Even though the Tesla Supercharger network already covers most of the United States, making journeys from and to pretty much any major destination not only possible, but easy. There is even one in Alaska now, located in the small town of Soldotna, whose population is less than 20,000 inhabitants, but Tesla had actually missed one state – Hawaii.
The Aloha State is the last of the 50 United States to get a Supercharger, but now it has one, a six-stall station located in the Aiea part of Honolulu. To be precise, this is the first public Supercharger in Hawaii, because one had actually previously been installed on Lanai island, most of which is owned by Tesla member of the board, Larry Ellison, so it was more of private station.
Tesla has committed to continuing its Supercharger network expansion, which it says has reached around 3,500 stations with over 30,000 charger stalls. The manufacturer is currently focusing on expanding the network in places like Canada, Mexico, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as parts of Asia and the Middle East.
The manufacturer also recently started opening its Superchargers up to be used by other EVs. It currently has pilot programs running and they have so far proven successful, so over time, the company may want to expand this program to more stations.
Right now this is only happening in Europe, but Tesla will want to get a piece of the new $7.5-billion program started by the federal government with the aim of expanding and improving EV charging infrastructure in the States. In order to have access to this program, Tesla will have to build public charging stations, not ones that only its vehicles can use.
This will certainly mean that in the future, charging a Tesla via Superchargers may not be as easy, and you may have to wait for a non-Tesla to finish charging before a stall becomes available. However, in opening its chargers to other vehicles, Tesla will continue to have access to funds destined for charging network infrastructure expansions, and this may also be true outside the United States.
