BMW and Nissan are (Sort Of) Taking On Tesla Motors' Superchargers -- The Motley Fool
BMW and Nissan are (Sort Of) Taking On Tesla Motors' Superchargers
The two automakers are joining forces to roll out a network of public fast-charging stations for electric cars. But unlike Tesla’s Superchargers, these new stations will be open to everybody.
BMW (NASDAQOTH:BAMXF) and Nissan (NASDAQOTH:NSANY) announced on Monday that they have joined forces to roll out a network of public electric-car charging stations across 19 U.S. states.
Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) has already built over 500 of its vaunted Supercharger stations around the world, but Tesla's are proprietary chargers that only work with the company's vehicles. The new Nissan/BMW stations use connectors that will fit all fast-charging-capable electric vehicles in the U.S. -- and they work faster than most non-Tesla public EV-charging stations currently in existence.
So what does this mean?
Not quite as fast as Superchargers, but better than most
Here's what we know about the BMW/Nissan effort. There are 120 stations that are either already open or set to open soon. The companies say that there are stations already open in 19 different states.
These are dual-port 50-kilowatt DC fast-chargers. They're a step up from the "Level 2" charging stations that are common in some parts of the United States. BMW and Nissan say that the new 50kW stations will be able to recharge a Nissan Leaf or BMW i3 "up to 80 percent in about 20-30 minutes."
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