VW is advising customers to be a little more patient with Tesla Supercharger access, as it claims to be experiencing technical issues.
The German brand is the last one to give Supercharger access to its North American EV owners.
Tesla first announced the opening of its Supercharger network to other electric vehicles in 2021, but the rollout has been slow.
The automaker successfully persuaded the rest of the North American auto industry to adopt its connector as the new standard. It struck deals with them to gain access to its Supercharger network, which is by far the best and most reliable fast-charging EV network in North America, thereby sweetening the deal.
However, the transition wasn’t exactly smooth.
Last year, Elon Musk fired Tesla’s entire charging team, which had built the world’s best charging network, over a dispute with the team’s head. Tesla ended up having to rehire some of the staff, and other automakers admitted that this slowed down the Supercharger integration process.
Nonetheless, the integration started to be finalized this year, with electric vehicles from virtually all other automakers now having access to most Tesla Superchargers in North America.
However, there’s one big exception: VW electric vehicles, specifically the ID.4 and ID Buzz.
Last week, Porsche and Audi, which are both part of the Volkswagen Group, announced that their North American EV owners have now access to the Supercharger network.
This led people to believe that VW shouldn’t be too far behind.
Top comment by FC
BMW also hasn't gotten supercharger access even though it was supposed to happen in the Spring. I'm not sure what the hold up is for BMW, but I do suspect VW is dragging their feet because of their investment in Electrify America. They don't want other charging networks to prosper. If EA was smart it would have partnered with IONNA or even sold itself to Ionna. Whoever is leading the company is clueless about placement of stations, they don't build enough chargers, and the maintenance (while improved) is still subpar for a national electric vehicle charging network. It's super annoying going to certain states or parts of states where EA hasn't even built a single station within 150 miles or if they do build one it is nowhere near the interstate making you travel up to 20 mins out of your way to charge.
VW has now commented on encountering “technical challenges” and has asked owners for their patience. The German automaker still believes that access should come by the end of the year (via PC Mag):
“Volkswagen looks forward to making it possible for ID. Buzz and ID.4 vehicle owners to gain access to the Tesla NACS Partner Superchargers. The timeline has been delayed by technical challenges, and we ask for customers’ patience. We still expect to deliver access this year.”
It’s unclear what those technical challenges are, but VW has been experiencing notorious software issues for years now.
More recently, the company decided to partner with Rivian for assistance with the software side.
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