Tesla reached the 30,000 mark on November 11, shortly after it began testing wide access to its terminals for owners of other brands of electric vehicles.
The move gave the company eligibility for government subsidies designed exclusively for charging station networks that work with more than one brand. Tesla is adding about 2,400 new Supercharger stations per quarter. By the end of September, Tesla had 3,254 Supercharging stations, which could have 9 to 80 kiosks.
Although Tesla offers the Supercharged V3 with a charging speed of up to 250 kW, the manufacturer has not changed the voltage in any of its cars. They now operate at 450 V. New companies such as Lucid Air, Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, or Porsche Taycan use 800 V.
A wide network of fast chargers is indeed an advantage that Tesla cars have, but the distribution of these stations in the world is heterogeneous. In addition, it is not entirely clear whether high-speed charging is best for electric vehicles. A constant connection of rechargeable batteries to the fast charging mode is harmful to their resource. Even Tesla advises customers not to use Supercharging too often.
In this sense, replacing the battery seems to be the best solution. Tesla initially said it would adopt the technology, but did not do so. The Chinese NIO became the first company to launch an electric car with replaceable batteries and battery replacement stations. Such stations and electric cars are already available in China, and now the manufacturer is expanding its presence in Europe. Geely and other Chinese manufacturers are also beginning to use this model.
