I Own a Chevy Bolt, and Superchargers Are a Total Game Changer

It should not beryllium truthful breathtaking to devour a meal quesadilla successful your car.

But this quesadilla was from Wawa, this Wawa hosted a Tesla Supercharger, and this car was the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, hooked up to that Supercharger done an NACS/CCS adapter. More than a twelvemonth aft GM’s power to NACS was announced, and pursuing immoderate Tesla interior chaos that made it look similar a dormant deal, Tesla unlocked entree to its conveniently placed EV charging stations to General Motors cars successful precocious September. It wasn’t each Supercharger, but it was much than 17,000 spots, galore successful places that were antecedently acheronian zones successful immoderate roadworthy travel plan.

I bought my car knowing that roadworthy trips would beryllium an infrequent but existent inconvenience. With Tesla's web disposable now, the anxiousness of rolling the CCS dice successful chartless lands has lessened considerably. To recognize conscionable however this feels, you indispensable archetypal perceive astir the Before Times.

Lots of Apps, Few Guarantees

I’ve had my Bolt for a small implicit a twelvemonth now, completing 4 roadworthy trips that required DC Fast Charging (DCFC). “Fast” is simply a misnomer with the Bolt, the slowest-charging modern EV, forcing you to program crossed artillery levels, adjacent amenities, pets, and guesses astatine assemblage timing. Every nighttime earlier a agelong ride, I’m pinching, zooming, and stressing wrong A Better Route Planner, PlugShare, and Google Maps reviews, asking myself if a ChargePoint successful a brewery parking batch volition present 7 oregon 9 kilowatts per hour.

Despite each this groundwork, I person amassed an awesome postulation of fast-charging scars successful a year’s time:

• Three antithetic road stops connected Thanksgiving play with multi-car lines, endangering our pick-up clip astatine canine boarding
• An Electrify America presumption wherever a azygous car’s unspeakable parking made each different car inhabit 2 moving plug spaces
• Excessive vulnerability to outlet malls, the EV honeypots with the astir reliably moving non-Tesla chargers
• A azygous ChargePoint level 2 charger moving (after a agelong delay) retired of 4 successful a edifice parking lot, the lone charging spot connected a abrogation island.
• A state-sponsored EV charging spot wherever 2 retired of 5 plugs worked, past lone 1 aft a mid-charge failure, wherever a antheral heading to a Dave Matthews performance begged maine to swap this past spot with him truthful his woman wouldn’t miss the band's opening song.

It astir doesn’t substance precisely wherefore oregon however a non-Tesla charger refuses to work. Damaged cables oregon plugs, busted screens, cellular information drops, app issues, electrical faults—whatever the reason, it volition ne'er get fixed successful that infinitesimal by calling the enactment number, and present you request a backup plan.

This is however I deliberation Supercharger entree is astir utile to us, the wretched of the EV earth: a robust backup program for those bushed of the alternatives. Plugging into the country’s astir established web requires a none-too-cheap adapter (or uncovering a uncommon “Magic Dock” station). You person to find a mode to link a precise abbreviated cablegram meant for a circumstantial driver-side, rear-end determination to your port. On the Bolt, that’s the middle-front-left, conscionable up of the door, perchance the worst spot for these cables. You tin lone complaint astatine third- and fourth-generation chargers. And you person to wage immoderate Tesla decides to complaint america nonmembers, which is usually connected the costlier broadside (I’ve paid $0.48 and $0.53 per kilowatt-hour).

No More Car Dealership Chargers

But it’s hard to reason with the locations and reliability of those agleam reddish rectangles. On my astir caller travel from Washington, DC, to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I planned a longer charging halt connected the mode down astatine an EVgo successful Williamsburg, Virginia, adjacent a buying plaza with a Target. This worked retired due to the fact that we needed immoderate groceries for the trip. But lone 2 of 4 chargers were moving (after I wasted 5 minutes trying to marque a green-in-the-app 3rd presumption work). Had I wanted to prevention 11 minutes and up my chances a batch by having 12 stalls to prime from, I could person alternatively chosen a Tesla Supercharger farther down the roadworthy I was already on.

Tesla Superchargers thin to beryllium located on highways, adjacent places with restrooms oregon snacks oregon shopping, and the Tesla app seems to support up connected however galore stalls are occupied and working. With each different web oregon multibrand app, you’re doing a batch of guessing, which is the bane of road-trip planning. What seems better: Hoping that the precise accelerated 250-kW charger Plugshare shows astatine a car dealership is disposable astatine 9 americium connected a Sunday, oregon driving 15 minutes retired of your mode to a Walmart and waiting your turn? Follow-up question: Have you ever willingly spent 30 minutes astatine a car dealership erstwhile you already ain a moving car?

The Proof Is successful the Plugging

This benignant of reasoning spurred maine to effort immoderate Tesla charging connected the mode back. I bought an A2Z Typhoon Pro adapter, based connected its coagulated reviews and accelerated shipping. It besides outgo notably little than GM’s $225 charger aft a coupon code, the GM exemplary was backordered into November, and Chevrolet's app suggested I'd person to prime it up astatine a dealer. Before I could usage immoderate adapter, though, I had to find a spot. The spots are the hard part.

At my archetypal stop, a Wawa, each different spot retired of 8 full was taken, and the 1 stall that lined up to the broadside of the car was occupied by a household that told maine they would beryllium determination 50 minutes. I pulled up successful an bare space, tried to agelong its cable, but it wasn’t adjacent close. I pulled away, parked, and started looking for my adjacent stop. Soon after, the begetter of the 50-minute household appeared successful my window. I steeled myself for immoderate benignant of lecture, teasing, oregon possibly governmental discourse.

“You know, you could really propulsion up, like, sideways, behind those plugs, and I deliberation it would work,” the begetter said. He was right; determination was thing down these Supercharger stations but much parking, and it was empty. I pulled up, plugged successful the adapter (quick review: stone solid), pulled implicit the cord, opened the app, selected the presumption and charger number, and tapped. Less than 30 seconds later, the foodstuff was flowing. No screens oregon 2 plugs sharing 1 powerfulness source, conscionable power.