Why Tesla’s Supercharger rollout for other EVs has been super slow. Yes, Elon Musk is involved.

Tesla has promised its wide-ranging Supercharger network will open to other U.S. electric vehicles for more than a year. Yet, here we are in August 2024 and most non-Tesla EVs cannot charge with a Supercharger.

Why? The New York Times has a detailed report on the subject. The primary culprits are delays in software and hardware. A non-Tesla EV would need both updated software and a physical adapter to use a Supercharger. The rollouts for both those components have proven painfully slow.

Apparently some in the industry have wondered if the crawling process was purposeful.

Wrote Jack Ewing of the Times:

“The delays have fueled speculation that Mr. Musk was having second thoughts about opening up Tesla’s network, possibly because he was worried that access would help other automakers sell battery-powered models and lure customers from Tesla, which has suffered from declining sales.”

The thinking is that while Tesla would make money off other EVs charging with Tesla Superchargers, perhaps Musk reconsidered the value of keeping the company’s roughly 30,000 fast chargers exclusive to its drivers. Though, as the Times noted, the company has recently posted about ramping up its production of chargers, which many took as a good sign for the eventual rollout.

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Tesla making Superchargers available for other electric vehicles is a big deal because charge anxiety is often a major concern for potential EV buyers. Having a much larger network of chargers at your disposal would ease that anxiety.

It’s been slow going, with carmakers across the country pushing back deadlines as they’ve tried to work with Tesla to update software and acquire adapters. It’s also likely safe to assume it didn’t help that Musk recently fired 500 people from the Supercharger team at Tesla, reportedly over a petty dispute with the team leader.

Tesla has had a rough of it lately. It’s had a few separate recalls and has seen sales decline with increased competition in the EV space. The Cybertruck has been a disaster. It’ll be interesting to see how the Supercharger rollout proceeds amid that backdrop.