Charging Improvements

[Skotty]

I know this has surely been discussed elsewhere, but I wanted to add my own experience in a thread. I haven't been following supercharging as closely as I used to, but I recently had to make a trip from KC to St. Louis and back. I was delighted to see there were new charging locations available, including one in Concordia that I decided to stop at. While I was there, I noticed before getting out that the charge rate had climbed to over 200 kW. I went in to the convenience store, went to the bathroom, grabbed some drinks, and when I got back to the car it had charged from about 35 miles of range up to around 170 miles, enough to continue my trip.

I first started using superchargers with my 2014 Model S some 6 years ago, and I have to say, charging has improved dramatically in that time with newer Tesla cars and newer Tesla superchargers. Back then, it was not uncommon for me to take a nap in my Model S while I was waiting for it to charge. My most recent trip in my 2020 Model 3 was the first trip where I really felt like charging had reached parity (or close enough to it) with gas fill ups thanks to much faster charging, more available charging locations, plus more efficient cars helps as well.

Hats off to Tesla on all of the improvements.

 

[Skotty]

Just wanted to add -- I've done a lot of supercharging over the last 6 years due to my work which required frequent road trips, though that has changed over the last couple of years and I don't have to travel nearly as much anymore. Most of the time now I am just charging at home with my Clipper Creek EVSE (the Clipper Creek unit has been great).

 

[LoudMusic]

There have certainly been a lot of great updates to the Supercharging network in the past 8 years. I wasn't going to buy a Tesla until they opened a Supercharger location in Arkansas. Now we have five with three more planned. And this is not a very EV friendly state. The transition from 120kW to 150kW wasn't a particularly big bump, but going from 150kW to 250kW is profound. AND every stall has a dedicated charging unit now as well. It's just amazing.

I'm glad you've had a good experience and I'm glad you are talking about it on the internet. There's too much negativity.

 

[MyJoule]

We just completed a 1600 mile trip in our new LR S- it replaced a 2014 85 Night and day difference on charging. We used a combination of V2 and V3 superchargers along the way- and with the increased range, instead of 13 or 14 stops we made 8. We saw sustained rates of 150KW at the V2 superchargers and on the V3 ones we saw at least a few minutes of 250KW charge rates- Seeing the screen reporting 1000MPH was pretty cool. The only issue- we gave up free supercharging on the 2014 for what is now pretty expensive supercharging on the 2021 LR S We paid as much as 0.47/KWH on the trip- we supercharged 480KWH and spent $188 on the 1600 mile trip.

 

[Skotty]

We just completed a 1600 mile trip in our new LR S- it replaced a 2014 85 Night and day difference on charging. We used a combination of V2 and V3 superchargers along the way- and with the increased range, instead of 13 or 14 stops we made 8. We saw sustained rates of 150KW at the V2 superchargers and on the V3 ones we saw at least a few minutes of 250KW charge rates- Seeing the screen reporting 1000MPH was pretty cool. The only issue- we gave up free supercharging on the 2014 for what is now pretty expensive supercharging on the 2021 LR S We paid as much as 0.47/KWH on the trip- we supercharged 480KWH and spent $188 on the 1600 mile trip.

I'm kind of torn on whether or not to ever upgrade from my '14 P85. I would love the charging, range, and other improvements, but I would miss some of the extra features you get on an older model, including the pano roof, huge frunk, more unique interior combo, rear facing seats, and free connectivity and free supercharging. I also want to see how long the S will last; the battery barely degrades at all now, so barring some critical sudden failure, it could last a long time with only the occasional non-battery repair. And it would make me silly happy to be driving around a 20+ year old Tesla Model S that everyone said would need new batteries every 5 years. I know a few people had various battery issues early on, but I think the majority will last a lot longer than all the skeptics predicted. I hope that pans out. Still need a few more years to know for sure.