Elon Musk Wants To Share Supercharger Patents In Order To Spread The Electric Car Love

While Tesla continues to work on spreading its network of supercharging stations around the country to more easily serve drivers of its electric cars, CEO Elon Musk doesn’t want those stations to be used solely by owners of Tesla vehicles like the Model S. In his quest to spread the popularity of electric cars, Musk says he wants other manufacturers to know how to build their own Supercharger stations.

After teasing the public with suggestions that he might “do something controversial” with Tesla’s technology patents, Musk said over the weekend at the UK launch of the Tesla Model S that what that means is, he wants to share the design patents for the Supercharger system, reports Engadget.

By doing so, Musk hopes that there can then be a standard technical specification for other electric car makers to build their own stations, that could charge up any electric car, no matter who makes it.

In order to share in the design plans, Musk would reportedly need other electric car manufacturers to get in line with his model of giving electricity away “free for life,” including all the costs of charging in the price of the car, and contribute a “fair” proportion of the maintenance and running costs of the Supercharger network at large.

Engadget notes that this is in line with Musk’s idea that he doesn’t want Supercharger stations to create a “walled garden” effect, keeping out competitors just to protect itself. After all, what would it be like if you could only fill up your Toyota car at a Toyota gas station? Ridiculous, that’s what it’d be like.

Tesla will open up its Supercharger patents to boost electric car adoption [Engadget]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist