This article was published on September 14, 2020

Bug or feature? New Tesla Superchargers charge other brands’ EVs for free

Will this become a feature in the future?


Bug or feature? New Tesla Superchargers charge other brands’ EVs for free

Over the weekend, news surfaced that some Tesla Supercharger locations let non-Tesla drivers charge their electric vehicles (EVs), for free.

Reports over at Electrek and Autoblog say that itā€™s a bug, on the other hand, CleanTechnicaā€™s analysis of the situation suggests that it might be a hint at things to come thanks to EU legislation. Letā€™s take a look at whatā€™s going on.

It all seemed to begin when German YouTube channel Nextmove demonstrated charging a VW ID.3 at a new Tesla Supercharger location in Germany. You can watch the video here, but the long and short of it is that they managed to charge a bunch of non-Tesla EVs, without paying a cent, at the new Superchargers.

[Read: Are EVs too expensive? Here are 5 common myths, debunked]

The ā€œnewnessā€ of the Superchargers is an important detail here. Teslaā€™s most up-to-date units use a CCS charger, which makes them physically capable of connecting to modern EVs that use a CCS2 plug.

Historically, Tesla has used its own proprietary connector, which has a similar shape to a standard Type 2 charger, but uses a slightly different pin layout.

Nextmove showed the new Superchargers working with the VW e-Golf, VW ID.3, BMW i3, Opel Ampera-e (Chevy Bolt EV), Hyundai Kona Electric, Hyundai IONIQ Electric, Renault Zoe, and Porsche Taycan.

supercharger, car, tesla, future, ev, charging
Credit: Wikimedia - CC
All Teslas charge using a port on the rear left corner of the vehicle. This means that if you reverse into a Supercharger spot, youā€™ll be well positioned for the cable. Non-Teslas arenā€™t as standardized. If non-Teslas are allowed to charge at Superchargers, things could get messy.

They were able to charge for free, because theyā€™re not Tesla vehicles. When a Tesla driver plugs their vehicle into a Supercharger, the device recognizes the car and the account connected to it, through a digital ā€œhandshake,ā€ Electrek writes. This is one of the big boons of using a Supercharger, thereā€™s no complex charging process; you drive up, plug in, and the machines take care of the rest.

In this case, it seems that the new Superchargers recognized the non-Teslas as compatible cars, and began charging them. However, because there was no Tesla account connected to the car, Nextmoveā€™s drivers didnā€™t pay anything for the service.

[Read: The UKā€™s first EV-only service station set to open soon]

CleanTechnica, suggests that this might actually be a feature that was uncovered a little sooner than it should have been. One of CleanTechnicaā€™s writers was able to replicate Nextmoveā€™s findings at a Tesla V3 Supercharger in the Netherlands using a Renault Zoe.

There is EU requirement that requires new Tesla Supercharging locations to make some of its chargers compatible with non-Tesla vehicles.

Clearly, letting non-Tesla drivers charge for free, is not a feature. But allowing non-Tesla EVs to work with Tesla Superchargers might be, assuming users also pay for the service. Some believe this is just an interim solution, itā€™s obviously not in Teslaā€™s interest to give away free electricity, and it only uses free Supercharging access as perk for some customers.

A Twitter user going by the name TeslaStars suggests that Tesla could let non-Tesla drivers use the companyā€™s app to create an account, enable Supercharging, and be billed appropriately.

While some have called this a bug and others say this is a feature thatā€™s likely to be rolled out due to EU legislation, itā€™s still unclear if Tesla has patched the free electricity to prevent it being exploited as it works out a more permanent solution.

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