Tesla will benefit from opening up its Supercharger network to all EVs
Tesla
Tesla's Supercharging network has been exclusive to Tesla owners partly due to the proprietary plug that's used in the U.S. and Canada. However, the company may have to make changes to access billions of dollars the U.S. government will spend to build more charging stations across the country.
Opening Up to Competition
Tesla's Supercharging network in the United States will have to become available to competitors due to a new requirement from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Reuters reports that the final provision will be announced next week, which will pressure Tesla to expand beyond its proprietary charging plug and include the CCS1 charging standard used by many of its competitors. Otherwise, Tesla will lose the chance to receive $7.5 billion in subsidies, which is part of President Joe Biden's plan to construct 500,000 electric vehicle chargers in the coming years.
Tesla's U.S. Supercharger network, with more than 40,000 chargers worldwide, is often regarded as the benchmark because of its reliability, speed, and availability. However, the network's exclusivity has led to non-Tesla owners being unable to use it. For example, Tesla drivers can buy an adapter to connect to CCS1 chargers, but non-Tesla owners cannot do the same with Superchargers.
Competition Among Companies
Chargers seeking to become part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program will need to use the CCS standard, the U.S. charging system standard used in nearly all charging stations except Tesla's Superchargers. Companies such as ChargePoint Holdings and EVgo Inc are expected to compete for funding under the NEVI program.
Unfortunately, this move ends the idea that Tesla's charging system, which offers the most reliable hardware, will be the choice for North America charging stations. Tesla opened up its connector design for any competitor to use, but it appears EVs will be stuck with the bulky CCS system.
Tesla's Response
Tesla has already opened up some of its Superchargers in Europe and Australia to non-Tesla EVs, however, Teslas and Superchargers in those regions already use the CCS charging standard (CCS2 is used in Europe and Australia), making it easier.
Tesla has previously stated that it plans to allow other EVs to access their Superchargers in the U.S. as well, but that is still in progress. Tesla is expected to reveal updated Superchargers that will offer the CCS1 plug alongside Tesla's NACS plug.
Elon Musk met with the Biden administration a few weeks ago to discuss several topics, including the charging network. Last year, Tesla wrote the Federal Highway Administration, offering the Biden administration suggestions on how to shape the charging program. The company has also responded to a recent request from Ohio officials that companies submit charging proposals. In addition, in Arizona, Tesla said it was open to upgrading its chargers or building new ones to meet federal requirements, although a final decision was not made.
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In this article, we’ll cover Tesla’s updates on Optimus, batteries, and Tesla Energy.
Optimus
Tesla has been working away on their humanoid robot and continues to make progress in software and hardware.
First, Tesla is preparing the Fremont factory for the Optimus pilot production line, which is scheduled for completion later this year. Once it is, wider deployments of Optimus for internal use within Tesla’s facilities are expected as well. Tesla aims to have several thousand Optimus units working in its North American factories by the end of the year once the pilot production line is operational.
Tesla’s goals for production remain extremely lofty - 1 million units per year by 2030. However, they could face some challenges when ramping production.
Key components like the shoulder actuators use specialized permanent and rare-earth magnets, which are currently sourced from China. Due to recent Chinese restrictions on the overseas sale of these magnets, Tesla is seeking an exemption or alternative suppliers. They have not yet looked into modifying the shoulder actuator but will likely do so if they cannot obtain the necessary materials.
Batteries
Batteries are another item that Tesla’s teams have been working on behind the scenes for years now. The second generation of the 4680 - the Cybercell - has been IRA-compliant for some time now. This means that the Cybertruck is eligible for the US Federal EV rebate.
Tesla also achieved the lowest cost-per-kWh of any of its cells with the 4680 battery - and it is potentially one of the cheapest cells being manufactured by any vehicle battery manufacturer at this point. With dry-cathode still being worked on, Tesla may be able to squeeze more optimizations and cost efficiencies from the 4680 cells.
Additionally, Tesla is progressing with its plans for lithium refining and cathode production in the US, both of which are scheduled to commence in 2025. While the company says they’re no longer supply-constrained for non-LFP vehicle batteries, on-shoring production and sourcing critical minerals from nations outside of China will be key.
LFP batteries continue to be supplied-constrained - namely for the Tesla Energy division. LFP batteries and their materials are sourced from China. Due to tariffs and limited exports, Tesla is can’t obtain enough and is considering potentially building an LFP production facility in North America.
Energy
Tesla’s energy division is still experiencing some of the highest growth of any of its divisions. Year over year, Tesla saw a 154% increase in energy storage deployments, including both Megapack and Powerwall - for a total of 10.4 GWh deployed in just Q1 2025. While deliveries in energy storage remain volatile due to the nature of Megapack installations, Tesla expects growth to continue rapidly in this segment.
Tesla also deployed 1GWh of Powerwall 3 residential storage this quarter, marking its strongest quarter. Powerwall 3 has received positive feedback from customers, many of whom appreciate its new capabilities with its built-in inverter for solar.
Megapack is continuing to see demand increases, currently highlighted by utility-scale Megapack systems, as well as data centers requiring stable power delivery. Megafactory Shanghai is also online now and producing Megapacks - with an annual production capacity of 20GWh today and up to 40GWh in the future. The site has also produced over 100 Megapacks this quarter, which are all awaiting delivery.
There was a lot of interesting news from Tesla’s Q1 2025 Earnings Call, covering everything from FSD and Robotaxi - to the less glamorous but equally important Megapack and Powerwall.
Tesla is heavily leaning into artificial intelligence, and its insurance offering is just another example of how it’s improving its product or lowering costs by leveraging AI.
Tesla recently started offering an insurance discount in select states when drivers use FSD for at least 50% of their drives and now it’s introducing an AI to help handle customer claims.
Tesla has developed an in-house voiced AI agent that can assist customers in handling simple support requests for Tesla Insurance.
For customers calling in from those states, the new AI agent provides a unique way to address the most common support calls. And it’s not just answering common questions but actually making requested changes to the owner’s account.
Policy Changes
The first key item is that it automates policy changes. Simple policy updates, including adjusting your deductible or coverage limits, are now done via AI. For policyholders who are simply looking to make quick changes and don’t have any questions, this makes the process a lot quicker by not having to wait for a representative. Tesla isn’t eliminating representatives, but this could reduce the number of representatives required or reduce wait times.
Continue Where You Left Off
The second item here, highlighted by Raj Jegannathan from Tesla’s internal IT team, is that Tesla’s AI agent is able to offer summaries of the user’s last interaction with Tesla Insurance. It will summarize your last interaction and provide assistance on that particular topic if you need to continue it. That means that you don’t have to wait for a human to review your file - the AI will kick off right where you left off.
Tesla appears to be focused on improving efficiency and making support more accessible. While actual items like claims are left up to humans due to their inherently complex nature, this helps free up employees to handle more complex items. While there’s no doubt Tesla will continue to develop this AI like they do everything else, we may soon see it take on even more tasks.
More AI
This isn’t the first AI agent that Tesla has demoed - there is now a chat-based AI sales agent available on the front page of Tesla’s website, which is able to answer common questions on Tesla vehicles.
Tesla has also been improving their AI support tool available in the Tesla App is able to provide feedback on common issues and also guide users towards either solving the problem or placing a support request.
Tesla’s strategy here is to influence the cost-heavy areas associated with having humans address simple requests and instead leverage AI, which can offer instant answers and reduce support costs.
Roll Out to More States
While this new AI is currently limited to just 12 states, it is likely to follow Tesla Insurance’s expansion. Insurance seems to have been at a bit of a standstill lately. Tesla continues to improve features such as the improvements to Safety Score V2.2, but we haven’t seen Tesla roll out support to new states since it added Minnesota in November of 2022.
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