Tesla’s Decision To Open Its Supercharger Network To The Competition Is A Masterstroke
Source: The Mobilist, Enrique Dans
Photo: PxFuel (CC0)
On July 20, Elon Musk announced to a Tesla owner who had tweeted about the car-maker’s pioneering Supercharger that his company planned to open its network of charging stations to vehicles of other brands at some point in 2021, and to do so progressively around the world.
Goldman Sachs says this decision could earn Tesla around $25 billion a year in the future, a sum that reflects the enormous investment made by the company in developing its networks of Superchargers, as well as to make rapid charging the industry standard, along with the effort to strategically position them around the world. Tesla’s Supercharger network is what the company was busy developing while other brands were still figuring out whether or not they wanted to make electric vehicles, giving it a unique edge and one that plays a huge role in why people buy a Tesla.
Tesla’s Supercharger network is one of the clearest advantages the brand offers to buyers of its vehicles. It’s built in to the application that owners use to plan their trips, and which allows them not only to calculate the stops and the time required to charge, but also to know how many places are free at any station, or to launch the battery conditioning system to improve the efficiency of fast charging. In short, the location of the charging stations is a feat of planning, allowing drivers to travel comfortably even in countries with relatively few Superchargers. What’s more, many of the brand’s vehicles can still be bought with the option of free charging for life.
For a company that has always claimed its strategy was to stimulate competition, effectively forcing other manufacturers to enter the electric car market, opening up its Supercharger network was to be expected and makes perfect sense. After all, the network is oversized, which has allowed Tesla vehicle owners to always be able to charge without waiting.
Opening the network up to other car owners will require some delicate compromises: electric vehicles are growing in popularity, with up to 41% of car owners saying their next vehicle will be electric, a fact now taken into account in the plans of more and more car manufacturers. While Tesla’s move will force all brands to make adapters for Tesla’s plugs so their vehicles can access its Supercharger network, it will also mean that those brands whose vehicles do not have rapid charging will occupy chargers for longer, added to which will be the inconvenience for Tesla owners of having to share chargers with a much larger number of people, although that might be offset if some new actors creating their own charger networks.
Elon Musk’s decision to get ahead of the EV adoption trend and play a role in accelerating it is a classic example of the importance of innovation. Now, as the skeptics are finally having to accept the science about EVs and more and more brands are going electric, Tesla is still way ahead of the pack, hence those generous, and well-deserved Goldman Sachs revenue estimates.