Connect with us
tesla supercharger las vegas tesla supercharger las vegas

News

Tesla Supercharger grabs top ranking in J.D. Power’s newest satisfaction study

(Credit: Tesla)

Published

on

Tesla’s Superchargers were ranked the best overall in terms of overall customer satisfaction, according to a new study from J.D. Power.

The 2022 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Study showed Tesla’s Superchargers were the most favorable to EV owners as the Supercharger Network earned 739 of a possible 1,000 points. The Segment Average score was 674, but the EV charging network with the closest cumulative score was ChargePoint with 644 points. Electrify America and EVgo had 614 and 573 points, respectively.

2022 jd power u.s. electric vehicle experience public charging satisfaction study dc fast chargers

Credit: J.D. Power

The study measures EV owner satisfaction with two types of public charge point operators: Level 2 Charging and DC Fast Chargers. Satisfaction is ranked in ten subcategories, which include:

  • Ease of Charging
  • Speed of Charging
  • Cost of Charging
  • Ease of Payment
  • Ease of Finding a Location
  • Convenience of the Location
  • Things to do while Charging
  • How safe you feel at the Location
  • Availability of Chargers
  • Physical Condition of the Charging Location

Charging applications have become more available than in previous years due to the overall adoption of EVs. However, it is still a work in progress. Charging satisfaction actually decreased from last year’s study, with a 633 score this year compared to 643 in 2021.

“Public charging continues to provide challenges to overall EV adoption and current EV owners alike,” Executive Director of Global Automotive at J.D. Power, Brent Gruber, said. “Not only is the availability of public charging still an obstacle, but EV owners continue to be faced with charging station equipment that is inoperable.”

We already discussed DC Fast Chargers, which owners found Tesla’s Supercharger network to be most favorable. However, it is not the only tip of the cap Tesla received. The company also had its Destination Level 2 charging stations ranked as the best in terms of customer satisfaction. Destination Chargers gained 680 total points, with Volta ranking second with 667 points and ChargePoint in third with 639 points.

2022 jd power u.s. electric vehicle experience public charging satisfaction study level 2 chargers

Credit: J.D. Power

In general, the EV charging infrastructure, in its current condition, has given EV owners relative satisfaction. The biggest issues with current EV charging happen to be related to the cost of charging, which ranked 473 for fast chargers and 446 for Level 2 chargers.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of information from the study was that DC Fast Charger users are usually planners who are most commonly on a road trip which, along with convenience, determines their choice of charging location. This is where some vehicles are lagging behind because, despite having fast chargers nearby, not all vehicles are capable of charging at super-fast speeds. This can be combated without buying a new vehicle, as charging stations can give vehicle owners more short-term entertainment options to pass the time.

“Everyone knows that the landscape of gas stations is focused on convenience—readily available, fast fueling and quick convenience items,” Gruber added when discussing this point. “Although fast charging is seemingly getting faster by the day, to expedite the charging process, vehicles will need to accommodate the newest ultra-fast chargers. Currently, only a handful of vehicles can take advantage of the fastest charging speeds. And no matter how fast their vehicle charges, EV owners still indicate they need more options for things to do during each charging session to enhance convenience and fill the down time.”

Advertisement
-

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

Cybertruck

Tesla is ending Cybertruck production

Published

on

Credit: diagnosticdennis/Instagram and @smile__no via Tesla Owners of Santa Clarita Valley/X

Tesla is ending Cybertruck production sometime in mid-2027, according to CEO Elon Musk.

Musk made the announcement on X last night, which came as a shock to many. He said that the Cybertruck will end production “to make room for increased Cybercab production” at Gigafactory Texas.

It is a huge blow to the fans of Tesla who have come to love the Cybertruck and identify with it as a symbol of their fandom. It has been the best-selling electric pickup, but it has had an underwhelming sales performance in terms of what was expected. This is mostly due to Tesla not meeting the prices it planned to offer the Cybertruck, as its unveiling and actual release were four years apart.

Overall, the responses were mixed. Some fans understood the move toward Cybercab production, especially as Tesla is truly pushing the autonomous future through its Robotaxi platform. However, others did not understand it.

Advertisement
-

“Damn, how many Cybercabs do you guys need?” one response read. Another said it was “Sad but understandable.”Even analyst Gary Black had responded to the news, stating he hoped Tesla planned to replace it with a traditional pickup design.

It doesn’t seem like that will be the case.

Tesla is so hell-bent on delivering autonomy and eventually providing a driverless service that owning a car seems like an arbitrary idea, according to their thesis. Instead, Cybercabs will be available to pick you up and drop you off on demand, safely, without any human help.

As a result, Tesla has thinned its lineup considerably, and one can only ask where the vehicle lineup goes from here. Eventually, it seems like Cybercab could be the only vehicle that Tesla will sell.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

SpaceX’s next Starship flight set to make history on Friday the 13th

SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15 and its first ship catch.

Published

on

By

SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15, the mission the company plans to use for its first attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower.

SpaceX Vice President of Launch Kiko Dontchev shared the date on stage at the UP.Summit on Thursday, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger, who was in attendance. It is the first launch target to come directly from a SpaceX executive. Until now, the public schedule had relied on FAA air traffic planning slides, which listed Flight 15 for no earlier than November 8 and later November 12. SpaceX has not posted an official mission page yet, and no launch time has been shared.

The date lands inside the window Elon Musk sketched out last month. Speaking at Giga Texas on October 10, Musk said the flight would “probably launch a little bit before Thanksgiving,” as Teslarati reported. On SpaceX’s third quarter earnings call ten days later, he confirmed that Flight 15 would try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the ship, and put the odds of a successful ship catch at “more likely than not.” SpaceX also aired an animation of the maneuver during that webcast, showing the ship swinging vertical over Starbase before dropping into the tower’s chopsticks.

The hardware is ready. Booster 22 fired all 33 of its Raptor engines for a full duration static fire at Pad 2 on October 25. Ship 42 followed with a single engine burn simulating a deorbit maneuver on October 26 and a 60 second firing of all six engines the next day, according to NASASpaceflight. Ship 42 had already rehearsed the catch in September, when the Pad 2 arms lifted it into position and crews connected the quick disconnect arm while the vehicle hung from the tower.

The remaining hurdle is regulatory. The FAA’s Starship page does not yet list a Flight 15 license. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in October that, after “significant constructive engagement with the FAA,” she expects the license to cover a return to the launch site and a tower catch for both stages. Bringing the ship home means a reentry path that heads toward land, rather than ending over open ocean as every Starship flight so far has.

Advertisement
-

SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but the ship comes back from orbital velocity and has never been caught. Flight 14 on September 28 was the first Starship to reach orbit, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down despite an early engine shutdown that Musk blamed on engine computer software.

Musk has called a successful ship catch “the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket,” and he has already named the step after it: a Flight 16 where both the booster and the ship fly again. NASASpaceflight reports that Ship 43, the next vehicle in line, is set for static fire testing in December.

Continue Reading

News

EVgo taps Tesla Superchargers for mass charging expansion

Published

on

Credit: EVgo

EVgo has tapped Tesla Superchargers for its most recent efforts to expand its charging presence in the United States, a move that seems logical based on the effectiveness of the automaker’s own infrastructure.

EVgo opened its first Supercharger site in Illinois, a 12-stall station near downtown Chicago at 3145 South Ashland Avenue in the Riverside Square & River’s Edge center, right beside a grocery store. This marks the start of the company’s plan to deploy hundreds of Supercharger stalls across the United States, primarily at grocery-anchored Regency Centers properties where drivers can shop, eat, or run errands while they charge.

The new location uses Tesla’s Magic Dock technology so both NACS and CCS vehicles can plug in natively without drivers needing to carry their own adapters. Peak power reaches 325 kW at this site, with pricing set between $0.25 and $0.35 per kWh depending on the hour—the same rate for Tesla and non-Tesla drivers.

The stalls also appear in Tesla’s in-car navigation and Trip Planner, making them easy for Tesla owners to find and route to. Illinois has seen EV registrations rise nearly 60 percent over the past two years, and EVgo’s broader network has experienced more than 700 percent growth in charging demand over three years, so the timing fits the market’s trajectory.

Choosing Tesla hardware through the Supercharger for Business program turns out to have been a smart, practical move.

Tesla’s V4 stalls and cabinets deliver high, reliable power with a proven track record of strong uptime, while Magic Dock delivers true dual-standard compatibility in one package. Because the sites show up in Tesla’s navigation tools, EVgo instantly gains visibility among millions of existing Tesla drivers, which should raise utilization and help the company double its addressable market as more vehicles adopt NACS. EVgo still owns the stations and sets pricing, yet benefits from Tesla’s established hardware, longer cables, and operational support.

The result is faster, lower-risk infrastructure expansion that serves every EV driver—Tesla or otherwise—with convenient, high-power charging at everyday retail locations. For drivers, that means fewer adapters, more predictable stops, and a denser network just as electric vehicles become everyday transportation.

Continue Reading