Originally Posted by
neo_781
The time I got a Polestar it was a nightmare. I was given a car with about 25% charge. I spent the whole rental just trying to eek out a few percent charge to go about my short hotel-office commute. I couldn't figure out if there was a place to fast charge (or even if the car was capable). Therefore I ended up with a car that charged very slowly and I essentially could barely use the car. Its an experience I wouldn't subject myself to again.
In my opinion the car rental companies are NOT doing a good job to explain how to charge fast or where to go, etc. They also don't give any adapters (typically) so I don't know if that is a limiting factor as well. With the Tesla it was at least easy to find a fast charge location but figuring out non-Tesla charging locations was like the Wild West .. unclear and a frustration at times.
Polestar vehicles (like virtually all US EVs other than LEAFs and Teslas) use CCS. Really should not be very difficult to figure out if the car is fast charge capable or where to charge it if you have access to the internet.
Finding charging locations is easy if you are familiar with the PlugShare app. No adapters required for Polestars. For Teslas make sure the rental includes a J1772 adapter.
Originally Posted by
neo_781
In my scenario I did eventually find a mall that had free chargers but several were not working and the others were in high demand. I know they are just as entitled to using the mall chargers as anyone else but I was a bit miffed that Tesla cars were using a lot of these spots when less then 2 blocks away was a Tesla fast charge site. My annoyance was that the amount of charge they were getting for their cars was de minimis while they were in the mall/movie that they were just taking away a resource from someone who really needed it when in 10-15 minutes they could have gotten way more charge 2 blocks away.
L2 charging is better for the long term battery life than fast charging. I only use super chargers for road trips where I need to get a large amount of electrons in a short period of time to continue my journey. For routine “top offs” I charge at home or at free chargers if I come across one.