Connect with us
tesla superchargers china tesla superchargers china

News

Tesla’s open Supercharger Network for other EVs could start next month in Europe

Credit: Tesla Greater China/Twitter

Published

on

Based on a reported all-hands meeting Elon Musk recently held with Tesla employees, the company seems to be pushing through with its open EV Supercharger Network plans. The EV maker is reportedly aiming to open its Supercharger Network to non-Tesla vehicles next month, starting with Europe. 

Europe would be an excellent place for Tesla’s open Supercharger Network to begin. An analysis published in May 2021 studied the pace EV charging points increased in correlation to EV sales in 29 European countries. The analysis’ results provides some insight into how Tesla’s open EV Supercharger Network could do in the future. 

“It is interesting to see that most of the lines become gradually flatter, which means that in the first years the increase of EV charging points is larger than the increase of EV sales, while in the last years the opposite happens,” explained the analysts, referring to the chart below. 

As BEV sales continue to increase in Europe, so does the need for a well-distributed network of chargers. 

Advertisement

“[The need for more charging points] is confirmed by the continuous increase over the last five years of the ratio between cumulative EV sales (which as discussed above approximates the EV stock) and total EV charging points. Considering the distribution of this ratio in each country, the median value has increased from 1.6 to 7.2 BEV per charging point from 2015 to 2020,” said that analyst results. 

Best EU Countries for the Open Tesla Supercharger Network

The analysis pointed out a significant benefit to installing charging points in Norway. Almost all of Norway’s electricity is produced through renewable sources. Tesla’s market share in the country seems substantial as well. The Tesla Model Y topped EV sales charts in Norway less than a week after deliveries started. 

Norway would be an excellent place to open the Supercharger Network to other EV owners and expose them to the Tesla brand. Norway was the country with the highest market share of EVs for both sales and stock when the analysis was written. 

However, as of 2020, Germany beat Norway as the top-selling country for battery electric vehicles. Nearly 200,000 EVs were sold in Germany last year. After Germany came France with 111,000 BEVs and then the UK, which sold 108,000 BEVs last year. 

The Tesla App

Elon Musk announced Tesla’s plans to open its Supercharger Network to other EVs in July. Some Tesla owners have voiced their concerns on an open Supercharger Network. 

Tesla tried to quell owners’ concerns at the last earnings call and explained how other EV owners would use the Supercharger Network. At the center of the open Supercharger Network is the Tesla App. Non-Tesla owners will have to download the Tesla App to access the Supercharger Network because all transactions and interactions at the stations will pass through it. 

Advertisement

Last week, Tesla rolled out its latest mobile app update, which included a new UI, direct access to the Tesla Shop, and features related to Superchargers. The updated Tesla App allows users to view their Supercharging history and enables them to pay any outstanding Supercharging or service balance through it as well. 

Read the analysis mentioned in this article below!

Electric Vehicle Charging N… by Maria Merano

The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, reach out to me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.

Advertisement

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst

Published

on

elon musk phone
Photo: Boss Hunting.com.au

For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.

Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.

It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.

Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.

The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.

Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.

The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.

SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.

There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.

The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.

The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.

On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.

Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD

It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:

“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”

This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.

It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something

There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features

Published

on

(Credit: Megan Gale/Twitter)

Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.

Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.

Here are the full release notes for the suite:

  • Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
  • Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
  • Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
  • Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
  • Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
  • Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.

These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released

He added:

“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”

Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.

Continue Reading