Tesla expands Supercharger access to non-Tesla EVs in Italy, now covers most of Europe

Tesla has expanded to Italy its pilot program to give Supercharger access to non-Tesla electric vehicles. It now covers most of Europe.

Over the last year, we have been reporting on Tesla ramping up its effort to open the Supercharger network, its extensive global network of fast-charging stations, to electric vehicles from other automakers. In November 2021, we saw Tesla take its first step in that direction with a pilot program running at 10 Supercharger stations in the Netherlands that allowed non-Tesla EV owners to charge using the Tesla app.

When announcing the new pilot program, Tesla said that it planned to slowly expand it to test more broadly the user experience for both non-Tesla EV owners new to the network and current Tesla owners who will experience more traffic at Tesla charging stations.

In January, the automaker announced that the program was expanding to more stations in Norway and France. A month later, the program was expanded to all Supercharger stations in the Netherlands. A few weeks after that, Tesla again expanded the pilot program, this time to include some Supercharger stations in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and Austria.

In May, the automaker added more of Spain and the UK to the program. Tesla then expanded the program again to include Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

A month later, Tesla opened up the pilot program to several more European countries.

In September, the automaker added Iceland, where now all EVs can access Tesla’s Supercharger network.

This week, Tesla announced another expansion of the pilot program by adding 18 Supercharger stations in Italy to it.

The pilot program, despite still only being a pilot program, now covers most of Europe with the exception of a few central and south European countries and the Balkans.

Also, not all Supercharger stations in those regions are part of the pilot program.

Tesla is still testing how opening the chargers to all EVs is affecting the usage rate of those stations before fully opening the Supercharger network to non-Tesla EVs.

The company is expected to do the same in North America, where it is also trying to make its own connector the new charging standard.