World First! Charging a Chevy Bolt EV on a Tesla Supercharger using Magic Dock
The news that Tesla officially allows other electric vehicle makes to charge on its Supercharger network is just a few hours old but we’ve already gone out to one of the 10 Superchargers that are enabled to give our little Chevy Bolt some Tesla juice. Here’s how it went.
The station in Brewster is about 30 miles from my house and unfortunately I had pretty close to a full charge on the Bolt when the news came out. That means when I arrived at the station, I was still close to 80% full even after driving fast. So I wouldn’t get to see what the full charging curve/experience would be like.
Also, there was only one other Tesla charging at the station. That way I didn’t feel bad about blocking other potential users from using the station.
The Chevy Bolt has its charger port on the front driver side vs. the Tesla which has it at the rear driver’s side. That means when I pull in, I have to pull into the spot forward and I’m actually taking the spot next to where a Tesla would charge, effectively using 2 spots. Like I said, there was only one car there so I didn’t try the end chargers.
Before initiating a charge, I made sure the cable would be long enough to reach the Bolt charger and even though it was further a reach than a Tesla is, it still reached with relative ease.
There’s a new tab in the Tesla app called “Charge your Non-Tesla” and within that you will see a map to nearby chargers. Once you are at the charger, it asks you want stall you are at and once entered, you are ready to charge.
Once you initiate, you will hear a click in the Magic Dock and you can pull out the charger with the adapter. It isn’t yet super easy to pull out the adapter, it takes some umph. Plugging in, you’d think was relatively simple but I had some residual snow leftover from last night’s snowstorm which prevented the charger from going in easily. I also tried a few stalls and after some finagling, I got the charge initiated.
Since I was already at 80% charge on the Chevy Bolt, I only got about 24kW of charging speed which is sadly normal for the Bolt, especially in cold conditions. Other EVs will charge much faster.
Because I still have hundreds of thousands of referral SuperCharger miles, I hoped this visit would be free. No such luck. Tesla charged me $1.47 for 3kWh of power.
Electrek’s take:
This is a huge day for EV charging in the US. With the flip of a switch, Tesla has now enabled almost every EV to get the type of charging experience they deserve. Hopefully more and more stations come online soon.
There are still a lot of questions to be answered, like parking etiquette, which stations will allow non-Tesla EV charging and how much it will cost and how fast they will fill up. For now however, we were successful in getting the small step of Supercharger power for our Chevy Bolt which is a giant leap for EV adoption.
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Slate Auto, a new EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has poached a key Tesla manufacturing leader to build its electric pickup truck factory in Indiana.
Napoleon Reyes is a US Marine from Indiana who got a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue after leaving the force.
He then worked a few years at Subaru and Wabash before joining Tesla’s manufacturing team at the Fremont Factory in 2020.
There, he became part of the Model Y production ramp and was quickly promoted to lead the Model Y General Assembly in Fremont in 2022.
Reyes led Model Y GA, one of the most critical parts of vehicle manufacturing, for more than a year before being promoted again to lead new pilot processes at the factory.
Most recently, he led the launch of the general assembly line for the Model Y refresh.
The new engineering manager announced this week that he is leaving Tesla to join Slate:
A bit late on the post but after nearly 5 years working at Tesla in Fremont, I made the difficult decision to leave the Company and move closer to home with my family. It was an incredible experience being part of multiple line expansions and multiple Model Y program launches. Leading and managing the Model Y Refresh launch for GA in Fremont this year tested me professionally however we ultimately succeeded due to our amazing cross functional team collaboration. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with such great people, and I will forever be proud and thankful for everything we accomplished together.
I will be taking on a new role as Senior Manager, Plant Vehicle Engineering at Slate Auto in Warsaw, In.
Slate emerged from stealth mode earlier this year to unveil a new type of electric pickup truck featuring modular customization and an affordable price.
The company raised over $700 million through two rounds of investments from several different investors, including Jeff Bezos. It is currently raising more, which basically guarantees that it will be able to reach production.
The startup acquired a former printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana. It is currently converting to manufacture its electric pickup with a team from legacy automakers and also several former engineers and leaders from Tesla.
Rich Schmidt, an early Tesla manufacturing director, is the head of manufacturing.
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Genesis is preparing to shake things up with its most luxurious SUV yet, the GV90. Thanks to a new patent filing, we are getting a detailed look at how its Rolls-Royce-style coach doors will work.
New patent reveals Genesis GV90 coach door system
When Genesis first unveiled the full-size SUV at the NY Auto Show last March, it wasn’t the stunning design or advanced tech that caught everyone’s attention. It was the coach doors.
Although we were worried it wouldn’t make it to the production model, like many concepts, the Genesis GV90 will be offered with coach doors.
The ultra-luxe electric SUV was first caught with coach doors earlier this year on a car carrier in South Korea. Just last month, the GV90 was spotted in California with a hinge at the rear to open the coach doors.
After several new patents were filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for new door latching devices, we are getting a sneak peek at how they are expected to work.
The patents, titled “Cinching Device For Door Latches in Vehicle,” and “Door Latch Device for Vehicles,” give a pretty detailed explanation of how the Genesis GV90’s coach doors will operate. The “Door Latch Device” uses a door striker on the lower side of the door, which is opened or closed by a hinge unit.
Unlike traditional doors, which use the B-pillar for support, the device is attached directly to the door itself, allowing for hinge-like movement.
The cinching device works in a similar way. It’s also attached to the door and part of the vehicle. However, unlike most of its kind, Genesis found a way to use a single cinching device to control multiple units. Again, the device is used for B-pillarless doors that swing open.
Genesis already said that B-pillarless coach doors are now feasible in production vehicles. The patent reveals a glimpse into how the luxury automaker could make it a reality.
Although the Genesis GV90 is expected to be offered with coach doors, they will likely not be standard. Other variants, with traditional door handles, have also been spotted testing in the US and South Korea.
Genesis is expected to launch the GV90 in mid-2026. It will be built at Hyundai’s Ulsan plant in South Korea. The flagship Genesis SUV is scheduled to debut on Hyundai’s new eM platform, which the company said will “provide 50% improvement in driving range.” It will also be loaded with the latest technology, software, connectivity, and Level 3 or higher autonomous driving capabilities.
Source: USPTO
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Environment
Podcast: Tesla Model YL, more Tesla probes and lawsuits, new Nissan Leaf pricing, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss the launch of the Tesla Model YL, more Tesla probes and lawsuits, new Nissan Leaf pricing, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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