Following statements from the White House saying that Tesla will open Superchargers to non-Tesla electric vehicles (EVs) in the U.S. by the end of the year, new updates show that the automaker is also looking to access public funding to help the cause.
Tesla is bidding for billions of dollars in federal and state funding from the Biden administration to accelerate the construction of its Supercharger network, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Although Tesla’s Supercharger network already has 4,000 stations and counting, according to the automaker in its Q2 earnings call, the funding would go toward developing hardware specifically meant to be used by both Teslas and non-Teslas.
Additionally, the public funding would require Tesla to let other EVs than just Teslas access its Supercharger network.
Tesla V4 Supercharger Design Spotted in Site Plans https://t.co/TstbsncWO2
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) July 20, 2022
The funding comes as part of Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which would direct roughly $7.5 billion to states for increasing the number of charging stations.
In June, the White House unveiled an EV fact sheet that said Tesla would “begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers.”
Tesla has already created pilot programs for expanding Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs in much of Europe, and the automaker has talked about doing so for the past few years now.
