Two Years Later, Tesla’s Superchargers Are No Magic Bullet

Two years ago, Ford announced that its electric vehicles would gain access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. Nearly every other automaker selling cars in America followed, and by the close of 2023, things were looking up—the best charging network in the country was about to be open to everyone. Game over, range anxiety. No more hunting for public chargers and praying they work, which has held back EV adoption in the U.S. for a decade.

So why didn’t the move supercharge EV adoption, like many people thought it would?

Here we are, in 2025, and though most EVs can technically use Superchargers, charging issues remain. Make no mistake, the advent of more open Tesla Superchargers has certainly improved the public charging landscape. But many of the core issues remain unsolved, making the whole experience confusing, clunky and frustrating. 

Those issues are being solved, bit by bit. For the next few years, however, you’re going to need an adapter no matter what plug your car uses.

Some new Electrify America stations offer both NACS and CCS plugs, ensuring native charging support for almost any EV.

Photo by: RivianTrackr

The Problem With Superchargers

There are a variety of issues with charging a non-Tesla EV at a Supercharger. They all come down to the same fundamental truth: Superchargers were, at least at their outset, not designed for other vehicles.

Tesla was—and still largely is—a closed system. Everything from the car to the batteries to the software to the chargers is made by the company itself. While that gives Tesla a huge edge in terms of vertical integration and cost control, problems are bound to arise when outside elements enter this system.

Supercharger cables are short. Tesla designed its cars to perfectly fit the charging cables, putting all of its charge ports on the rear left of its vehicles. But if your vehicle has longer overhangs or a charge port in another location, as many do, you will have to park across two stalls at many locations.

That won’t be an issue if you’re using Tesla’s newest generation dispenser, but Musk firing the entire Supercharger team slowed down that rollout. Plus, you’ll need an adapter.

This cannot be the long-term solution.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

A General Motors spokesperson told InsideEVs that a whopping 43% of its EV buyers this year have purchased its adapter, which the company sells for $225. Ford, for its part, says Superchargers account for 20% of Ford EV owners' public fast charging.

Once you are hooked up, that may not be enough. While Fords and Rivians automatically initiate charging and bill your account, EVs from General Motors and others force you to use an app to charge. GM also implies that you have to use the MyChevrolet, MyCadillac or MyGMC app, omitting that you can use the Tesla app, which is better. Still, if you don’t have cell service or a phone on you, there’s no manual way to initiate the session.

Start the session and, in some vehicles, you may face slower-than-expected charging speeds. Because while cars like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 now come direct from the factory with Tesla-style North American Charging System (NACS) connectors, they take far longer to charge on Superchargers than they do on CCS chargers. 

The Ioniq 9 comes from the factory with a NACS port, but to max out its charging speeds you'll have to find a non-Tesla charger with more power. In that case, you may want to bring an adapter.

Photo by: Tim Levin/InsideEVs

That’s because these vehicles—and others from GM, Porsche, Audi, Kia and Lucid—run on 800-volt-class electrical systems. Tesla vehicles until the Cybertruck were all 400-volt systems, so that’s what its chargers support. That’s surprising because even 150-kilowatt Electrify America stations—the company’s oldest and least sophisticated chargers—run at 800 volts.

Because Superchargers don’t, 800-volt vehicles need to step up the voltage from 400 to 800 volts internally. Some vehicles can do this while still charging quite quickly. The Lucid Gravity, for instance, can pull 250-kW from a Supercharger. That’s less than its 400-kW peak speed on an 800-volt EA charger, but still pretty good. But older designs like the Lucid Air weren’t built with this in mind, so the Air can only pull a paltry 50 kW from a Supercharger. 

Finally, there’s the simple fact that many Tesla stations just do not support non-Tesla vehicles, whether you have a NACS adapter or a native NACS plug or not. That includes the one next to my Trader Joe’s, the only convenient fast charging location in my neighborhood. It’s not clear whether it will ever allow other EVs. 

The NACS adapter you'll need to charge at Superchargers in your CCS-equipped vehicle.

Photo by: Ford

Why This Matters

All of this introduces enough complexity to spoil the “it just works” magic of new technology. Say, for instance, you need to take an EV road trip. You want to access Superchargers, so you go through the trouble of buying an adapter, which is both different from the adapter you need to use Tesla destination chargers and different from the adapter you need to use a NACS vehicle at a CCS station.

You put your destination in your car’s GPS, and, assuming it’s a good one, it plans your charging stops. But unless it’s a Tesla, that’s not going to do too much for you on its own. A Volkswagen Group car is going to plan your route relying exclusively on Electrify America stations.

My Chevy will use Superchargers, too, but it tends to only use them as a last resort, or maybe prioritizes stations with higher-powered chargers. So instead of being directed to a 12-stall Supercharger one exit down, my car loves to send me to EVGo stations with three full stalls.

Plus, the car won’t compare prices. So even if an EA station wants $0.64 per kilowatt hour—so expensive I’m not saving on gas—the car won’t route me to another spot that costs $0.49 per kWh. It certainly won’t know which stations have bathrooms, either, and which ones are deep in the back of a mall parking lot.

Tesla V4 Supercharger dispensers don't have the same issue with cable length, making them a better option for many EVs.

Photo by: Tesla

But say I finally find a Supercharger perfectly positioned. There’s no real way to know if I’ll have to park across two stalls—making me look like a jerk, and usually requiring multiple attempts for perfect positioning—or whether I’ll be able to slot right in. Even assuming all of this works out, Tesla charges much more for non-Tesla EVs to use its chargers. You can pay the cheaper rate if you subscribe, but that’s hardly worth it for a once-in-a-while road trip.

That’s the key: This is a rare issue. Mostly, EV owners charge at home, or charge at local stations they know. But that doesn’t mean this pain point is acceptable. I could not hand my dad the keys to my Blazer EV and tell him to drive it 500 miles. Between adapters, apps, parking problems and car-to-charger communication issues, you still need to be well-versed in these systems to use them. The average buyer isn’t going to take the time to understand all of this, and that’s likely to turn them off of EVs.

How We Solve This

I have good news and bad news here. The good news is that these are the teething issues of a whole new frontier, the sort of problems you always encounter when you throw out the old paradigm and insert a new one. They will be solved, that’s a promise.

The bad news is that they will take a while. These first-generation charging stalls—they’re too spare to call them stations, in my view—are too valuable to scrap, but too poorly conceived to form the backbone of American road trips. The future looks more like what Ionna is promising. Backed by BMW, General Motors, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, Kia and Stellantis, the charging giant plans to have 30,000 ports installed by 2030. They’ll offer NACS and CCS ports, flagship charging speeds and on-site amenities at most locations. 

Ionna charging stations promise to provide the amenities you'd expect from a highway rest stop.

Photo by: John Voelcker

Plus, automakers are investing in their own projects. GM has partnerships with companies like EVGo, ChargePoint and Pilot Travel Centers. Mercedes is working with companies like Starbucks and Buc-ee’s. Already, I’m seeing more giant Electrify America stations at malls, rest stops and other key locations. Rove is expanding its own fantastic concept throughout Southern California. 

That’s what the future of charging looks like. Someday, you’ll set out from Chicago to New York and never even think about where you’ll stop. The car will route you to charging hubs with consistent amenities and faultless problems. Energy, remember, is a commodity, so you’ll always find people who want you to buy it from them. Keeping America’s cars running could never fully depend on just one company. 

The Rove charging station in Santa Ana, California has 40 fast-charging stalls, a 24-hour lounge and a market offering groceries and prepared foods.

Photo by: Rove

But as Ionna proves, this isn’t something that automakers want to compete on. A world of Tesla, BMW and Toyota chargers, all with separate locations and plugs, is something no one wants. The whole industry relies on the charging network, and so the whole industry has to build it. That’ll happen. It just takes time.

Until then, we’ll live in a world of third-party route-planners, Wal-Mart parking lots and plastic adapters. It’s not the world of our dreams, but it’s a hell of a lot better than it was a few years ago.

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.