Is the thought that you might end up running out of juice in the middle of nowhere keeping you from buying an electric vehicle? Tesla wants to assuage those fears (in hopes that you'll get one of its EVs, of course) by laying out its plans to build a lot more Supercharger stations in the US. At the moment, there are only 103 stations in the country, but according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, there'll be enough Superchargers in 2015 to cover 98 percent of the US population (see GIF above). You can always charge your cars at home, of course, but the stations are supposed to provide you power when you need it in the midst of a long drive, say if you're going from coast to coast. Unlike gasoline-powered cars, though, EVs need some time to juice up, so you might have to line up to charge... assuming more people dump their traditional vehicles for a Tesla.
Sure enough, the company's Q2 earnings report published earlier indicate that more people are converting to Tesla, and it's doing better than analysts expected. The company delivered 7,579 Model S cars in the second quarter and is on track to deliver a total of 35,000 vehicles this year. Tesla also managed to bring in twice as much cash this quarter ($769.3 million), but that didn't stop it losing about $62 million in that same three-month period. The automaker also revealed that it plans to spend between $750 and $950 million in 2014 for several projects, including these Supercharger stations and its battery mass production site called the Gigafactory.
While most of the new Superchargers will be built in the US, Tesla's also planning a considerable expansion in Europe. Some stations are also slated to be built in Asia, mainly in China, where the Model S (in the company's words) "is off to a very encouraging start."
Supercharger growth in Europe:
And in Asia:
Source: Tesla
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