Road-tripping with the Tesla NACS adapter
By Dennis Griffin, EVA Member
I was really excited when Tesla and Ford announced that Ford EVs would soon be eligible to use Tesla Superchargers. At the end of February it became a reality when I was able to order my adapter from Ford.
I had previously owned a Tesla X and frequently road tripped on Tesla’s reliable Supercharger network. After receiving my F-150 Lightning in September 2022 I experienced several failed attempts to charge at Electrify America DC fast chargers and decided that road tripping in the Lightning was not worth the potential frustration. (Sandy Munro’s wife had come to a similar conclusion about road tripping in any EV other than a Tesla)
So this week was my first road trip in my Lightning. I was planning to use only Tesla Superchargers on my trip from Carlsbad, CA to San Luis Obispo, CA.
I’m a retired engineer, so I do like to plan ahead. I started looking at various EV charging websites and apps. No surprise that Tesla’s website was up to date with information on which V3 Superchargers would accept the NACS adapter now open to Ford and Rivian. At that point it looked pretty straight forward with an abundance of V3s available on my planned route.
Additionally I had done a couple of tests locally to verify that my adapter in fact worked and that I could make a connection with the short Tesla V3 cable. Of course this required that I park in the adjacent parking stall to make the connection to the Lightning’s driver side front charge-port, effectively taking up two charging stalls. For my tests I had purposely gone to local Tesla Superchargers that tended to have the most chargers available, thus avoiding any potential confrontations by taking up two stalls to charge.
Then it hit me…I needed to know the activity level at Tesla Superchargers that I was planning to use on my trip. But where could I find this information? It turned out it was available in the Tesla app on my iPhone!
As I looked at all the NACS compatible Superchargers along my planned route (coastal Southern California), I realized that there was an issue. It is visible on the “Busy Times & Price Per kWh” graph for each Tesla Supercharger location. And what it too often showed was that during prime time (typically 11am-8pm) it indicated “Most Chargers In Use” meaning there might be a queue and getting two adjacent spots would be difficult and not endear me to some Tesla owners!
My immediate solution was to find Tesla Superchargers on the Tesla App that had “Some Chargers Available” or “Most Changers Available” labels for my planned travel time. In my case the Santa Monica Supercharger with 62 stalls and the Santa Maria Supercharger with 20 stall made the Sunday trip doable. My return trip was on a weekday and I charged at a Supercharger in Ventura CA which typically shows “Some Chargers Available” on weekdays, but showed "Most Chargers In Use" on the weekend. This would also be more of a midway point on my trip back to Carlsbad, CA and resulted in only having to make a single stop for charging on my return trip.
So I had just done a successful round trip in my F-150 Lightning, using only Tesla Superchargers. I felt good but also realized that there are weaknesses with the Tesla charging system as it currently is.
Here are some potential solutions to the issues I mentioned as I see them:
If possible avoid making your road-trips during prime times
Not on weekends
And if on the weekends not during the 11am-8pm window
Use the Tesla app to plan ahead to avoid high volume Superchargers with potential queues.
Look for charging stations that are larger (20+ stalls) and not right off the freeway but more likely in a high density residential area. They tend to have the most available chargers.
Tesla needs to address the connection issue so that all EVs using their network only need to occupy one parking stall. Options might include:
Locating the charger at the side of the stall rather than the all too typical, back of the stall requiring Teslas to back in to charge and other EVs to take up two stalls.
Provide extension cables for the Ford, Rivian and other EVs that have a charge ports that do not work with the current Tesla stall design
When developing new locations or upgrading existing locations, add pull thru stalls that could additionally accommodate all EV types as well as EVs pulling trailers (ie: Mammoth Lakes, CA)
Also, summer is coming. More vehicles will have NACS adapters by then, so solutions are needed now before the fossil fuel industry has another reason to exploit why EVs are not practical, as part of their continuous FUD campaign.
