Tesla's Non-Member Supercharger Price Now Tops the Rest of US Fast Charging, 56.9 Cents to 53.3

Tesla's average non-member price at a US Supercharger reached 56.9 cents per kWh in the third quarter, up 15 percent in a year, and that is now above the 53.3 cents the rest of the fast-charging industry averages, according to the charging-data firm Paren.

The figures come from Paren's Q3 2026 report on US fast charging, published on 13 October 2026. Electrek ran a summary the same morning. The report's own framing of the quarter is that fewer sites are opening, but each one is larger.

Tesla's price rise is the national price rise

Paren puts the national average fast-charging price at $0.540 per kWh, up 2.7 percent year on year. Non-Tesla networks averaged about $0.533, which Paren describes as roughly flat for five quarters running. The arithmetic follows: if one half of the market did not move, the other half carried the whole increase.

1. Tesla, non-member56.9 cents per kWh
2. National average54 cents per kWh
3. Non-Tesla networks53.3 cents per kWh
4. Tesla, member39.6 cents per kWh

Source: Paren, Q3 2026 US EV Fast Charging report, accessed 2026-10-13

Tesla's member price rose 9 percent to 39.6 cents. The gap between member and non-member is 17.3 cents, so a member pays about 30 percent less per kWh than a visitor. That discount is the price of the membership, and it is the number a driver of a non-Tesla car with an adapter should weigh before using a Supercharger on a road trip.

1,287 ports of 4,106 in the quarter

Operators added 4,106 ports at 664 stations from July to September, against 4,618 ports in Q2, Electrek reports from the same data. Paren counts 80,964 public fast ports at 14,614 locations. Through September the year-to-date totals are 2,158 stations and 12,354 ports, about 20 percent and 9 percent below the same point in 2025.

Tesla added 1,287 ports, 31.3 percent of the quarter's additions, or 1,411 and 34.4 percent once its Supercharger for Business program is counted. IONNA was second with 378, up from 182 in Q2. Walmart added 344, Red E 202, Electrify America 186 and ChargePoint 169.

One figure cuts against the price story. Tesla's share of all US ports fell from 54.3 percent to 49.3 percent over the year. It is raising prices while holding a smaller share of the plugs, which is possible because its sites are bigger: new Tesla sites averaged 13.1 ports, new non-Tesla sites 5.0, up from 4.1.

Electrek says 11 of the new Tesla sites had at least 24 stalls, the largest a 48-stall site in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Utilization fell to 15.9 percent while sessions rose 26 percent

Paren tracked 50.4 million fast-charging sessions in the quarter, up 26 percent year on year, with a record 17.6 million in July 2026. National utilization was 15.9 percent against 16.4 percent a year earlier. The average hides a split: the top 30 metro markets ran at 21.1 percent, the rest of the country at 11.0 percent, so outside those markets a typical port is busy about half as much as in them.

Hawaii led the states at 32.4 percent, then Washington, D.C. at 27.5 percent and California at 23.4 percent. Alaska was last at 2.2 percent.

The price spread follows the same pattern. Hawaii was the most expensive state at $0.877 per kWh and Nebraska the cheapest at $0.424. Among stations that bill per kWh, 72.9 percent use a fixed rate and 27.1 percent use time-of-use, where Paren puts peak at $0.637 and off-peak at $0.438, a gap of about 20 cents.

That sets up a test of Tesla's pricing. Higher prices with falling utilization usually mean a network can charge more only where demand is thick. Paren's data does not break Tesla's price out by market, so the report cannot show whether the 15 percent rise is concentrated in the top 30 metros.

Power levels and reliability

Paren says 73 percent of new ports were rated at 250 kW or more, up from 60 percent a year ago; outside Tesla, 400 kW or more is now the largest tier at 35 percent of additions. NACS connectors made up 23 percent of new non-Tesla connectors, against 74 percent for CCS.

Reliability scored 93.9 nationally against 93.7 a year earlier, with 50 of 52 states and territories at 90 or above. Oklahoma (80.8) and Vermont (86.9) were the two below it.

Where the new ports are going

Urban markets received 90 percent of the quarter's new stations, per Electrek's reading of the report. Paren counts 68 rural stations out of 664, about 10 percent. Sites rated below 150 kW were about one in eight new installs, so the slow plug is becoming rare in new construction even as the 21.1 versus 11.0 percent utilization gap says where the busy ones are.

On the vehicle side of the same market, see our reports on Volkswagen's low-cost EV orders against its US deliveries and the Smart #2's listed charging figures. A car that charges at 250 kW or more only helps a driver if the stall in front of them is rated to match, and 73 percent of this quarter's new ports are.

The variable that would falsify this read is Tesla's member share of sessions. Paren has not published it, and if most Supercharger sessions are members at 39.6 cents, the blended price rise is far smaller than the 15 percent on the non-member rate.