Tesla Briefly Launches Supercharger Program In US For Non-Tesla EVs

It appears Tesla opened up the membership on its mobile app for a short time, perhaps by mistake.

By: Steven Loveday

Aug 17, 2022 at 11:09am ET

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Tesla has made it clear for many months now that it plans to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla EV owners across the globe. The company has been running pilot programs overseas, though there have been few details about how it may work in the US. However, last evening, the company opened up membership options for non-Tesla owners on the Tesla App and has since taken them down.

On August 17, 2022, Sawyer Merritt reported on Twitter that the Tesla mobile app was showing Supercharger membership packages for non-Tesla EV owners. He specified that there was a "pay per use" option, as well as a membership listed at just $0.99 per month. Merritt added that you need a separate membership for each account, and charging is limited to five sessions per day.

Merritt continued to add pertinent information to the tweet thread, including details about the seemingly low $0.99 monthly membership fee. He actually went on to sign up to see if it would work, though he said his account doesn't have a non-Tesla EV. Merritt also noted that Electrify America appears to charge $4 per month, so perhaps Tesla's price of around $1 is an attempt to undercut its rivals.

At any rate, Tesla removed the option from the Tesla App before too long. Merritt first accessed the information around 9:30 PM, and it was gone just before midnight. Perhaps Tesla was testing something out and hoping most people didn't catch it. It could have also easily been a mistake, or maybe there were bugs that Tesla needs to fix before officially launching the program and membership options.

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With that said, we're not putting too much weight on the details or the pricing. Until Tesla officially announces the membership options and notes that they're intentionally live on the app, we can't substantiate any of the details.

We do know that Tesla plans to have something in place by the end of the year. The US government is offering special funding related to public charging networks, but Tesla's Supercharger network would actually have to be public to qualify for the incentives.

Source: Sawyer Merritt (Twitter)