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It shouldn’t be so exciting to have a quesadilla for breakfast in the car.
But this quesadilla was from Wawa, this Wawa housed a Tesla Supercharger, and this car was the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, connected to that Supercharger via a NACS/CCS adapter. More than a year later Switch from GM to NACS announcedand following some Tesla internal chaos That made it seem like a dead deal, Tesla unlocked access to its conveniently located electric vehicle charging stations. to General Motors automobiles at the end of September. They weren’t all Superchargers, but there were more than 17,000 locations, many of them in places that were previously dark spots on any road trip plan.
I bought my car knowing that road trips would be a rare but real inconvenience. With the Tesla network now available, the anxiety of rolling the CCS dice in uncharted lands has diminished considerably. To understand what this feels like, you must first hear about the Before Times.
Many applications, few guarantees
I’ve had my Bolt for just over a year and have completed four road trips that required DC Fast Charging (DCFC). “Fast” is a misnomer for the Bolt, The slowest charging modern electric vehicleforcing you to plan based on battery levels, nearby amenities, pets, and crowd timing guesswork. Every night before a long drive, I pinch, zoom, and stress inside. A better route planner, PlugShareand Google Maps reviews, wondering if a ChargePoint in a brewery parking lot will deliver 7 or 9 kilowatt hours.
Despite all this groundwork, I’ve amassed an impressive collection of scars that load up quickly in a year:
- Three different freeway stops on Thanksgiving weekend with multi-car lines, jeopardizing our pick-up time at the dog shelter
- An Electrify America station where terrible parking by a single car caused everyone else to occupy two working plug spaces.
- Excessive exposure to shopping malls, EV centers with non-Tesla chargers that work more reliably
- Only one ChargePoint Level 2 charger working (after a long delay) out of four in a hotel parking lot, the only charging place on a holiday island.
- A state-sponsored electric vehicle charging location where two out of five plugs worked, then only one after a mid-charge failure, where a man on his way to a Dave Matthews concert begged me to change this last location with him so his wife wouldn’t miss it. the band’s opening song.
It almost doesn’t matter exactly why or how a non-Tesla charger refuses to work. Damaged cables or plugs, broken screens, mobile data drops, problems with apps, electrical faults – whatever the reason, it will never be solved at that time by calling the support number and now you need a backup plan.
This is how I think Supercharger access is most useful to us wretches of the EV world: a solid backup plan for those tired of the alternatives. To connect to the most established network in the country, it is required a not too cheap adapter (or find a rare “Magic Dock” station). You must find a way to connect a very short cable intended for a specific rear driver’s side location to your port. On the Bolt, that’s the left front center, just in front of the door, possibly the worst place for these cables. You can only charge with third and fourth generation chargers. And you have to pay whatever Tesla decides to charge non-members, which is usually more expensive (I’ve paid $0.48 and $0.53 per kilowatt-hour).
No more chargers in car dealerships
But it’s hard to argue with the location and reliability of those bright red rectangles. On my most recent trip from Washington, DC to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I planned a longer charging stop on the way to an EVgo in Williamsburg, Virginia, near a shopping plaza with a Target. This worked because we needed some shopping for the trip. But only two of the four chargers were working (after wasting 5 minutes trying to get a third green station to work in the app). If I had wanted to save 11 minutes and greatly increase my chances by having 12 spots to choose from, I could have chosen a Tesla Supercharger further down the path I was already on.
Tesla Superchargers tend to be located along highways, near places with bathrooms, snacks or shops, and the Tesla app seems to keep track of how many positions are occupied and working. With any other multi-brand network or app, you’re doing a lot of guesswork, which is the bane of road trip planning. Which seems better: waiting for the 250 kW very fast charger that Plugshare shows at a car dealership to be available at 9 a.m. on a Sunday, or driving 15 minutes to a Walmart and waiting your turn? Follow-up question: Have you ever voluntarily spent 30 minutes at a car dealership when you already own a working car?
The proof is in the connection
This kind of thinking prompted me to try charging a Tesla on the way back. I bought a A2Z Typhoon Pro Adapterbased on their solid reviews and fast shipping. It also cost noticeably less than the $225 GM Charger after a coupon code, the GM model was backordered until November, and the Chevrolet app suggested I’d have to pick it up at a dealership. However, before I could use any adapter, I had to find a place. The stains are the difficult part.
At my first stop, a Wawa, every second spot out of a total of eight was taken, and the only spot lined up on the side of the car was occupied by a family who told me they would be there for 50 minutes. I stopped at an empty space, tried to stretch the cable, but it wasn’t even close. I drove away, parked, and began looking for my next stop. Shortly after, the father of the 50-minute family appeared at my window. I prepared myself for some kind of lecture, mockery, or perhaps political speech.
“You know, you could actually stand up, like, sideways, behind Those plugs, and I think it would work,” the father said. He was right; Behind these Supercharger stations there was nothing but more parking, and it was empty. I stopped, plugged in the adapter (quick review: rock solid), pulled the cable, opened the app, selected the station and charger number, and tapped. Less than 30 seconds later, the juice was flowing. No screens or two outlets sharing a power source, just power.