Tesla is starting to add third-party charging stations to its in-car navigation

Tesla is starting to add third-party charging stations to its in-car navigation on top of its own Superchargers and Destination chargers.

With the Supercharger network and the Destination Charging network, Tesla has without a doubt the most extensive charging infrastructure of any automaker.

While there are several other growing third-party charging networks, most Tesla owners never have to use them as Tesla’s own networks cover a large part of almost all the markets where it sells its vehicles.

These chargers are all listed in Tesla’s in-car navigation system, which is going to route you directly to a Supercharger station if your final destination cannot be reached based on your current state-of-charge.

Now Tesla is starting to add third-party stations to its maps and navigation, which should help owners make use of the stations.

A Tesla owner in Europe reported that the automaker sent him the following message (translated via u/LightningByte):

“This spring break, we have changed your navigation to show more charging options in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Choose the charging symbol at the bottom right of your touch screen, scroll down and select a Supercharger, Destination Charger or public charger to add it to your route.

Public chargers have different access requirements and you might need to download a app like Plugsurfing and create an account to make use of the charger.

This functionality will be improved in future software updates and we will continuously add new chargers.”

The move comes after Tesla adopted the CCS standard for its European vehicles, which makes it a lot easier for owners there to access third-party charging stations. Tesla also offers a CCS adapter in Europe for vehicles that don’t have the connector.

However, in the US and Canada, Tesla still uses its own charge connector – making it more difficult to use third-party stations. It is still doable with Tesla’s CHAdeMO adapter, but the automaker doesn’t offer a CCS adapter in the US yet.

Electrek’s Take

It’s an interesting move.

Right now, it seems to only be for Europe and Tesla appears to be selective about adding third-party stations. This might be a good idea since Tesla might want to avoid promoting some charging stations, like the Ionity stations for example since they would be really expensive for Tesla owners who don’t have a deal with Ionity like some other automakers.

I would speculate that the same initiative will come to the US too following the announcement of the partnership with EVgo to directly add Tesla’s proprietary connector to their own charging stations.

It would certainly make sense to add those stations to Tesla’s in-car navigation.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.