Tesla to allow third-party charging stations in its navigation, but with high standards

Tesla confirmed that it is going to allow third-party charging stations in its navigation system, but the stations are going to need to meet the automaker’s high standards.

Right now, if you are looking for a charging station in the navigation system inside Tesla vehicles, you will only see Tesla charging stations.

This hasn’t been a problem, for the most part, as Tesla’s Supercharger network is the most extensive and considered the best charging network by most.

As we previously reported, surveys have found that Tesla dominates charging experience satisfaction – primarily because of its near-perfect uptime, while other charging networks often have charging stations not working.

But third-party charging stations have improved lately and grown significantly, especially in Europe, where Tesla uses the CCS connector like all other charging networks.

Now Tesla has announced that it is going to allow third-party chargers on its navigation system, but they will need to meet certain criteria:

Third-party fast chargers that meet our performance and reliability standards will be added to Tesla’s navigation automatically as Qualified Third-Party Chargers. The intent is to ensure a smooth charging experience for Tesla drivers. The following standards will first roll out across Europe and Israel.

The automaker says that the charging stations will need to meet these three criteria over a 60-day period in order to be added:

1. Have at least one compatible charging connector
2. Be frequently used by Tesla drivers at least once every four days
3. Have an average charge success rate of 90% or higher

The stations will be removed from the navigation system automatically if one of the two criteria is met within 14 days:

1. No charge sessions detected
2. Average charge success rate falls below 70%

As Tesla noted, the new “Qualified Third-Party Charger” program is starting with Europe and Israel, where it is going to have a more significant impact since Tesla vehicles are already equipped with a CCS connector like most third-party charging stations.

The same program is likely going to make it to North America, but Tesla is likely going to prioritize charging network operators who use its charge connector, which Tesla recently tried to make the new standard in North America.

Electrek’s Take

This is a great move. Most of the time, Tesla owners are going to want to use Superchargers for an optimized experience, but some third-party stations could be very useful, and having them in the navigation system is going to make things easier.

From my own experience and based on what I heard from European EV drivers, third-party stations are not bad in Europe.

In North America, hopefully it will encourage network operators to up their game and increase their up time in order to help attract Tesla owners, which there are more of than any other EV drivers.