Until now, Tesla has focused the development of its Supercharger fast-charging network on enabling longer-distance travel. Meanwhile, Nissan and BMW, the two automakers who were bullish on urban charger installations several years before Tesla started its network, have largely put their focus on urban infrastructure of the sort commuters might use. Now, in something of a role reversal, BMW and Nissan are placing more investment in highway corridors and road-trip routes, while Tesla is looking inward to urban cores.
The infrastructure moves make sense given the companies’ respective electric-vehicle products. Tesla plans to make the first deliveries of its more affordable electric car, the Model 3, later this year, so it’s preparing its Supercharger network (which is no longer free) for a dramatic increase in traffic. Tesla is also preparing for a different kind of buyer—one who might lack charger access at work or have a less than ideal home-charging setup—and it’s looking ahead to those younger, urban buyers by installing more of its Supercharging fast chargers within city centers.
Taking Supercharging into the City
The California automaker is undergoing a major expansion of the network—with 1000 new Supercharger locations in its home state expected by the end of the year. Also by the end of 2017, Tesla expects to have 10,000 fast-charging Superchargers and 15,000 of its slower Destination Charging connectors globally, with the number of locations in North America alone increasing by 150 percent. Some of Tesla’s larger sites will be able to charge several dozen vehicles at once—although, depending on the location, the speed of charging could be affected if fully utilized.
Tesla also appears to be investing big in preparation for Model 3 urbanites. “In addition, many sites will be built further off the highway to allow local Tesla drivers to charge quickly when needed, with the goal of making charging ubiquitous in urban centers,” the automaker said in a blog post.
Tesla’s first Supercharger hardware was up and running in 2012, and since then the company has installed more than 5400 Superchargers, which provide fast charging at up to 145 kW (although the vehicles at this time permit a maximum of 120 kW).
As for BMW and Nissan, both of those automakers have put more focus into metro-area charging availability until now—Nissan with its No Charge to Charge program, BMW with ChargeNow—but both are looking ahead to longer-range models, so they’re now investing more in outlying infrastructure and highway waypoints.
Others Look to Long-Distance Travel and Tourism
Last week Nissan announced that it will build nine more stations with charging provider EVgo to help fill the remaining gaps in a 50-station corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C., termed the I-95 Fast-Charge ARC (which stands for Advanced Recharging Corridor). These stations use dual-standard hardware compatible with both the CHAdeMO interface used by the Nissan Leaf and the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard used by many other models. They’ll also all be upgradable to upcoming 150-kW standards as soon as vehicles with that capability are available—which could come as soon as the end of the year, when the next-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf is expected to go on sale.
BMW is involved in an initiative that could lead more visitors to drive EVs when visiting U.S. national parks. The charging partnership brings together BMW of North America with the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy. It aims, BMW said, to “help reduce air pollution in parks and gateway communities as well as demonstrate the viability of electric vehicles in everyday life.”
One station for the parks initiative has already been installed—at Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey, where BMW is sponsoring all charging costs for the first six months. Technical work on a total of 100 charging sites will be done by the DOE’s Clean Cities program and the national parks.
Some major automakers—although certainly not all of them—have recognized that investment in infrastructure helps sell electric vehicles. Unlike other automakers, Tesla owns, runs, and manages its infrastructure. The jury is still out on whether that puts the company at a competitive advantage, but the Model 3 will prove quite the litmus test.
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