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Marquez Brownlee took his Rivian R1T to Supercharger, which just opened up to non-Teslas.
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He said non-Tesla EVs sometimes take up multiple parking spaces because of the location of their charging ports.
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The YouTuber said the charging station makes his Rivian a better car, but reduces Tesla’s advantage.
Tesla began opening some of its Superchargers in New York and California to non-Tesla electric cars last month, but a recent video shows how the ultra-fast charging stations can quickly become a headache for Tesla owners.
Youtuber Marques Brownlee took his Rivian R1T to a Tesla Supercharger in upstate New York last week and he said on Twitter that the visit “turned into chaos” when other non-Tesla drivers showed up.
In the video, Brownlee said he had to take two parking spots next to a charger because his EV’s charging port is on the front driver’s side of his vehicle, while the charging station is equipped for Teslas that have a charging port on the back – left corner of the car.
Brownlee said he thinks the experience has made his Rivian a better car because it will no longer have to rely on more “risky” public chargers, but that could deter Tesla owners.
“All of a sudden you’re taking up two seats for what would normally be one,” Brownlee said. “If I was like a big Tesla guy, I’d probably be worried about that, you know my own Tesla experience. Will it get worse because more people charge? You’ll potentially have more people waiting in line, more people taking up more seats. “
Things only got worse when the Lucid EV and the F-150 Lightning electric pickup came along. For the driver of the F-150 Lightning, Tesla’s upgraded charging cable was long enough to reach the car’s charging port when the driver had pulled the front of his car so far that it practically touched the charging stand and the cable was pulled fully taut – a scenario the driver said felt “too risky”.
In a separate YouTube video, the same F-150 Lightning driver, Tom Moloney, who runs the EV charging channel State of Charge, said he might feel more comfortable pulling his car into the station sideways — a move that could occupy three places at once.
Likewise, the cable was also not long enough for the Lucid driver, according to Moloughney.
“If you’re a Tesla owner, it’s not a good day,” Moloney said. “Soon, that exclusivity of being able to drive wherever you want and plug it in is going to get more complicated because Superchargers are going to start getting congested with non-Tesla vehicles.”
Ultimately, Brownlee said the transition will take a lot of effort, but he was happy with the experience of charging his Rivian, which took about 30 minutes and $30 to charge from 30 percent to 80 percent.
“This is probably the first and not the last time you’re going to see this shuffling of who gets to charge where,” Brownlee said. “Hopefully people are good about it, but there’s going to be a bit of etiquette when you have cars that aren’t exactly optimized trying to figure it out.”
musk Named Brownlee’s video is “interesting” on Twitter. The billionaire agreed to begin opening some of the electric car maker’s Superchargers to non-Tesla owners earlier this year. Previously, Tesla chargers—which account for a large portion of EV chargers in the U.S.—were primarily available only to Tesla owners.
While regular Tesla stations have always been open to non-Tesla EVs via a special adapter, the automaker has promised to make its ultra-fast supercharging stations compatible with other electric cars by the end of 2024.
Insider previously reported that its charging network is one of its biggest advantages over EV competitors, from faster and more accessible charging stations to more amenities.
Read the original article on Business Insider