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After a long, long time waiting and lots of rumors, it’s finally official. GM’s electric vehicles are finally officially supported at Tesla Superchargers, provided you have a CCS adapter. I’ve already half covered this in an article that came out hours before the announcement, but it’s time to add information and update now that everything is official and not done by pretending I own an F-150 Lightning!
Yes, It Works
In my previous article, I explained that the online rumor mill was in overdrive (or, the EV equivalent) as the news was about to be announced. Some people, who knew in advance about the announcement, were taking GM EVs out to Supercharger stations to see if they were working, and they were. So, I did the same thing. As of just hours before the announcement, my Bolt EUV was able to charge at a Supercharger, but the Tesla app didn’t officially support it. Either way, the vehicle was allowed, but I had to tell the app that I had an officially supported vehicle.
The best news was that the experience was boring. I just plugged it in, told the app to start a charge, and it started charging. There were no billing issues, no problems with needing to plug it in twice, or anything else. It just worked as it was supposed to.
About the only thing that could make the experience even more boring (the good kind of boring) would be to enable Plug&Charge for the Bolt and EUV like EVgo does, but having the option to use Tesla Superchargers is still great, even if that last little bit of luxury convenience isn’t there.
Let’s Talk About That $225 Adapter
Sadly, the rumor is true. GM isn’t doing what Ford and Rivian did. The company is NOT giving away adapters to foster good will. GM wants to not only have you pay for it, but pay an extra $25 above what you could get a likely identical adapter for elsewhere.
If you’re familiar with CCS-NACS adapters, you probably recognize that GM is selling a Lectron adapter, which you can get for $199. But, if you buy the Lectron adapter, it doesn’t go through GM’s priests, who give each one a proprietary blessing and exorcism before it heads out the door. If you buy a heretical non-blessed adapter, GM threatens you with loss of warranty (something they really can’t do under U.S. warranty law unless they can prove that the adapter caused damage — so, be sure to buy a good one!).
But, seriously, the big difference appears to be that GM’s dealers need to make a few bucks, so they’re making a few bucks.
I feel that GM should have given away adapters. GM made the choice to switch away from the CCS standard to the NACS standard. Sure, Ford did it first, but if GM had stuck to CCS, other automakers would have hesitated more, leaving CCS as a viable standard long-term. There were definitely good reasons to switch (which I’m sure you all will tell me about in the comments—just know that I agree with most of them). But GM chose CCS and then GM made the choice to switch away to NACS that diminished the value of customers’ vehicles. It should have been on them to make it right, not the customers.
Software Support (Both GM & Third Parties) Happened Fast
Another thing I noticed early in the morning on the day of the announcement is that software changes happened fast.
First off, GM’s app updated and added the Supercharger network to the list of networks in the myChevrolet app. What isn’t known yet is whether GM is going to add Plug&Charge for all vehicles, or just newer Ultium vehicles. But, you can start a charge from within the app.
The Tesla app also added support for GM vehicles quickly. Now, instead of having to fool the app into starting a charge by telling it you have another vehicle (something that didn’t work until recently), you can be honest and get a charge. It gives you a listing of compatible stations (more on this in a minute), and everything.
Other third-party apps like PlugShare, A Better Route Planner, and others quickly updated GM vehicle capabilities. For example, PlugShare lets you see which NACS stations are compatible with a GM vehicle if you tell it you have the NACS adapter. This is important, because many Superchargers don’t support non-Tesla EVs.
This Is Big News, But Not As Big As Many Think
As the owner of a GM vehicle, I’m glad to see this happen. It not only gives an important second option in many places, but there are also places where Tesla Superchargers are literally the only thing around. This will definitely help me take trips.
But, at the same time, looking at PlugShare to see what all I’ve gained access to is a little disappointing. In New Mexico along I-10, there’s a nice station not far from my house that this adds, and there are another couple of nice station options this gives me in El Paso. But Deming’s Supercharger is V2, and thus doesn’t support the adapter. The same is true further down the road in Willcox, Arizona. Going up I-25, there’s a Supercharger in Socorro that supports NACS vehicles, but the station in Truth or Consequences is an older V2 and only supports Tesla vehicles.
This situation will change, of course, as Tesla adds more V3 and V4 stations, as well as performs upgrades on some V2 stations. So, the usefulness of NACS charging is going to increase over time. Non-Tesla charging networks will also start offering more connectors, and likely eventually replace CCS or CHAdeMO connectors over time.
While I know there are CCS drivers who are going to charge at Superchargers almost exclusively now away from home and never look back at the networks that let them down, I’m not going to do that. I want to see a diverse and resilient EV charging network, and monopolies haven’t historically provided good service in the long run.
So, for me at least, Superchargers are going to be more of a backup option unless I know there are no other providers or the others aren’t going to work (overcrowded, broken, etc.). This should not only help keep other providers going, but also give them incentive to be better, not get bad reviews on apps like PlugShare, and keep drivers coming for a charge.
Whatever your choice is on this (preferring Superchargers or preferring other providers), we’re all going to win here.
Images by Jennifer Sensiba.
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