Tesla has made another rare expansion of its Magic Dock Superchargers for non-Tesla electric cars in North America.
Over the last two years, Tesla has been working to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles.
In Europe, Tesla has already opened hundreds of stations in the countries it operates in on the old continent. It gradually added more stations for non-Tesla EVs on its Supercharger network and has added more stations. But it’s easy for Tesla to do that in Europe because it is using the same connectors that are on all EVs.
In North America, things have been more complicated because Tesla didn’t use the standard CCS connector. It used its own proprietary connector, which Tesla ended up opening up to the rest of the market last year. Tesla’s connector has since become the unofficial new standard after multiple automakers announced that they would adopt it.
However, this adoption is going to happen over the next few years. First with an adapter and later, in 2025, through direct integration in non-Tesla EVs.
In the meantime, Tesla has another solution.
Earlier this year, Tesla started deploying technology that it calls “Magic Dock” at a few Supercharger stations. It serves as a new receiver for the Tesla charge connector on the Supercharger station, and it can be disconnected from the charger to act as a NACS to CCS adapter.
In February, Tesla officially launched the new Supercharger stations with Magic Dock as a way to onboard non-Tesla EV owners to the Supercharger network. It installed the adapter at about a dozen stations in New York and California, but then the device was not installed at any new station in months. We assumed that the move to open its connector, now known as NACS, might be the reason behind the halt in deploying Magic Dock Superchargers.
Last month, Tesla expanded its Magic Dock Superchargers to Texas – the first new station in months. Now it looks like Tesla has decided to keep going with the Magic Dock solution as it added several more new stations:
The deployment is still very limited, but Tesla has now expanded from the coasts and Texas, launching new stations in Utah, Colorado, Michigan, and Washington State.
It looks like Tesla will continue to invest in this solution ahead of offering adapters to non-Tesla EVs next year.
Electrek’s Take
If I had to guess, I would think it has something to do with taking advantage of incentives, which often require that the stations have CCS connectors or be available to electric vehicles from more than one automaker.
Other automakers adopting NACS should take care of that, but in the meantime, Tesla likely doesn’t want to leave money on the table.