Part of me wants to believe Elon et al. at Tesla has a soft-spot for Rivian and - yes - while the Cybertruck could crush Rivian - they want to see Rivian succeed because an EV monopoly over all vehicle classes might mean an own-goal for combating global climate change: competition is important, and the appearance of competition even more-so.
If Tesla's priority was combating global climate change then Tesla would open its chargers to all EVs. Other charging networks charge all EVs (including Tesla cars) whereas Tesla's charging network only charges Teslas.
Tesla has said that they are willing to do so, just not for free. I also get the impression that they don't want every slow-charging electric vehicle to have access to their network, and I honestly can't blame them. They have capacity issues as it is, it would be much worse if slow-charging Bolts were able to use it.
Its the early days still, though, so hopefully this will change as Tesla's competitors become more competitive.
Tesla only has capacity problems in North America because they've stuck with a proprietary plug. If they switch to CCS and provide a CCS adapter for older cars then their capacity problems will be solved.
There don't need to be any special deals for them to open their network to other EVs. Tesla can just keep the old proprietary plug on their chargers, add on a CCS plug as well, and get on with it.
Tesla Superchargers in Europe already have CCS plugs because that is what the Model 3 uses here (no idea what connector they use in the US) and it is possible to order an adaptor for CCS from Tesla to be used on the Model S and X; unfortunately it requires a new socket on the car as well so it's not cheap.
So if other manufacturers wanted to use Tesla's chargers they just have to ask Tesla, pay their way, and help expand the network. At least that is what Tesla is rumoured to be willing to do.
> Why does anyone need to ask Tesla anything? What does anyone need to pay?
The comment is not about Tesla cars using non-Tesla chargers; it is about non-Tesla cars using Tesla chargers.
If other car makers want to use Tesla's network they would have to pay their share of the costs of maintaining and expanding the network.
At the moment Tesla's Superchargers are available only to Tesla cars even though many other cars use Type 2 and they now have CCS connectors. Tesla have several times said that they would consider opening up the system to other manufacturers cars if those manufacturers were willing to pay their share of the costs which most likely would be less than the cost of creating their own network. But, no other manufacturer has taken them up on it.
None of the charging networks you mention were set up by the car makers. Tesla's network is part of the package when you buy a Tesla, or at least it was, and is again, for the S and X. It is a selling point that the chargers just work. They have no user interface, you just plug in and it works. You connect your credit card to your Tesla account and away you go. No need for dozens of apps and RFID cards. Every other charger I have tried to use has been significantly more trouble and often simply would not work. Even those that are free in Tesco supermarket car parks (provided by a consortium that includes VW) need an app on your mobile to get more than 15 minutes of charging.
> they would have to pay their share of the costs of maintaining and expanding the network.
Tesla is not paying other charging networks for the costs of "maintaining and expanding" their networks.
If Tesla's not paying anyone, then why should and why would anyone pay Tesla? This "you must pay us" position is logically inconsistent and hypocritical.
> None of the charging networks you mention were set up by the car makers.
I see people say this online from time to time, but I see very little evidence for it. The Madonna Inn charger was clogged with traffic yesterday, despite it being a massive charger relative to what the other US networks have built. Is there any indication that there are other companies wanting to open up massive charging stations along this route and are simply being held up by Tesla? I can't see evidence of that. It isn't like there are massive waves of EA chargers available along the way.
Granted, the Tesla owners with Chademo adapters often did ok, but that was mostly because so few bothered to buy or use them. The available options would have been just as overwhelmed if more owners used them.
Around here, we are actually have some issues with hotels being hostile towards Tesla owners and Tesla having issues finding properties to place chargers.
> The Madonna Inn charger was clogged with traffic yesterday
You'd plan a different route if there was access to other chargers. There's an EVgo site 5 km from the Madonna Inn. An Electrify America site is going in 19 km from that site.
Electrify America is adding new sites every week at the moment.
EVgo is adding a Tesla plug to their chargers. It's essentially a built-in CHAdeMO adapter. It's dumb having to support three different plugs. The sooner it gets to one plug the better. Europe has taken the correct approach by setting CCS type 2 Combo as the standard plug for all cars and chargers.
> Around here, we are actually have some issues with hotels being hostile towards Tesla owners and Tesla having issues finding properties to place chargers.
All the more reason to spread the work around to multiple companies.
