I own a Chevy Bolt, and Superchargers are a Total Game Changer

It shouldn’t be too much fun to eat a breakfast quesadilla in your car.

But this quesadilla was from a Wawa, this Wawa had a Tesla Supercharger, and this car was a 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, connected to that Supercharger via a NACS/CCS adapter. More than a year after GM’s switch to NACS was announced, and following internal Tesla turmoil that made it seem like a dead deal, Tesla opened up access to EV charging stations mounted on General Motors vehicles in late September. It wasn’t all Superchargers, but there were more than 17,000 locations, many in areas that were previously black on any road trip schedule.

I bought my car knowing that driving on the road would be a rare but real distraction. With Tesla’s network now available, the worry of rolling the CCS dice in unknown countries is greatly reduced. To understand what this sounds like, you must first hear about First Times.

More Apps, Fewer Guarantees

I’ve had my Bolt for a little over a year now, completing four road trips that require DC Fast Charging (DCFC). “Fast” is a misnomer with the Bolt, a modern EV that’s relatively fast, forcing you to plan for battery levels, nearby utilities, pets, and guesswork in the crowd. Every night before a long trip, I pinch, zoom, and zoom in on A Better Route Planner, PlugShare, and Google Maps updates, wondering if the ChargePoint in the parking lot will deliver 7 or 9 kilowatts. per hour.

Despite all these reasons, I have collected an amazing collection of fast charging scars over the course of a year:

• Stops on three different highways on Thanksgiving weekend with heavy traffic, jeopardizing our dog riding time.
• An Electrify America station where one car’s monstrous parking caused every other car to take up two working plug slots.
• Overexposure to supermarkets, EV honeypots with non-Tesla chargers that work very reliably.
• One active ChargePoint level 2 charger (after a long delay) out of four in the hotel parking lot, the only charging point on the cruise island.
• A government-sponsored EV charging station where two out of five plugs worked, then only one after the central charge failed, when a man who went to a Dave Matthews concert begged me to switch the charging station with him so his wife wouldn’t miss out. the group’s opening song.

It probably doesn’t matter why or how the non-Tesla charger refuses to work. Damaged cables or plugs, broken screens, mobile data drops, app problems, electrical faults—whatever the reason, it can’t be fixed right away by calling a support number, and now you need a backup plan.

This is how I think Supercharger access is most useful to us, the poor of the EV world: a solid backup plan for those exhausted by other means. Connecting to a more established country network requires a not-so-cheap adapter (or getting a rare “Magic Dock” station). You should find a way to connect a very short cable that is intended for the specific driver side, rear area of ​​your port. On the Bolt, that’s the middle-front-left area, just before the door, which is probably the worst place for these cables. You can only charge on third and fourth generation chargers. And you have to pay whatever Tesla decides to charge us non-members, which tends to be on the more expensive side (I paid $0.48 and $0.53 per kilowatt-hour).

No More Car Dealer Chargers

But it’s hard to argue with the locations and reliability of these bright red rectangles. On my most recent trip from Washington, DC, to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I planned a long charging stop on the way down at EVgo in Williamsburg, Virginia, near the shopping plaza with Target. This worked out because we needed groceries for the trip. But only two of the four chargers were working (after I wasted 5 minutes trying to activate the third green channel within the app). If I wanted to save 11 minutes and maximize my chances by having 12 stores to choose from, I would choose a Tesla Supercharger further from the street I was already on.

Tesla Superchargers are usually found on highways, near places with restrooms or snacks or shopping, and Tesla’s app appears to correlate with how many stairs are occupied and active. With every other network or multibrand app, you’re doing a lot of guesswork, which gets in the way of planning a road trip. What seems better: Hopefully the 250-kW super-fast charger Plugshare on display at the car dealership is available at 9 a.m. on Sunday, or driving 15 minutes on the way to Walmart and waiting for your turn? Follow-up question: Have you ever willingly spent 30 minutes at a car dealership when you already have a working car?

The Proof Is in the Plugging

This kind of thinking inspired me to try charging the Tesla on my way back. I bought the A2Z Typhoon Pro adapter, based on its strong reviews and fast shipping. It also cost less than the GM charger for $225 after the coupon code, the GM model was discontinued in November, and the Chevrolet app suggested I pick it up at the dealer. Before I could use any adapter, I had to find a location. Stains are the hard part.

At my first stop, Wawa, all of the other eight spots were taken, and the stall lined up next to the car was occupied by a family who told me they would be there for 50 minutes. I pulled at the empty space, tried to stretch its rope, but it wouldn’t come close. I left and parked, and started looking for my next stop. Soon after, the father of the 50-minute family appeared at my window. I practiced some form of speech, mockery, or perhaps political speech.

“You know, you can stand up, like, on the side, behind those plugs, and I think they will work,” said my father. He was right; there was nothing behind these Supercharger stations but a parking lot, and it was empty. I pulled up, plugged in the adapter (quick review: rock solid), pulled the cord, opened the app, selected the channel number and charger, and tapped. Within 30 seconds, the juice was flowing. No two screens or plugs share the same power source, just power.