First time at a Tesla Supercharger was ’super easy’: Business Insider

For new Tesla owners, it can be intimidating to head out to a Supercharger for the first time, though users report that it’s pretty straightforward. Even those who have driven other electric vehicles have shared positive things about the Tesla Supercharger experience, including one reporter who shared his experience in recent weeks.

Business Insider’s Tim Levin called his first Tesla Supercharger experience “super easy,” in a recent write-up about it. Driving a Model Y, Levin said the charging experience — a major concern for those considering going electric — is “remarkably seamless” for Tesla owners and “often frustrating for everyone else.”

“In the past, I've had to activate charging in an app, swipe my credit card multiple times, or unplug a car and start all over again because of some glitch,” said Levin. “The experience isn't always bad, and sometimes everything works. But the well-documented clunkiness of public charging plugs can present a real hassle — and it's consistently cited as one of the biggest barriers to more widespread EV adoption.”

In the report, Levin noted two crucial elements for any EV charging experience: finding a charging station and the charging experience itself. Making it easy to find an EV charger when you need one is stress-reducing on its own, and apparently, finding a Tesla Supercharger wasn’t very difficult.

Levin described the Supercharger search process in a Tesla as taking “just a few taps of its iPad-like screen.” The process was as simple as clicking a lightning bolt icon on the map to open nearby Supercharger locations, then filtering for the fastest-charging options and finally navigating to a station with available charging stalls. Even upon Levin’s fresh eyes to the process, it was a notably user-friendly interface.

Next, the charging experience began with the Model Y’s battery pre-heating on the way to the Supercharger. Upon arrival, Levin plugged in the Supercharger cable, taking just around five seconds. Then, Tesla simply billed the pre-loaded credit card on file for the Model Y, and Levin’s work was effectively done.

While many EV owners may be able to share the experience of clunky charging and inconvenient interfaces, Tesla’s Superchargers shine. With U.S. President Joe Biden set to divy out $5 billion for a national infrastructure, and Tesla to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla EVs, U.S. charging is becoming more and more convenient with each passing year.

And, hopefully, this will continue to lead to more consumers going electric than ever before.

===