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Holiday travel availability / congestion at CA Superchargers; possible solutions, complaints, comments, discussion
- Thread starter SilverSp33d3r
- Start date
.. Tesla has come a long way filling in the popular travel routes
cpa
Active Member
Unless of course one is traveling on 99. Traver and the anticipated SC at Betty Drive in Goshen still won't let cars make it over the Grapevine with ease. When the proposed Supercharger at the junction of 99 and 58 in the City of Bakersfield is finally up and running, then yes, Tejon Ranch could be bypassed for those traveling on 99.
Moreover, those proceeding east on Interstate 210 either have to negotiate traffic to get to the 72kW SC in Pasadena, suffer at the unreliable Rancho Cucamonga 150kW Supercharger, or charge extra to reach Beaumont and its 250kW/20 station set-up from locations north of Tejon Ranch.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
You don't think? Looks like 160 miles between Traver and Santa Clarita. EV Trip Planner estimates 190 range miles headed North and 209 headed South, with the speed multiplier at 1.3, for my S75.
Sure, it would take me a 100% charge, or close to it, but I could make it if need be, and I have basically the shortest range Tesla out there. It would be no sweat at all on a current S/X or Model 3.
Don't get me wrong, Tejon is still the most convenient way to go - but it's far from a "must stop" any more for most scenarios. If I was headed home to Fresno from the southland and the nav showed Tejon completely utilized and Santa Clarita with plenty of availability, I'd almost certainly stop in Santa Clarita and push it to Traver.
That said, I fully agree a supercharger in Bakersfield proper is still highly needed.
Right now I’m going to head down the 99 and the nav is showing a stop in Traver and then Anaheim after that. That’s on a M3P with the 20 in boat anchors. We’ll see.
cpa
Active Member
No disagreement on the numbers. As a practical matter, my S85 is subject to the crippled SC rates and decrease in capacity. On Thursday this week, I arrived at the new Stockton SC with 13% and a warm battery as I had the navigation activated for the entire trip. Seventy minutes later I unplugged with 90%, or about 218 range miles (if it can be believed these days with Tesla's ever-changing algorithms.) I'd rather leave home with 85% and charge at Ft. Tejon for 30 minutes southbound or leave southern California with an appropriate charge and charge at Ft. Tejon for 45 minutes to make it home.
If faced with a do-or-die decision between Sta. Clarita and Ft. Tejon, I'd likely roll the dice and utilize Tejon over Sta. Clarita. Turnover generally is pretty quick in my experience.
When one factors in the longer commute off and back onto I5 at Sta. Clarita versus the quick off and on at Fort Tejon and a shorter overall charge time, at least for me, Fort Tejon is head and shoulders faster than charging to near 100% at Traver or Goshen or Sta. Clarita. Besides, there are always restrooms open at Ft. Tejon. The two times I charged at Sta. Clarita, I had to wait until I hit the rest stop at Lebec.
Well all these newer V3 chargers really make the trip tolerable. The nav routed me to Traver and had me charge to 90 percent to get me to Anaheim with about 7 percent. In Traver the time was just right for a bathroom break, a snack, and some quick work tasks on my laptop. There was about 6 or so cars while I was there and due to my SOC I was only able to pull 165 kW.
In Anaheim it was dark in the evening and I could not find restrooms within reasonable walking distance. You’ll have to find an alternative solution (the bushes). There was 14 cars at Anaheim and I still pulled 211 kW which is a testament to how superior V3s are to V2s in respect to managing power flow at busy locations.
The Balboa location in San Diego also worked great although it was not as crowded as Anaheim. A lot more restroom options here too.
V3 are good and I like the initial low SOC speed, but I’ve seen test after test that shows that for say 10-80/85% the overall savings of time is about 3-5 minutes.. I’d love it to be quicker overall but i think the target is for ultimately more urban areas, for shorter duration low SOC loading and going and repeat.
V3’s are setting up the network for future vehicles that can charge at a higher rate for longer periods of time than the current fleet. Constant evolution is going to be one of Tesla’s strengths as the EV space matures.
Now that some (all?) V2’s default to 50/50 split, V3’s also provide significant ‘protection’ against an unknowing owner that plugs into your otherwise unpaired sister stall.
Now that some (all?) V2’s default to 50/50 split, V3’s also provide significant ‘protection’ against an unknowing owner that plugs into your otherwise unpaired sister stall.
The time saving between a <50% occupied V2 and a V3 is only a few minutes, but compare that to a >50% occupied V2 station and the V3 is superior.
Again. Duh. But regular apples to apples I’m surprised it’s not overall at least 20% faster. As bxr140 above noted hopefully, with future vehicle and BMC updates we’ll be able to maintain much higher throughput of kWh through higher SOC so we could say get from 0-80% in say 20 min. That would be game changing.
If you're charging from 10-80%, the bulk of your time is spent charging from 40-80%, when then speeds are comparable to V2 Supercharging. From what I've seen, best case charging time on a V3 from 10-80% is about 15 minutes, while on a 150 kW V2, it's about 21 minutes. So about 5 minutes faster.
Now, if you're looking to minimize time spent charging, you'll stop charging around 50% and aim for the next V3 on your way that you'll reach at 10% SOC. Easier said than done in most cases, and you have to also take into account the time it takes to detour to/from the Supercharger, too.
So any lines reported Memorial Day 2021 weekend? I’m wondering if the great 2020 supercharger expansion put a dent on the lines or if it was barely enough to keep up with all the extra Teslas they’ve sold and in essence was a wash.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Local FB group just posted a video of an 8-10 deep line in Bakersfield
At least a dozen ahead of us at Kettleman City on Monday afternoon. They had two attendants managing traffic. All other stops we charged without waiting.
Nobody's answered this so I'll give it a shot. Disclaimer: I live in the Bay Area but the last time I went to SoCal was before the pandemic.
Holiday weekends do indeed tend to make busy Superchargers more busy. Some more than others. If you can be flexible in your plans, like travel early in the morning or late at night, that will generally help. Or if you can offset your plans by a day or two from everybody else.
Use the navigation display to try to figure out where there are free stalls (or at least to avoid waits)...assuming you have enough energy to have that flexibility. On the other hand do remember that conditions can change while you're en route.
As far as specific Superchargers, Tejon Ranch seems to be a chokepoint as of late (going southbound on I-5, it's the last Supercharger you hit before the Grapevine). You can go see the thread in the California Supercharger locations sub-forum for the latest reports.
On US-101, San Luis Obispo used to be a bottleneck. But in the last 12-18 months, there have been a number of new Superchargers on that route.
I'd want to use the larger locations (e.g. Firebaugh, Kettleman City). Even if they have longer lines, because they have more stalls they can cycle cars through faster.
Hope this helps!
Bruce.
Thank you so much for your advice, Bruce! Does the Tesla navigation system tell you how many charge stalls in each charging station? - I just got my VIN number, will receive my car in about a week.
Yes it does say how many stalls are available at each site. Also, it does try to route you to a less busy supercharger, especially if there are several sites in the vicinity.
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