⚡️Tesla Supercharger Access Shouldn't Be Difficult

When Ford announced that owners of its Mach-E SUV and Lightning pickup trucks would have access to the Tesla Supercharger network, it opened the floodgates for an industrywide migration to the SAE J3400 connector and away from the CCS combo plug.

There are a ton of reasons why a North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug, also called the Tesla plug, also called SAE J3400, is better than what we were using. First off, the CCS connector is huge and cumbersome to plug in sometimes. If you have limited hand movement, it might be nearly impossible to plug in properly. The NACS connector, on the other hand, is lightweight and nimble. It’s easy to just boop it right into the port and start charging.

Since reliability of non-Tesla Supercharger stations is also questionable, opening up the some nearly 18,000 plug network to other EVs makes sense. At least before other OEMs plugged in, Tesla Superchargers are known to be quite reliable.

The Supercharging process is also simple, which would be a welcomed change for EV drivers of non-Tesla vehicles.

If you have a Tesla, you are logged into your Tesla account in your car. When you plug in to a Supercharging station, the charging starts right away. Since Tesla has access to your payment information, you are charged automatically for your charging session and the transaction is painless.

That’s sure better than pulling up to an Electrify America station, plugging in first, tapping your phone to use your EA account, having the verification fail, not having a reliable cellphone signal so you can start the session from the app, starting over, trying to use your credit card that supposedly works but then doesn’t, and then trying a different credit card only to have a charging session start and then fail after you get to 30% state of charge.

No, that’s not a personal experience story. Oh wait, yes it is. I’m not sure how EA’s newest hardware is even less reliable than its legacy hardware, but somehow it is? At least near me.

But I digress. Every Supercharging experience I’ve ever had has been flawless, and that’s how the experience should be for EVs connecting via NACS to the network.

After a software update, that’s the case with Ford. You can use the freely available – if you can get one while its still free – adapter and with an over-the-air software update already sent out, you just have to plug in and the magic happens.

You’ll have to have a Ford account and your payment information needs to be up-to-date, but that’s identical to the Tesla experience.

You can even use a third-party adapter, if you’re impatient or can’t get a free one, if you choose to.

A little bit later, Rivian joined in on the fun with a similar charging experience as Ford.

But now, if you own a GM electric vehicle if you have access to the network. If you have a Bolt EV or Bolt EUV, you’ll need to get a software update from the dealership to make it all work – which admittedly is expected with the older hardware – but then you should be all set.

Except GM isn’t offering its adapter free for any period of time like Ford and Rivian did. Since there’s been a lack of inventory on the official adapters (Tesla makes them), that’s kind of understandable, but still it’s not the greatest look.

The “GM approved” adapter is expected to cost $225, and GM states it will look at multiple manufacturers for the adapter. The Lectron Vortex plug is $199 and not GM approved.

For GM, though, that matters. Per reporting from The Autopian, using that Lectron adapter (or any other third-party adapter) could void your warranty.

Umm, wut? Now I do understand if the adapter causes damage, General Motors shouldn’t be expected to warrant that. But it’s also strange that the company is making such a statement, because unscrupulous dealerships could use this as a way to void a warranty unnecessarily.

If you change your own oil, an automaker can’t void your warranty. If you change your own oil, and as a result of that something happens to your car, then it’s not covered under warranty. However, that hasn’t stopped dealerships and automakers in the past from trying.

Yes, you should probably use the GM approved adapter, but it would be in GM’s best interest to approve more adapters than just the one it sells. Imagine having to use an Apple-approved power brick to charge your iPhone. Wait, Apple would probably like that.

But the bigger issue with GM’s adoption of NACS is that GM doesn’t support plug and charge. That means when you plug into a Supercharging station, you’ll have to open the associated app on your phone to start the charging station. Just like you’d have to do if you plugged into an EVgo station or a ChargePoint station. The experience isn’t seamless.

It should be. There’s no reason for it not to be, at least from a consumer perspective.

Sure, there might be technical limitations that make implementing the plug and charge aspect more difficult. Heck, it might even be because Elon Musk, in his infinite wisdom, fired the entire Supercharging team for reasons. But then hired some of them back because he’s an idiot. However, at the end of the day, the Tesla Supercharging experience on GM vehicles isn’t going to be much of a difference than the experience elsewhere on other networks.

Is it fine? Sure. Is it ideal? Not really. Hopefully this is something they rectify in future software updates.

It’s not clear yet how Hyundai will implement its solution. We’ve seen the updated 2025 Ioniq five which will ship with a native NACS port instead of CCS, so presumably it’ll also support the plug and charge needed for seamless Supercharging use. But there’s also a chance they don’t. At least you won’t need an adapter on the new cars – just the ones currently on the road.

The problem with requiring the app to start a charging session rests in the weird situation I described above. If you’re in an area with poor cellphone reception – like the Blue Heron service plaza on the Ohio Turnpike – and need to charge, you might not have enough signal to start a session. Technology is supposed to make this process easier.

I also hope that when Ionna gets up and running, it’ll also support plug and charging like we have now with Tesla Superchargers and the way Rivian and Ford connect to them. It speeds up the time spent charging, and as stations get busier and busier spending three minutes to start a session from an app is just silly.

Let’s take this time switching to NACS to figure out these other issues so we don’t have to do something like this again soon.

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