Tesla CEO Elon Musk is making some audacious promises again for the company’s network of electric fast chargers, known as Superchargers. This time, he’s aiming for 100% Tesla Supercharger coverage in Europe by next year.
In response to a question on Twitter, Musk said Tesla’s Supercharger coverage will extend to 100% of Europe in 2019. “From Ireland to Kiev, from Norway to Turkey,” Musk wrote.
A look at Tesla’s Supercharger map shows a high concentration of the fast chargers in Western Europe. Countries like Albania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia and Moldova don’t have any Superchargers.
Musk also laid out plans to focus on cities, specifically to work with landlords to add home charging units at apartment buildings.
Musk then went further, this time in response to a Twitter follower who noticed that Superchargers planned for San Antonio and Austin in 2018 had yet to be completed. The billionaire entrepreneur said “all major highways in Texas will have Superchargers, all the way to Brownsville and across Mexico.”
He even laid out plans, although less specific, to add Superchargers to Africa in 2020. There are no Superchargers on the African continent.
Tesla’s Supercharger network was launched in 2012 in an effort to encourage owners of its electric vehicles to travel longer distances. A Supercharger adds up to 170 miles of range in about 30 minutes (although TechCrunch has experienced slightly longer charge times depending on location).
Musk has made bold promises for the company’s Supercharger network before. And while the company has made substantial progress and investment in its Supercharger network, it’s still nowhere near its previously promised target.
In April 2017, Tesla said it would double its global network of Superchargers from more than 5,400 to more than 10,000 by the end of the year. It fell short of that goal with about 8,250 Superchargers.
Earlier this year, Musk laid out plans to have 18,000 superchargers globally by the end 2018. As of Dec. 27, Tesla has 11,583 Superchargers (within 1,386 Supercharger stations) globally.
source: TechCrunch
