If you visited the X of Elon Musk on Saturday and clicked on the account of the press office of Governor Gavin Newsom, you could look at him Pull at a Tesla charging station, get out of a Ford Mustang Mach-E electric and announce that Tesla super-chargers were now open to non-Tesla electric vehicles.
It is a doubtful affirmation. The owners of electric Fords, Chevys, BMWS, Mercedes-Benzes, Lucids, Nissans, Riviens and the rest cannot count immediately.
Two days after Newsom's video on Monday, News broke out that the Tesla Supercharger network was in disarray. Musk, according to several media reports And publications on social networks had drawn or licensed all of its compressor team, including its main director, Rebecca Tinucci.
A source, which refused to be identified for fear of Musk's reprisals, told Times: “They did not dismiss the entire super cargo team. They especially dismissed the acquisition of the site, project management, marketing and other things. ”
Whatever the damage, Musk has made no refusal. But he did Publish That Tesla plans to slow down the growth of new overeating stations and focus on the stations it already has.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the sales figures for electric vehicles in California were released, and they were dark, especially for Tesla, whose new registrations in California decreased by 7.8% in the first quarter of the year, following a 9.8% drop the previous quarter.
Sales for the California EV global market grew up in the first quarter – by 555 cars. The increase at 90,296 light cars and trucks, from 89,741 was less than 1%, a width of flat hair, According to California New Car Dealers Assn. The EV market share was also stable, by slightly decreasing by 21.2% of all the new vehicles sold in the fourth quarter of last year to 20.9% for the first quarter this year.
This is added to bad news for supporters of the EV and for Newsom, which in 2020 mandated That all new car sales by 2035 must be what the state calls zero emission vehicles. (Rechargeable hybrid cars burn fossil fuels and produce emissions, but as they can also operate only on batteries, California includes them in its definition. Up to 20% of new cars sold in 2035 can be rechargeable hybrids.)
Under the mandate, car manufacturers will have to sell these cars, but customers will not have to buy them. If flat growth of electric vehicles becomes a trend And not an aberration, which could undermine a key pillar in the state plan for a cleaner climate.
“Everything, from interest rates to inflation to increased awareness of the costs and challenges of electric vehicles has had a negative impact on the demand of VE,” said Karl Brauer, industry analyst at Iseecars.com. “Even Tesla, the brand considered for a long time as a brilliant example of the way in which each car manufacturer should approach personal transport, now resembles a traditional car manufacturer, with a market share in narrowing, standing sales, a drop in profits and Massive layoffs. “”
One of the reasons why potential buyers of electric vehicles give to stick to gasoline: public chargers subsidized by the State and the federal government are too rare and too unreliable. Tesla chargers are largely considered more reliable. They were built with money brought by the high sky value of Tesla's stock. At the beginning of last year, Tesla agreed to open its charger network in exchange for federal subsidies to help pay the planned expansion of Tesla but now reduced.
We don't know why the governor posted his video when he did. Tesla herself made no recent announcements on access not Tesla Charge. The company began to open stations for other brands in California and other states more than a year ago in March 2023. Times asked a newsom spokesman what real news has been announced but have not yet heard.
Whether planned or not, the announcement has created certain media misunderstandings. Erroneous titles – like “Tesla super-chargers in California are now available for all electric vehicles” – started to appear.
Here is what Newsom said: “Today we are announcing that Tesla opens its charge network to additional electric vehicle models. All of this is in order to develop the California state infrastructure which currently totals 105,000 electric vehicle chargers for public use and around 10,000 of these overeating stations.”
No new additional model had been added. A quick reading could lead to believe that all Tesla stations are now available for EV pilots that do not drive Teslas. But the actual number is much lower than that. Tesla knows how much, but the company does not respond to media requests.
The state itself does not know.
“We have no specific figures for the opening number of other drivers,” Lindsay Buckley told California Energy Commission, the state agency in charge of electric vehicle infrastructure. “I understand that the deployment will be progressive. Some chargers are now open to Ford and Rivian drivers. The plan is to open up to GM, Polestar and Volvo soon. ”
Tesla divides its chargers into three types. One is for Tesla pilots only. Another concerns EV pilots whose brands were approved by Tesla. A third number seriously limited at the moment, can manage almost all electric vehicles with an integrated adapter called Dock Magic which allows a Tesla loading to adapt to an EV Non Tesla.
A look at a Compressor location On the Tesla website shows that the sites open to other brands remain the minority. In the Palm Springs-Coachella region, there are five Tesla stations. Two of them will accept Fords or Riviens. There are no magic quays.
Between ass City and Santa Monica are six Tesla stations. Only two are open in Ford and Rivian. No magic quays.
According to Tesla's map, there are three magic platform stations in California – two near Sacramento and one in the Silicon Valley.
Why incompatibility? The automotive industry has developed a charger charger standard that Tesla did not follow. Tesla's version is smaller, lighter and easier to handle. Some other brands have created Snap-on adapters to give or sell to their customers for compressor access. Several, including Ford, have announced that future electric vehicles will be built to accept Tesla sockets without the need for adapters.
A Ford spokesperson relayed the company's reaction to compressor layoffs: “Our plans for our customers do not change.” When asked if Tesla’s management announcement and Musk's announcement of slower compressor growth gave the company, the spokesman refused to comment more.
Some supporters of the EV were looking for a good side. Asked about the dismissals of Tesla Supercharger, the director general of Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, Matt Petersen, said: “Regarding, if there is a silver lining, it is that many large and talented are available for other companies in the Charge space.”
