Another noob Supercharger question, but then again it's good to be prepared

[EVer Hopeful]

I've still a couple of shakedown tasks to accomplish, notably (i) take the Y for a long drive and (ii) try out a Supercharger

So this is a bit of an embarrassing question, but it might save me from wasting time at the Supercharger: Do I just roll up, back into the stall, (being mindful of the A and B thing of course), plug it in and it knows who I am?

I mean do I have to set any accounting thing up first? I obviously have an account that I used to buy the car and all those accessories, but is it all automatic, or do I need to type in information like I did with EVGo when I had the Ioniq for a week? or maybe push a credit card into the Supercharger?

Silly I know, but IMO ignorance is never something to be ashamed of (stupidity OTOH . . .)


Other tasks:
(iii) charge a a State Park campground
(iv) take the car on a glamping trip, maybe even sleep in it
(v) drive a 3 to compare the two
(vi) take it to a gas station and circle the pumps leaning on the horn and laughing out of the open window

 

[jcanoe]

You must have a current credit card on file with Tesla under your Tesla account before you can use a Supercharger.

 

[Arthur31]

If you have a card on file with Tesla then yes you just back up and plug the car in, just like charging at home. The car will take car of everything else. Also when you are going to the SC put the destination into the NAV system so it can get the battery ready for a large dump of electricity.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

sweet - thanks I'll give it a try

(I verified the card on file)

 

[GtiMart]

(iii) Make sure you have a 14-50 adapter (for a 50A site) or a TT-30 from EVSEAdapters (for a 30A site) otherwise you'll just plug in a regular home 120V 12A plug and find charging to be very slow.
(v) You have a model 3 that got stung by a bee, they're similar
(vi) unless you appreciate superchargers being blocked by ICE cars, I would refrain from doing that. Please, for all the others, don't do it

 

[EVer Hopeful]

(iii) I already bought the 14-50 adapter
(vi) don't worry about that, it's Texas so someone would probably just shoot me

 

[EVer Hopeful]

ok, so I gave it a try. I put the local one in the nav and got the preconditioning message. When I got there, there were already a few vehicles parked up and you know how horrible your first day of school was? ...but it didn't stay horrible for too long? well that's what this was like

Of note:
I didn't see the A and B things. Maybe that's because these were "up to150kW" SCs
I did notice that they had nose in as well as reverse in chargers - I thought they were ALL reverse in
I went from 66% to 80% in about 10 minutes so no time to watch any Netflix - lol
My account says I got 35mi which for a second I thought meant 35 minutes which was obviously way too long. I guess it must mean miles (of the 1000)

We might take a trip to a local state park on Thursday and spend the night up there

 

[GtiMart]

150kW are 2nd gen, two stalls sharing one charger. You should have seen 1A, 1B, 2 A etc on the stalls, at the bottom. They are not that prominent.
Supercharging is slower as the battery gets higher in state of charge. Try it with a warm battery at 10% and you'll see it's faster than that.

 

[wynnek]

ok, so I gave it a try. I put the local one in the nav and got the preconditioning message. When I got there, there were already a few vehicles parked up and you know how horrible your first day of school was? ...but it didn't stay horrible for too long? well that's what this was like

Of note:
I didn't see the A and B things. Maybe that's because these were "up to150kW" SCs
I did notice that they had nose in as well as reverse in chargers - I thought they were ALL reverse in
I went from 66% to 80% in about 10 minutes so no time to watch any Netflix - lol
My account says I got 35mi which for a second I thought meant 35 minutes which was obviously way too long. I guess it must mean miles (of the 1000)

We might take a trip to a local state park on Thursday and spend the night up there

The nose in ones are for cars towing something that wouldn't be able to back in. You should avoid these if at all possible.

ok, so I gave it a try. I put the local one in the nav and got the preconditioning message. When I got there, there were already a few vehicles parked up and you know how horrible your first day of school was? ...but it didn't stay horrible for too long? well that's what this was like

Of note:
I didn't see the A and B things. Maybe that's because these were "up to150kW" SCs
I did notice that they had nose in as well as reverse in chargers - I thought they were ALL reverse in
I went from 66% to 80% in about 10 minutes so no time to watch any Netflix - lol
My account says I got 35mi which for a second I thought meant 35 minutes which was obviously way too long. I guess it must mean miles (of the 1000)

We might take a trip to a local state park on Thursday and spend the night up there

The nose in chargers are for Teslas towing something that wouldn't be able to back in. As a matter of etiquette, you should avoid using these if at all possible.

 

[TomServo]

When getting ready to charge at a Supercharger keep in mind the A/B sharing protocol on V2 Superchargers. And Happiness is a Warm Battery at a Low State of Charge (SOC). And if you see trash nearby pick it up.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

The nose in ones are for cars towing something that wouldn't be able to back in. You should avoid these if at all possible.

Interesting ... but they weren't pull-throughs, they would have to back out

 

[Johnny Vector]

Interesting ... but they weren't pull-throughs, they would have to back out

Yep, most of them are. But it's still much easier to back out with a trailer than to unhitch the trailer in some other parking spot, drive over to the SC and back in, then pull out and reattach the trailer.

Or so I've heard; haven't yet used my trailer hitch. The more TSLA keeps increasing the sooner I'll be able to retire and try it out!

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Well here are the nose-in stalls. You can see a hedge in front that'll stop a pull through and if it's for vehicles towing, then the trailer would block the main driveway - although I understand what you mean and don't doubt it, just might not be the case here

That weird pink think is my hand btw

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Here's The Meteorite taking a drink - I still don't see any A or B annotation on that Supercharger

 

[GtiMart]

Those are 72kW urban chargers. They're already pre-split from a 150kW unit, that's why there's no A/B.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

...and that's why I posted that pic. I thought it might be the case, just that the Tesla website labels that place as "11 Superchargers, available 24/7, up to 150kW"

Maybe there's a 150kW that I didn't see, but they all seemed to look like this

Thanks for the info

 

[GtiMart]

Unless there are other stalls that look different on the same location, or they have changed how urban chargers work (unlikely), then the information on the Tesla website is wrong.

 

[Rocky_H]

...and that's why I posted that pic. I thought it might be the case, just that the Tesla website labels that place as "11 Superchargers, available 24/7, up to 150kW"

Maybe there's a 150kW that I didn't see, but they all seemed to look like this

Unless there are other stalls that look different on the same location, or they have changed how urban chargers work (unlikely), then the information on the Tesla website is wrong.

For @EVer Hopeful You can tell from that body style of the pedestals that those are the ones called "Urban Superchargers". The more common ones have pedestals that are a little taller and are not a solid body like that--they have an opening through the middle of them, with the cord hanging inside there. As mentioned, the urban ones always have a half and half split, only up to 72 kW maximum, so I guess that's why they don't need to put the 1A 1B labels on the base of the pedestals--it won't matter if you're paired with someone.

As to the information on the Tesla website, I guess that is a little wrong. The cabinet that feeds each pair is 150 kW, but you're right that since they are the urban half and half type, no stall can actually pull "up to 150 kW".

 

[retlod]

For bonus points, leave a check-in on PlugShare if there's something amiss or an unexpected perk so others know about it in advance. Hope you enjoy your car!

 

[EVer Hopeful]

I've still a couple of shakedown tasks to accomplish, notably:
(i) take the Y for a long drive - done
(ii) try out a Supercharger - done
(iii) charge a a State Park campground - done
(iv) take the car on a glamping trip, maybe even sleep in it - done (both)
(v) drive a 3 to compare the two - still to do, though I'm sold on the Y at this point
(vi) take it to a gas station and circle the pumps leaning on the horn and laughing out of the open window - I'm far too restrained, though I have visited a Love's as that's where the Three Rivers SC is in Texas and that's pretty much the last chance before you get to the coast

I think I'll add:
(vii) use the wall connector on a 115v circuit - done
(viii) try using the J1772 adapter and charging on EvGo, or Blink or EA or Chargepoint - still to do
(ix) accept a software download - done
(x) watch Netflix - done
(xi) try out TACC and Auto Steer on the open road - done

Can't think of much else at this point. Is there anything special to note about using the J1772 adapter?