Tesla Reaches 50,000 Supercharger Milestone in Just Over a Decade

Tesla has reached the milestone of having deployed 50,000 Superchargers around the world. It took the automaker just over a decade to do it.

Any way you want to slice it, the Supercharger network is a major success story and by far the best fast-charging network for electric vehicles in the world.

When bringing its first electric vehicles to market, Tesla was faced with the chicken or egg problem regarding EV charging and EVs. You can’t have one if you don’t have the other, but which one comes first?

Tesla decided to bring both to market at the same time.

As it started deliveries of the first Model S sedans in September 2012, Tesla unveiled the charging network with the first few stations in the US.

EV owners could always enjoy overnight home charging, which is arguably the biggest advantage of electric vehicles, but Superchargers provide a solution for long-distance travel.

It rapidly grew, and as other networks were brought online, it became the gold standard for DC fast-charging.

Those are Supercharger “stalls” and not stations. Those 50,000 stalls are at about 5,500 locations around the world – primarily in North America, Europe, and China.

The system is growing faster than ever lately with Tesla having deployed 5,000 Superchargers since April of this year.

The rate of deployment is expected to continue to accelerate as Tesla opens the network to electric vehicles from other automakers and accelerates the deployment of the new Supercharger V4.

Tesla is also expected to increasingly power the Superchargers with more renewable energy by adding solar and batteries at the charging stations – something the automaker has promised in the past, but failed to deliver in a meaningful way so far.

This is quite an accomplishment. You can’t underestimate how hard it is to deploy a DC charging station.

You have to build the actual chargers, which is no easy task, then you have to find a location, make a deal with the property owner, get the needed permit and collaboration of the local electric utility, then have contractors install them.

It’s hard for all those things to come together.

Now the craziest part is that there will be another 50,000 Superchargers to be deployed. I bet Tesla will do it in about six years instead of 11 years this time.