So, I just got back from a trip in England where I rented a Model 3 for 2 weeks. I now fully understand why the (US) Tesla Supercharger network is winning. A lot of my experience was with the Pod Point system, but I expect most of the problems I had were not specific to that brand.

1. The CCS connector itself is huge and very hard to deal with. I don’t know if it’s the wire gauge or the bulkiness of the CCS connector itself, but using that thing with one had is nearly impossible. Conversely, I use my US Tesla home charging every day with no problem. Even though the US Supercharger cables are bulky they don’t seem to compare to the Pod Point cables, which are huge and very hard to manage.

2. Every single charger is different, and you never know if its working or not without actually being there. I tried several different Pod Point chargers and they were all different and operated slightly differently. I tried to charge using a Heathrow Airport Pod Point station and not only was it off-line, it wasn’t even in the Pod Point app! This is in stark contrast to the Telsa mobile app which has been unfailingly accurate in pointing me to the closest Supercharger.

3. Payment was a nightmare. Specifically, Pod Point system requires payment before you can charge. Since I was unfamiliar with the charging costs in the UK I put 100 pounds on the app, figuring that would be a good place to start. I ended up only using a portion of that and the rest is now locked up in a Pod Point account that I will probably never use again. Supercharger visits charge directly to my CC and I never have to even think about payment.

4. It took me 10 minutes to get my first charge working! It turns out that I had plugged in the car before activating the app and everything got confused. Stopping everything and starting over was the only way I could get it to work. I can’t imagine anyone else in my family being able to navigate that system. Again, the one time I stopped at a Supercharger, everything worked perfectly – I plugged in the car and walked away.

Maybe it gets better over time, but using the non Tesla charging systems left a very bad impression on me. Maybe other BEV owners have never had the convenience of a good charging network and don’t know what they are missing out on.

NOTE: I finally got to the point where the Pod Point system (mostly) worked for me but it was still a game of “will this actually work?” when I needed to charge.