We are encouraging questions from readers about electric vehicles, and charging, and whatever else you want to learn. So please send them through and we will get our experts to respond, and invite other people to contribute through the comments section.

Can the Tesla charge stations be used by other EV’s such as the Kona Ioniq or Leaf 3? Is there a charge if these vehicles are able to access the Tesla supercharges?

Ah Robert – you’ve asked the $64 question …

The short answer is that some Tesla chargers (better referred to as EVSEs, or Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) will charge some non-Tesla Electric Vehicles (EVs).

The reasons behind this are a mix of:

For a deeper look into this bit of Tesla (and world) charging plug history – see my article here.

So where do we start? To begin with, all new EVs in Australia (including Tesla) now use the same standard AC socket – this being Type 2. This however has not always been the case.

Until a couple of years ago, Type 1 plugs predominated – but the Type 2 standard has taken over as it has many advantages in 230/400V three phase electric supply countries.

On the other hand, Tesla outside the USA and Japan used the Type 2 socket well before the rest of the world – hence all Tesla Models S and X here are fitted with the Type 2 socket and in fact can charge at any Type 2 EVSE, not just Tesla ones.

Conversely, older EVs cannot charge directly using a Tesla AC EVSE as their plug is different. (They can with the use of an adaptor – with the caveat below).

Tesla AC EVSEs (be they home or ‘destination’ ones) are therefore all Type 2 plugs, so in theory can charge any Type 2 socket fitted EV (or a Type 1 with a Type 1 to 2 adaptor).

However, Tesla AC EVSEs may be set to charge ‘only Teslas’, or to a ‘legacy’ mode where they will charge (most) EVs from other manufacturers.

(The ‘most’ is because, as mentioned at the start of this article, it took a while for the charge plug standards to settle, so some older EVs are not fully compliant with the current Type 2 plug communications standard).

Commonly, where there are two Tesla ‘destination’ AC EVSEs on site, Tesla sets one of them to charge non-Teslas and one to ‘Tesla only’. Where there is only one, it can be hit-or-miss as to which setting was chosen.

For home EVSEs, they should be set to ‘legacy’ so as to be able to charge any EV that comes along – but not all installers are familiar with the setting process.

Tesla ‘Superchargers’ on the other hand are a fast-charge DC EVSE system.

Whilst they seemingly are fitted with the same Type 2 plug – these cannot be inserted into other manufacturers EVs, even if they are fitted with Type 2 sockets. (In fact the Tesla Supercharger plug has an innocuous looking additional tag in the plug that prevents it being inserted into a normal Type 2 socket).

Instead, the rest of the world’s EV manufacturers use a different (higher capacity) DC charging plug to suit the Combined Charging System (CCS).

As a consequence, Tesla Superchargers cannot currently charge a non-Tesla.

Tesla are now fitting the CCS socket to the Model 3 in Europe (and will also do so in Australia when they arrive).

As a result, Tesla Superchargers here will soon start to sport CCS charging leads alongside the older Tesla DC charging lead.

The outcome of all this is Tesla EVSEs will soon be compatible with (and have the same charging plug as) almost all other EVs. The question therefore becomes ‘will Tesla open up their charging network for use by others?’

*Note: The one exception to this is the new Leaf. The Leaf here will be fitted with a type 2 AC socket – but for DC charging Nissan are sticking to their proprietary CHAdeMO DC charging system. This means the new Leaf will effectively be locked out of the new fast-charge DC charging systems being rolled out, as these will mostly have CCS DC plugs.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect a statement from Tesla yesterday that at Destination Charging locations, it does not set one charger to non-Teslas and one to Tesla only. Additionally, even with CCS plugs, Tesla Supercharger sites will not be able to charge other EVs.  

Bryce Gaton is an expert on electric vehicles and contributor for The Driven and Renew Economy. He has been working in the EV sector since 2008 and is currently working as EV electrical safety trainer/supervisor for the University of Melbourne. He also provides support for the EV Transition to business, government and the public through his EV Transition consultancy EVchoice.

I agree to the Terms of Use

I agree to the Terms of Use

Input your search keywords and press Enter.