At this point, Tesla has firmly won the charging war in North America. Automakers far and wide are adopting native NACS ports and rolling out Tesla Supercharger compatibility, and the great format switch isn’t over yet. Volkswagen is finally joining the Tesla Supercharger network, and while that’s great news for owners, it paints a less flattering picture of Electrify America.
Come Nov. 18, owners of Volkswagen ID.4s and ID.Buzzes will be able to charge on V3 and V4 Tesla Superchargers, with a catch. All Tesla DC fast chargers feature NACS connectors, while all Volkswagen EVs feature CCS charging ports. This means that if you already own an electric Volkswagen, you will have to buy a $200 adapter. Granted, original owners of 2025 model year ID.4 crossovers and ID.Buzz vans get a $100 rebate on the adapter, but it won’t be free unless you’re buying a 2026 model year Volkswagen EV. Oh, and if you own an e-Golf, sorry. Still, more charging options should make road trips easier for ID.4 and ID.Buzz drivers, but this whole development seems to throw some shade at Electrify America.
Electrify America was a penance of sorts. In the wake of Dieselgate, Volkswagen of America and the United States government reached a consent decree that involved establishing a public EV charging network. A couple of months later, Electrify America was born with a promise to deliver sea-to-sea DC fast charging. The first station opened in 2018, and pretty much from the get-go, there were problems.
While there are a few things Electrify America and its Electrify Canada partnership do well, such as including credit card readers on DC fast chargers and implementing a vast number of 350 kW chargers, the brands have been hampered by a reputation for poor reliability of service, from broken chargers to electric vehicle service equipment not putting out the advertised kilowatts, to simply being on the expensive side.
According to a 2025 Consumer Reports study, 35 percent of Electrify America sessions have seen users face at least one problem. That’s at the bottom half of the pack, and well off the four percent of Supercharger sessions with reported problems. I’ve experienced many of these troubles firsthand, and while the equipment is great when it works as promised, I find myself leaning towards other networks whenever I’m testing an EV.
Although the Tesla Supercharger network can be more expensive than Electrify America, and it doesn’t offer simple point-of-sale card readers, it’s known for reliability, low downtime, consistent charging speeds, and digital billing that just works. Plus, the network of compatible Tesla DC fast chargers is five times the size of Electrify America’s network, and sometimes bigger really is better.
Electrify America should’ve been America’s premier charging network for non-Tesla EVs, a true rival in size, capability, and reliability to the Supercharger network. Great CCS networks do exist – just look at Quebec’s Circuit Electrique. Here’s a public charging network with CCS and CHAdeMO connectors that offers up to 500 kW charging and has a track record of nearly 99 percent uptime. It’s publicly-owned, has been going since 2012, and in my experience, just works as promised with more than 1,200 DC fast chargers across Quebec alone.
So, is Volkswagen throwing in the towel? While Electrify America will continue, adding Supercharger support to the ID.4 and ID.Buzz seems to be an admission of what EV drivers have been experiencing all along. A better DC fast charging experience is needed, and Tesla can provide what Electrify America so far hasn’t quite got a handle on. Then again, maybe fewer ID.4 owners at Electrify America stations will be a good thing. After all, Electrify America plans to offer NACS chargers in the near future.
Top graphic images: Volkswagen; Tesla
Didn’t Tesla lay off most of the Supercharger department’s staff earlier this year?
Someone has to roll out a charging network using the sane connector across the US. Since Tesla seems to have lost interest, just convert to the CCS2 connector now. The few poor sods still driving Swasticars will need adaptors. Or cut them off completely. If you are still driving a Swasticar, you don’t drive better.
“While there are a few things Electrify America and its Electrify Canada partnership do well, such as including credit card readers on DC fast chargers and implementing a vast number of 350 kW chargers,”
I prefer EA and other branded 350kW chargers for my Silverado EV and have used them without any problems (except one time)…I think whatever their issues were, they are largely resolved. I remember having a single unexpected disconnect. I just used the neighboring charger. And the 350kW is a matter of priority for my large battery truck. I’ve had more problems connecting to Superchargers. If you have a Tesla, they are ideal, otherwise, mixed experience.
I think the bigger problem is VW making a great EV minivan with with a crappy range and charging a price like it’s got 400 miles of range.
“I’ve killed it. Oh, everything I touch gets ruined!”
I’ve only used an EA station once to make sure my CCS adapter worked before a long road trip and I can’t say I was impressed. Between the app and the charger things were just not smooth to work with. It took a couple tries to get the app and charger to figure themselves out and turn on the juice. It eventually worked so I have my backup but I’m not going to use them if there are other options.
Tesla SC with a Tesla car is a simple plug-n-play as one should expect for everything being under the same company so I can see giving EA and the rest a bit of slack there. But for everyone else, gas stations figured this out years (decades?) ago with pay at the pump. Swipe/tap card, plug in, unplug when done. Why is that not the default process? I shouldn’t need an app or an account to simply fill up with angry pixies.
Who would have thought that putting the company most similar to modern day Lucas electrics to lead charging would go anything but positively.
This is a well grounded comment, but it feels a little negative. 😉
EA is not good. I’ve tried charging a few times just to see if my Model Y will. It’ll happily charge at a peak 275 kW on a Flo CCS charger through the OEM Tesla adapter (didn’t even get warm, BTW). But no juice from EA! I’m 0/3 there. Meanwhile I’m something like 28/30 on Superchargers. Even when one plug didn’t work another one did. Not so for EA. The entire station didn’t work.
more vehicles at the chargers for Tesla drivers to look at like: https://share.google/images/5driMgV0dNeOg7Y7V
While it makes the ID Buzz slightly more convenient to road trip, it is still not the right tool for that job.
ID Buzz, the vehicle that does nothing well.