Supercharging Non-Teslas Is Magical

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EV Efficiency Is More Important Than Range

I know that right now the discussion about electric vehicles centers around range. GM made a big deal of its pickups going more than 400 miles on a single charge. Plus, if the charger doesn’t overheat while doing so, those same pickup trucks can recharge at quite a high rate of kilowattage (yes, I made that up).

But that doesn’t mean those trucks are particularly efficient. The same applies for other EVs. I just spent some time in a Ford Mach-E GT and during a highway range test hit just 2.3 miles per kilowatt-hour. Over the 91 kWh capacity of the battery pack, that’s a range of just 209.3 miles. The Monroney sticker on that vehicle says 280 miles of range.

Yes, I know a lot goes into both range an efficiency, but here’s the ultimate point. If a driver, for whatever reason, is getting 2 miles/kWh in their EV, then every kWh put back into the battery through charging doesn’t actually add that much range.

Nobody wants to sit at a fast charger and charge at a mediocre rate while only adding a few miles per minute attached to that charger. With many EVs charging in the peak 150 - 170 kW range, you can be sitting for a while to add real range.

In some cases, putting electricity faster into the battery is the solution, but if the car was just more efficient you wouldn’t need to hit insane peak charging rates. But if it’s not going to be super efficient, it better charge quickly.

It’ll take some time to shift the discussion from range to efficiency, but for EVs to really make sense, helping make that shift means that EVs will be more affordable and also limit the strain on infrastructure because not every charger will need to be a 400 kW DCFC to be useful.

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Access to the Tesla Supercharging Network is Magical

During my week with that Mach-E, I was able to utilize the Tesla Supercharger network. It’s so incredibly refreshing to pull in and avoid the Electrify America chargers for a large bank of Superchargers. Even though I had to use an adapter — which is actually fine and not that hard — the experience was completely seamless.

Not every automaker will support Plug and Charge with the Supercharger stations, but I wish they did. Not having to deal with an app or a payment kiosk really makes charging easy. It’s not a big deal, but that little bit of time you’re spending not futzing with an app is just a big anxiety relief.

Also, the service plazas on the Ohio Turnpike I typically DCFC at are in a cell phone dead zone. Both the EA chargers and the Tesla Superchargers are also far enough away from the building that the Wi-Fi won’t connect out that far. Plug and Charger, however, just works and is painless. I hope GM finds a way to add that part in the future.

Not every EV has a charging port located in an ideal spot for using a Supercharger, so sometimes you have to park kinda funny. Plus, you still get some weird looks from Tesla drivers when you pull up in non-Tesla. But the other day, when the EA chargers will full and I needed some juice, the completely empty 12 stall Tesla Supercharger was a bit of a life saver. I can’t wait for all of the OEMs to be on board with this experience.

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