This is an entire-industry problem. Chargers need to just work like a gas pump-- scan your card and plug in. No apps no craziness. Why does this have to be so hard??
PlugShare is improved immensely. We drove through southern Colorado and Kansas recently, where Superchargers don’t yet exist, and the PlugShare locations and reviews were super helpful. That said, the CCS adapter I bought from Tesla, was a huge pain to use, with about 30% success. Tesla supercharger use has spoiled us!
Yeah Tesla superchargers just work. I have never seen anyone plug into one of them and it not work. I did one time hear that someone plugged in and it didn't but when they checked the app it did say it was not available... so they just moved to one of the other ones just beside it and no problems. Ho Hum!
Tesla vehicles and software are next level great ... the Supercharger Network combined with the cars software is nearly perfect. We have 3 Tesla's in the family and have owned them for over 3 years. We have never had a problem charging on road trips and they have never required any service except tires on the highest mileage road tripper (Model X, 51K miles). Based upon this real world experience, I would never even consider purchasing any other brand of BEV ...
I'm impressed with the wild eyed optimism in road tripping a Chevy Bolt. Doesn't matter whether the chargers work or not. 50kW fast charging is a misnomer. You can grow old watching a 50kW charger. At Fully Charged in Austin back in 2020 there were some people that came in Bolts. Amazing patience. I've been buying low range EVs since 2001 or so, but I knew I was using them for urban only commuting. People shoot themselves in both feet when they get their back up about Musk and then purposefully buy any other brand. No wonder there is a significant percentage that say they will go back to ICE.
I’ve rented several Tesla model 3’s with no problems at all however, I’ve also rented two Ford Mustang EV’s and it’s been a disaster waiting in line to use a charging station with only three or four chargers, usually at least one not working. What happened to the 8 billions of dollars Allocated for infrastructure where did it all go? Had to wait for an hour and a half to charge the mustang up. People were very frustrated in line. They are going to lose customers over this. Also the cables seem to be on the wrong side and have to drag the cable across the hood to barely reach. People were So frustrated and disgusted, you could sense they regretted their EV purchase, what a Huge failure.
This is a huge black eye on the EV ownership experience which has the potential to really put the brakes on EV adoption. If a prospective EV buyer ask for my EV recommendation lately I only recommend buying a Tesla simply for the Tesla Supercharger network (although there are many other reasons). I am the original owner of a Tesla Model 3 LR and have used the Supercharger network to drive from Southern CA->Las Vegas->Yellowstone->Portland and back and had 0 issues with the Supercharger network.
The NACS standard was designed by engineers to encourage EV adoption. The CCS charging standard was created by the ICE manufactures marketing departments to discourage EV adoption. In 10 years the only place you will find a CCS charger is in a museum or an electronic surplus store.
I'd have used the first ChargePoint station and avoided all of that hassle. I've owned a 2020 Bolt EV for less than a year and have put over 12k miles on it. I've had some charging frustrations but nothing remotely like what you describe here. I plan my stops on a road trip before I leave the house. If I want to eat while charging, I can usually find a station near restaurants, but sitting in my car for half an hour in an empty parking lot on a long road trip isn't a big deal. I've done it at Tanger Outlets in Commerce, GA at night when all of the stores were closed. I'll read or browse the web or something, things I'd be doing at home anyway. I don't drive long distances (requiring public charging) routinely, but I've driven from my home in Statham, GA (near Athens) to family in North Carolina and family in Alabama and to the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge and Tybee Island in south Georgia, all 250-300 miles. These trips generally require one, 30-45 minute charging stop each way and charging at my destination. I can often use level 2 charging overnight at my destination as I did at the campground where I stayed at Tybee Island. I've taken eight of these trips and never hesitate to drive my Bolt though we also own a Honda CRV. If anything, I've taken more road trips since buying my Bolt. Charging adds a little excitement to the trip, but I enjoy defying the ubiquitous FUD about EVs online. I rarely (only once) stop at a station that's not working because Plugshare is very good about identifying these stations in my experience. The one non-working charger was an EVGo, and I'd have known it wasn't working if I had checked the EVGo app first. EVGo is nonetheless my favorite network because it remembers my vehicle, so I don't need to use an app or even an RFID card to start charging. I just plug and go. ChargePoint is my second-favorite network because I have an RFID card on my key ring (that Chevrolet provided with the vehicle), so I only need to plug in and tap the RFID card to start charging. Of the larger networks, Electrify America is my least favorite. I've always been able to charge at EA stations, but I've often had to call customer support to start charging. The EnviroSpark charger at the Classic Center in Athens sucks in my experience, but the ChargePoint station at Georgia Power is very reliable. I rarely need to use public charging in Athens, but I've tried the local options. The EnviroSpark charger has a good rating on Plugshare, so I should give it another chance at some point. All of these networks and their apps are frustrating at first, but you'll never convince me that one provider is a better alternative. If Tesla had a monopoly, it would eventually provide crappy service because that's what monopolies do. Of course, I'd love to have access to Tesla's network and hope that I'll have it soon, but I'm happy that I spent half as much for my Bolt as I would have paid for a Model Y. Tesla is a great company, but its vehicles are still pricey, and the added convenience of the Tesla charging network wasn't worth another twenty grand to me. Seems odd to me that CCS charging is so much worse in California than in Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama, so I doubt that your experience on this trip is representative. I'm not knocking Tesla, and I'm sure my next EV will have a NACS connector and 150 kW charging, but I would recommend a Bolt EV or EUV to anyone who takes road trips infrequently and has enough intelligence and persistence to navigate the CCS charging networks when they do.
Very interesting write up. Glad you've found success charging your Bolt. Have to disagree with your comment that if Tesla was a monopoly they would let their chargers become crappy! No way!
I have a brotherinlaw that has a Kia and doesn't have to much problem, but I agree with you. He has gotten down to 1% once, but he just has a 'hate Elon' attitude, so he will never buy Tesla. His arguments are irrational IMHO, so to keep peace, we agree to disagree. For the most part he is very intelligent just this one area he has a real mental block on.
NACS to the rescue. Tesla, and I assume Musk, should be vaunted for their generous spirit in enabling other cars to use their network. Clearly there are profits here, but it is not clear they wouldn't have reaped more by keeping other manufacturers in this hellish situation.
Generosity has less to do with it than the IRA. Tesla must open up its network to claim IRA money. I'm not sure what's taking so long. I expected an adapter for GM vehicles by now, and I read that GM has the necessary adapter and software, but Tesla superchargers don't support them yet, only Ford and BMW.
OMG way to use one specific example to generalize a whole class of vehicles. As a scientist you should know better. My CCS car locks the charger handle to the car. My CCS car has in dash route planning and guidance to available chargers.
I've taken many road trips of 250-300 miles in my Bolt EV. 55 kW is adequate for these trips, and for much longer trips (say 500 miles), I ordinarily fly rather than driving anyway. Uber-fast charging is overrated. I don't know why I'd ever need more than 150 kW, and vehicles accepting this rate often don't get it from public chargers (including Tesla chargers) anyway. I saw a real-world test in which someone drove a Tesla many miles and averaged around 70 kW with many different charging stations. That's twice what I'd average, but the difference is much less dramatic than you'd think from the vehicle's theoretical capacity. The Bolt is a great, large radius (like a hundred miles) commuter car, but it's also acceptable for 300 mile road trips. A half-hour stop on a five hour trip is not a big deal. I need to leave half an hour earlier. What would I be doing with that half-hour at home besides writing UA-cam comments anyway? I can usually do that while charging my car if I'm not eating.
Tesla flunks the "Mom test" Would you send your mom off to see her sister 1,000 miles away and spend a month with her in a Tesla? My mom used to do that trip for 15 years in her Toyota Camry. She would load up the car with gifts, plants, and furniture and take off at 8 AM stop at a hotel overnight and arrive at her sister's and spend a month and return the same way. Would I have here take our 2022 Tesla Model Y and wave bye bye at 8 AM on the same trip? Hell no she would probably vomit from the anxiety. Would I have here drive a hybrid Toyota Rav4 - hell yes. this is one of 50 reasons 1/2 of the Tesla owners in a recent survey say the next car they buy will not be a BEV (100% battery electric vehicle) BEVs are dying worldwide as the geeks who wanted one have one and half of us never want another.
I would love to do that trip in my Tesla. However, we also have an EQS 580 and I won’t go greater than one charging stop until MB is compatible with Tesla Superchargers. We will never own a gas or hybrid vehicle again.
@@johnpoldo8817 A Better Route Planner has the trip charging 8 times, averaging 20 minutes. That's 160 minutes of charging - the Rav4 Hybrid can go 600 miles on one tank - so 1 stop is all it takes and that would be at the motel half way - that's 2 extra hours of travel and 8 times looking for a charging station which can be behind Walmarts.
@@noleftturns That’s because it is a Chevy Bolt which is not a road-trip EV. My mother would get the Tesla model Y or my model S to achieve much less charging time and fewer stops. In fact, I’ve made multiple road-trips between Boston & SW Florida using ABRP. My charging time was minuscule because every 2-3 hours I had stop anyway for a bathroom break, food, drink, and a stretch to avoid falling asleep. I agree EVs take a little longer for a road trip, but you get more than enough satisfaction not buying smelly gas from people at OPEC who hate us. Cleaner air and helping the environment is icing on the cake.
@@johnpoldo8817 Pie in the sky EV land talk. What about the 7 years of CO2 pollution that every Tesla comes with on Day 1-the god-awful mines where diesel equipment mines the minerals/metals, the processing plants are all run by diesel equipment, and the ships that transport the ore are all run by diesel engines? Then most of the electricity put into an EV comes from carbon energy. and for what? Since gasoline/oil/natural gas has been used in the past 100 years, the CO2 levels have gone up, and even at the current percentage of 0.0044% of the air being CO2, plants are still struggling - they need a lot more CO2, which means more food for humanity and more oxygen for animals.
This is an entire-industry problem. Chargers need to just work like a gas pump-- scan your card and plug in. No apps no craziness. Why does this have to be so hard??
Good point. Many chargers work with only a credit card, but why weren't all chargers designed this way from the get go?
@@restonthewind I know, right? Why do so many people jump on the "let's make an app!" train to everyone's detriment??
PlugShare is improved immensely. We drove through southern Colorado and Kansas recently, where Superchargers don’t yet exist, and the PlugShare locations and reviews were super helpful. That said, the CCS adapter I bought from Tesla, was a huge pain to use, with about 30% success. Tesla supercharger use has spoiled us!
Yeah Tesla superchargers just work. I have never seen anyone plug into one of them and it not work. I did one time hear that someone plugged in and it didn't but when they checked the app it did say it was not available... so they just moved to one of the other ones just beside it and no problems. Ho Hum!
Jon, don’t record videos while walking up hill. Listening to you was painful.
Tesla vehicles and software are next level great ... the Supercharger Network combined with the cars software is nearly perfect. We have 3 Tesla's in the family and have owned them for over 3 years. We have never had a problem charging on road trips and they have never required any service except tires on the highest mileage road tripper (Model X, 51K miles). Based upon this real world experience, I would never even consider purchasing any other brand of BEV ...
I'm impressed with the wild eyed optimism in road tripping a Chevy Bolt. Doesn't matter whether the chargers work or not. 50kW fast charging is a misnomer. You can grow old watching a 50kW charger. At Fully Charged in Austin back in 2020 there were some people that came in Bolts. Amazing patience. I've been buying low range EVs since 2001 or so, but I knew I was using them for urban only commuting. People shoot themselves in both feet when they get their back up about Musk and then purposefully buy any other brand. No wonder there is a significant percentage that say they will go back to ICE.
I’ve rented several Tesla model 3’s with no problems at all however, I’ve also rented two Ford Mustang EV’s and it’s been a disaster waiting in line to use a charging station with only three or four chargers, usually at least one not working.
What happened to the 8 billions of dollars Allocated for infrastructure where did it all go? Had to wait for an hour and a half to charge the mustang up. People were very frustrated in line. They are going to lose customers over this. Also the cables seem to be on the wrong side and have to drag the cable across the hood to barely reach.
People were So frustrated and disgusted, you could sense they regretted their EV purchase, what a Huge failure.
Money sits there. Unspent. Government won’t hire Tesla. Others? Useless!
I’ve rented several Chevy Bolt EVs / EUVs and Polestar 2 at Hertz and Enterprise. They are wonderful EVs when you have a level 2 home charger.
This is a huge black eye on the EV ownership experience which has the potential to really put the brakes on EV adoption. If a prospective EV buyer ask for my EV recommendation lately I only recommend buying a Tesla simply for the Tesla Supercharger network (although there are many other reasons). I am the original owner of a Tesla Model 3 LR and have used the Supercharger network to drive from Southern CA->Las Vegas->Yellowstone->Portland and back and had 0 issues with the Supercharger network.
The NACS standard was designed by engineers to encourage EV adoption.
The CCS charging standard was created by the ICE manufactures marketing departments to discourage EV adoption.
In 10 years the only place you will find a CCS charger is in a museum or an electronic surplus store.
And the EU
Nice format with hike & talk 👄
That is the reason we see so much negativity towards EV's.
Thats why when I was on vacation and Budget said they have a KIA EV for rent I said hell no.
Amazing, you actually got my own heart rate up just listening to you breathe while walking up hill. Hmmmmm.... medical breakthrough?
😂
Slow down and maybe we can hear you and you could have actually have some breath😂❤
The gymwork payback 😅
Brothers! They never listen!
I'd have used the first ChargePoint station and avoided all of that hassle. I've owned a 2020 Bolt EV for less than a year and have put over 12k miles on it. I've had some charging frustrations but nothing remotely like what you describe here. I plan my stops on a road trip before I leave the house. If I want to eat while charging, I can usually find a station near restaurants, but sitting in my car for half an hour in an empty parking lot on a long road trip isn't a big deal. I've done it at Tanger Outlets in Commerce, GA at night when all of the stores were closed. I'll read or browse the web or something, things I'd be doing at home anyway.
I don't drive long distances (requiring public charging) routinely, but I've driven from my home in Statham, GA (near Athens) to family in North Carolina and family in Alabama and to the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge and Tybee Island in south Georgia, all 250-300 miles. These trips generally require one, 30-45 minute charging stop each way and charging at my destination. I can often use level 2 charging overnight at my destination as I did at the campground where I stayed at Tybee Island. I've taken eight of these trips and never hesitate to drive my Bolt though we also own a Honda CRV. If anything, I've taken more road trips since buying my Bolt. Charging adds a little excitement to the trip, but I enjoy defying the ubiquitous FUD about EVs online.
I rarely (only once) stop at a station that's not working because Plugshare is very good about identifying these stations in my experience. The one non-working charger was an EVGo, and I'd have known it wasn't working if I had checked the EVGo app first. EVGo is nonetheless my favorite network because it remembers my vehicle, so I don't need to use an app or even an RFID card to start charging. I just plug and go. ChargePoint is my second-favorite network because I have an RFID card on my key ring (that Chevrolet provided with the vehicle), so I only need to plug in and tap the RFID card to start charging.
Of the larger networks, Electrify America is my least favorite. I've always been able to charge at EA stations, but I've often had to call customer support to start charging. The EnviroSpark charger at the Classic Center in Athens sucks in my experience, but the ChargePoint station at Georgia Power is very reliable. I rarely need to use public charging in Athens, but I've tried the local options. The EnviroSpark charger has a good rating on Plugshare, so I should give it another chance at some point.
All of these networks and their apps are frustrating at first, but you'll never convince me that one provider is a better alternative. If Tesla had a monopoly, it would eventually provide crappy service because that's what monopolies do. Of course, I'd love to have access to Tesla's network and hope that I'll have it soon, but I'm happy that I spent half as much for my Bolt as I would have paid for a Model Y. Tesla is a great company, but its vehicles are still pricey, and the added convenience of the Tesla charging network wasn't worth another twenty grand to me.
Seems odd to me that CCS charging is so much worse in California than in Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama, so I doubt that your experience on this trip is representative. I'm not knocking Tesla, and I'm sure my next EV will have a NACS connector and 150 kW charging, but I would recommend a Bolt EV or EUV to anyone who takes road trips infrequently and has enough intelligence and persistence to navigate the CCS charging networks when they do.
Very interesting write up. Glad you've found success charging your Bolt. Have to disagree with your comment that if Tesla was a monopoly they would let their chargers become crappy! No way!
my best friend has a bolt and I asked him why he bought that vs a Tesla and he said he wants nothing to do with MAGA Musk
I have a brotherinlaw that has a Kia and doesn't have to much problem, but I agree with you. He has gotten down to 1% once, but he just has a 'hate Elon' attitude, so he will never buy Tesla. His arguments are irrational IMHO, so to keep peace, we agree to disagree. For the most part he is very intelligent just this one area he has a real mental block on.
“emotional” block. Psychologists explain that humans rarely make decisions based on logic. Me and Optimus are both glad we ain’t human❤
So you are saying Marry Bara is not a genius 😂😂😂
She is a genius GM Board Chair who awards HUGE compensation to GM CEO😂
yikes!!!
NACS to the rescue. Tesla, and I assume Musk, should be vaunted for their generous spirit in enabling other cars to use their network. Clearly there are profits here, but it is not clear they wouldn't have reaped more by keeping other manufacturers in this hellish situation.
Generosity has less to do with it than the IRA. Tesla must open up its network to claim IRA money. I'm not sure what's taking so long. I expected an adapter for GM vehicles by now, and I read that GM has the necessary adapter and software, but Tesla superchargers don't support them yet, only Ford and BMW.
Talking to folks with shades on is a horrible US habit. Was a big problem in Afghanistan trying to "connect" with locals. Can't see your eyes, doc!
Very true
Doc, the gym does not give you aerobic training to improve your VO2 max…
OMG way to use one specific example to generalize a whole class of vehicles. As a scientist you should know better. My CCS car locks the charger handle to the car. My CCS car has in dash route planning and guidance to available chargers.
The Bolt is only a large radius commuter car since at best it can only charge at 55 kw.
I've taken many road trips of 250-300 miles in my Bolt EV. 55 kW is adequate for these trips, and for much longer trips (say 500 miles), I ordinarily fly rather than driving anyway. Uber-fast charging is overrated. I don't know why I'd ever need more than 150 kW, and vehicles accepting this rate often don't get it from public chargers (including Tesla chargers) anyway.
I saw a real-world test in which someone drove a Tesla many miles and averaged around 70 kW with many different charging stations. That's twice what I'd average, but the difference is much less dramatic than you'd think from the vehicle's theoretical capacity.
The Bolt is a great, large radius (like a hundred miles) commuter car, but it's also acceptable for 300 mile road trips. A half-hour stop on a five hour trip is not a big deal. I need to leave half an hour earlier. What would I be doing with that half-hour at home besides writing UA-cam comments anyway? I can usually do that while charging my car if I'm not eating.
@@restonthewind you proved my point that it is a large radius car.
Why caps in the title of every video?
Because he wants you. Stop questioning other people’s autonomy
Tesla flunks the "Mom test"
Would you send your mom off to see her sister 1,000 miles away and spend a month with her in a Tesla?
My mom used to do that trip for 15 years in her Toyota Camry.
She would load up the car with gifts, plants, and furniture and take off at 8 AM
stop at a hotel overnight
and arrive at her sister's and spend a month and return the same way.
Would I have here take our 2022 Tesla Model Y and wave bye bye at 8 AM on the same trip?
Hell no she would probably vomit from the anxiety.
Would I have here drive a hybrid Toyota Rav4 - hell yes.
this is one of 50 reasons 1/2 of the Tesla owners in a recent survey say the next car they buy will not be a BEV (100% battery electric vehicle)
BEVs are dying worldwide as the geeks who wanted one have one and half of us never want another.
@@shannon6876 How so? Please give me an example how I'm wrong?
I would love to do that trip in my Tesla. However, we also have an EQS 580 and I won’t go greater than one charging stop until MB is compatible with Tesla Superchargers. We will never own a gas or hybrid vehicle again.
@@johnpoldo8817 A Better Route Planner has the trip charging 8 times, averaging 20 minutes.
That's 160 minutes of charging - the Rav4 Hybrid can go 600 miles on one tank - so 1 stop is all it takes and that would be at the motel half way - that's 2 extra hours of travel and 8 times looking for a charging station which can be behind Walmarts.
@@noleftturns That’s because it is a Chevy Bolt which is not a road-trip EV. My mother would get the Tesla model Y or my model S to achieve much less charging time and fewer stops. In fact, I’ve made multiple road-trips between Boston & SW Florida using ABRP. My charging time was minuscule because every 2-3 hours I had stop anyway for a bathroom break, food, drink, and a stretch to avoid falling asleep.
I agree EVs take a little longer for a road trip, but you get more than enough satisfaction not buying smelly gas from people at OPEC who hate us. Cleaner air and helping the environment is icing on the cake.
@@johnpoldo8817 Pie in the sky EV land talk.
What about the 7 years of CO2 pollution that every Tesla comes with on Day 1-the god-awful mines where diesel equipment mines the minerals/metals, the processing plants are all run by diesel equipment, and the ships that transport the ore are all run by diesel engines?
Then most of the electricity put into an EV comes from carbon energy.
and for what? Since gasoline/oil/natural gas has been used in the past 100 years, the CO2 levels have gone up, and even at the current percentage of 0.0044% of the air being CO2, plants are still struggling - they need a lot more CO2, which means more food for humanity and more oxygen for animals.
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