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

Last Updated on: 3rd June 2025, 12:12 am

I have been writing about electric vehicles for over a decade, and a lot of those stories have to do with charging. In essence, for the past decade at least, there have been two kinds of those stories — one extolling the virtues of Tesla Superchargers and another describing what a horrid experience using a public charging station usually is.

Here’s a quick summary: With Tesla Superchargers, you pull up, plug in, and charging starts in a few seconds. With virtually all those other chargers, you need to have a specific network membership card or a credit card that has been pre-approved by the charging company. Even then, it can take an eternity for the network to recognize you, so you have to stand in the pouring rain while you try to get a hold of a customer service representative who can unlock the charging cable. If you get that far, then you plug in and nothing happens, so you get back on the phone and round and round you go. Many drivers find themselves slipping into a fugue state in which they imagine themselves taking a sledgehammer to the recalcitrant charging equipment. How many of you have ever found yourself frustrated to the point where tears of rage and frustration are running down your cheeks? (Editor’s note: There may be some exaggeration at play here, and many people do charge without problem on non-Tesla chargers. Though, there’s no doubt Tesla’s Superchargers have been more reliable and easier to use over the past decade.)

Say what you may about the drug addled sex addict who is nominally in charge of the company, Tesla Superchargers work nearly all the time, and if you should happen upon one that is nonfunctional, there are usually six or eight more nearby that work just fine. Many other charging companies have two or maybe four chargers available. There’s another thing about Tesla Superchargers: they are almost always located in clean, well lighted places (Ernest Hemingway would be proud) near public restrooms and fresh food. The other guys? Fuhgedaboutit.

The New Jersey Turnpike is a vital link in the US interstate highway system because it connects NYC with DC and New England with most of the rest of the country. For years, Tesla drivers using the NJTP have had access to a number of Supercharger locations with as many as 64 charging stations available. That was fine for Tesla drivers, but not helpful to non-Tesla owners who were precluded from charging at Superchargers because the plug on the charger didn’t fit the charging port on their cars.

Then the Tesla standard became the norm in the US. Manufacturers started installing Tesla spec charging ports on their cars and Tesla began making Superchargers available to EV drivers who opted for other brands. America has been in desperate need of a reliable EV charging network for a long time and finally the Tesla Superchargers were available to almost everyone with an electric car. Hosanna! The EV Revolution was saved!

New Jersey Turnpike Says No Superchargers

Into this era of good feeling, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority announced this week that it wants all 64 Tesla Superchargers along its length removed. In a press release on May 30, turnpike officials said:

“Service areas on the New Jersey Turnpike will begin transitioning fully to Universal Open Access EV chargers on June 6. The chargers, provided by Applegreen Electric, are compatible with all makes and models of EVs.

“The universal chargers will be available as of June 6 at 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 universal chargers online soon at three other Turnpike locations. The chargers are expected to be operational in the Molly Pitcher Service Area in July 2025 and the Clara Barton and John Fenwick Service Areas in Fall 2025.”

Applegreen Electric

We are familiar with ChargePoint, Evgo, Electrify America, Flo, and Bling charging networks in the US, but we have never heard of Applegreen. That’s okay, as they have probably never heard of CleanTechnica either. According to their website, they are based in Ireland and are “one of the largest motorway plaza operators in Europe and the US, and also has an extensive forecourt business. Applegreen has over 600 locations across Ireland, the UK and the US, and employs over 17,000 people.” It claims to provide more than one million charging sessions to drivers annually.

I searched for statistics about uptime and other parameters of its business, but Google came up empty. We know the stats for Tesla Superchargers — 99.5 percent up time. Applegreen? Who knows? So, why is NJTP telling Tesla goodbye when it already has the most reliable chargers in the world? That is a question a lot of people are asking, but finding few if any answers.

Fast Company has weighed in on this question. One part of the answer appears to concern Applegreen’s touting that its chargers are universal, meaning they can charge any electric car. But that claim seems to be a little too glib. Today in America, there are really only two charging standards — CCS and NACS. We suppose there are a few Nissan LEAFs running around that use the outmoded CHAdeMO technology, but those cars probably account for less than 2 percent of the US EV fleet.

An Amended Deal In 2023

Every major manufacturer that sells EVs in the US is either installing NACS charging plugs at the factory or soon will. No matter how you slice it, the transition to Applegreen appears to be a step backward in terms of reliability and convenience. Several years ago, the turnpike authority chose Applegreen as the operator for all of its service areas on the NJTP and Garden State. In 2023, that agreement was amended to give the company exclusive rights to chargers at those service areas.

That was right about the time Tesla agreed to begin opening its Supercharger network to other drivers. But now, the turnpike authority is locked in to a legally binding network. Sorry. Nothing we can do. Our hands are tied.

Tesla saw this coming. Even before the modified agreement was signed, it started building new charging locations just off the turnpike, but having to exit the highway is never as convenient as pulling into a service area on the highway. On its captive anti-social media channel, Tesla said, “The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has chosen a sole third-party charging provider to serve the New Jersey Turnpike and is not allowing us to co-locate. As a result, NJTA requested 64 existing Supercharger stalls on the New Jersey Turnpike to not be renewed and be decommissioned.” Elon Musk, whose days are no longer taken up with dismantling the US government grumbled, “Sounds like corruption.” Maybe Tony Soprano had something to do with it?

No matter how you look at this, it seems like a loss for EV drivers. Fewer and less reliable chargers instead of more and more reliable chargers? That is not a good look for New Jersey officials.