New Jersey Turnpike Tells EV Drivers — No Tesla Superchargers For You!

Final Up to date on: third June 2025, 12:12 am

I’ve been writing about electrical autos for over a decade, and a variety of these tales must do with charging. In essence, for the previous decade a minimum of, there have been two sorts of these tales — one extolling the virtues of Tesla Superchargers and one other describing what a horrid expertise utilizing a public charging station normally is.

Right here’s a fast abstract: With Tesla Superchargers, you pull up, plug in, and charging begins in a couple of seconds. With nearly all these different chargers, you want to have a particular community membership card or a bank card that has been pre-approved by the charging firm. Even then, it might probably take an eternity for the community to acknowledge you, so you must stand within the pouring rain when you attempt to come up with a customer support consultant who can unlock the charging cable. When you get that far, then you definately plug in and nothing occurs, so that you get again on the telephone and spherical and spherical you go. Many drivers discover themselves slipping right into a fugue state wherein they think about themselves taking a sledgehammer to the recalcitrant charging gear. What number of of you’ve got ever discovered your self pissed off to the purpose the place tears of rage and frustration are operating down your cheeks? (Editor’s observe: There could also be some exaggeration at play right here, and many individuals do cost with out downside on non-Tesla chargers. Although, there’s little doubt Tesla’s Superchargers have been extra dependable and simpler to make use of over the previous decade.)

Say what you might in regards to the drug addled intercourse addict who’s nominally in command of the corporate, Tesla Superchargers work almost on a regular basis, and should you ought to occur upon one that’s nonfunctional, there are normally six or eight extra close by that work simply wonderful. Many different charging corporations have two or possibly 4 chargers obtainable. There’s one other factor about Tesla Superchargers: they’re virtually at all times positioned in clear, effectively lighted locations (Ernest Hemingway could be proud) close to public restrooms and recent meals. The opposite guys? Fuhgedaboutit.

The New Jersey Turnpike is an important hyperlink within the US interstate freeway system as a result of it connects NYC with DC and New England with a lot of the remainder of the nation. For years, Tesla drivers utilizing the NJTP have had entry to numerous Supercharger places with as many as 64 charging stations obtainable. That was wonderful for Tesla drivers, however not useful to non-Tesla house owners who have been precluded from charging at Superchargers as a result of the plug on the charger didn’t match the charging port on their automobiles.

Then the Tesla normal turned the norm within the US. Producers began putting in Tesla spec charging ports on their automobiles and Tesla started making Superchargers obtainable to EV drivers who opted for different manufacturers. America has been in determined want of a dependable EV charging community for a very long time and eventually the Tesla Superchargers have been obtainable to virtually everybody with an electrical automotive. Hosanna! The EV Revolution was saved!

New Jersey Turnpike Says No Superchargers

Into this period of fine feeling, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority introduced this week that it desires all 64 Tesla Superchargers alongside its size eliminated. In a press launch on Could 30, turnpike officers stated:

“Service areas on the New Jersey Turnpike will start transitioning totally to Common Open Entry EV chargers on June 6. The chargers, supplied by Applegreen Electrical, are appropriate with all makes and fashions of EVs.

“The common chargers will probably be obtainable as of June 6 on the Vince Lombardi, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Stockton, James Fenimore Cooper, Joyce Kilmer, and Walt Whitman Service Areas. The Turnpike Authority is working diligently with Applegreen to get the common chargers on-line quickly at three different Turnpike places. The chargers are anticipated to be operational within the Molly Pitcher Service Space in July 2025 and the Clara Barton and John Fenwick Service Areas in Fall 2025.”

Applegreen Electrical

We’re accustomed to ChargePoint, Evgo, Electrify America, Flo, and Bling charging networks within the US, however we’ve by no means heard of Applegreen. That’s okay, as they’ve in all probability by no means heard of CleanTechnica both. In accordance with their web site, they’re primarily based in Eire and are “one of many largest motorway plaza operators in Europe and the US, and in addition has an intensive forecourt enterprise. Applegreen has over 600 places throughout Eire, the UK and the US, and employs over 17,000 folks.” It claims to supply a couple of million charging periods to drivers yearly.

I looked for statistics about uptime and different parameters of its enterprise, however Google got here up empty. We all know the stats for Tesla Superchargers — 99.5 % up time. Applegreen? Who is aware of? So, why is NJTP telling Tesla goodbye when it already has probably the most dependable chargers on this planet? That may be a query lots of people are asking, however discovering few if any solutions.

Quick Firm has weighed in on this query. One a part of the reply seems to concern Applegreen’s touting that its chargers are common, that means they will cost any electrical automotive. However that declare appears to be somewhat too glib. As we speak in America, there are actually solely two charging requirements — CCS and NACS. We suppose there are a couple of Nissan LEAFs operating round that use the outmoded CHAdeMO know-how, however these automobiles in all probability account for lower than 2 % of the US EV fleet.

An Amended Deal In 2023

Each main producer that sells EVs within the US is both putting in NACS charging plugs on the manufacturing unit or quickly will. Irrespective of the way you slice it, the transition to Applegreen seems to be a step backward by way of reliability and comfort. A number of years in the past, the turnpike authority selected Applegreen because the operator for all of its service areas on the NJTP and Backyard State. In 2023, that settlement was amended to present the corporate unique rights to chargers at these service areas.

That was proper in regards to the time Tesla agreed to start opening its Supercharger community to different drivers. However now, the turnpike authority is locked in to a legally binding community. Sorry. Nothing we will do. Our fingers are tied.

Tesla noticed this coming. Even earlier than the modified settlement was signed, it began constructing new charging places simply off the turnpike, however having to exit the freeway is rarely as handy as pulling right into a service space on the freeway. On its captive anti-social media channel, Tesla stated, “The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has chosen a sole third-party charging supplier to serve the New Jersey Turnpike and isn’t permitting us to co-locate. In consequence, NJTA requested 64 current Supercharger stalls on the New Jersey Turnpike to not be renewed and be decommissioned.” Elon Musk, whose days are now not taken up with dismantling the US authorities grumbled, “Appears like corruption.” Perhaps Tony Soprano had one thing to do with it?

Irrespective of the way you take a look at this, it looks as if a loss for EV drivers. Fewer and fewer dependable chargers as a substitute of increasingly dependable chargers? That’s not a superb search for New Jersey officers.