I charged a Kia at a Tesla Supercharger and saw how Elon Musk can make EV charging suck less for everybody

• Tesla has started opening up access to its Supercharger network to rival electric cars.

• I tested out the experience in a Kia Niro EV that Kia lent me.

• Charging a non-Tesla at a Tesla charging station was notably smooth and convenient.

On paper, electric cars handily beat dirty gas vehicles by being quick, quiet, and eco-friendly. But in practice, simply filling them up with electricity — a key ingredient in driving places — can be a struggle.

Public charging plugs are much rarer than gas pumps, an infrastructure gap that can cause headaches on long trips. The electric-vehicle chargers one does find are frequently glitchy or outright busted, potentially triggering a full-blown migraine.

So it's a big deal that Tesla is opening up thousands of its formerly exclusive Superchargers to drivers of all electric cars. Elon Musk's famously reliable and easy-to-use charging network (the largest plug provider in the US) has shielded Tesla owners from the difficulties of charging in the wild for years.

The plan is to make 3,500 Superchargers available to drivers of Fords, Kias, Toyotas and more by the end of 2024. (That's out of some 18,000 currently installed.)

Tesla has kicked things off by retrofitting 10 stations: two in California and eight in my native New York. Eager to test out the future of EV charging for myself, I got my hands on a Kia Niro EV and set off for Brewster, New York, about an hour and a half away from Manhattan.

The charging process was straightforward and much smoother than the experiences I've had with other charging providers.

First, I downloaded the Tesla iPhone app, which displays nearby charging locations, indicates which ones are open to non-Teslas, and shows how many stalls are available at each station. I created an account, added my billing information, and we were off to the races and within about two minutes.