I charged a Chevy at Tesla Superchargers for a week. It was a breeze but came with one big drawback.
October 5, 20240
I had to rearrange the car a few times to get the charging cord to reach the Equinox’s port.
Nora Naughton, Business Insider
Fitting the Equniox in at a Tesla stall was more complicated than I expected.
I’ve used Superchargers plenty of times with Teslas, and getting hooked up was never an issue. However, pulling up with another brand for the first time, it became immediately clear that Superchargers are made specifically for Teslas.
First, having the charging port on the front left (as opposed to Tesla ports on the back left) meant I would have to use the charger normally intended for the parking spot next to me, rendering that spot effectively charger-less.
Luckily, the station wasn’t especially busy on a weekday afternoon, and I didn’t block anyone from charging.
The orientation of the charging port also required me to rearrange the car a few times to make sure the charging cord could reach all the way to the port.
The Tesla adapter worked well, but it was hard to latch.
Charging nose-first meant taking up two stalls.
Nora Naughton, Business Insider
Tesla Superchargers are oriented for backing in — if you’re driving a Tesla.
The Equinox already sticks out like a sore thumb as the only non-Tesla. You can feel the other Tesla owners watching you and wondering what you’re doing there.
Pulling in nose first — and taking up two stalls — only adds to the outsider feeling.
In the end, no one bothered me about occupying multiple stalls, and there was only one time when the stalls were at capacity. I tried to get out of the way when a Tesla owner needed the charger I was blocking, but she smiled and waved me off, saying she’d come back later.
The speed and accessibility of Superchargers made up for a lot of the other quirks
My Equinox EV hooked up to a Supercharger near my house
Nora Naughton, Business Insider
After I ensured the cord could reach and maneuvered the adapter into place, the rest of my experience at the Supercharger was always smooth sailing.
The MyChevrolet app guided me seamlessly through the Supercharger setup, with prompts at every step of the way. Charging speeds were fast at all the stalls I visited in the Metro Detroit area, averaging around 45 minutes to gain 200 miles of charge.
I’ve driven plenty of non-Tesla EVs in the past, and access to fast and reliable charging has always been my main challenge.
For the first time with an electric Chevrolet, I didn’t worry once about range. For the seven days I had the car, the battery never dipped below 40%, and I never spent more than an hour at a charger. That peace of mind made up for a clunky experience at the Supercharger itself.
