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Eastern Canada Superchargers

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The only things that really matter are cabin heat and driving speed.

Doug, I wonder how the BMW i3 is with it's Carbon Fiber Body in these Cold Cold Temps? Does the Vehicle Shell Material make any difference? Would a good Foam-Core Composite Shell on a Vehicle keep the heat from leaking out better than the metal ones we use now (Steel OR Aluminum - both good thermal conductors, as I understand!)?
 
Does the Vehicle Shell Material make any difference? Would a good Foam-Core Composite Shell on a Vehicle keep the heat from leaking out better than the metal ones we use now (Steel OR Aluminum - both good thermal conductors, as I understand!)?

I have a thought on this: In the winter, my experience is that using Recirculate creates a lot of window fogging and is downright dangerous IMHO. I always will use outside air with the HVAC in winter and haven't had even the slightest hint of window fogging... even when not using the defrosters. (I generally only use the defrosters to clear ice). So in my use scenario, the thermal properties of the vehicle shell probably don't make that much of a difference since I'm pulling in outside (cold) air and heating it anyway. The other day, I had a mechanical breakdown and found my Model S cabin got quite cold, quite fast just sitting at the side of the road.
 
Major ICEing at Woodstock this morning

I drove from Toronto to London and back today and had to stop at the Woodstock SC each way to charge. On my way there this morning at 11:15 three of the SC spots were blocked by very large pickups and one was blocked by an ICE car. Luckily there were no other chargers being used so I was ok but this could be an issue if it was busy. In the afternoon all of the Chargers were clear.

The other problem that I had is that the cables on the SC aren't very long and you have to back up into a snow bank to be able to reach your car. They need to get someone to clear the snow banks right in front of the SCs, or get longer cables.
 
I drove from Toronto to London and back today and had to stop at the Woodstock SC each way to charge. On my way there this morning at 11:15 three of the SC spots were blocked by very large pickups and one was blocked by an ICE car.

Been like that every time I've stopped there myself. In one case, all but two stalls were ICEed (including one stall blocked by a Nissan Leaf obviously not charging). The property owner was contacted and had promised to take steps to deal with it, but it appears he has been unsuccessful.
 
Done.

Is anyone aware if Tesla monitors the usage of SCs - would they have the technology to do this either through the cars letting the mothership know that they are using the SC at XX location or the SCs themselves letting the mothership know that they are being used?

I don't know if what I saw yesterday was typical - but I was the only person at an eight person SC site yesterday on two 30 minute visits. If that is typical then it means that SCs in Canada, or at least Woodstock, aren't getting much usage. Does that work against us getting more SCs in Canada?

It would have been nice to have another SC in Oakville/Miss as I was getting range anxiety as my expected charge at destination dropped from 24% to 14% due to having to keep the car de-iced.
 
In my 5 visits to Barrie so far, I encountered 2 others in total.

To be fair, on my last trip to Chicago I was the only car at Angola, IN, Mishawaka, IN and Aurora IL on the way down and on the way back I encountered one other car at the Angola Supercharger. This was last summer during what would be considered "peak driving season". (None of the spots were ICEed, however).
 
Is anyone aware if Tesla monitors the usage of SCs - would they have the technology to do this either through the cars letting the mothership know that they are using the SC at XX location or the SCs themselves letting the mothership know that they are being used?

I don't know if what I saw yesterday was typical - but I was the only person at an eight person SC site yesterday on two 30 minute visits. If that is typical then it means that SCs in Canada, or at least Woodstock, aren't getting much usage. Does that work against us getting more SCs in Canada?

Tesla monitors supercharger usage in real-time - there is a display in the Hawthorne design center showing the 10 superchargers with the most usage, even showing which pedestals are being used. Light usage doesn't stop Tesla from building the geographic coverage of the supercharger network, but I wouldn't expect any infill superchargers (like we've been seeing in Southern California) until there is congestion.
 
To be fair, on my last trip to Chicago I was the only car at Angola, IN, Mishawaka, IN and Aurora IL on the way down and on the way back I encountered one other car at the Angola Supercharger. This was last summer during what would be considered "peak driving season". (None of the spots were ICEed, however).

On a recent trip to Florida, we only saw other Teslas at two Superchargers - Atlanta (where local cars were at the downtown shopping location) and Macon GA. We went to all of the Superchargers on I-75 except Ocala FL. No ICEing problems, but not a lot of usage either. The system works well but the in-fill chargers (Comber and Knoxville) are really needed (the charging taper is a real drag). Based on this experience, the low rate of usage in Canada is not atypical, and should not impact the roll out. Gaps in the network deter use by extending the trip time and creating range anxiety (especially among new owners).
 
Is anyone aware if Tesla monitors the usage of SCs - would they have the technology to do this either through the cars letting the mothership know that they are using the SC at XX location or the SCs themselves letting the mothership know that they are being used?

They certainly have usage stats, and I bet Tesla has VIN stats with this as well. Every Supercharger Cabinet has a cell data modem.

Here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago at SPOTTED: A Daily Photo Thread From the Hawthorne Supercharger Station of the Supercharger Dashboard in Hawthorne. The car shapes are filled in when a Tesla is connected. If the picture does not show, click on the attachment below to see it.
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Do they account for weather when deciding where to put SCs? I have owned my car for a couple of months and I rarely even get a sniff of rated mileage. Places that have winter need to have much less separation between SCs to facilitate winter driving - in cold weather when you need to use the front and rear defrosters the range isn't much more than 200km.
 
Green Plated vehicles in Ontario:

I'm not sure this is common knowledge, but thought I would share it anyway -

The Ministry of Transportation responded to an email I sent regarding green-plated vehicles and confirmed they intend to extend the HOV lane access for EVs in Ontario at least until June 30 2016. It will be reevaluated on an ongoing basis.
 
Done.

Is anyone aware if Tesla monitors the usage of SCs - would they have the technology to do this either through the cars letting the mothership know that they are using the SC at XX location or the SCs themselves letting the mothership know that they are being used?

Here is a shoot of the monitor at Hawthorne. It automatically changes between the top ten SC sites.
 

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