Thank God, Tesla Superchargers have saved the EV industry, and there are several reasons why this is.
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Charging in the U.S.
Charging for an EV in the U.S. was practically non-existent when Tesla first started building the original Tesla Roadster. In 2012, Elon Musk made an announcement about the Supercharger network and had this to say:
I think this day will actually go down as being quite historic, at least on par with SpaceX docking with the space station this year. I really think this is important.
Elon Musk said Superchargers are the answer for the three things holding back EVs (electric vehicles).
The first is being able to drive long distances conveniently. Without Superchargers, this was not possible. Gas cars can do this easily with gas stations everywhere.
The second deals with electricity, and it is coming from a power plant and addressing that.
The third is the cost of EVs. How do you compare the cost of EVs with gasoline vehicles.
The answer, as revealed by Elon Musk in 2012, is the Tesla Supercharger. Superchargers were first built in California, along major highways and over the years - the last 12 years - built all across the U.S.
Back then, one could take a road trip in any Tesla vehicle across the U.S. now. With the Tesla Supercharger network and driving - with the one's that were set up in California in Las Vegas, you could drive and stop for 30 minutes and charge at 100 kW, grab some coffee and food, and be on your way.
With the Supercharger network, you can drive as if you had a gasoline car. Back then, someone drove from Tahoe to Los Angeles - over 500 miles - with just the Supercharger network available then.
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Uptime and Other Charging Networks
Tesla has superior engineering in their products, including their cars, and the Supercharger network benefits from this superior engineering as well.
By 2014, the United States was covered with Superchargers, and a few years after that, the U.S. was entirely covered without exception and the lower part of Canada.
There are solar power systems that provide energy to Tesla Superchargers to generate more power than the cars use in a year. This is an important thing to Elon Musk because people argue that this doesn't address the problem with the power plant giving the Supercharger energy.
Not every Supercharger station has this, though, and some are powered by local utility companies.
Third Party Companies
There are numerous third party charging companies and my experience with them has been that they do not have the uptime of the Supercharger network, which has an uptime of over 99.95%.
Recently, news showed how a couple Supercharger networks were frozen in Chicago and while that may be true, it is an isolated incident and not something happening all the time.
The third party charging companies I am aware of are:
- ChargePoint
- Electrify America
- EVgo
- Blink
- Wallbox
- A+b b
- BP
- Allego
- Volta
- Webasto
- Naas
- Compleo
The top ones are ChargePoint and Electrify America. There is even a luxury Mercedes-Benz charging station that really upped the charging game - this is the most fancy and high end charging station I've ever seen.
However, the uptime of these 3rd party chargers has been a matter of concern, well below Tesla's uptime. Frequently at Harmon's, when trying to use the CCS charger, it has been down - however, recently, this has not been the case, so hopefully 3rd party chargers are upping their game to be up as well. The more EV chargers that are working constantly, the better for EV widespread adoption.
The types of chargers are: level 1, level 2, level 3.
Level 1: This is a very slow charger, about 4 miles an hour. This is like plugging into an outlet to charge your EV. It is slow and will take a while.
Level 2: This is what most free chargers and ChargePoint use. These will charge about 35 miles per hour and are nice if you can park your care somewhere for a few hours while running errands or watching a movie.
Level 3: These are like the Tesla Supercharger and can generate anywhere between 100 and 1,000 miles per hour of charge or more. They are fast.
I use these types of chargers - and don't have home charging and have not had a problem.
Superchargers excel because they are numerous, generally always working, and are incredibly easy to use. When you own a Tesla, you just drive up to one, and plug it in. That's it. Everything else is already connected.
With other chargers, it's a bit more complicated with having to enter a credit card and go through more steps.
Last year, data showed that there were about 138,100 charging outlets for EVs, including 50,401 public charging stations and 129,598 publicly available EV charging ports. This number is growing rapidly, and I envision a day when parking lots everywhere have chargers and energy is abundant.
Without Tesla and its Supercharger network, none of this would have happened or have been possible.
Finally, due to Tesla cutting prices and the eventual release of the compact car and the declining costs of batteries over time, the challenge of expensive EVs is completely going away.
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What do you think about Tesla and its Superchargers - did they save the EV industry?
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Hi! I'm Jeremy Noel Johnson, and I am a Tesla investor and supporter and own a 2022 Model 3 RWD EV and I don't have range anxiety :). I enjoy bringing you breaking Tesla news as well as anything about Tesla or other EV companies I can find, like Aptera. Other interests of mine are AI, Tesla Energy and the Tesla Bot! You can follow me on X.COM or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow my Tesla and EV news coverage.
Image Credit & Article Reference: Whole Mars Blog via Elon Musk in 2012
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