Fed up with supercharging, going back to ICE

[dark]

I owner a model S since 2014, then switched to X in 2017. The number of superchargering station have qouad tripled, but at the same time, those smaller stations are overly clouded.

I don’t use supercharger that much, maybe 2 to 3 times year. Never had good experience. Today, I needed about 20miles of charge to get home, stopped at a station by the mall, most teslas are not even charging.

I literally parked right in front of the chargers and waited a good 10 minutes, a driver even acknowledged me that he just needed to few more minutes before I can take his spot. no one was waiting in front of any charger except me.

A car pulled out and I pulled right in. An asshole came from the corner trying to take my spot, he left his car right in the middle of the road, walked out of his car, stood in front of my car and won’t let me pull all the way in . He told me he was here first and refused to talk to me. After few attempts to tell him I was here first, traffic already built up, and I saw another Tesla pulling out so I back out of the charger and took that spot.


I am sick of these Tesla assholes. Going back to ICE

 

[Electroman]

I hear ya.. I haven't been burnt yet, but I am sure there will be a day I will encounter one of these assholes and going to lose my cool.

 

[EV-lutioin]

I have never had anything but great experiences at Superchargers in California. Keep in mind Assholes are everywhere.... even at gas stations.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I'm a little confused about the "most teslas are not even charging" part.

In my experience with supercharging which is SIGNIFICANTLY more than 2-3 times a year I've never encountered a bunch of people not charging except at public charging stations that aren't superchargers. If I ever did encounter them I'd shame them on FB, here, and I'd email Tesla a pic of their car. I'd be pretty irked to put it mildly.

I can't imagine going back to ICE because then you have to go to a gas station or you have to remember to stop by one on the way home.

It's this weird tricky process. Let me see if I can remember.

You pick your octane rating
You insert your gas rewards card
You remove and insert your gas rewards card the other way
You see if you have any rewards
You insert your credit card
There is this awkward moment here where you're not sure if it took it
Then you grab the hose, and make sure you grab the black one (I think its the black one or is the green one. Nah, it's definitely the black one).
Then you open up the cap
Then you touch some metal piece (or maybe you were supposed to do this before)
Then you insert the plug in, and watch the dollars flow right out of your pocket
At the end you put on your shocked face as you realize you spent more than $60 bucks for gas. Like you could have had STEAK instead.

The worst is when you gotta get gas in the morning before work.

No thanks.

 

[Kuhz]

Ummm... how do you know most Tesla’s were not charging? If the cars were locked there is no indicator whether they’re charging or not. Additionally, there are significant idle charges for cars left at a supercharger when charging is over......

 

[skitown]

I'm a little confused about the "most teslas are not even charging" part.

In my experience with supercharging which is SIGNIFICANTLY more than 2-3 times a year I've never encountered a bunch of people not charging except at public charging stations that aren't superchargers. If I ever did encounter them I'd shame them on FB, here, and I'd email Tesla a pic of their car. I'd be pretty irked to put it mildly.

I can't imagine going back to ICE because then you have to go to a gas station or you have to remember to stop by one on the way home.

It's this weird tricky process. Let me see if I can remember.

You pick your octane rating
You insert your gas rewards card
You remove and insert your gas rewards card the other way
You see if you have any rewards
You insert your credit card
There is this awkward moment here where you're not sure if it took it
Then you grab the hose, and make sure you grab the black one (I think its the black one or is the green one. Nah, it's definitely the black one).
Then you open up the cap
Then you touch some metal piece (or maybe you were supposed to do this before)
Then you insert the plug in, and watch the dollars flow right out of your pocket
At the end you put on your shocked face as you realize you spent more than $60 bucks for gas. Like you could have had STEAK instead.

The worst is when you gotta get gas in the morning before work.

No thanks.

You forgot "Huffing fumes" for 3 minutes.

 

[TaoJones]

Don’t forget the smell and the carcinogens when you’re fueling that ICE. Breathe deep, now.

As far as SCing in California goes, Tesla better put somebody in charge who’s better than what they had for the OC rollout, the San Diego rollout (ongoing), and the I-10 transcontinental route completion (still not done - see Fort Stockton for a 500+ day permit expiration and to this day no *confirmed* tangible progress).

Here’s what I’ve seen recently in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties:

Culver City - full with 5 cars waiting midday during a weekday,

Redondo Beach - full almost every time I look unless it’s after 10pm. Doesn’t matter what day.

Hawthorne - full with 2 cars waiting during a weekday afternoon.

San Clemente - full on a Sunday mid-afternoon - yep - all 21 chargers.

San Diego - Bwhahahahaha. Bwhaha. Ha. *twitch*

The *only* SC at which I recall Model 3s charging has been Hawthorne, for obvious reasons.

Point being this ain’t Model 3 congestion, folks. This is a combination of travelers, livery, the non-garaged, and probably a few garaged folks stopping on their way back from or on their way to somewhere. Remember, you can’t tell by looking.

Routinely, 8-9 of the top 10 busiest SCs on the planet are and have been in California, with representation from Norway, the Netherlands, and China in more or less that order to round out the top 10. Used to be the top 6-7 were in California. Some days 9-10 are now. Still just a percent or two of the SCs in North America but it’s a collective harbinger and opportunity as well.

As I’ve said previously, solve California and you solve the continent and then some.

Preferably sooner than later. I have the flexibility to not travel or charge during peak times. Judging from the increasing congestion at SCs, many people do not.

Might be a good time to implement that feature request to have idle fees with a sliding scale to reduce ICEing by our own. $1/minute and a credit card required to be on file after 60 minutes lifetime per car, and $5/minute after 120 minutes lifetime per car.

Yes, for those who have had the misfortune of reading my stuff for awhile, I’ve reduced the time thresholds in direct proportion to the level of poor behavior I’ve witnessed at SCs over time.

 

[Torqueria]

I owner a model S since 2014, then switched to X in 2017. The number of superchargering station have qouad tripled, but at the same time, those smaller stations are overly clouded....

I am sick of these Tesla assholes. Going back to ICE

Sounds like you need to move to the midwest. Our Superchargers are largely empty or have at the most 1 or 2 other Teslas using them.

 

[commasign]

And this is somehow better?

 

[Bet TSLA]

Ummm... how do you know most Tesla’s were not charging? If the cars were locked there is no indicator whether they’re charging or not. Additionally, there are significant idle charges for cars left at a supercharger when charging is over......

In Reno I recently saw two Teslas avoiding idle charges by not being plugged in while they were occupying supercharger slots. WTF? And it's not as though there weren't plenty of spots available in the surrounding parking lot.

 

[DMack]

People quickly forget how much of a *sugar* show the average gas station can be.

There’s one near my house that played a particularly huge part in me switching to an EV.

 

[M109Rider]

Wow. You have two or three bad experiences in an entire year, and you dramatically sell your car to go back to ICE.?

There is clearly more potential for bad gas station experiences to be had during the 40 a 50 odd times you may have to gas up in a year.

I’d say you live a very problem free life (good on you), if this is so horrible you switch cars.

Do you stop drinking coffee and go back to water, when someone cuts you off at the drive through ?

 

[cmaster]

Target is working with Tesla to have superchargers installed at their locations. Not sure when this will come into fruition.

 

[GaryW]

I supercharged 3 times yesterday. I traveled more than 600 miles. No line, no smell, no problems, 110+Kw.

A full charge, at no charge.

 

[Yinn]

I owner a model S since 2014, then switched to X in 2017. The number of superchargering station have qouad tripled, but at the same time, those smaller stations are overly clouded.

I don’t use supercharger that much, maybe 2 to 3 times year. Never had good experience. Today, I needed about 20miles of charge to get home, stopped at a station by the mall, most teslas are not even charging.

I literally parked right in front of the chargers and waited a good 10 minutes, a driver even acknowledged me that he just needed to few more minutes before I can take his spot. no one was waiting in front of any charger except me.

A car pulled out and I pulled right in. An asshole came from the corner trying to take my spot, he left his car right in the middle of the road, walked out of his car, stood in front of my car and won’t let me pull all the way in . He told me he was here first and refused to talk to me. After few attempts to tell him I was here first, traffic already built up, and I saw another Tesla pulling out so I back out of the charger and took that spot.


I am sick of these Tesla assholes. Going back to ICE

All I can think of is...geeze I'm glad I don't live near you. That sounds like a horrible thing to do. Luckily by me and where I've road tripped; people have had the decency to know the order and have common courtesy. It's not uncommon to have someone ask "were you here before me?" before taking a stall either.

This brings up something that might be nice though. Perhaps a check in system via the center screen. If the station is full, you have the option to "check in" and the station notifies you if you're up next for the charge when a stall opens up. 3? 5? minutes to start charging before your spot is given up.

 

[jelloslug]

I'll take your X off your hands. Since they are obviously so hard to deal with, I'll offer $100 for it.

 

[Saghost]

Redondo Beach - full almost every time I look unless it’s after 10pm. Doesn’t matter what day.

That's interesting. In early April I was staying at one of the hotels there, so I drove past that site at least a dozen times at various times of day. It was never full for any of them, usually had only 2 or 3 cars at it.

Are you basing your assessment on being there, or on the real time status from the center screen? I know the screen sometimes shows stalls as full that aren't - presumably when it can't get a clear signal from them.

 

[bro1999]

And this is somehow better?

To be honest, even with a queue like that, you'd still be outta there in about 15-20 minutes. Most likely faster than any Supercharging stop. Definitely faster if one needed to Supercharge nearly to full from empty.

 

[bro1999]

Wow. You have two or three bad experiences in an entire year, and you dramatically sell your car to go back to ICE.?

There is clearly more potential for bad gas station experiences to be had during the 40 a 50 odd times you may have to gas up in a year.

I’d say you live a very problem free life (good on you), if this is so horrible you switch cars.

Do you stop drinking coffee and go back to water, when someone cuts you off at the drive through ?

When those 2-3 times are the only times you attempt to use a SC during a year, I can completely understand OP's frustration. Maybe not to the point of selling their car, but definitely peeved.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I'm a little confused about the "most teslas are not even charging" part.

In my experience with supercharging which is SIGNIFICANTLY more than 2-3 times a year I've never encountered a bunch of people not charging except at public charging stations that aren't superchargers. If I ever did encounter them I'd shame them on FB, here, and I'd email Tesla a pic of their car. I'd be pretty irked to put it mildly.

I can't imagine going back to ICE because then you have to go to a gas station or you have to remember to stop by one on the way home.

It's this weird tricky process. Let me see if I can remember.

You pick your octane rating
You insert your gas rewards card
You remove and insert your gas rewards card the other way
You see if you have any rewards
You insert your credit card
There is this awkward moment here where you're not sure if it took it
Then you grab the hose, and make sure you grab the black one (I think its the black one or is the green one. Nah, it's definitely the black one).
Then you open up the cap
Then you touch some metal piece (or maybe you were supposed to do this before)
Then you insert the plug in, and watch the dollars flow right out of your pocket
At the end you put on your shocked face as you realize you spent more than $60 bucks for gas. Like you could have had STEAK instead.

The worst is when you gotta get gas in the morning before work.

No thanks.

You are in Washington. OP is in California. California has more Teslas, therefore more Tesla assholes.