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California Superchargers- how busy are they?

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San Mateo SC used to have a healthy amount of availability. Lately, it's gotten so bad they had to post a Tesla attendant there for a while. If you go around lunch time or after work, there is a wait 3-5 cars deep.

- K
I was just there for the first time Monday. Arrived and I was next in line although all the stalls were all taken I think I had to wait about 5 minutes. I'm glad the attendant was there though as he showed me the protocol for waiting. When I left 40 minutes later, which told me I had just enough to continue my trip, there were 3 more cars waiting. I didn't get back home until 7:30PM that evening because of traffic. :(
 
I honestly don't understand why Tesla is building the Superchargers so small. 6-8 stalls seems to be the average. They know exactly how many cars they are going to produce in the next year and how the demand for Superchargers will go up dramatically. If you go through the whole process of getting permits and having it built why not add more stalls. The cost of additional hardware to have 12 or 20 stalls instead of 8 is small compared to the overall cost. And they know damn well they will have to expand those stations once the Model 3 is out. The existing network hardly supports the Model X/S out right now.
 
I honestly don't understand why Tesla is building the Superchargers so small. 6-8 stalls seems to be the average. They know exactly how many cars they are going to produce in the next year and how the demand for Superchargers will go up dramatically. If you go through the whole process of getting permits and having it built why not add more stalls. The cost of additional hardware to have 12 or 20 stalls instead of 8 is small compared to the overall cost. And they know damn well they will have to expand those stations once the Model 3 is out. The existing network hardly supports the Model X/S out right now.

I would say that, depending on how they price the supercharger option for the model 3, it may not be the supercharger demand driver you think. And then there's the whole other can of worms over if/how Tesla will discourage locals' use of superchargers. I know the 12-bay supercharger in my neighborhood is near full all of the time.
 
I honestly don't understand why Tesla is building the Superchargers so small. 6-8 stalls seems to be the average. They know exactly how many cars they are going to produce in the next year and how the demand for Superchargers will go up dramatically. If you go through the whole process of getting permits and having it built why not add more stalls. The cost of additional hardware to have 12 or 20 stalls instead of 8 is small compared to the overall cost. And they know damn well they will have to expand those stations once the Model 3 is out.
Two points:

1 - Tesla does not buy land to build Superchargers on. They rent or lease existing parking lot space. The owner of the parking lot may not be willing to give up more spaces than what Tesla is able to negotiate for. Also, some Supercharger locations may be limited in the number of stalls by the amount of electricity the local utility is willing to provide to that specific location.

2 - It is certain that the Model 3 base version will include a "pay per use" Supercharger model. It is unknown if Tesla will even offer "free for life / unlimited" Supercharging as an option on the Model 3. So that will significantly reduce the amount of Supercharging that Model 3 owners do.

At the Model 3 reveal Elon said that Tesla is committed to doubling the number of Supercharger by the time the Model 3 is in volume production. Your post portrays Tesla as clueless and willfully disregarding future Supercharger demand. The company is not as stupid as you make it out to be.
 
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Here is my California Supercharger report from Friday, 4 November 2016:

Arrived at Tejon Ranch Supercharger at 8:15 AM. We were the only ones charging for 10 minutes when two other vehicles arrived. We departed after 25 minutes, and we saw a Tesla approaching the Supercharger. (By the way, this was the only location that delivered the expected charge for the entire session.)

Arrived at Buena Park around 10:25 AM. Two of the eight stalls were available. It was unclear how many in use were from owners and how many were for customers who had their cars serviced. Our initial charge rate (18%) on a paired stall was 60kWh +/-, which rose to 85kWh after the owner of the X in the shared stall departed. Two more owners arrived during our 30 minutes there.

Arrived at San Diego around 12:50. All 12 stalls were in use. We were the first ones in the line. Within 10 minutes three more arrived and circled the parking lot like buzzards waiting for their prey to die. Got a spot around 1:10. We charged for 20 minutes. Four more Teslas arrived in this period, and a few drove away.

Arrived at Temecula around 4:00 PM. One other car was plugged in. The initial rate with 17% battery was 115kWh, but within five minutes had plummeted to 84. We returned to the car at 5:00 PM, and there was a total of 5 Teslas charging.

Arrived at Tejon Ranch around 8:40 PM. We were the only car charging. One arrived shortly thereafter, and another arrived around 9:10.

I plugged in again at Tejon Ranch at 6:00 AM Saturday. One vehicle was charging at six o'clock, and another arrived around 6:20.

Arrived at Fresno at 9:00. One other Tesla was charging at that hour.

I think that it is a little curious that the Tejon Ranch Supercharger shows heavier-than-expected utilization early in the morning and later at night. I wonder what the occurrences are at Buttonwillow, Harris Ranch and Bakersfield-West for these same time frames.
 
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