ELECTREK: Tesla starts limiting charge to 80% at busy Superchargers to reduce wait times

[d21mike]

I have life time unlimited supercharging but I charge from home 99% of the time. I only use superchargers when I travel at least 100 miles away from my home location. I don't like the idea of being limited to 80% charge because that creates an inconvenience for me on a trip I make about 2 - 4 times per year. I normally charge to 100% before heading home. If I can only charge to 80% then I would need to charge again (at another supercharger) before I reaching home where I would charge at home on my dime. I really understand the problem of over crowded superchargers and something needs to be done but this method of forcing everyone to 80% is not it. Since the superchargers were intended for long trips and not for daily charging how about applying the rule to cars that are within so many miles of their home location? Also, if there is no option how about giving the option to pay for charging beyond 80% which would only be used by users that really need it.

 

[Zoomit]

this method of forcing everyone to 80%

How is it forcing everyone to 80%? For a select minority of stations, it only defaults to no more than 80%.

 

[d21mike]

How is it forcing everyone to 80%? For a select minority of stations, it only defaults to no more than 80%.

My understanding is that EVERYONE that goes to a supercharger that is busy then EVERYONE will be subject to 80% maximum charge. Are you saying that NOT EVERYONE that goes to this particular supercharger are not subject to the 80% restriction. IF SO, which of those cars are NOT SUBJECT to the 80% restriction? This particular thread is talking about Tesla restituting ALL CARS that go to a particular supercharger to 80% max charge. Of course if you go to a supercharger that is not busy and/or does not limit you to 80% is not part of this discussion.

And my comment stands. If they restrict me to 80% max charge then that is a problem for me when 80% will not allow me to make it home without having to stop at some other supercharge that may or may not be good for me.

NOW back to my comment that I have FREE UNLIMITED SUPERCHARGING for the life of my car. I was ok with doing 99% of my charging at home because I felt the intent was I would not be restricted when I am on a trip. This restriction can be super restrictive to people that require 100% charge to make it easily to their destination. Those that are happy with making many stops along the way to reduce the time at each stop go for it. But those of us that would rather have breakfast prior to a long trip home and would like to start a with 100% charge should not be FORCED to make multiple stops along the way. If that is the case we should have been told before buying the car with FREE "UNLIMITED" Supercharging and maybe we would have got another car.

Please stop making excuses for TESLA.

 

[Krash]

I assume that Nephi, Utah is not one of the 8% that are limited. It would be a bummer for I-15 Southbound traffic to Phoenix if it were.

In the winter it is really tight to make it to Page, Arizona from Nephi in a new 75kWh S at 100% SoC, much less in an X. Navigating through Nephi wouldn't help as the navigation will just route you way out of the way through Las Vegas.

 

[Zoomit]

My understanding is that EVERYONE that goes to a supercharger that is busy then EVERYONE will be subject to 80% maximum charge. Are you saying that NOT EVERYONE that goes to this particular supercharger are not subject to the 80% restriction. IF SO, which of those cars are NOT SUBJECT to the 80% restriction? This particular thread is talking about Tesla restituting ALL CARS that go to a particular supercharger to 80% max charge. Of course if you go to a supercharger that is not busy and/or does not limit you to 80% is not part of this discussion.

And my comment stands. If they restrict me to 80% max charge then that is a problem for me when 80% will not allow me to make it home without having to stop at some other supercharge that may or may not be good for me.

I'm baffled why some folks are missing this. (You're not alone here.) EVERYONE that goes to a "80% limited" station will be able to select up to 100% charge and get that. They are not limiting you in any way other than causing you to reselect a charge level above 80%. It makes perfect sense to me as it forces you to make a concerted effort to choose the longer charge time at busy stations. This is good for all of us as it helps vacate the stalls unless people explicitly choose to charge higher than 80%.

As I said before, I haven't tried it myself, but I'm just relaying what @AAARSINIC said here: High-usage supercharger station

 

[d21mike]

I'm baffled why some folks are missing this. (You're not alone here.) EVERYONE that goes to a "80% limited" station will be able to select up to 100% charge and get that. They are not limiting you in any way other than causing you to reselect a charge level above 80%. It makes perfect sense to me as it forces you to make a concerted effort to choose the longer charge time at busy stations. This is good for all of us as it helps vacate the stalls unless people explicitly choose to charge higher than 80%.

As I said before, I haven't tried it myself, but I'm just relaying what @AAARSINIC said here: High-usage supercharger station

AH... I now understand what you mean.... But I do not understand what is really NEW. In the past I have set my charge limit to 100% and will get an alert stating that my charge is almost complete at 80%. But my charge limit is "still" set for 100% so I just ignore it. And my car will charge to 100% anyway and I have never been billed for going over 80%. I just thought this was a nudge to get me to stop at 80%. But this happened to me in the past. Not recently per this notice. Again, I seldom use Superchargers and this was around January 4, 2019 (last time I used a supercharger). But pretty sure it happen before that around November 25, 2018. Both times the supercharge was pretty busy but maybe not complete full.

My original post was if they want to free up superchargers it should be those that are near home to encourage those that can to use a home charger to do so. I have been to local chargers (I live in Torrance, California - south of LA) for fun while testing out a new version of the firmware and noticed they are all FULL pretty much every time I went to them. And the people there appear to be most (if not all) local owners. I actually stopped to visit with other owners and that was what they told me. So, if a traveler was to come here to my area needing a charge they would be pretty busy with local owners.

 

[dbldwn02]

Pretty sure everyone is going to pick 100% every time then. It avoids idle fees. So this basically accomplishes nothing.

Or maybe Tesla is easing people into this mindset before they make it mandatory. I could see that being a definite possibility.

 

[swegman]

According to my understanding, when pulling into a charging stall at a heavily used supercharger location, Tesla will change the charge limit from whatever percentage you had to 80% via their over-the-air internet connection to the car. My question is whether Tesla will reset the percentage charge limit to the setting you had before charging. I suspect not, which may tick off a lot of people. The readers of this forum will know to reset the charge limit if necessary (for example, my default setting for daily charging is 89% but when at a supercharger I charge to have a 30% range indication over the actual drive distance to the next supercharger (as I consume more battery energy than the car estimates), which could be less than 89%). People that don’t read this forum will just drive away not realizing they need to reset their charge limit setting, and thereafter call Tesla complaining about the capacity of the battery.

 

[d21mike]

According to my understanding, when pulling into a charging stall at a heavily used supercharger location, Tesla will change the charge limit from whatever percentage you had to 80% via their over-the-air internet connection to the car. My question is whether Tesla will reset the percentage charge limit to the setting you had before charging. I suspect not, which may tick off a lot of people. The readers of this forum will know to reset the charge limit if necessary (for example, my default setting for daily charging is 89% but when at a supercharger I charge to have a 30% range indication over the actual drive distance to the next supercharger (as I consume more battery energy than the car estimates), which could be less than 89%). People that don’t read this forum will just drive away not realizing they need to reset their charge limit setting, and thereafter call Tesla complaining about the capacity of the battery.

If all this is true then I think the TITLE of this article is more misleading the what Tesla may actually be doing. Generally when I stop at a SuperCharger I check to see the limit and make sure it is correct. My guess most would do that anyway so this does not appear to be a concern at all. And when I did get a notice it said... You are about to reach 80% charge so come back to your car (or something like that). Which I can look at my Phone to verify my setting.

 

[swegman]

Generally when I stop at a SuperCharger I check to see the limit and make sure it is correct. My guess most would do that anyway so this does not appear to be a concern at all. ... I can look at my Phone to verify my setting.

We readers of this forum are not your typical Tesla owner. I know numerous other Tesla owners and they are clueless as to the in’s and outs of charging. They have the car set to a specific charging level of 80 or 90% (based on my explaining to them it is not good for the battery to be constantly charged to 100% and then left to sit (they don’t understand why it would be a problem) and never touch it again. It also amazes me that whenever I supercharge and talk to other owners there, that they have no idea about the sharing of a charger between 2 stalls

Further, one can not rely upon the Tesla app. It does not reliably report the charging status nor does it always allow me to remotely change the charge limit via the Tesla app or the Tesla Remite app (which may be due to cellular signal strength issues at certain supercharging sites).

As an aside, you can’t even rely on the information provided on the center screen regarding the number of stalls in use. I have photos wherein the touchscreen indicates, for example, that more than 50% of the stalls are in use and the app indicates that “sitting” charges will apply, and yet most of the stalls are empty (photos having been taken of the site to provide evidence of the error to Tesla)

 

[TaoJones]

This won’t go over well with long urban commutes. My range (originally 294 miles, now 276 miles after ~2.25 years) is rarely greater than 170 miles “in town”. That means SCing 2x/week instead of 1x/week.

This new restriction will push that to 3x/week.

And will probably be the final straw that pushes me back to an ICE. Not that paying for the v3 board (FSD) over 2 years ago and being told it’ll be another year before the Model S retrofit wasn’t enough of a last straw.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

I could buy a 3rd Tesla - there are inventory cars now with “free” “unlimited” SCing although just for the 1st owner now. But... I think I’m done with the worsening service, more crowded SCs despite ample advance notice and data, and general lies surrounding upgradability (MCU 1.0 —> 2.0, Sentry mode... yadda).

There are and will be plenty of cars that can manage 170 miles actual range in town. And that’s what I get with a 2-year old Tesla S90D.

Of course I still get every bit of 276 point to point on the open road. Although now maybe not, if Nav interprets my routing suboptimally - especially since it in no way accounts for round trips to the boonies.

 

[Zoomit]

This new restriction will push that to 3x/week.

This is not a restriction. Please read previous posts. These have now been independently verified.

Reddit:
Car was able to charge past 80%: “High-usage Supercharger Station: Max battery charge of 80%” : teslamotors

 

[namlio]

This is not a restriction. Please read previous posts. These have now been independently verified.

Reddit:
Car was able to charge past 80%: “High-usage Supercharger Station: Max battery charge of 80%” : teslamotors

Then why did this happen to me twice yesterday? Once there were only 2 cars connected and the second with only half the slots taken. I had the charge limit set to 90% and it shut off at 80% both times. The first time wasn’t an issue, and I was ready to leave anyway, but the second time required me to leave with an initial buffer of only 7%. Through judicious use of speed I was able to make it to my destination.

I can understand this where all of the slots are taken and there is a higher density of superchargers, but not when there aren’t a lot of cars there and the gaps between chargers are larger.

 

[SSonnentag]

The sites that are chronically busy are also the sites that are nearby other supercharging sites. I have no issue with limiting to 80% charges during busy times. The rural sites that require a higher state of charge are rarely, if ever, busy.

In the time it takes someone to top off from 80% to 100%, you could get 2 more cars charged and on the road again.

 

[TaoJones]

This is not a restriction. Please read previous posts. These have now been independently verified.

Reddit:
Car was able to charge past 80%: “High-usage Supercharger Station: Max battery charge of 80%” : teslamotors

It’s a restriction. I just “independently verified” it yesterday at a typically always-busy location in Los Angeles.

 

[Zoomit]

It’s a restriction. I just “independently verified” it yesterday at a typically always-busy location in Los Angeles.

Please tell us more! Were you unable to reset it to charge to 100%? Did the charger stop at 80% even if the selected stop point was higher?

BTW: I tried two stations yesterday that I thought might be part of the 80% group and they showed no limitations (Tejon Ranch and Santa Clarita).

 

[tschmidty]

AH... I now understand what you mean.... But I do not understand what is really NEW. In the past I have set my charge limit to 100% and will get an alert stating that my charge is almost complete at 80%. But my charge limit is "still" set for 100% so I just ignore it. And my car will charge to 100% anyway and I have never been billed for going over 80%. I just thought this was a nudge to get me to stop at 80%.

It may be that it will stop at 80 now? I don't know.

In general this comes across as pretty poorly thought out by Tesla. It is not cost cutting since they charge for SC (at least on the 3 which is most of their fleet). There is zero reason for them to limit charging if there are at least 2 working stalls open. It completely makes sense if all stalls are full but frankly you could argue that should apply to all stations not just 8-17% of them.

Bottom line is they need to install more chargers in these busy areas. You could argue there may be another supercharger 20 miles anyway in some area but that could be hours away in traffic in certain areas and times.

They really need to more thought into the policy to balance usage versus friendliness.

And give us a CCS adapter!!!

 

[ucmndd]

BTW: I tried two stations yesterday that I thought might be part of the 80% group and they showed no limitations (Tejon Ranch and Santa Clarita).

Tejon Ranch is likely in the “sometimes limited” group, but traffic there is so highly variable.

This one would be my important test case, as I need to charge to about 95% there to make it home.

 

[Galve2000]

I'm definitely all for this and think it is about time Tesla implemented something like this at busy stations.

The time it takes to SuperCharge past 80% is inefficient compared to other cars that are waiting with a lower state of charge.

personally I doubt most of us will be negatively effected. the problem is effected means different things to different people.

The sites that are chronically busy are also the sites that are nearby other supercharging sites. I have no issue with limiting to 80% charges during busy times. The rural sites that require a higher state of charge are rarely, if ever, busy.

this +1000

tesla will be limiting charging to 80% at stations where there is probably an alternative station pithing 20, 30, or 40 miles.

so you have the option of going there and topping up. the issue here becomes a necessary detour, or somewhat prolonged road trip b/c charging to 100% avoids a second SC stop or devotion to second SCer. so yes. even though you can still make it to your destination, there is an extra inconvenience, that some of is feel we are entitled to be exempt from.

I personally disagree with this idea of entitlement. we all need to learn to share what is in effect a limited, and as it turns out -- occasionally scarce -- resource.

e, if the distance from supercharger A to supercharger B is 160 miles, I need to charge to an indicated battery range of 210 miles.

yes, you need a buffer but this is probably not going to be happening in places where the nearest SCer is 150 or 200 miles away so I think you are safe. as I wrote above, it might happen in places where there are SCers 50 miles away, but the 80% restriction might be an inconvenience at best.

Those that are happy with making many stops along the way to reduce the time at each stop go for it. But those of us that would rather have breakfast prior to a long trip home and would like to start a with 100% charge should not be FORCED to make multiple stops along the way.

Wow.

What makes your driving habits any more valid or correct than mine? are you, like, the Emperor of the Tesla Super Charger highway that your driving habits can just trample on the rest of us peasants without the slightest consideration?

i'm only being faintly facetious here.

do you hear the entitlement in your statement? there are thousands of Teslas on the road. and a limited number of chargers with limited capacity. you can have unlimited free for like supercharging to abuse all you want. this is your right -- actually I personally don't believe that, but i'll play along b/c it sounds like you think you own the whole world and we are your humble servants. Thing is -- come back at 3 in the morning when your favorite SCer site is not 6 cars deep waiting for a charge and pull as many free electrons from the SCer as your callous little heart can stand.

in the meantime, I hope the rest of us will be happy to act in a more neighborly manner and realize that other drivers have similar needs to the SCer network and sitting around for 30 minutes going from 95 to 100% SOC is neither good use of your own time, nor good use of Teala's SCer network.

I too wish that we could wave our magic wands and increase SCer charge rates and capacity but the technology is just not there yet. in 50 years perhaps we will have be able to replenish 500 miles in 5 minutes so all of the cry babies who miss their ICE road trip habits can, you know, shave a few extra minutes off their 8 hour road trip while risking falling asleep at the wheel and putting themselves and god-knows-who else in danger.

I have heard amazing things about the Toyota Camry. very reliable. and you can replenish it's full full storage capacity in roughly 5 minutes from empty today!! Want something a little more Luxe? Toyota's Lexus line makes lovely vehicles. the Germans IIRC also have this technology and some American brands as well, if you would rather go the patriotic route.. and, best of all, you never have to be told to move your stinking Tesla so one of us peasants might get a charge. (the horror!!!)

Happy road tripping, your majesty...

 

[The805]

I got the "Max battery charge of 80%" message this morning at the Atascadero, CA SC. A little surprising as I don't consider this SC generally very busy, and this morning I was the only car charging...

I can understand this policy for busy and/or close to full SCs (and Tesla knows how many stalls are used at any point in time), but not sure it sends the best message in other circumstances.