Hearst Castle - Tesla destination chargers

[willigetit]

Hello

Has anyone been to Hearst Castle Tesla destination chargers recently . Wanted to get a sense on how busy do they get and if I can rely on them .
Planning on using them this Friday to get some juice on the way to San Luis Obispo, CA Supercharger . Driving south from Big Sur to San Diego

PS : We do have a tour booked for Hearst Castle

Thank you

 

[ucmndd]

I used them a few months ago. PlugShare says there are 11 total stations, with successful check ins as recently as today. Can’t imagine you’ll have any problem getting one.

 

[THX723]

When are you visiting? I was there about a year ago and had no problem connecting to a charger. Having said that, I wouldn’t rely on them, as availability is hard to predict, especially during high season. The Paso Robles Supercharger is only 40 miles away and should serve as your primary. If you get hooked up at Hearst, then treat that as a bonus.

 

[willigetit]

When are you visiting? I was there about a year ago and had no problem connecting to a charger. Having said that, I wouldn’t rely on them, as availability is hard to predict, especially during high season. The Paso Robles Supercharger is only 40 miles away and should serve as your primary. If you get hooked up at Hearst, then treat that as a bonus.

Visiting castle Friday morning .

We are going to be driving from Bigsur on Thursday with a overnight hotel at Cambria . Hotel does have a L2 charger but I thought of getting some juice at Hearst Castle in case hotel charger is busy

Thank you

 

[MX100DM3P2017]

Visiting castle Friday morning .

We are going to be driving from Bigsur on Thursday with a overnight hotel at Cambria . Hotel does have a L2 charger but I thought of getting some juice at Hearst Castle in case hotel charger is busy

Thank you

We visit Cambria often staying at the Cambria Pines which has 2-Tesla chargers and several J1772s. Any Cambria hotel with EV chargers has only very low power. We never used Hearst Castle chargers but would love to hear how your charging solution worked out. Tesla listed Cambria several years ago as a future SC that was coming soon. Sad that it never happened.

 

[Need]

We visit Cambria often staying at the Cambria Pines which has 2-Tesla chargers and several J1772s. Any Cambria hotel with EV chargers has only very low power. We never used Hearst Castle chargers but would love to hear how your charging solution worked out. Tesla listed Cambria several years ago as a future SC that was coming soon. Sad that it never happened.

By "very low power", you mean like it won't fully charge your car overnight at the hotel? The ones at Hearst Castle are also L2 chargers so it would only add like 25 to 35 miles per hours parked. It is not like you could walk around the visitor center for an hour and have your car mostly charged.

 

[MX100DM3P2017]

By "very low power", you mean like it won't fully charge your car overnight at the hotel? The ones at Hearst Castle are also L2 chargers so it would only add like 25 to 35 miles per hours parked. It is not like you could walk around the visitor center for an hour and have your car mostly charged.

I've completed the research and this is what I was able to find. My home garage has 2 Tesla Wall Connectors. One old model on dedicated 100amp circuit with max output of 72amps, 17.5kW for 2017 MX 100D with 72amp Charger upgrade, something that Tesla no longer offers. Charging my MX takes about 3.5 hours <10% start, end 90%. Second is Gen3 Wall charger on dedicated 60amp circuit with max output of 48amps, 11.5kW at 240 volts. All destination chargers at the hotels and Hearst are listing "up to" kW ratings of 6 - 16kW for their destination chargers. For my MX 100D, only the 16kW chargers can provide me a full charge overnight. Cambria Pines and Sea Otter both offer two 16kW chargers. Sand Pebbles, Blue Dolphins both offer one 16kW. Since Gen3 is limited to 11.5kW, these hotels must have a Gen1 Wall Connector which offers higher power vs Gen3. Hearst has six listed at 8kW and Days Inn has one. I believe the true limit for these two are 7.7kW as stated in the Tesla Gen3 specifications. Last is the lowest power offering at El Colibri, one 6kW which again is probably 5.7kW according to Tesla Gen3 specifications. Hearst offers half the power of the 16kW chargers listed above and also has the problem of thousands of tourist every day. Wish we could get Tesla to install the Superchargers that were promised years ago. Even the 72kW chargers would be a vast improvement.

 

[ucmndd]

For my MX 100D, only the 16kW chargers can provide me a full charge overnight.

That’s a bit of an overstatement, ya? Even a 40 amp ~10kw station would take your car from absolutely dead to 100% in ~10 hours.

 

[MX100DM3P2017]

That’s a bit of an overstatement, ya? Even a 40 amp ~10kw station would take your car from absolutely dead to 100% in ~10 hours.

Only if you get 100% max power over the entire 10 hours. I also consider 8 hours as standard overnight time so no this was not an overstatement. My experience has been that the hotels with multiple destination chargers share a circuit, therefore drops power output if anyone else plugs in. I do not know about Hearst Castle but I assume they are also sharing power over multiple chargers since they are only providing a max of 8kW. If anyone has charged at Hearst, let us know what charging rates did you experience and did it fluctuate?

 

[ucmndd]

Only if you get 100% max power over the entire 10 hours. I also consider 8 hours as standard overnight time so no this was not an overstatement. My experience has been that the hotels with multiple destination chargers share a circuit, therefore drops power output if anyone else plugs in. I do not know about Hearst Castle but I assume they are also sharing power over multiple chargers since they are only providing a max of 8kW. If anyone has charged at Hearst, let us know what charging rates did you experience and did it fluctuate?

Do you regularly need to go from 0 to 100% while destination charging? That’s a bit of an outlier in terms of use cases.

8 hours on any ~7+ kw destination charger would seem to be more than adequate for almost all conceivable scenarios.

FWIW, my destination charging experience is exactly the opposite of yours… I’ve never come across a destination charger configured for load sharing. The overwhelming majority seem to be on dedicated 30 or 40 amp 208v circuits.

 

[willigetit]

We visit Cambria often staying at the Cambria Pines which has 2-Tesla chargers and several J1772s. Any Cambria hotel with EV chargers has only very low power. We never used Hearst Castle chargers but would love to hear how your charging solution worked out. Tesla listed Cambria several years ago as a future SC that was coming soon. Sad that it never happened.

When we went to the Castle at around 9AM there were 3 or 4 open spots . But it was almost full at around noon
I did not charge as I was able to charge at my hotel in Cambria

In general early morning you should be able to charge . You can check the charger review comments on Plugshare

 

[MX100DM3P2017]

Do you regularly need to go from 0 to 100% while destination charging? That’s a bit of an outlier in terms of use cases.

8 hours on any ~7+ kw destination charger would seem to be more than adequate for almost all conceivable scenarios.

FWIW, my destination charging experience is exactly the opposite of yours… I’ve never come across a destination charger configured for load sharing. The overwhelming majority seem to be on dedicated 30 or 40 amp 208v circuits.

Since this discussion is only regarding charging options at Hearst Castle and the Cambria area, share your experience for this area only. This is not a discussion on charging regularly from 0% to 100%, this is about what is the best charging option in the Cambria area. For us that road trip to Cambria often in a Tesla, we know this area is one of the worse for charging. Since you seem to have had perfect charging in Cambria, good for you. I still say it would be great to see the promised Tesla superchargers in downtown area of Cambria, 72kW would be perfect to support shopping and dining.

 

[SFEV2020]

Heading there in April - is there a fee for using the chargers there or is it free for ticketed visitors?

 

[THX723]

Heading there in April - is there a fee for using the chargers there or is it free for ticketed visitors?

Free. First come, first served. Get there early, as they do go quick.