Tesla Superchargers Hit A Design Snag When Powering Up Other Cars

Tesla landed on the electric decision—and we say that non-sarcastically—to open up its Superchargers so cars of other brands can be juiced up when they’re all sapped out in the middle of the road. Unfortunately, it seems that this move will be to the detriment of its own drivers.

While the automaker is no stranger to crash tests, whether it thought through making its EV-charging network universal is up in the air. Users are already stumbling into a roadblock of this plan in Europe, where the feature has gotten its first rollout. A video making its rounds on the Tesla Motors subreddit brings this gaffe to light.

What happens when you open up the charging network to other brands from teslamotors

It should be noted that Tesla Superchargers are designed for Teslas, which all have charge ports on the left of their rears. This position isn’t standardized across the electric car market, however. Some ports are located quite literally front and center.

Therefore, as amusingly demonstrated in this footage of a Model 3 and a Jaguar I-Pace, non-Teslas may have to park at the spot beside the one designated to the charger they’re using. And when a Tesla driver arrives at the vacant lot, they’ll realize the outlet is already taken.

Tesla will certainly have to revamp its Superchargers before universal support comes to other markets, including North America. If it retains the current design, its own users will be forced to play chess and figure out which spaces are usable.

Thankfully, as Electrek reports, the carmaker is working on an updated Supercharger V4, which will entail a longer cable that can likely stretch to plug into charging ports from various directions.

It’s kind of like how Apple has to adopt the USB-C standard by hook or by crook, eh?

[via Electrek and r/teslamotors, cover photo 106402050 © Sheila Fitzgerald | Dreamstime.com]