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Enough Superchargers for Thanksgiving?

Enough superchargers for everyone?

  • Yes

    Votes: 75 65.2%
  • No

    Votes: 40 34.8%

  • Total voters
    115
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i know this is a forum about cars but im just gonna abuse this as my murica forum.

Is Thanksgiving as big as christmas in the USA? Is it bigger? Is it like easter? What does it compare to in Europe?

I’d say it and Christmas are the biggest holidays. In terms of formality, tradition and family, it’s possibly bigger. In my family, which is spread over 2000km, we always get together for Thanksgiving. In fact, it is the only time per year that my entire family is together. That’s our tradition at least. My wife’s family no longer comes to our thanksgiving because there’s too much of my family there, haha. However, Christmas is not necessarily as much of a large family get together so much because many travel in smaller family groups, we have children while my sister and my wife’s brother do not so everyone wants to do something different. Whereas, everyone wants to basically do the same thing on Thanksgiving (eat, drink, socialize).

Thanksgiving is centered around a single day/meal where Christmas is a season and a day. As such, I think Thanksgiving has more people traveling “just to be with family” and extended families often get together. Christmas has a lot of people traveling as well, but a lot of it is vacation oriented and people travel on different days for different purposes. Thanksgiving has a lot of travel on the day of and the day before. Thanksgiving is always a Thursday and the beginning of a 4-day weekend for almost every working person (outside restaurant/retail/medical/safety services). Christmas can be any day and work schedules around it are less solidified. As far as the thread topic, I would think the demand for superchargers to be more concentrated on Thanksgiving than Christmas.

Regardless, every family and their traditions are different. Some families might choose to get together for Christmas instead. Given how close Christmas and Thanksgiving are, it’s sometimes not feasible to travel far distances for both. In our case, we generally do Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with my wife’s family. Although, my wife and I recently started doing Christmas alone with our child somewhere skiing, but we spend after Christmas/New Years with her family.

If all of your family lives in the same town. I think it is very common everyone gets together for both holidays. However, if long travel is required, I think more people travel for Thanksgiving around those few days. Routinely it is reported that the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest airline holiday-related travel day.

Finally, not all Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas is historically a Christian holiday where Thanksgiving is an American holiday. While most Americans celebrate end of year holidays in some denominational or even non-denominational form, many do not specifically celebrate Christmas, the day/event. Thanksgiving is more celebrated as it’s generically American (without getting into the Indians and Pilgrims origins).
 
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i know this is a forum about cars but im just gonna abuse this as my murica forum.

Is Thanksgiving as big as christmas in the USA? Is it bigger? Is it like easter? What does it compare to in Europe?

Thanksgiving is actually the highest traveled holiday in the U.S., always on a Thursday and most people have Friday off also. It occurs on the fourth Thursday of November.....and this year is really unusual because there are five Thursdays in November. It's normally considered the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday....most people have this day off, good day to stay out of the stores because it's just ridiculous crowds. The Monday after Thanksgiving is called Cyber Monday.....but really all this crazy holiday shopping has just gotten out of control.

Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the highest travel day of the year in the states.....therefore the question about superchargers. Normally families get together for this holiday, eat Turkey as special meal on Thursday, drink a lot of liquor, and pass out watching football on TV.

There's no religion associated with Thanksgiving, so not sure what to compare it to in Europe. It's all about giving thanks for the food on the table. It's actually a really fun holiday.....no religion, no wars to discuss, just eating drinking and enjoying your family.

Yep....that's about it!
 
It's actually a really fun holiday.....no religion, no wars to discuss, just eating drinking and enjoying your family.

No politics at your Thanksgiving? I mandated a no politics discussed during Thanksgiving two years ago, it didn’t go well, people just bottled up their rage and turned it into passive aggressive jabs.

That said, in my family, alcohol + differing political beliefs makes New Years fireworks look like amateur hour.

Back to the thread at hand and to tie it in, I’m sure my new Tesla and solar system will be the subject of some political discussions about global warming and tax credits for the well-off. I just get the popcorn out and drink more.
 
Will there there will be enough superchargers?
In terms of US holidays, the time around Thanksgiving is the heaviest travel day of the year.

It is not reasonable to believe that Tesla can size the Supercharger system to accommodate everyone who wants to charge during peak travel periods and never have any lines. An example was the solar eclipse in 2017. Some Superchargers in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and in other parts of the country were jammed. Unsurprisingly.

If you are planning a long distance trip next Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and you will need to use the Supercharger network, allow significant extra time to complete your trip because it is possible you will have to wait to charge.

To those owners in California who plan to use I5 between LA and SF Bay Area; it is going to be very busy at the Superchargers, but in the Central Valley on I5 there are now so many stalls available that I am hopeful the lines will be minimal.
 
I know it's a few days before the likely heavier travel days but I'm currently in route in my M3 from LA to Nashville by way of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, etc. I've done nearly 1,000 miles so far and every supercharger I've stopped at has had no more than one other car or has been empty. Plus, not counting the cars charging, I've seen maybe 3 Teslas actually driving on the road. So not many Teslas in middle America so far.
 
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In terms of US holidays, the time around Thanksgiving is the heaviest travel day of the year.

It is not reasonable to believe that Tesla can size the Supercharger system to accommodate everyone who wants to charge during peak travel periods and never have any lines. An example was the solar eclipse in 2017. Some Superchargers in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and in other parts of the country were jammed. Unsurprisingly.

If you are planning a long distance trip next Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and you will need to use the Supercharger network, allow significant extra time to complete your trip because it is possible you will have to wait to charge.

To those owners in California who plan to use I5 between LA and SF Bay Area; it is going to be very busy at the Superchargers, but in the Central Valley on I5 there are now so many stalls available that I am hopeful the lines will be minimal.

The question is NOT leading. There is absolutely no suggestion that Tesla should size the Supercharger system...…... or anything of the sort.

Its a simple question: Are there enough?

If one believes that there are enough - fine.
If one believes that there are NOT enough - fine.

Not trying to get into the weeds about anything.
 
  • Disagree
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There will undoubtedly be some full sites here and there, even a little bit of waiting. But I very much doubt we’ll see a repeat of a few years back, when the famously long line at Tejon Ranch in CA made the national news. The network is much stronger now, even accounting for the much bigger fleet.
 
I know it's a few days before the likely heavier travel days but I'm currently in route in my M3 from LA to Nashville by way of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, etc. I've done nearly 1,000 miles so far and every supercharger I've stopped at has had no more than one other car or has been empty. Plus, not counting the cars charging, I've seen maybe 3 Teslas actually driving on the road. So not many Teslas in middle America so far.
There are two Supercharger in Texas that tend to be an issue, especially at holiday times, but I doubt you'll be using them.

Columbus gets full on travel days, but the SC at Flatonia tends to take the load off if travelling east/west on I-10. Highly recommended to use Flatonia and skip Columbus on holidays if possible.

San Marcos SC has always been too small, but the good news is that it is under expansion. Bad news is that during the expansion there are only 4 stalls rather than the previous 5. Black Friday at that outlet mall location will likely be a nightmare rarely seen outside the Golden State.
 
No politics at your Thanksgiving? I mandated a no politics discussed during Thanksgiving two years ago, it didn’t go well, people just bottled up their rage and turned it into passive aggressive jabs.

That said, in my family, alcohol + differing political beliefs makes New Years fireworks look like amateur hour.

Back to the thread at hand and to tie it in, I’m sure my new Tesla and solar system will be the subject of some political discussions about global warming and tax credits for the well-off. I just get the popcorn out and drink more.
This is must-see-TV as you prepare for the coming week!
 
Some places on the west coast will likely be crowded with waiting at peak travel times, everywhere else should be fine. The SCs in my area are generally empty, although I'm sure they'll see more activity over the holiday.

I just finished a drive from Martinsburg, WV to Orlando FL and decided not to take the 3, but not for this reason, although it did cross my mind. I did miss TACC though. AP would have been handy on a few stretches.
 
Went to San Clemente Supercharer today where I took the last open spot around 1pm. Came back to unplug with 3 Model Xs in line. They have 21 chargers and was full. Never seen a line there before. I would say 10 spots where Model 3s.

I'm planning on driving to San Francisco on Thanksgiving. Hope the lines are not too long.
 
The question is NOT leading. There is absolutely no suggestion that Tesla should size the Supercharger system...…... or anything of the sort.

Its a simple question: Are there enough?

If one believes that there are enough - fine.
If one believes that there are NOT enough - fine.

Not trying to get into the weeds about anything.

You won’t get a non-fanboy answer out of a fanboy.

Tesla is once again far behind their own projections for coastal CA SCs. Remember the area manager’s forecast of +10 SC sites and +150 pedestals for San Diego County a few months ago? He was as new as he was serious.

Not a single SC site west of the 405 opened this year.

There are stacked sites *now* during the week - it will be a *mess* next weekend.

Of course, the other 95-97% of the SC network will be just fine. Vegas runs should be fine as long as one doesn’t rely upon the Vegas SCs. And do stop at Eddie’s World :) before stopping at Baker so as to avoid Barstow. Don’t forget to point and laugh at the 4 other EV chargers nearby at Baker. And for Bay Area - SoCal trips, Kettleman may actually fill up, which will be nice for the baristas.

Suffice it to say that the next 5 coastal SCs in SoCal will be as welcomed and as utilized as they are late.

And so it goes.

Tesla knows exactly what the demand is. Months in advance, actually. Woo hoo for the Lake Elsinore and Riverside SCs, but now let’s get back to the coast.

Dragging their feet in coastal CA is not helpful for the word of mouth. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
 
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You won’t get a non-fanboy answer out of a fanboy.

Tesla is once again far behind their own projections for coastal CA SCs. Remember the area manager’s forecast of +10 SC sites and +150 pedestals for San Diego County a few months ago? He was as new as he was serious.

Not a single SC site west of the 405 opened this year.

There are stacked sites *now* during the week - it will be a *mess* next weekend.

Of course, the other 95-97% of the SC network will be just fine. Vegas runs should be fine as long as one doesn’t rely upon the Vegas SCs. And do stop at Eddie’s World :) before stopping at Baker so as to avoid Barstow. Don’t forget to point and laugh at the 4 other EV chargers nearby at Baker. And for Bay Area - SoCal trips, Kettleman may actually fill up, which will be nice for the baristas.

Suffice it to say that the next 5 coastal SCs in SoCal will be as welcomed and as utilized as they are late.

And so it goes.

Tesla knows exactly what the demand is. Months in advance, actually. Woo hoo for the Lake Elsinore and Riverside SCs, but now let’s get back to the coast.

Dragging their feet in coastal CA is not helpful for the word of mouth. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

The 2 new Superchargers in SantaMonica are stuck in California Permit status. So is the one on the 405 in Huntington. So if you have access to the SantaMonica permit approval group....or the Huntington permit approval group....then.....by all means...…
 
The 2 new Superchargers in SantaMonica are stuck in California Permit status. So is the one on the 405 in Huntington. So if you have access to the SantaMonica permit approval group....or the Huntington permit approval group....then.....by all means...…

We’ve got a pool going. Leading bet is that the Santa Monica roller skate server restaurant supercharger will either never be built *or* that the time taken will exceed that of For(got)t(en no longer) Stockton - which clocked in at over 700 days post permit filing. Can’t count Santa Barbara because, well, Santa Barbara.

But all those little grey icons sure are impressive.

As an aside, the crew that built FS was super fast - they also got Pecos built mas rapido. Problem in TX is the wait thereafter for activation. At least that hasn’t been as much of a problem in CA.

Ever onward.
 
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