The British government official in charge of transportation-related affairs said in an interview recently that Tesla will soon open the supercharging network to all-electric vehicle owners in the UK. Trudy Harrison, the UK parliament’s deputy secretary of state for transport, said Tesla would open its Supercharger network to all-electric car owners in the UK “within weeks or months.”
Tesla has built a supercharger network all over the world. Over the past year, Tesla has been working to gradually open overcharging sites to electric vehicles made by other automakers. In November 2021, Tesla launched a pilot project at 10 overcharge sites in the Netherlands, and non-Tesla electric car owners can also use the Tesla app to charge.
In announcing the new pilot program, Tesla said it plans to gradually expand the program while testing the user experience. The pilot program will test both other electric vehicle users using the Supercharger network, as well as existing Tesla owners who find more traffic at the Supercharger sites.
In January, Tesla announced that the pilot program would expand to more overcharging sites in Norway and France. Last month, Tesla once again included all of its overcharging sites in the Netherlands as a pilot project.
Tesla has made no major moves since then. The company says it is collecting more data to understand the impact of increasing the number of charging users on the entire Supercharging network, but it expects more supercharging sites to join the plan soon.
Now, Harrison, the UK parliament’s deputy secretary of state for transport, has said that Tesla will soon open its Supercharging network in the UK. She confirmed the plan in an interview earlier this week, when she said, “Tesla recognizes that they are part of the solution.” Harrison added that the move could be “in a few weeks or a few weeks .” within months, not years. ”
Harrison did not disclose how he knew the timing, but it is possible that Tesla has contacted the UK government about how to open up the Supercharging network. In Norway, Tesla also contacted the local transport ministry ahead of time before opening the Supercharger network to other electric car owners.
Last year saw a surge in electric car sales in the UK, led by Tesla. Tesla said it plans to use the fees paid by other electric car owners to use the Supercharger network to expand the coverage of the Supercharger network and build more charging piles.