Tesla’s Supercharger network has lost the top spot it held for years. In the 2026 JD Power study of DC fast charging, it finished fourth, behind Ionna, Mercedes-Benz and Rivian. Tesla led the category in 2021 with 733 points and scored 739 in both 2022 and 2023, then slid to 709 in 2025 and 701 this year.
Why the scores slipped
JD Power said the three newly eligible networks held their biggest edge in ease of charging, charging speed and charger availability. As ever, the detail that matters is that those are exactly the things that turn a charging stop into a non-event.
Tesla’s own decision to share the network may be part of the story. Under the hood, the North American connector is now standardised as SAE J3400, and owners of cars from 21 other manufacturers, among them Ford, Rivian, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Toyota, BMW and Volkswagen, can use compatible Superchargers. That helped those drivers a great deal. CarBuzz argued that it also added friction to a system that had once tied car, charger, navigation and payment together neatly. JD Power’s December 2024 E-Vision Intelligence Report found overall DC fast charging satisfaction fell sharply in the third quarter of 2024 as access widened, and drivers may have found sites more crowded.
Who moved ahead
The category winner is Ionna, a joint venture announced in July 2023 by BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis, with Toyota joining later as the eighth founding automaker. Its sites deliver up to 400 kW, support NACS and CCS, and sit alongside amenities, including Circle K stores at some locations. Ionna built no proprietary app. It had more than 180 live sites at the end of September 2026, and its 200th came online on October 16.
Mercedes-Benz launched its North American network in 2023 and, by June 2026, had more than 775 charging points across 25 US states and British Columbia, at up to 400 kW. Rivian’s Adventure Network, which began as a Rivian-first service, now has more than 150 sites and over 1,100 chargers. It has added so-called Charging Outposts in California and New York, pairing fast charging with coffee and restrooms. Mercedes is one of Ionna’s backers, so it sits in the winning story twice.
What Tesla still has
Scale remains Tesla’s argument. As of 1 October 2026 it ran 9,007 Supercharger stations with more than 85,000 connectors: 3,610 stations in Asia Pacific, 3,594 in North America and 1,788 in Europe. It added roughly 2,700 stalls last quarter, 1,287 of them in the US, and is using pre-assembled Accordion Superchargers to cut installation cost and time. Mobile Supercharger units, a Megapack on a semi-trailer, have supplied temporary capacity since 2019.
The technical reality is mixed. Output tops out at 500 kW, V3 stations manage up to 250 kW, and the compact urban posts deliver 72 kW. Billing is by the kilowatt-hour.
Prices are rising
Paren’s Q3 US EV fast charging report, relayed by InsideEVs and Not a Tesla App, shows non-members now paying an average $0.569 per kWh at Superchargers, up 15% in a year. Members pay $0.396, up 9%. Tesla’s increase alone lifted the overall US fast-charging average about 2%, to $0.540, while the average for other networks has held at $0.533 for five straight quarters. A 60 kWh session for a non-member costs about $34.14, roughly $4.50 more than before, or around $66 a year for someone relying wholly on Superchargers.
Busy sites add time charges. In the US, congestion fees are $0.50 a minute when a site is at least half full and $1 a minute when full, waived if the car moves within five minutes. Idle fees apply to cars left plugged in after charging ends.
Sources
- Tesla Thought It Owned EV Charging Forever, But Ionna, Rivian And Mercedes Showed Up to Take The Throne
- Tesla Supercharger
- Tesla Supercharger Prices Are Up 15% in the Last Year – Not a Tesla App
Photo: Dietmar Rabich (CC BY-SA 4.0)
