Tesla opening its Superchargers to other EVs is creating a weird problem

Tesla opening its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles is creating a weird problem that results in making some charging stalls useless.

Over the last year, Tesla has been working to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles.

In Europe, Tesla has already opened hundreds of stations in most countries it operates in. The automaker indicated that it planned to do the same by the end of the year in North America, but it has yet to do it.

However, Tesla hasn’t opened all its Supercharger stations in Europe as it is still testing the impact of more EVs on its charging network.

There’s one problem that not a lot of people saw coming when allowing non-Tesla EVs on the Supercharger network, which was designed for Tesla vehicles.

It is perfectly illustrated in this video posted to the Tesla subreddit today:

The problem here that the Model 3 owner didn’t realize until he was already parked is that the Jaguar I-Pace parked to the right was using the Supercharger that would have normally been used by the Tesla parked in the middle.

That’s no fault to the I-Pace owner since it is the only way he could have plugged in.

The problem is that the Supercharger is designed to work with Tesla vehicles, which all have their charge ports on the back left side of the vehicles.

That’s not the case for other EVs. Some have it on the front left side, like the I-Pace. Others have it in the middle of the front end, like the Hyundai Kona EV.

The inconsistencies between charge ports on all the different models are something that Tesla didn’t have to adapt to with the Supercharger network until now.

Other charging network operators, like Electrify America pictured below, had to since they aim to serve every electric vehicle equipped with a CCS charge connector and they equipped their stations with longer cable attached higher up to be able to reach around a vehicle.

Tesla is going to have to adopt a similar solution as it continues to open its Supercharger network in more markets. Otherwise, it will create more of these awkward situations like the one in the video above.

It looks like Tesla is already aware of the situation because it is working on a new generation of its charging station, Supercharger V4, which appears to have a much longer cable.

But the question is how and if Tesla will adapt existing stations to the issue because it already has over 40,000 Superchargers around the world.

Electrek’s Take

While Tesla’s Supercharger cable has always been quite short and it is contributing to this problem, it feels like the EV industry needs a standardized charge port location.

They are currently all over the place when they should all be on the back of the left side like Tesla vehicles.

I feel like that’s a no-brainer. What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.