Tesla Has Installed Its 20,000th Supercharger

Tesla Inc. TSLA announced Sunday that the total number of electric vehicle Superchargers deployed by the company has crossed 20,000 globally.

What Happened: Tesla describes the Supercharger network as the “world’s fastest charging network.” The Elon Musk-led company has been looking to expand it aggressively, particularly in urban settings, but has frequently fallen short of its stated targets.

20k Superchargers and counting pic.twitter.com/urudyt9Eui

— Tesla (@Tesla) November 8, 2020

The EV maker planned to have 18,000 Superchargers in its network as of 2018-end, but the actual number of deployed units was at 12,000 by the end of the year, according to Electrek. 

Tesla introduced a “completely new architecture” for EV charging, called V3, in March last year. Musk said in May 2019 that the company was planning to speed up and bring more Superchargers soon and that it had earlier “slowed down a bit to allow Supercharger V3 production to get going.”

Why It Matters: The Palo Alto-based EV maker reported having 17,467 Superchargers in its network as of September, suggesting that the company is, in fact, deploying the new units in the charging network relatively faster.

Tesla was also reported to be expanding the Supercharger presence in another 42 of Target Corporation TGT stores in September.

The company has also looked to expand its destination charging network, in partnership with hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and resorts.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 1.86% lower at $429.95 on Friday and were mostly unchanged in the after-hours session.