Tesla has opened 15 of its 98 UK Supercharger sites to drivers of non-Tesla electric vehicles, following an announcement by the company's chief executive Elon Musk that the proprietary network would be opened to other brands. The 15 sites are live as part of a Europe-wide pilot1.
Non-Tesla drivers pay more than Tesla owners at the sites. The Folkestone Supercharger site, which is part of the pilot, charges non-Tesla drivers £0.61/kWh, reducing to £0.48/kWh with a £10.99 monthly subscription, with prices taken from the Tesla app and correct at the time of writing. Tesla owners pay on average around £0.26/kWh to use Supercharger sites1.
The 30,000-strong Supercharger network stretches across Western Europe, North America and China. All European Supercharger stations offer both the Type 2 connector used by early Tesla models and the CCS Combo connector, which is increasingly the most popular standard across all electric car brands1.
The sites now open to all electric vehicles are:
| Site |
|---|
| Aviemore |
| Dundee |
| Adderstone |
| Manchester Trafford Centre, Flint |
| Aberystwyth |
| Banbury |
| Cardiff |
| Trumpington |
| Thetford |
| Wokingham |
| Birmingham St Andrews |
| Cardiff |
| Uxbridge |
| Grays |
| Folkestone Eurotunnel |
Cardiff appears twice in the list as published1.
"Following an announcement from Tesla chief Elon Musk that the brand's proprietary 'Supercharger' network would be opened to other brands, 15 of the 98 charging sites in the UK are now available for use by all electric vehicles as part of a Europe-wide pilot."
Why it matters for households
For a household running an electric car, the practical question is where a journey can be charged and at what price. Opening 15 of 98 UK sites widens the number of public chargepoints a non-Tesla driver can use, but the rate paid at those sites is higher than the rate Tesla owners pay, and the gap narrows only with a monthly subscription1. The rules on access, payment and connectors across networks are set out in the site's guide to public EV charging.
The pilot does not change charging at home, which remains the main lever on a household's energy independence. Grants for home chargepoints have changed over time, and the site covers the closed Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme and the Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant for renters and flat owners. Bidirectional charging, where a car can send power back to a home or the grid, is covered under vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home charging.
What happens next
Tesla has said it will triple the capacity of the Supercharger network over the next one and a half years1. Tesla has reported that similar trials in France, the Netherlands and Norway have yet to see non-Tesla owners causing Tesla drivers to wait for a Supercharger to become available1. It remains to be seen how opening select sites affects availability in the UK1. No further UK sites or dates have been reported.