Part of Tesla’s UK Supercharger network now OPEN to non-Tesla EVs

Tesla has expanded its pilot scheme opening Supercharger access to non-Tesla EVs to 15 sites in the UK, with prices around £0.60 kWh.

If you’re going down the EV route, the best place to charge your car is at home, even with the massive increases in electricity prices making EV motoring costs not quite the bargain you might have expected.

But EV charging at home doesn’t work if you need to travel further from home, and then you’re at the mercy of the UK’s public charging network and busy hunting for a charging station which works and delivers charge at a good speed.

Sadly, chargers appear to be far more temperamental than petrol pumps, and it’s far from unusual to see charging points out of service or delivering just a trickle of charge – or refusing to acknowledge your car altogether – making EV charging away from home a frustrating lottery.

But one charging beacon has been the Tesla Supercharger network, which suffers far fewer problems and can usually be relied on to deliver what you need when you arrive. But only if you drive a Tesla.

Now, Tesla is extending its pilot scheme opening its Supercharger network to non-Tesla EVs to 15 sites in the UK. They are:

• Aberystwyth
• Adderstone
• Aviemore
• Banbury
• Birmingham St Andrews
• Cardiff
• Dundee
• Flint
• Folkestone Eurotunnel
• Grays
• Manchester Trafford Centre
• Thetford
• Trumpington
• Uxbridge
• Wokingham

Tesla said:

More customers using the Supercharger network enables faster expansion. Our goal is to learn and iterate quickly, while continuing to aggressively expand the network, so we can eventually welcome both Tesla and non-Tesla drivers at every Supercharger worldwide

How well this scheme will work, and how much it will piss off Tesla owners suddenly finding everything from a LEAF to a Taycan clogging up the chargers, remains to be seen.

For now, you can turn up in any EV at any one of the 15 Supercharger sites in the UK in the pilot scheme and pay around £0.60 kWh, or pay a £10.99 a month subscription for a slightly lower price. Not cheap, but probably reliable.