (ish) square miles.

Well done.

Did you seriously just divide Earth's total land area by the number of chargers? Great to know that I can pop over to a Tesla supercharger when I'm in the middle of Antarctica, Greenland or the Sahara.

Tesla Superchargers are only found in:
  * The US (not including Alaska)
  * Southern Canada (and not all of southern Canada)
  * Europe
  * Israel
  * UAE
  * Southeast coastal Australia (plus one in the west, and a couple in NZ)
  * Japan
  * South Korea
  * East China

In the US, Superchargers are spaced 50-100 miles apart along all but a handful of interstates (the latter to be added by the expansion), as well as smaller highways in more densely populated areas (many more to be added by the coming expansion). Which is more than enough to drive cross country. Note that we're only talking about superchargers; there are also many more slower chargers in place.

Comparing it to gas stations is a stupid comparison, firstly because there are vastly more cars on the road, and thus vastly more gas stations needed. But beyond that is the more basic point: EVs don't do most of their charging at superchargers. Gas vehicles must fill up at gas stations. EVs overwhelmingly don't fill up at superchargers. Superchargers are for trips.