Tesla Supercharger vs. Electrify America Site Comparison in Massachusetts

A recent cold weather EV road trip up and down the Masspike had us visiting several EV fast-charging sites including Auburn Mall, where it's natural to compare the Tesla Supercharger vs. Electrify America sites. We'll take a closer look at the nationwide status of both charging networks heading into 2021, but this individual site provides an existing counterpoint to the notion that Tesla drivers have it better everywhere you go.

Watch for the full trip video later this week, covering all of the non-Tesla DC fast options along I-90 in Massachusetts. Like this specific site, it provides a good look at where we've been with charging electric cars, how quickly things have changed, and what needs to happen next.

As always, thank you for watching and let us know how the non-Tesla EV charging options in your area compare to the Tesla Supercharger network down in the comments.

[keithmcdonnell]

One thing you forgot to mention, at the Tesla 150 KW superchargers, for 8 stations you only have 4 cabinets... so if the station is full, charge rates are cut in half since they have to share cabinets. An EA charging location with 8 stalls will have 8 cabinets, no sharing.

[Runtythestar]

Amazing how much the infrastructure has improved in the last couple of years.

[ouch]

I think one of the really short sighted things Tesla did in the US is use a proprietary connector for charging. It makes their owners wholly reliant on the Tesla charging network with slow and not widely available Chademo as a backup, whereas most any other EV with CCS connectors can use any charger, including Tesla wall and destination chargers with an adapter. Teslas network got a huge head start and thus has a lot better coverage right now, but the CCS fast charger network has exploded in the past couple years and is actively narrowing the gap. There will be a point when Tesla chargers will be overloaded, and there will be open CCS chargers that provide the needed charging speeds, but they can't use them. We've already seen, especially in other countries or even some parts of the US where EV adoption is further along, where there are long queues at Superchargers during travel holidays, whereas the only time I've had an issue where I had to wait for a charger is on an old EA station over a year ago when only one charger was working.
Last summer, I drove well over 1000 miles driving through the middle of nowhere into the mountains and wine country in Washington, never had any issues charging in my Kona. We chose places where we could charge overnight either at or near the hotel, either using the wall charger, level 2 chargers or Tesla chargers with the adapter. We only had to fast charge once and had several options to choose from. Admittedly, this is on the west coast, but the fast charger coverage for any ev (including Tesla) is really only good west of the mountains. We still had no issue driving over the mountains for a 1000+ mile road trip, even though it wasn't a Tesla.

[newscoulomb]

I'm glad you called out the EVgo charger in the corner. It looks like one of their original "Freedom" locations with the two CHAdeMO plugs and one CCS plug. Hopefully, EVgo starts upgrading some of those sites (replacing the standalone CHAdeMO units), but even if they don't, it's going to be really interesting to see the GM-funded EVgo sites as they come online. Comparing those modern EVgo sites to the Electrify America and Supercharger sites should also be interesting. Based on the numbers they posted, we can expect sites with 100 kW to 350 kW speeds (depending on the needs of the venue) and as many as 10 to 16 chargers per site.

[markfitzpatrick]

Great video steve we need people that show this side. Maybe you can get a Mach e when they come out to test and show plug and charge

[auctionwheels]

Good stuff! I have family in Auburn, ma I only wish the bolt charged faster. I’m very happy with the bolt over the model 3 and I find the EA stations very good.

[anthonyc]

Electrify America is still on track for a total of 800 stations in 12 months time. That's an absurd number of new stations and illustrates the insane pace they're building out their network. My biggest gripe right now is that Cycle 2 has been almost entirely focused on metro stations. I am not convinced that having a huge collection of suburban/urban stations is what speeds adoption when it's the inability to drive an EV to where you can with a gas car that is the mental barrier. EA has the charging session data so they must know what's going on.

Anyone have a clue on if Cycle 3 will have EA return to focusing on interstate routes?

[devenlemercier]

Great video as usual! What map is it at 10:20 and where can I find it? Looks interesting.

[DerekReillyIrl]

Great to see non Tesla charging hub options and the 350kW options is awesome. Ireland has only a few 150kW location options around the country. Not sure we'll see the 350kW option anytime soon and I don't think we really need it with such a small country.

[E_Schepp]

The state of charging infrastructure is very state specific.

Currently Iowa we have
- 8 Supercharger locations
- 25 DCFC locations (This number includes all (50 - 350kW sites) and excluding the Chevy and Harley 25kW units

Some of the upsides of Supercharger stations are that :
- they are well spaced out along highway corridors
- easy to use
- lots of chargers per site

Some of the upsides of DCFC in Iowa are:
- They cover a lot more of the rural roads
- 30 more sites are planned by MidAmericana utility company in the next 2 years (this excludes other companies like EA or Chargepoint that are also build some)
- Lots of these are cheap or event free at the moment.
- Quite a few are at Casey's gas station and they make the best Breakfast pizza :)

Tesla is still the benchmark but I feel the completion is growing fast.

Game changer would be if Tesla could:
- make a CCS to Tesla adapter (so they could use ALL CCS DCFC also). This would be a big win for Tesla owners.
- make a Tesla to CCS adapter and allow non Tesla's to use Supercharges for a higher price. They could recoup some $$ for them.

[xbxb]

Having Telsa makes traveling or charging more accessible. You will have the vast Tesla Supercharger and at the same time, you can still access third party charging station if needed vs having non-Tesla Ev, you are stuck in a third-party charging station. Charging Stations is just one thing, owning the right Ev such as Tesla makes charging a lot better.

[ryans.]

Huh, actually used that same place you were at on the way down during my trip (might've forgot something at home that was needed...). Used EA for most of my trip and while I have a few locations where the first charger failed. I was able to use all of them and never had to call EA. I did submit trouble tickets for any sites that either had a failed to start charging or obvious screen or charger issues.

Funny enough, I see your check-in on plugshare right after mine. Must have missed you by just a bit that day.

BTW, since you mentioned it in this video. Where in MA could one see the Mach E in person?

lol. I might argue the reason the scores on the Tesla side stay that way has a little bit of fanboism at work as well.

[tommckinney]

I agree that EA is catching up to Tesla superchargers. So much so that there is a Korean company that is now offering a CCS-1 to Tesla adapter. The first reviews are just now coming out. Elon tweeted that Tesla will offer one in Korea 1Q21....speculation is that it will also be offered in the US. Of course theres's already a ChaDeMo to Tesla adapter (available from Tesla). Elon also said that Tesla superchargers are being used "on a limited basis" for other EVs. Maybe Aptera?
I've read Plugshare comments on superchargers. Yes, they're typically rated 10 but a lot of the comments, are, well, not a 10. Sometimes the chargers don't work, or deliver a low charge rate, or the drivers have to move to another charger. Yet they are rated a 10. EA reviewers tend to rate EA chargers down for that.
Yeah, the 150kW Tesla chargers are the older ones. From what I've seen, all new superchargers are 250kW. Still slower than 350.
One thing Tesla does to improve charge rate is to heat the battery prior to arriving at a supercharger. I don't know if any other manufacturer does that or not.

[Lynyrd_Evnyrd]

The comments (edit: from Elon) about other companies “low-key” using the supercharger network and the future CCS1 to Tesla adapter are interesting developments to me. Although it is a long shot, could Tesla start adding CCS1 connectors to US superchargers like they did in Europe with CCS2?

At some point, someone has to win the EV charging format war and I think it almost has to be CCS1. Particularly with EV charging becoming a focus for the next administration, I wonder if CCS1 could become an official standard compelling Tesla to switch?

When the EU selected CCS2, Tesla did eventually switch to it. Perhaps they could head this one off and switch earlier. Probably not, but it would be nice 👍