Tesla vs Electrify America Usage

A new Tesla Supercharger and an Electrify America site both opened in Maryland around the same time 10 months ago. This presents an interesting opportunity to compare the energy used at the two sites.

The Hanover Supercharger opened around November 11, 2019. It consists of eight stalls on the third level of the parking garage at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve. The maximum power to each stall is 72 kW. As of September 9, 2020, the meter is at 387.4 MWh.

An Electrify America charging site at the Walmart in Columbia, MD, about seven miles from the Hanover Supercharger, opened a few days later on November 16th. There are ten dispensers with two having a maximum output of 350 kW and the rest being 150 kW. There is one dispenser with a 50 kW CHAdeMO connector paired with a 150 kW CCS. The meter says 33.9 MWh.

Analyzing the electric usage of the two stations reveals that the Tesla Supercharger has used over 1,000% more energy in the period from mid November to September 9, 2020. Actually 11.4 times as much.

I’ve observed that Tesla drivers are constantly coming and going from the Hanover Supercharger. Sometimes it even fills up. I almost never see vehicles charging at the Columbia Electrify America station. At the moment, six of the EA dispensers appear to be down including both 350 kW units and the lone CHAdeMO. The Hanover Supercharger has experienced issues as well. When it first opened, two of the stalls were inoperable. They were down for weeks. But all the Tesla stalls seem to be working now.

To be fair, there are many more Teslas on the road than electric vehicles that use CCS fast chargers. There are also EVgo and BGE fast chargers close to the Electrify America station in Columbia that compete with the EA station. In time, more EVs that use CCS fast chargers will arrive and the use of the Electrify America stations will probably increase. We will keep an eye open for the first Ford Mustang Mach-E, or the first Rivian or Lucid Air charging in the Columbia Walmart parking lot.