Tesla's Supercharger network is one of the most expansive electric car charging systems around, but even so it can fall short during peak traffic times. Well, Elon Musk has an ambitious plan to change that, and it's by aggressively expanding the number of Superchargers within the next two years.
During Tesla's Q3 2021 earnings call, as reported by Electrek, Tesla's senior vice president of powertrain and battery engineering, Drew Baglino, detailed what the company is doing to tackle Supercharger congestion.
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"We are executing on accelerating expansion plans globally," said Baglino. "The network has doubled in the last 18 months, and we are planning to triple it over the next two years."
Baglino went on to say that Tesla is also taking specific steps to improve congestion at charging sites by, among other things, deploying mobile Superchargers and implementing pricing strategies that encourage Tesla owners to charge during off-peak hours.
"While we certainly have work to do in expanding capacity in some congested areas, average congestion on the network has decreased over the past 18 months. Nonetheless, we’re not standing still," said Baglino.
At the moment, Tesla has 29,281 Superchargers in 3,254 locations around the world. While that is a lot, it's definitely not enough considering the company sold 241,000 vehicles last quarter, quintupling profits to $1.6 billion. Not only that, Elon Musk had already announced that the Supercharger network would open up to non-Tesla EVs, even if 2022 Nissan Leaf and 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 owners may need to use an adapter.
While Tesla owners might bemoan Superchargers being used up by other EVs, if the company wants access to some of the $7.5 billion in EV infrastructure funding, it'll need to keep stations open to multiple automakers.
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