After 500 meters of work along the A71 motorway, exit 5 of the Vierzon toll appeared on the screen of my test Audi. I drive a Q4 e-tron Sportback equipped with a 77 kWh battery soon exhausted, and I’m on my way to Paris. The next Ionity station is still 40 minutes away, but I no longer count it among my stops.
Since January 31, Tesla has opened up its young Supercharger station in Vierzon to competition. It will allow me to skip the recharging stage in Orléans, to reach the A10 to reach Paris. It will also be an opportunity to save money, because its pricing will be more advantageous to me than that of the Ionity network.
Before me, few motorists equipped with a car other than Tesla could say the same. The news is only a few days old, but now they are 16 Supercharger stations in France which will benefit everyone. Like an average driver, not owning a Tesla, but an electric car equipped with a Combo CSS socket, I went to test the device.
How to Charge a Non-Tesla Model on a Supercharger
Vierzon has 36 recharging steles. They are located at the Sologne Technology Park, along the departmental 926. Arrived on site, I followed the instructions explained during Tesla’s announcement and downloaded the mobile application. Once launched, she asked me to create an account, then fill in a bank card. An option to add your RIB exists, but it didn’t work for me.
With my card and my account activated, I went back to the home page and clicked on the new insert “Charging your non-Tesla vehicle”. Once the tab is open, a map is displayed with all the compatible Supercharger stations listed. I clicked on that of Vierzon, then selected the charging station on which I had settled. Of course, you need a vehicle compatible with a Combo CCS socket.
© Lemon squeezer
My first attempt was a failure, because I had not installed the plug before selecting the terminal from the application. On the second try, after having done the protocol in order, I receive confirmation of the start of the charge. On the screen of my smartphone, a summary was displayed with the cost, the charging power and a terminal number.
Method to use a Supercharger with a model from another brand:
- Download the Tesla app
- Enter your credit card details
- Click on “Charging your non-Tesla vehicle
- Find a compatible station in France on the map
- Park and plug in your vehicle
- Click on the stele used from the application
- Wait then turn off the charging
- Unplug the car
Superchargers compatible with competing brands in France © Tesla
To finish charging, all you had to do was click the end button on the app interface, then unplug the plug and put it back in its holder. Aside from responding to motorists taken aback by my presence with a competing model, that’s about all Tesla needs to let my Audi charge. But other information is to be taken into consideration. Starting with the tariff plan.
Power, subscription and charging price
My Audi Q4 e-tron is supposed to be able to charge up to 125 kW. On Tesla’s new V3 chargers, which all operate independently so as not to share the flow when the station is congested, the charging power was limited to 68 kW during my test. A defect almost forgiven: at Ionity, I have already happened to charge at a much lower power (50 kW), even with an almost empty battery.
To charge, I only created an account and registered my credit card. The Audi subscription charging card, which I use on other charging networks, is not compatible here. Tesla remains Tesla and does not intend to open up as much. So leave your Chargemaps and others aside.
On the price level, Tesla was transparent. As soon as I had selected the Vierzon station from the application, I could discover the tariffs per kWh charged. During the duration of my charge, I could also follow the evolution of my bill in real time. But you will have to be very curious to discover that another tariff plan is available, rather than that of payment by load.
Tesla indeed offers two solutions. The first costs 55 euro cents per kWh. It therefore requires no subscription, and the price is more attractive than that of Ionity, at 79 cents per minute without preferential subscription rates. The second proposes paying Tesla only 37 cents per kWh. In this case, you must subscribe to a subscription at €12.99 per month.
For an Audi customer, equipped with an Audi Q4 e-tron, for example, the solution is preferable to that on Ionity. Indeed, by paying per kWh rather than per minute, I am not affected by the slowness of my charge. At Ionity, the subscription offered by Audi certainly lowers the price per minute to 31 euro cents, but the monthly payments are €17.80.
© Lemon squeezer
Advantages and disadvantages of Tesla Superchargers
As you will have understood, depending on your electric car model, Tesla chargers will be more or less interesting. If your car does not accept charges greater than 100 kW, it is best to stop at a Tesla network stele, which charges per kW, no matter how long it will take you to charge it. Especially since the network of Superchargers is still the densest network in France. It will not be difficult for you to find one of the brand’s 99 charging stations on your way.
If your car can accept faster charging, such as a Porsche Taycan (270 kW), Audi e-tron (150 kW) or e-tron GT (270 kW), Hyundai Ionic (232 kW), Kia EV6 (240 kW), or even a Ford Mustang Mach-E (150 kW), the Ionity network will remain a very interesting choice. You will certainly be able to recharge for less thanks to the preferential rates and the charging per minute which will make you recover more than 1 kW.
Now, it will be interesting to measure the rate of adoption of Tesla’s network by brands other than Tesla. Very quickly, the stations could experience a lot of congestion. On the phone, the manufacturer preferred to put things into perspective by saying that he had only selected the charging stations on which he was certain that it would not cause saturation problems. However, during my test, a problem has already arisen.
Superchargers with a vehicle other than Tesla, we experienced a few days after the announcement © Presse-citron © Presse-citron
The problem of Tesla charging for the Volkswagen Group
Unlike the Ionity network, which offers both centered charging stations, charging stations for left-side or right-side sockets, the Tesla Supercharger network is limited to the brand standard: sockets located on the rear left wing of his cars.
Because each Tesla requires the same side for its loads, and the space constraint on the locations is significant, the cables are not very long. To be able to recharge, it is better to park very close to the stele.
At the Volkswagen group, which includes brands like Audi and Skoda (and therefore several fairly popular electric models), the charging socket is located on the rear right side. And that poses a problem. Indeed, to park in view of the length of the Tesla Supercharger cable, it is necessary to use the terminal located to the right of the vehicle. In other words, to occupy the wrong place and the wrong terminal.
With the same terminal, a Tesla would have been kept on the spot pointed out. On that of the Audi, a Tesla would have plugged into the stele located on the far right of the image. © Lemon squeezer
The example above will allow you to understand at a glance. Here, I occupy the charging station of the potential car located on the left of the photo, and the place of the terminal located on the right of the image. In a situation where a Tesla driver would come to park in the square to the left of the photo, he would not immediately understand why his charging station is occupied.
Also, if the whole station is full, then I would feel embarrassed to block two parking spaces for nothing. Ideally, the vehicle on the left should itself be from the Volkswagen group with a socket on the right. But for the place on which I will recharge, the problem would be the same for the unoccupied terminal located to the right of the image.
Fortunately, not all makes and models have followed the same logic as Volkswagen or Tesla. Ford, on the Mustang Mach-E has a socket on the left front fender. It is therefore possible for him to park in front on a Supercharger and use the correct stele. On other models, the socket is located at the front and there is therefore no side preference (remember to stick to the Supercharger to have enough cable length to the socket).