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Superchargers in Ireland, Romania and Hungary open to non-Tesla EVs

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

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Tesla has opened select Superchargers to non-Tesla electric vehicles (EVs) in Ireland, Romania and Hungary, as announced earlier this month.

A couple of weeks ago, the Tesla Charging account on X posted the news, saying that select Superchargers in each of the countries were opening to non-Tesla EVs. A report on Tuesday from The Irish Times noted that five of the nine Supercharging locations in the country will now be opened to non-Tesla EVs, including those in Dublin, Cork, Athenry, Enfield and Tralee.

Currently, Tesla’s Supercharger map only shows those in Athenry and Enfield as being open to all EVs, though the other stations are likely to follow as it sometimes takes the automaker a few weeks to update the map.

The report says that the included Superchargers in Ireland offer as many as 18 individual charging stalls, each with 250 kW charging speeds that can add up to 275 km or range in about 15 minutes.

Credit: Tesla | Supercharging Map

“Access to an extensive, convenient and reliable fast-charging network is critical for large-scale EV adoption,” a Tesla spokesperson told The Irish Times. “Since opening the first Superchargers in 2012 Tesla have been committed to rapid expansion of the network. Superchargers are designed and built by Tesla, charging up to 275km in 15 minutes rather than hours.

“Since the beginning of 2023, Tesla owners have Supercharged over 11 million kilometres in Ireland, offsetting 2.4 million kilograms of CO2.”

According to the Supercharger map, charging stations in Hungary open to non-Tesla EVs include four just outside of Budapest, one in Székesfehérvár, one in Miskolc, one in Debrecen and one in Szeged. Not far from these are the non-Tesla EV-compatible stations in Romania, which include sites in Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Pitesti, Constanța, Craiova and two in Bucharest.

Credit: Tesla | Supercharging Map

Credit: Tesla | Supercharging Map

You can view Tesla’s full Supercharging map for yourself here, including a filtering option to see which Superchargers are open to non-Tesla EVs near you.

To use these Superchargers with a non-Tesla EV, drivers will simply need to download the Tesla app and sign up for an account. While charging prices vary from one station to the next and depending on when users charge, users can also purchase a Supercharging membership for €12.99 per month, offering even lower prices than normal.

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Tesla has been piloting programs to have its Superchargers open to non-Tesla EVs in select sites across Europe and around the world over the past couple of years. Looking at the Supercharger map in Europe shows that several locations on the continent now offer charging to all EVs, while the automaker has been slowly rolling this out to select locations in the U.S.

In addition, Tesla is preparing to open Superchargers in North America to customers of Ford, General Motors (GM) and several other automakers in the coming months and years, after its charging hardware, dubbed the North American Charging Standard (NACS), was adopted by most other EV makers throughout 2023.

Tesla launches Congestion Fees at Superchargers in U.S.

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.

Zach is a renewable energy reporter who has been covering electric vehicles since 2020. He grew up in Fremont, California, and he currently lives in Colorado. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, KRON4 San Francisco, FOX31 Denver, InsideEVs, CleanTechnica, and many other publications. When he isn't covering Tesla or other EV companies, you can find him writing and performing music, drinking a good cup of coffee, or hanging out with his cats, Banks and Freddie. Reach out at zach@teslarati.com, find him on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

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Energy

Tesla launches Powerwall Lease for affordable home backup

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Energy has introduced the Powerwall Lease in conjunction with Tesla Electric, making the service available in Texas. This new option delivers whole-home backup power using two Powerwall units for a net monthly cost of $35 after credits, accompanied by a low fixed electricity rate.

Under the lease terms, customers pay a one-time order fee of $100. The base lease payment for the two Powerwalls is approximately $122 per month during the first year, subject to a 3 percent annual escalator thereafter. Enrollment in a qualifying Tesla Electric Backup plan or Virtual Power Plant plan provides an $87 monthly credit.

This credit lowers the effective cost to roughly $35 per month plus applicable tax.

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Installation of the standard system carries no additional charge. The package features Storm Watch for outage protection and allows complete management through a single Tesla application. The system supplies continuous whole-home backup capability.

The Powerwall system enables households to maintain electricity during severe storms that disrupt the utility grid. When outages occur, the batteries automatically provide seamless backup power to the home.

Tesla announces 100k Powerwalls are participating in Virtual Power Plants

Tesla Storm Watch monitors weather forecasts and ensures the units are fully charged ahead of anticipated severe weather events so that power remains available throughout the disruption, keeping lights, refrigeration, and other essential systems operating without interruption.

Availability is restricted to select Texas locations where retail electric choice exists. Participants must lease exactly two Powerwall units and maintain continuous enrollment with Tesla Electric. Solar panels cannot be included under this particular lease arrangement.

The monthly credit activates automatically once the system is installed, receives permission to operate, and enrollment is confirmed. To retain the credit, customers are required to stay enrolled in Tesla Electric and fulfill all program conditions.

Nonstandard installations that involve electrical upgrades or special permitting may lead to extra expenses and might impact eligibility for the credit, so be sure to check with either your installer or Tesla to ensure you will still qualify.

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Elon Musk teases Tesla Roadster unveiling once again

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tesla roadster
Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk continues to tease the unveiling event for the Tesla Roadster, a continuing trend that has grown into a bigger game of “When” for fans who have been waiting years for the car to finally enter production.

A video shared on X of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that Musk appeared on last year, teasing the Roadster unveiling, was shared once again on the social media platform. The poster said the Roadster event will be “unforgettable.”

Musk agreed:

The timing is interesting because just yesterday, Musk said that we will be getting flying cars, and for years, Tesla has hinted that it could develop a SpaceX cold gas thruster package that would help the car float or fly for a short period of time.

It would be reasonable to assume Tesla’s major delays with this unveiling event are likely caused by the company’s need to break the rules and push the envelope on nearly everything. Last July, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, said:

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“Roadster is definitely in development. We did talk about it last Sunday night. We are gearing up for a super cool demo. It’s going to be mind blowing. We showed Elon some cool demos last week of the tech we’ve been working on and he got a little excited.”

The latest updates that Tesla has given us are that the Roadster is in design development, and it did have several potential dates for an unveiling event this year, including April. It was then pushed to August.

However, there are no clues as to when Tesla will be ready, and fans are certainly getting frustrated with the delays.

For what it is worth, Franz von Holzhausen told Jay Leno this week that the event would be “very soon.”

We sure hope.

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Lifestyle

Tesla’s driverless Cybercab just passed a big test with State Governor

Florida’s governor rode Tesla’s Cybercab at a closed test track and called the experience impressive.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rode in a Tesla Cybercab on a closed test track this week and came away impressed, posting on X that the vehicle “successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.” He called the ride “impressive.”

The stop was part of a broader event Monday at SunTrax, a 775 acre state owned proving ground in Auburndale that Florida built specifically to test autonomous and connected vehicles before they reach public roads. Standing next to a gold Cybercab, DeSantis described the car in plain terms: “You go in there and you just sit. You have a screen. There’s no steering wheel, no pedals. Clearly these things could be very beneficial.”

DeSantis paired the praise with a caveat that has followed autonomous vehicles since the category existed. “You don’t want to be in an autonomous vehicle and it drives you into a ditch. That would not be good,” he said, framing safety validation as the gate before wider deployment.

SunTrax, the 2.25 mile oval which the state calls the only high speed autonomous vehicle test track in the Southeast, can simulate rain, pedestrian crossings, hills and crowded urban conditions at highway speeds, letting companies push a car past what an early public rollout would risk. Tesla, Waymo and Beep all use the facility, and Florida’s regulatory approach, among the most permissive for autonomous vehicles in the country, doesn’t require a human operator inside a fully autonomous car.

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Tesla has reason to want the blessing of Florida and states beyond, as the Cybercab entered volume production at Gigafactory Texas this spring and has since self certified as SAE Level 4 under Texas law. Public road testing so far has kept a safety monitor in the passenger seat, and Florida is where Tesla has been expanding its existing Model Y based Robotaxi service instead, adding Miami in July and then Orlando and Tampa two weeks later. A closed track endorsement from a sitting governor doesn’t change any of that, but it does put Tesla’s newest hardware in front of a state that has already shown it will move fast on rules.

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