The Tesla Supercharging Network Isn’t Ready for Our 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV
There are lots of stations compatible with non-Tesla vehicles, but there’s room for improvement.
The best way to get acquainted with a new car is a road trip, and that’s exactly what we did with our yearlong review 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS RWD. Within a week of its arrival, we loaded up its spacious trunk and hit the road for Tucson, Arizona. It’s a road trip we’ve done before, previously using this long haul to evaluate the route-planning and range of our now-departed Polestar 2 fastback. That drive could have been a lot easier; the Polestar 2 was only compatible with Combined Charging System (CCS) standard chargers, so we had to rely on Electrify America’s busy and somewhat inconsistent network of Level 3 fast chargers.
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This time, things were different. We picked up GM’s $225 adapter that allows the Blazer EV, which has a CCS port, to utilize the North American Charging Standard (NACS) plugs originally developed for the Tesla Supercharger Network. The Blazer EV’s compatibility with NACS greatly expands the number of available Level 3 DC fast chargers at its disposal. For a sense of scale, Electrify America has around 1,000 fast charging stations in the United States while Tesla operates over 2,800 locations. With more choice, we expected the drive from Los Angeles to Tucson and back would be a lot easier this time around. That was only somewhat true.
Revisiting Electrify America
While our Blazer EV has route-planning features built into its infotainment display, the native Google Maps software doesn’t take into account that our Chevy could be charged with Tesla Superchargers when we took our road trip in early February. As such, we had to employ a hybrid method of scouting for stopping points over our journey, at times using the in-car navigation and scoping out the route with Tesla’s iPhone app.
I don’t have a charger at home, so I opted to not top off the battery at a Level 3 station before the drive. A full charge likely wouldn’t be enough to get us to the midpoint of our drive, so I anticipated stopping earlier and decided to save myself the extra 30 minutes that would be required to take the battery above 90 percent on a fast charger. When we departed Los Angeles, we started with 74 percent charge, good for 249 miles of driving, since our Blazer EV has the larger 102-kWh battery pack. And since we’d be charging several times throughout our journey, we figured it would be good to charge at least once at an Electrify America station.
We ran the battery down to 30 percent before we made our first stop. Even though we had 92 miles remaining, there was a lot of desert ahead, so we wanted to charge enough to reach our next destination. The Electrify America was located at a Walmart in Indio, California, and served as a reminder that public charging infrastructure still needs work. Out of four chargers, three output up to 350 kW while the fourth is rated at 150 kW. Our Blazer EV is only rated to receive up to 190 kW while charging, so we figured plugging in at the empty 150-kW stall was the polite and practical thing to do. As it turns out, that unit was out of order, so we needed to wait for one of the 350-kW stalls to open up. After about 10 minutes, it was our turn to connect, which is pretty quick based on our past experiences at this particular Electrify America station.
Once we got plugged in and started the charge, the Electrify America app’s readout indicated our Blazer EV was drawing 190 kW, attaining its claimed maximum charge rate. We ran into Walmart to use the facilities and purchase breakfast. By the time we finished snacking, the Blazer EV’s battery had reached 73 percent with 247 miles of range indicated. Charge speeds begin to dip when the battery is between 70 and 80 percent full, so we ended the session and hit the road. Adding back 51.328 kWh took a mere 23 minutes and cost $32.83.
Charging Our Non-Tesla
Even though our Electrify America charging experience started somewhat rough, the charge was quick and worked perfectly. It was time to test the competition, so we punched in the directions to Tesla’s new Supercharger station in Quartzite, Arizona. The drive from Indio to Quartzite covered 120.4 miles, draining the battery back down to 25 percent with 66 miles of range remaining. Out of the two stations in town, only one allows non-Tesla vehicles to charge. However, there are a total of 84 connectors at the station. When we arrived, there were fewer than half a dozen cars using the station.
For the convenience of non-Tesla vehicles like our Blazer EV, the Quartzite station featured a handful of curbside chargers rather than the back-in style that’s typical of Tesla Supercharger stations. Our Blazer’s charge port is positioned between the front fender and driver’s door, so Tesla Supercharger’s short cables aren’t long enough if you nose into a stall like normal. Feeling accommodated by this arrangement, we plugged the GM NACS adapter into the Supercharger’s connector and hooked it up to our Blazer EV, per Chevy’s instructions.
Although the myChevrolet mobile app would have allowed us to start the charge from its “map” tab, we opted to use Tesla’s app to start the charge due to its faster boot times and slicker interface. Once we selected the station from the “Charge Your Other EV” menu option, we scrolled through the long list of connectors and chose the unit we were plugged into. Having done so, the Blazer EV gave a beep of confirmation that the charge was starting. Once the Tesla app confirmed that everything was working, we took a longer break for lunch since we had already been on the road for over five hours.
These Tesla Superchargers max out at 250 kW (a higher rate than our Blazer EV can draw) and we recuperated 79.361 kWh over 54 minutes. We didn’t set a cap on when the charge would end, resulting in our car’s battery reaching 92 percent capacity. This charge cost us $42.85, just $10.02 more than our stop in Indio. Although it’s an imperfect comparison since the two stations had drastically different demand when we used each one, Electrify America charged us $0.64 per kWh while Tesla charged us $0.54 per kWh.
After this positive charging experience with no waiting for a stall to open up, we set off for our next Supercharger station in Tucson. To our Blazer EV’s credit, we drove 235.9 miles with 15 percent battery capacity and 47 miles of range left upon arrival. In a moment of whiplash, we were met with a far more frustrating charging setup.
Every stall at the West River Road station required us to park headfirst, but due to our Blazer EV’s design and the Tesla Supercharger’s short cables, we had to awkwardly angle our Chevy to get the cord, connector, and adapter to reach. Frustratingly, the Blazer EV needed to straddle two of the 16 spots to make this positioning work. Someone asked if we could move our car at all, and we had to apologetically explain the situation. They responded by telling us longer cords are coming, which is true. Tesla’s V4 Superchargers feature longer cables, but there are very few in the wild.
After an anxious and uncomfortable 31 minutes, we added 52.466 kWh at the expense of $31.47. This station was more expensive than the one in Quartzite; we paid $0.60 per kWh at this one. We couldn’t wait to unplug and get back on the road, so we disconnected the cable after charging to just 60 percent and 195 miles of range. It was enough to get us to our friends’ house on the east side of Tucson, where we trickle-charged the Blazer EV with a 120V outlet overnight.
In total, the journey spanned more than 500 miles and took about 11 hours, including an hour and 48 minutes of fast charging. Given that one of those stops involved nearly an hour of downtime for lunch, charging didn’t take too much of a bite out of our day.
Final Thoughts
Our single-motor, rear-wheel-drive Blazer EV RS handled road trip duty well. It was comfortable, quiet, and quick. What’s more, the generously sized battery gave us flexibility at each charging stop. The availability of Tesla Supercharging greatly expanded our charging options, as well, and although not every station is as optimized for non-Tesla EVs, the sheer quantity of chargers kept wait times before you can plug into a public charger to a minimum. And although we mostly used Tesla Superchargers on the return trip, we were continually reminded that even the nation’s largest charging network badly needs an overhaul to accommodate the influx of electric vehicles that have adopted the NACS standard.
More on Our Long-Term 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS:
Billy Rehbock's passion for cars started with his dad's Volkswagen Jetta GLX, his mom's Cabriolet, and his own Hot Wheels collection. A USC graduate with a Master of Science in journalism, he's an associate editor for the MotorTrend Buyer's Guide and covers everything from sports cars to SUVs.
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