We were caught by the T-day rush today. There was another Tesla at the Three Rivers, TX Supercharger. I always thought I was the only one who had ever been there...
Yer killing me
.
Meanwhile, back here at the SoCal ranch, Clemente was full with a line already as noted above. Interesting mix of commuters, travelers, and soccer moms ^H^H^H^H parents at that location. I've never seen another 20+ stall location completely filled with Xs (except me) repeatedly before. And that was months ago. At non-peak times, it's a great location and means I'll never have to deal with Qualcomm in San Diego again - even with trips inland.
Redondo full, Culver full, and Thousand Oaks East almost full so far this extended weekend. Par for the course, really.
And it's not even Sunday yet.
Given that there are more Model 3s in California than anywhere else, and given that most of those do NOT have "free" supercharging (more correctly expressed as *included* supercharging, since there's nothing free about owning these cars), it doesn't make any more sense than it ever has to blame included supercharging for congestion. This is a supply versus increasing volume issue, plain and simple. After all - nobody waving the "free supercharging" canard has yet been able to tell the difference between a garaged local and a non-garaged local just by looking at them. For those unaware, non-garaged locals have had carte blanche from Tesla to use SCs from Day One. Ask me how I know.
And so it goes.
As an aside, there's an interesting juxtaposition between pulling the trigger for a new M3 before Dec 1 (for the full tax credit) versus waiting for the return of included supercharging during the last week or so of the year and getting half the tax credit (gotta love those demand levers). For me, included supercharging is worth $3,800/year, averaged over the past 4 years using current $/kW pricing. More than for most, yeah, but these cars are made for driving, and driving I do enjoy. Don't bother doing the math unless you also account for a confirmed ~50% range hit for short urban trips, and unless you also drive half your miles in town versus the other half on the road (during which there is almost zero range hit, happily).
