Charging Our Kia EV6 on Tesla’s Supercharger Wasn’t Super

To allow non-Teslas to charge at Superchargers, Tesla developed a "Magic Dock" system that connects and locks a CCS adapter to its NACS plug. Although the Magic Dock is nifty and seamless, it's not quite perfect yet, as we discovered during our first experience with the new system shortly after its debut. In case you missed that story, we attempted to charge a Ford F-150 Lightning, Volkswagen ID4, and Hyundai Ioniq 5 at a Tesla Supercharger. The ID4 and Lightning worked, but the Hyundai—which our EV6 shares its architecture with—didn't. Would our EV6 suffer from the same issue since it shares its platform with the Ioniq 5?

To find out, we drove our EV6 six hours north to Scotts Valley, California, to revisit those same chargers (still the closest Magic Dock-equipped Superchargers to MotorTrend headquarters as of this writing). We arrived to a mostly empty parking lot, with only two of the 16 chargers occupied. We decided to park behind a charger to avoid possible parking conflicts that might arise due to the orientation and short length of the Supercharger's cord (you can read more about the experience here).

You use the Tesla mobile app to activate a charger, which couldn't be more intuitive or easier to use. Once the app told us to do so, we released the cord from the Magic Dock by first pushing it up, then pulling it down, and plugging it into the EV6. The cord was easy to maneuver, but the adaptor felt a tad flimsy, especially compared to the bulky and heavy CSS plugs we've been accustomed to.

A few seconds after we plugged in, the EV6 gave us an error message. Ruh, roh. We unplugged, returned the cord to the Magic Dock, and tried again. After 5 to 10 seconds, the EV6 and the Tesla app both alerted us that charging had begun. Woo-hoo. We suspect the first error may have been caused by our wiggling the adapter excessively to make sure it was plugged in correctly.

The charging session started out at 42 kW and unfortunately never exceeded that speed in close to an hour. Again, we've observed charge rates of around 240 kW with the EV6, and the Supercharger can deliver 250 kW to most Teslas. So what gives? In a nutshell, it comes down to the compatibility between the EV6's 800V battery architecture and the Supercharger, which is a 400V system. When we reached out to Kia, it said our observed charging speed of 42 kW was correct until Tesla releases a software update for its Supercharger.

A source at Tesla also acknowledged the need for a software update to improve charge speeds for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis' 800V EVs. The source, who asked not to be named, told us interactions between the DC-DC converter that our EV6 and its siblings use to fast charge, and Tesla's V3 Superchargers can result in voltage ripple at high charging currents. The 42-kW peak rate we experienced at the Magic Dock is a result of Tesla limiting charge speed to mitigate that ripple and risk of damage to the vehicle and charging station.

Our source notes Tesla is unaware of any problems with other non-Teslas, including those with 800V battery systems like the Lucid Air and Porsche Taycan, so the issue seems to be unique to Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis EVs. Tesla has made the Hyundai Motor Group aware of the problem, and it says a software update to improve charge times for vehicles like our EV6 is in the works. It's currently unknown when it'll roll out.

Despite the slower speeds, Tesla still charged us $0.55 per kWh for the session. That's about on par with rates we've seen from ChargePoint, EVGo, and Electrify America depending on location (ChargePoint is sometimes half the cost). The closest competing fast charger, a 150-kW Electrify America station in Santa Cruz, charges $0.48 per kWh.

So with that, it's nice to have another fast-charging option for the EV6. But until Tesla resolves the issues with charging speed and cable access, we'll probably take our chances with the faster charging provided by other providers before we drive out of our way to find another Supercharger with Magic Dock.