You’ve been able to charge a non-Tesla electric car at selected sites in the Tesla Supercharger network since May 2022 – but it’s always cost more. The introduction of a Tesla membership scheme then unlocked lower pricing for all EV owners. Now Tesla has made that membership cheaper as well.
That doesn’t mean that charging another electric vehicle on a Supercharger matches the price paid by Tesla owners overall. But if you do a lot of electric miles, the reduction per kilowatt hour (kWh) the membership brings may well be worth it, since the Supercharger network is not only very widespread but also claims to be one of the most reliable in the UK.
How much does Tesla membership cost?
The original price for non-Tesla drivers was £10.99 a month – but this has now been slashed to £8.99 a month. At the same time, Tesla has introduced a new annual plan, which at £90 per year is a further saving of 16%.
If you already have a Tesla membership, the new pricing will be applied automatically, and you’ll be given the opportunity to switch to the annual plan, if you prefer. But you must have a version of the Tesla app with a release number of 4.32 or higher for the update to happen properly.
What is the benefit of Tesla charging membership?
Tesla membership gives you lower charging prices on the Supercharger network.
Tesla owners have membership automatically, hence they get reduced Supercharger pricing without paying an additional fee. If you don’t own a Tesla but do regularly use a Tesla Supercharger, becoming a member means you will pay the same price per kWh as a Tesla owner. You can check out our Tesla reviews if you’re considering going further and becoming one of those.
Tesla claims its Superchargers have a 99% uptime rating, so they should almost always be working when you arrive to charge.
Can you charge a non-Tesla at every Supercharger?
Not yet. In the UK there are now 42 Supercharger sites that are open to all EVs that have CCS charging connectors (your manual will be able to confirm if this is the case for your electric car if you don’t know). That’s a total of 477 chargers.
Not a bad figure, but the total number of UK Supercharger sites is 140, and there are over 1,400 Superchargers altogether. So you will probably want to check your car is compatible before planning a visit.
To make this easier, Tesla has an official interactive map of Supercharger locations, which can be filtered by sites open to all. However, we found this rather slow when we tried to test it.
How much does it cost to charge?
The map has details of the cost at each location, for although its common to quote an average price of 67p per kWh (77p per kWh for non-Tesla members) the reality is that pricing varies. And not just by location but also time of day.
Tesla gave us this set example from the popular Tottenham charging location:
Charging Fees for Tesla Owner
- 12:00am – 4:00am : £0.29/kWh
- 4:00am – 8:00am : £0.24/kWh
- 8:00am – 12:00am : £0.47/kWh
- Idle fees (up to) £1/min
Charging Fees for Other EV Owner
- 12:00am – 4:00am : £0.39/kWh
- 4:00am – 8:00am : £0.32/kWh
- 8:00am – 12:00am : £0.63/kWh
- Idle fees (up to) £1/min
As you can see, if you keep anti-social hours, you can get a bit of a bargain.
What this means for you
Owning a Tesla still brings a cost advantage on the Supercharger network as you don’t have to pay a membership fee to get the best pricing. But if you’re a high-mileage non-Tesla EV driver with a compatible CCS-equipped vehicle and regularly pass Supercharger locations that will accept all EVs then there is potentially a solid advantage to be had from Tesla membership.
And given the claimed reliability of the Tesla network you might find it worth the cost in terms of reduced frustration alone…
