What is going on with the Alabama SuperChargers? This past weekend my wife and I did a weekend get away from Atlanta, GA to Biloxi, MS to Destin, FL. The route we decided to take was the I-20 / I-65 vs. I-85 / I-65. The trip started off fine, stopping at the Oxford, AL supercharger for a few minutes then heading to Birmingham. When we arrived at the Birmingham supercharger where we were greeted by a line of cars (out of the parking lot) waiting to charge. We ended up waiting for around an hour before we was able to charge but oh well that's the only Tesla chargers in the city. (Not sure why Oxford would have 12 chargers and Birmingham has only 8??) Next up after charging we were off to the Greenville, AL (I-65) supercharger but after selecting it as a destination. I received a message stating "Reduced service" with the gear icon; which means the chargers could have one charger down or all are down. I tried calling Tesla support to check on the status (because I didn't want to take a chance) and arrive with no way to charge. No one ever answered at Tesla support. So we decided to take the Birmingham to Meridian, MS route, which is a pretty long stretch on a single charge. Well after driving for about 45 minutes down I-20 to Meridian, the battery icon reported I would arrive in at my destination with only 5% remaining. I've been having my MX 75D since 2017 and don't play around when it's that low because anything can happen ie. traffic, accident, etc. So we headed over to the UA campus and decided to charge for 30 minutes or so (32 amps). (why doesn't Tuscaloosa have a supercharger??) Well we were able to continue our trip to Meridian and was able to make it to Biloxi. The real issue was after we made it to Destin, FL and not knowing if the Greenville station was up or not. After using every app available (Tesla Planner, ABRP, PlugShare, ElectrifyAmerica) we decided not to take a chance going back to Mobile then up I-65 to Greenville. We decided to fully charge at Defuniak Springs supercharger and try our luck taking back roads through Alabama (which was allot shorter distance and faster) to the Auburn supercharger. Well we were able to make it to Montgomery with no problem, but now the battery icon reported I wouldn't make it to Auburn. (why Montgomery still doesn't have a supercharger, surprises me??) For a minute there, my heart started to race but I remembered thanks to Electrify America and my Tesla Chademo adapter (that I had only used one other time) I would be able to charge for 30 minutes and was able to make it to Auburn with no problems. (using the adapter could have been a workaround at the Greenville site since they have a Electrify America station but wasn't thinking) After arriving at the Auburn supercharger we discovered 2 of the 6 chargers were down. The car never reported the two chargers as being down. We were lucky again because as we were pulling into one of the broken chargers, the MX next to us told us they were leaving and pointed out those 2 chargers are broken. Well we were able to make it home safely but was kinda scary there for a moment.
Alabama really need more superchargers and the one's already installed need to be working. BTW - two of the chargers in Mobile, AL were also down on our way to FL. There's no way more people are going to purchase EV's in the south or just in general with the limited number of DC chargers around. What is everyone's thoughts?
Alabama really need more superchargers and the one's already installed need to be working. BTW - two of the chargers in Mobile, AL were also down on our way to FL. There's no way more people are going to purchase EV's in the south or just in general with the limited number of DC chargers around. What is everyone's thoughts?
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