How busy was it? Like wrapped around the block multiple times over? Even with the expansion?
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Holiday travel availability / congestion at CA Superchargers; possible solutions, complaints, comments, discussion
- Thread starter SilverSp33d3r
- Start date
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
Not when I was there, like I said, all of the 8 or so 250kW chargers were full, less than half the 150kW were, so everyone got full speed. And the new chargers across the main drag were only slightly in use
Wait… Kettleman City “SUCKED” because all of the 250s were in use but overall the site was only half full?
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
What sucked was the lack of restroom at the KC2 site, so I visited the KC1 site and saw the crazy jockeying for the few 250s.
Yes, it was no 2019
Yes, it was no 2019
wow we're crying kettleman sucked because, with the expansion, it's les than half full?
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
I’m pretty sure what you saw wasn’t actually happening. In my observation almost nobody knows there are different speed stalls at KC and seeks out one or the other. They just park where they park.
I do have to lol at a ~half-full site on Christmas Eve warranting a capital “SUCKED”.
Really? I thought the OG KC was pretty clear which are V3/V2 because all the V3 will have a "250KW" tag on it?
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
They do, but they’re pretty small and easy to miss. Also, I think a good ~half of current Tesla owners don’t know what that means or if it’s applicable to their car or not.
cpa
Active Member
Amen. My wife drove our 3 down to the Coast two summers ago, and she wanted to stop at Kettleman for some juice and a break to stretch. I watched from the passenger seat as she entered from Bernard just beyond the lounge. The 250kW chargers are on the right. She saw the 150s dead ahead and decided to use those because in her words, "they were easy to drive to." Only a handful of spots were in use, so no issues.
But, yeah, there will be a contingent of owners who are seemingly unconcerned about the differences.
I bet its a lot more than half. Instead of light shows, perhaps Tesla should put a few programmers on building a pop-up window to the SuperCharger sites such that the window pops up on your video screen as you enter Kettleman and it 'recommends that you plug into the Vx speed charger.' They could do it for even the newer cars that take V3, but if they arrive at 50% charge already, the V3 won't do much as the speed will be throttled down quickly.
Real hard to argue with that logic. Such is the reality of a dual-speed charging site. The V2's also aren't completely intuitive in their numbering schemes, so its not like you can roll the dice on statistical human nature and pick a less-likely-to-be-paired stall. Good news is there's few (if any?) other dual speed sites, so its an isolated scenerio.
People have been talking about that kind of tool for years. For a myriad of reasons it simply won't work with anywhere near the efficiency that folks think it could, to the point where (as evidence by Tesla's non-action) its not even worth messing with. Too many difficult to address edge cases and too small of a sweet spot in the middle where the fleet could possibly realize material time benefit.
When all cars are pulling into charging stalls on hands-free autopilot then we might see some stall optimization, but until then its a low-value waste of time.
We've been able to hit 187 kW on our 2017 S 100D. Here in Colorado, I don't think we have any Supercharging locations with a combination of v2 and v3. So far, it's either one or the other so we charge at v3 stalls as needed, since that's all there is sometimes.
I used KC2 yesterday around noon. The most convenient restroom option is to take the accessible ramp just off the lot up to Bravo - they have a large restroom, cafe, restaurant and more. It’s about a minutes walk.
When I arrived northbound, KC1 had maybe 10-12 free and KC2 had 40 free so I picked the latter. KC is situated perfectly for my old car to do central LA to peninsular Bay Area in one stop tho I charged to 100% and in the cold wet weather I had about 12-13% SoC at the end of each leg doing normal speeds.
When I arrived northbound, KC1 had maybe 10-12 free and KC2 had 40 free so I picked the latter. KC is situated perfectly for my old car to do central LA to peninsular Bay Area in one stop tho I charged to 100% and in the cold wet weather I had about 12-13% SoC at the end of each leg doing normal speeds.
It was nice. The wife and I just stayed home, had a nice dinner and watched some TV.
Thanks for asking!
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