Tesla To Add Support For Third-Party Apps, Possibly For Supercharger Integration

The update might indicate that Tesla is preparing for next year’s democratization of its Supercharger network.

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jun 29, 2023 at 5:49am ET

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Tesla has added a new section referring to Third Party Apps on the accounts portion of its website, where users will be able to manage access to smartphone apps and services that have been developed by organizations other than Tesla, according to NotATeslaApp.

While not fully operational yet, the feature hints at the future integration of the company’s Supercharger network with the smartphone apps developed by rival EV makers, in the context of Ford, General Motors, Rivian, and Volvo striking deals to get access to Tesla’s DC fast charger network starting next year.

In other words, owners of EVs made by one of the aforementioned companies will probably need to have a Tesla account to access the 12,000+ Supercharger sites across the United States and Canada, but car makers might also update their own smartphone apps to tap into Tesla’s ecosystem and simplify the user experience.

In this writer’s view, the result might be something similar to the experience you get when logging into your Amazon account with the help of your Apple ID.

But that’s not all. Services like the TeslaFi data logger can already tap into the Tesla account via the company’s API, but the problem is that it gets access to everything related to the cars in one particular account. By introducing third-party apps and services control, users will presumably be able to fine-tune the amount of data that can be accessed.

For simplicity, it should be similar to the experience smartphone users get after installing a new app from the app store. The first time you open it, you get a bunch of prompts requesting access to the microphone, location data, and call history, depending on what the app is supposed to, instead of granting access to everything without questions asked.

What do you think?

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We still don’t know how all of this will pan out, but if all the parties involved in this game-changing shift toward Tesla’s NACS connector truly want EV adoption to skyrocket, they’ll put their heads together and come up with something that's simple to use and understand.

But what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.