Tesla is expanding its Supercharger business as it officially launches Superchargers for Business, a new program that will allow businesses to purchase and own their own Tesla-managed Supercharger sites. The program offers a complete, turnkey solution backed by Tesla’s industry-leading 97% uptime guarantee, leveraging a decade's worth of experience in building and operating the world’s largest fast-charging network.
This decision is part of a new phase in Tesla’s charging strategy. After years of building its charging network itself, Tesla is now packaging everything a business needs to set up EV charging in a single package.
While Tesla would likely prefer to reap the benefits and revenue from Superchargers itself, businesses want to set up EV chargers of their own. Tesla could either develop a product for them and generate additional revenue through this white label service or have them go through a different company that’s willing to set it up for them.
The winners here will be the businesses, Tesla, and EV owners that will benefit from fast and reliable DC chargers.
Charging for Businesses
Tesla experimented with this idea back in 2023 when they sold Superchargers to BP for $100 million, allowing BP to brand and own the Superchargers, while Tesla managed them. Tesla is now expanding the program to any business that wants to add Superchargers.
This decision is similar to Tesla’s move several years ago, where they began allowing businesses to install and charge customers for charging using Wall Connectors. This led to a boom in hotels and other businesses installing Wall Connectors, with Hilton installing 20,000 chargers across their hotels.
Hardware, Software, and Management
Tesla’s offer is more than just selling hardware. It’s a complete and managed solution. Businesses that purchase a Supercharger site will receive a full-service package that includes Supercharging monitoring, preventative maintenance, and driver support.
Tesla is essentially handling everything except the cost and installation of the Superchargers themselves. The business purchases and installs the Superchargers at its location, and it can then retain the profits and captive customers that the Superchargers bring in.
The Superchargers Themselves
These are Tesla’s newest V4 Superchargers, which means that they include V4 cabinets that will be capable of 500kW charging later this year. They also include a Magic Dock, which provides compatibility with NACS and CCS charge ports. Additionally, they feature a longer cable, making them compatible with all modern EVs without requiring the vehicle to occupy multiple charging spots.
White Label Supercharger Features
The ability to guarantee a 97% uptime is a result of Tesla’s vertically integrated approach and a decade of relentless software innovation.
These white label Superchargers will benefit from all the features that make Superchargers great today, including Tesla’s Plug and Charge feature, which allows seamless and automatic authentication of the vehicle and automatic billing. This has been a hallmark of the Supercharger network since day one. This functionality is what makes Supercharging such a breeze in comparison to other networks, where you often have to struggle with an app or on-screen prompts to get charging to initiate. Tesla’s new MultiPass feature will make charging at third-party chargers almost just as easy.
These Superchargers will also be integrated into Tesla’s trip planner in the app and in the vehicle, letting drivers automatically be routed to Superchargers nearby, based on state of charge, weather, elevation, and more.
Alongside integration into the trip planner is real-time availability on stalls and live wait times, and eventually, Supercharger Queuing, all of which are used to help forecast stall availability upon arrival and during the trip, not just at the moment of planning.
Reducing Costs
Tesla has spent years reducing the cost of a Supercharger site and streamlining installations. Tesla now notes that on-site civil and electrical work accounts for three-quarters of the cost.
Tesla reduced costs and improved installation by creating Pre-assembled Supercharger Units (PSUs), which are all-in-one units built, assembled, and tested at Tesla’s factory. Tesla puts the whole thing together, including the cement slab at the factory, making it easy to transport and install at the site. This not only reduces costs by having most of the work performed at one location, but also reduces issues that could come up on-site.
These all-in-one units are shipped to the site and can be installed in just a matter of days, as they include everything on one slab of concrete, from the cabinet to the Supercharger stalls. This method resulted in a 15% cost reduction for Tesla (and sometimes higher) and has become their standard for new installations.
This vertically integrated stack, from software to service to installation, is now available in a single product being offered by Tesla. For businesses looking to drive in customers with EVs, this is a compelling and powerful option, because as your white-labelled Supercharger joins the network, customers will automatically get routed to their location.
