I Charged A Cadillac Optiq At A Tesla Supercharger. It Was Disappointing

• The 2026 Cadillac Optiq now comes with a Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug and has native Supercharger access.
• Normally, it can go from 10% to 80% charge in about 25-30 minutes, with a maximum charging speed of 150 kilowatts.
• Unfortunately, charging from a low battery to 80% on a Supercharger took longer than that.

Every electric vehicle I’ve driven from General Motors this year has been better than the last. These days, the Detroit automaker has a broad lineup of battery-powered options across multiple price ranges with solid range, impressive tech (even if Apple CarPlay is off the table) and hands-free highway Super Cruise.

In theory, the deal should be even sweeter soon as more and more GM EVs add a Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug. One of the first to do so is the 2026 Cadillac Optiq, which dumps the bulky CCS port for Tesla’s sleeker option and comes with native Tesla Supercharger access. That gives these cars more than 20,000 more places to plug in so they can get back on the road quickly.

But not that quickly, as I found out this weekend when I charged the new Optiq at my local Tesla Supercharger station. And while more charger options are always a plus, owners may want to temper their expectations a bit.

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

2026 Cadillac Optiq: The Basics

Let’s start with the basics. The Cadillac Optiq has an 85-kilowatt-hour battery pack, which is a bit bigger than average for the compact-midsize EV class it’s in. The Tesla Model Y has a 75 kWh pack, while the Hyundai Ioniq 5 has an 84 kWh battery pack. The Cadillac’s battery is used in many other GM EVs, including the closely related Chevrolet Equinox EV and Chevy Blazer EV.

But unlike some competitors, that battery has never been a fast-charging champion. On the Optiq and Equinox EV, the max charging speed is 150 kilowatts, which is kind of midpack at best these days. Charging times have been on the slower side with various tests we’ve conducted and covered.

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

On one such test from charging expert Tom Moloughney, who actually owns the Equinox EV in question, he never saw more than 100 kW speeds on a 150 kW charger. And it doesn’t fare that much better on a more powerful charger, like a 350 kW unit. Tom reports that he’s seen charging times of about 35 minutes to go from 20% to 80%—not terrible, but also well above the 25-30 minute mark that’s increasingly becoming a standard expectation in the DC fast-charging space.

And it’s never very consistent, either. “It’s kind of odd that I don’t know what to expect when I charge the Equinox EV from day to day,” Tom said in a video published last year.  

GM doesn’t publish a standard 10% or 20% to 80% charging estimate as many automakers do, but it does say the Optiq will add up to 81 miles in about 10 minutes on a 150 kW charger. It’s an odd metric, but it does prove that someone can get enough range to complete a decent trip in the time it takes to hit a rest stop and grab some snacks. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

But now the Optiq has a NACS plug. So how will it do on a Tesla V3 Supercharger, with up to 250 kW of charging power on tap? Here’s what I found out when I tried it. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq: The Tesla Supercharger Test

As with other charging tests I’ve done in the past, this isn’t a tightly controlled experiment with tons of graphs and data for those who love to geek out on this stuff. It’s a real-world test, meant to simulate the experience any ordinary owner might have if they lived with this EV every day.

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

I rolled up to my local Supercharger station with 14% charge and just 35 miles of range left. I pre-conditioned the battery about 20 minutes before I arrived. When I did, I fired up my Tesla app and plugged in, encountering no issues getting started. My test started at 1:11 p.m. when I got a quote of 35 minutes to 80%—a bit disappointing right out of the gate. 

And right away, the Optiq jumped to charging speeds of 147 kW, but it didn’t hang out there long. I was at 21% by 1:14, but as the charge rate climbed, speeds went down more quickly than expected. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

By 37%, I was at 129 kW with a quoted 25 more minutes to reach 80%. Not exactly dazzling. By 42%, speeds were down to 124 kW, then below 120 kW as I hit 50%. By 58%—which, by the way, is 170 miles of range—I was down to 112 kW, yet I still had another 15 minutes to hit 80%. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

Things really sank at 60%, which was around 20 minutes into the test. By then, the car was only pulling speeds of 85 kW, almost half what it should have been capable of. I eventually called the test at 1:37 p.m., after 25 minutes of charging, which gave me 194 miles of range at 65% charge. And when I finished, the car was only seeing speeds of 67 kW. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

I wanted to get it to 80% for the purposes of the test, but I had all the range I needed—plus my wife was getting annoyed because we had other stuff to do that day. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

So what gives here? 

Tesla Supercharger Test, Results Explained

In the broader context of modern EVs, it’s a bit of a letdown, even when Tesla Supercharging can be a weird mixed bag. And in the case of the Optiq, you can blame the charging curve. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

Let me offer some context. A NACS-equipped Hyundai Ioniq 5 (which, again, has a similar-sized battery) will charge at a Tesla station with “only” speeds of about 126 kW, which is far less than that EV is capable of. But it does 126 kW steadily, throughout the whole test. That’s why it will go from 10% to 80% in a quoted 30 minutes—quicker than the Cadillac. 

Or take the 2026 Subaru Solterra, which I also Tesla-charged recently. It has a smaller battery than the Cadillac at 74.7 kWh. But it also held higher charging speeds on a Supercharger more consistently. I didn’t see speeds below 100 kW until the Solterra was well past a 65% charge. That’s why it went from 16% to 80% in about 25 minutes on that test—again, less battery to fill up, but a better charging curve.

From our friends at State of Charge: See how fast the Equinox EV’s speeds drop off?

Photo by: State Of Charge

That term, by the way, refers to how fast an electric car charges over time—how quickly your car will add miles at different points, and how long a full charge might take. Nearly all EVs charge quickly at first when battery levels are low but taper off as more energy gets added. It’s like filling a glass with water: you can pour quickly when it’s empty, but as it gets close to the top, you have to pour more slowly to avoid spilling. 

The Ioniq 5 has an outstanding charging curve, staying at a consistent 126 kW throughout much of the charge on a Tesla plug. The Subaru did pretty solid in this department too; it didn’t lose a three-digit charge until well into the test. But the Optiq’s charging speeds dropped off pretty quickly, so for much of the charge, it didn’t feel like it was pulling as much energy as competitors would. 

2026 Cadillac Optiq: The Tesla Supercharger Verdict

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

As I’ve said before, my Tesla Supercharger test has three parameters: if your battery is low, how long does it take to get to 80%? If you don’t go to 80%, do you still get back on the road reasonably quickly? And does the car do what it claims to do?

On the first question, if you use a Tesla Supercharger, you’re looking at more than half an hour on the plug to go from low to 80%. If you need to top off quickly for a little boost of range, then the Optiq does just fine—it did, after all, go from 34 miles of range to 140 miles in about 15 minutes. That’s not bad at all. I suppose the car does what it claims to do; GM has never promised lightning-fast charge times for this car, and results were similar to what we’ve seen before.

2026 Cadillac Optiq

Photo by: Patrick George

I also really like the Cadillac Optiq. Pound-for-pound, it’s perhaps my favorite overall execution of GM’s EV formula to date. It’s powerful enough (with some serious upgrades in just one model year), comfortable, stylish, high-tech, and pleasant and fun to drive. And it reliably delivered that 300-plus miles of range it promised, even in colder November temperatures here in upstate New York.

But fast-charging is an area where I’d like to see GM get better. Sure, the big-battery GM EV trucks are charging monsters, often seeing speeds north of 350 kW. That just hasn’t been true on most of the more mainstream electric crossovers so far. Even the Cadillac Lyriq and Blazer EV max out at 190 kW, which is starting to feel uncompetitive as technology advances. 

Charging speeds aren’t everything with EV ownership, but this Cadillac leaves some room for improvement. 

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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