Tesla is finally about to fix a key problem with its charge stations

Tesla’s network of charge stations is among the best for topping up an EV battery, but like every other they still suffer from a key problem: queuing.

It doesn’t happen often, but every electric car driver will be familiar with the eye contact and hand gestures used to work out who’s next to plug into a charger. No EV charger station that we’ve used has employed a formal queuing system, so drivers are left to work things out for themselves.

Until now, that is, as Tesla is about to begin trialling a virtual queuing system at its Supercharger stations. The US carmaker says a pilot for the system will begin during the second quarter of 2025 – so between April and June – and it’ll be rolled out more broadly if the initial trial is a success.

Tesla said: “Virtual queuing pilots starting in Q2 at select sites. Goal is a net customer experience improvement for the circa one percent cases of a wait time. Wider rollout this year if feedback is positive. We also continue to expand the network 20-plus percent year-over-year, closely tracking site-level demand.”

Tesla hasn’t explained yet how the system will work, but describing it as “virtual” suggests it’ll be incorporated in the company’s smartphone app, or simply within the car’s navigation system.

Tesla’s mapping app already shows the location and availability of its Supercharger stations, so it's easy to imagine a system where drivers are reserved a charger for the time their navigation expects them to arrive.

It is interesting to see Tesla claim fewer than one percent of Supercharger visits endure a queue. That said, in a decade of driving Tesla press cars I can’t recall a time of ever needing to queue at a Supercharger. The same can’t be said for other charge networks, but even then I’ve found queuing to be a rarity.

Better charge station etiquette, including a formal queueing system with parking bays allocated to EVs in the order they arrive, would be a helpful addition to every charge station, regardless of which network it is part of. Hopefully, this system implemented by Tesla will be accessible for other EVs using the Supercharge network, and perhaps it’ll also encourage other charge networks to create similar systems of their own.