More Adventures In EV Charging

by Tim Healey

Published: January 6th, 2026

It's time once again for a true tale involving the travails of charging an electric vehicle.

I was out of the office yesterday afternoon to guest on another automotive podcast -- check it out here -- and the studio is about 30 miles from my house. I am currently testing a Cadillac Lyriq. I had plenty of charge to go there and back, but I wanted to leave some reserve for the press fleet when they pick up the car. So I decided to charge it from 77-ish percent up to 100 percent -- which would be 285 miles of range.

I can't charge EVs in my condo building -- the board forbids it, and it would be a slow charge anyway -- but there is a Chargepoint station mere blocks away. I figured I'd plug in before work and then walk over and snag the car to go to my podcast appearance.

Easy, right?

When I pulled into the Chargepoint station, I noticed two of the three parking spaces dedicated for EV charging were open. There are two chargers -- one with two cords and one with just one cord. The two-cord charger offered one open space while the other was occupied by a charging Volkswagen ID.4. I pulled in, ready to use the other plug.

I opened up the app, scanned my phone against the reader, popped open the charge port on the Caddy -- and was told that the charger was in use. Well, OK, one cord was -- it was feeding the ID.4. But the other cord was free -- yet the charger continually insisted it was in use. I dug through the app -- you can ID each charging cord to see if it's open or in use -- and saw that it thought it both cords were in use. The app showed me pictures of a blue Ford Mustang Mach-E. Except the Mach-E wasn't there. What the heck?

Now, I don't want to complain too much over an easily solved problem -- I simply moved the Caddy to the other open space and plugged in. This charger worked flawlessly. But I was annoyed that both the Chargepoint app and the charger itself would try to tell me that a cord was in use when it was, in fact, available. If it were the only open cord, I'd have had to drive around a bit to the next charger. And it's frustrations like this that prevent EV-curious buyers from pulling the trigger.

Oddly enough, when I returned to the garage to pick up the Caddy -- there was a blue Mach-E parked in the space I'd tried to use, plugged in. Which only puzzled me further. Was there some feature in the app that allows you to reserve a space before you get there, or to hold if it you need to use your car? Had the Mach-E owner figured out some hack?

Regular readers (and podcast listeners) know I am neither an EV evangelist or EV hater. I believe the technology shows promise, and someday I expect most commuter cars to be EVs, with ICE, diesel, and hybrid powertrains remaining for some special uses (trucks, sports cars). But I also believe that EVs are being held back as a viable consumer option by low ranges, high sticker prices, and charging struggles.

Automakers are working on the first two and getting much better. The third, however, has a long way to go.

In this case, I am not sure if the problem lies with the app or just a lack of available charging cords. All I know is that stuff like this will slow EV adoption if these problems aren't solved.

[Image: nutt/Shutterstock.com]

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#EVs #ElectricVehicles #TalesFromAutoTesting

Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 52 comments

Selena Taylor on Jan 07, 2026

I’ve run into the same issue, apps saying cords are busy when they’re actually free. It’s frustrating and really shows why EV charging still feels like a hassle sometimes, even if the car’s fully charged.

1 Reply
Redapple2 on Jan 07, 2026

Lyricmedua. Love those tail lights and ring of lighting around the grille. Detroit cool - they say. Extra points for cars with below the bumper rear turn signals.

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