Elon Musk's charging team layoffs seem to be taking their toll.
During the second quarter of 2024, the expansion of the Tesla Supercharging network slowed down considerably. The company deployed 224 new stations globally, 30% less than a year ago. It was the lowest quarterly result in over two years—since Q4 2021 when 222 new stations were installed.
All of this comes at a time when the rest of the EV industry was banking on using Tesla's charging network to help drive their own sales and overall growth.
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Close to 60,000 Tesla Supercharging stalls
The global number of Tesla Supercharging stalls at the end of the quarter approached 60,000. The number of stations was almost 6,500.
The number of new individual connectors in Q2 amounted to 2,017, which is a 31% decline year-over-year and the lowest quarterly number in three years—since Q1 2021 (1,238).
Tesla said in its Q2 financial report that still intends to continue to expand the Supercharging network, outpacing the rest of the industry in North America: "We continue to expand our Supercharging network—and expect to deploy more capacity this year than the rest of the industry combined in North America—with a focus on capital efficiency, congestion and improved coverage."
However, it seems that the growth rate might be slower than in the past few years.
Tesla Supercharging network - Q2'2024 results (YOY change):
- New stations: 224 (down 30%)
- New individual connectors (stalls): 2,017 (down 31%)
- Connectors (stalls) per station on average: 9.0 (down 2%)
Number of new Tesla Superchargers (globally) - Q2 2024
In the first half of the year, Tesla installed 521 new Supercharging stations and over 4,700 individual stalls. Both numbers are lower than in the first half of 2023.
Tesla Supercharging network - Q1-Q2'2024 results (YOY change):
- New stations: 521 (down 11%)
- New individual connectors (stalls): 4,704 (down 17%)
- Connectors (stalls) per station on average: 9.0 (down 6%)
For reference, in 2023, Tesla installed more than 1,270 new Supercharging stations and over 12,400 individual stalls.
Number of new Tesla Superchargers (globally)
When it comes to the current size of the network, at the end of the quarter, it consisted of roughly 6,473 stations and over 59,596 individual charging stalls. That's almost a quarter more than a year ago.
Tesla Supercharging network - cumulative numbers (YOY change):
- New stations: 6,473 (up 23%)
- New individual connectors (stalls): 59,596 (up 24%)
- Connectors (stalls) per station on average: 9.2 (up 1%)
Tesla Supercharging network progress
After the weaker-than-expected Q2, Tesla should reach 60,000 Supercharging stalls in Q3.
The number of Tesla Superchargers - stalls (globally):
- 1st: September 2012
- 10,000: June 2018
- 20,000: November 2020
- 30,000: November 2021 (+10,000 in 1 year)
- 35,000: June 10 2022 (+5,000 in roughly 7 months)
- 10 years: September 2012-2022
- Europe (10,000): October 5, 2022
- 40,000: November 22 2022 (+10,000 in 1 year)
- China (10,000): December 26, 2022
- 45,000: April 9, 2023 (+5,000 in less than 5 months, +10,000 in 10 months)
- 50,000: September 8, 2023 (+5,000 in roughly 5 months, +10,000 in less than 10 months)
- 55,000: January 4, 2024 (+5,000 in roughly 4 months)
Non-Tesla Supercharging
Tesla continued to expand the Non-Tesla Supercharger Pilot, which is available at select stations in some markets.
In the U.S., the first brands, Ford and Rivia, —received access to Superchargers through NACS to CCS1 adapters. However, the progress is slower than expected due to the limited supply of Tesla-provided adapters. Ford recently reported that supply constraints affected its plans to equip customers with free adapters. We anticipate that this might cause delays for other brands too.
Nonetheless, Tesla intends to gradually open the network to more brands: "In an effort to increase EV penetration, we remain committed to opening the network to non-Tesla EVs, and plan to onboard more OEMs in North America by the end of the year. Over time, network utilization should continue to increase, driving revenue growth and profit generation."
To make the Superchargers more accessible to non-Tesla EV drivers, the new V4 stalls in the U.S. come with an integrated CCS1 adapter (aka Magic Dock), a contactless bank card reader and a small display. By equipping the chargers with these features, the Tesla app might not be needed to start a charging session in the future.
Supercharging Power
As of today, Tesla Superchargers offer a peak power output of up to roughly 250 kW, but it's expected to increase quite substantially.
In the past, there were reports about 300 kW and more in the future, and a rumor about 324 kW in the case of V3 Superchargers.
In 2023, Tesla launched its first V4 Superchargers in Europe. In the United States, the first V4 installations were spotted in a few states in October 2023 and launched that month. The V4s in the U.S. are equipped with an integrated CCS1 adapter (aka Magic Dock), a credit card reader, and a small display, to handle non-Tesla EVs.
Tesla Superchargers peak output:
- V2: 150 kW (compared to 120 kW originally)
- V3: 250 kW - See 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid Fast Charging Analysis and comparison with Lucid Air
- V4 (April 8, 2023): 250 kW
[potentially a lot more and support of high-voltage battery systems in the future]
Separately, Tesla is building fast chargers for electric trucks (Tesla Semi) - known also as Tesla Megachargers), which are promised to offer a megawatt charging level.
Sales of chargers to other networks
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Tesla started sales of DC fast charging solutions to other charging networks around the world.
So far we have heard only about a few deals related to the charging equipment: the first deal was with BP (BP Pulse network in the U.S. estimated at $100 million). In November 2023, EG Group announced the acquisition of Tesla's electric vehicle ultra-fast chargers for its EV Point business in Europe. The first V4 chargers were launched on the EV Point network in the UK in March 2024.
