Soon, you may not have to worry about scrambling to find a charging station for your EV, even if you don’t own a Tesla. Tesla has begun rolling out Magic Dock adapters across its Supercharger network that can charge up non-Tesla EVs.
Tesla previewed the Magic Dock adapters with a short how-to video on YouTube, but we’ve been seeing in-person demos in New York from Electrek and California. It’s still just a pilot program, so only a few Supercharger stations are fitted with Magic Docks.
This is a huge deal if you’re a non-Tesla EV owner because you will soon get access to roughly 17,000 Supercharger stations across the U.S. That’s on top of the non-Tesla EV charging stations that you can still use. With many more charging options along the road, that emissions-free cross-country road trip is starting to look more and more feasible.
TESTING THE WATERS
Tesla is taking things slow and only installing its Magic Dock adapters at certain sites in New York and California so far. The Magic Docks themselves are integrated CCS adapters on the Supercharger stations that are now commonplace at highway rest stops, shopping centers, and gas stations.
Even if you don’t own a Tesla, you still have to use Tesla’s app if you want to charge up your competing EV. The process is as simple as selecting the “Charge Your Non-Tesla” option in the app and looking for the corresponding charging station. It’s worth noting that it’ll cost extra to charge up your non-Tesla EV due to the additional costs that Tesla has incurred to support charging for other EVs, but the prices will also vary by site.
Tesla opening up its Supercharger network in the U.S. is a game-changer for non-Tesla owners, but it’s not necessarily surprising. Tesla already opened up its proprietary chargers to other EVs in Europe. Teslarati also spotted a fact sheet from the White House in July that noted that Tesla would open up its network to non-Tesla EVs. Besides the charging stations themselves, Tesla also recently made its Supercharger design open source, to further promote its fast charging model. When combined, all of these recent actions point to Tesla trying to cement itself as the go-to EV charger for the U.S.
CAREFUL ROLLOUT
Tesla is starting out the Magic Docks at less than a dozen sites in the U.S. at the moment, but is planning to review and adapt accordingly based on congestion trends and feedback.
Beyond several European countries and now, parts of the U.S., Tesla’s Magic Dock pilot is also live in Australia. Tesla did note that future sites will only be opened to non-Tesla vehicles if there’s available capacity. That way, current Tesla owners have nothing to worry about if they don’t want to see Fords or Chevys taking up their charging spots.
