Having multiple apps on your smartphone just to be able to access whatever charging station you come across can be more than a little frustrating, and General Motors knows this. To make living with an EV easier, GM today announced that users can now find, charge, and pay at over 5,000 Electrify America fast-charging stations from within the myChevrolet, myGMC, or myCadillac app, simplifying charging for Equinox EV, Optiq, and Hummer EV owners. This “unified charging experience” means users no longer need to have an Electrify America app on their phones to charge at the company’s numerous stations, which include 350kW fast-chargers.
GM Still Has Work to Do in Making EVs Easy to Live With
Cadillac
The GM apps will allow users to find nearby charging stations with real-time availability, plan routes and decide on charging stops along the way, monitor the status of their ongoing charging sessions, and pay for those sessions from the app, but arguably the most significant change to GM EV use is access to Tesla‘s network of chargers. In September 2024, GM began offering NACS adapters to allow its EVs to refill their batteries at Tesla Supercharge stations, but this is just a temporary solution. After Ford announced it would begin producing EVs with NACS ports, General Motors followed suit. That change starts with the 2026 Cadillac Optiq and its high-performance Optiq-V sibling, opening access to over 36,000 chargers across the country.
EVs Still Face Struggles
General Motors
Last year, General Motors saw a massive decline in EV sales, resulting in a multi-billion-dollar write-down. The attractive and affordable Bolt, America’s cheapest new EV, will help to a certain degree, but GM says it will only be produced for roughly 18 months. GM expects this to “account for the majority of EV volume for Chevrolet in 2026, alongside the Chevrolet Equinox EV,” and then the factory responsible for the Bolt will be repurposed for Buick Envision production. That SUV is currently produced in China, but tariffs have made importing it too expensive an exercise, so GM is moving its home to Kansas.
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GM has built several EVs on the Ultium platform, allowing it to bring a variety of new electric cars to market more quickly than rivals, and this Electrify America deal makes living with them easier, but it’s unclear what will happen toward the end of the decade. Despite EV ownership becoming more convenient, demand is not as high as was once predicted, and shifting legislation makes their future murky.
