After paying up the entire government loan some nine years early, Tesla has now announced that their Supercharger network, a series of free quick-charging stations scattered all over America, is under a massive expansion program and will be ready better and bigger than they first promised, and much sooner.

By the end of next month the number of existing stations will be tripled, including additional stations in California, coverage of the northwest region from Vancouver to Seattle to Portland, Austin to Dallas in Texas, Illinois and Colorado. There will also be four additional eastern seaboard stations, expanding the density of the network to provide for more convenient stopping points.

The Supercharger Network is Tesla’s solution to enable the Model S owners to go on long-distance trips without having to worry about recharging their electric vehicle. The Supercharger stations are located in convenient places, and they  only take 20 to 30 minutes to recharge the Model S. Not as fast as filling up a car with petrol, but pretty astonishing by EV standards.

Over the next six month Tesla Supercharger network will connect most of the major metro areas in the US and Canada, including expansion into Arizona, additional stations in Texas, Florida, and the Midwest, stations connecting Ottawa to Montreal, and across North and South Carolina into Georgia.

The expansion plan will also enable Model S drivers to travel, diagonally, across the country from Los Angeles to New York. Of course in a year from now the network will stretch across the continent, covering almost the entire population of the US and Canada. But when they manage to pull that L.A. to NYC thing, they have won the challenge.