why does kettleman still have a line? Do people not know about firebaugh? Do they not look at their nav map to see if stations are full or almost full? I mean what is the point of building firebaugh if people are still so stubborn and only wanna go to kettleman???
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Holiday travel availability / congestion at CA Superchargers; possible solutions, complaints, comments, discussion
- Thread starter SilverSp33d3r
- Start date
Firebaugh is slowly filling up and is starting to carry about the same volume as KC during peak times, with much more capacity obviously. At least on my M3, the nav tends to prefer V3 or less crowded V2 if it’s practical to route based on range. I think it’s just a minority who specifically route to KC exclusively ignoring what the nav would’ve told them to do, but I could be wrong.
Firebaugh is 'too early' for even a 75D heading south from the Bay Area - just about 120 miles. Harris Ranch is better, but typically more useful northbound after charging in LA. Kettleman is enough to get you over the grapevine southbound even in a loaded 75D. Southbound from Sac or especially those starting from Roseville or having charged north of Sac, Firebaugh is situated much better.
From the Bay Area, which constitutes the largest share of Teslas, if someone wanted to get to the LA basin with one stop, that would be either Harris Ranch or more ideally KC. Anyone topping up at the last stop before the grapevine - Santa Clarita - will find Firebaugh too far (~210mi) compared to Harris Ranch, which is an appealing stop if you're hungry too.
The LR cars can probably get to Buttonwillow-ish southbound. Firebaugh better suits thru I5 and Sac originating traffic. Given the dominance of Bay Area Tesla traffic, KC and Harris Ranch will probably keep seeing more utilization even if its better to start with a lower charge and top off at Firebaugh and maybe Tejon. People tend to start with a full tank and go as far as they can south.. and that's typically KC.
From the Bay Area, which constitutes the largest share of Teslas, if someone wanted to get to the LA basin with one stop, that would be either Harris Ranch or more ideally KC. Anyone topping up at the last stop before the grapevine - Santa Clarita - will find Firebaugh too far (~210mi) compared to Harris Ranch, which is an appealing stop if you're hungry too.
The LR cars can probably get to Buttonwillow-ish southbound. Firebaugh better suits thru I5 and Sac originating traffic. Given the dominance of Bay Area Tesla traffic, KC and Harris Ranch will probably keep seeing more utilization even if its better to start with a lower charge and top off at Firebaugh and maybe Tejon. People tend to start with a full tank and go as far as they can south.. and that's typically KC.
So in other words they are being picky. Because let's be real if people wanted to avoid lines in kettleman they could easily find a way to avoid those lines, sounds to me like they didn't mind waiting for that long.
They probably convince themselves it'll dissipate by the time they get there. In terms of range for the largest cohort headed south from the Bay Area, KC is the sweet spot, with Harris Ranch and Buttonwillow/Bakersfield on either side.
With so many SCs it's less likely and not more so, that people will carefully plan for certain SCs being heavily utilized. I didn't have a problem at any SC last weekend, but then I specifically avoided the coming weekend.
Given a near full charge starting from Bay Area, most cars will stop at Kettleman southbound. Tesla appears to recognize this, given the permitting of a second SC in Kettleman City: Supercharger - Kettleman City 2, CA (permit found)
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fcastrillo86
Member
No lie I kinda wanna drive down there solely for the coffee LOLMaybe they're willing to wait for the famous coffee in the Tesla lounge.
For the the reverse trip, KC also works great. Leave The OC in my 3-LR and I can get to KC with ~10% charge. Plug into 250 charger, walk to SBUX, walk back, bladder break, and next stop Silicon Valley.
ShadowRN
Member
Gonna do a drive from OC to the East bay later tonight hoping to get into the free supercharging times. Does anyone know if you charge during those times, do the free miles you have on your account doesn't get used? TIA
roblab
Active Member
It helps if you drive to arrive when it's not so crowded. If possible, don't drive on the weekend, because the chargers are always full. Try not to arrive middle of the day, too. Sure, it's hard with kids, but leaving before dawn will get you through quicker at the chargers. Maybe charging back a ways and then not charging until the top of the pass would work.
And of course, NO charging above eighty or ninety percent. Such a waste of time. But good advice doesn't do much good if no one follows it. I leave the bay area around midnight and am at Kettleman WAY early, before the rush. Hopefully new SCs will ease the crush, but there will always be times when everyone just HAS to drive to see the kids or gramma. Like at noon to six PM.
And of course, NO charging above eighty or ninety percent. Such a waste of time. But good advice doesn't do much good if no one follows it. I leave the bay area around midnight and am at Kettleman WAY early, before the rush. Hopefully new SCs will ease the crush, but there will always be times when everyone just HAS to drive to see the kids or gramma. Like at noon to six PM.
Because “The chargers are always full on the weekend” is unnecessarily alarmist and…simply untrue.
Let’s just stick to the facts and common sense. If you drive during heavy traffic times, there will be more Teslas on the road and generally more Teslas at the superchargers.
ShadowRN
Member
This
This also goes for ICE cars at popular gas stations such as Costco in an area that is densely populated. There were some instances where I had to fill up during the busy times and the whole line+filling up took >30mins.
While I didn't use a disagree, I will say that depending on your location, destination, weather, vehicle and cargo, sometimes it is necessary to charge to 80%, 90% or even higher. There are many locations in the West where the next Supercharger is over 200 miles away and a full charge is required.
Running through many of the CA supercharger threads, it doesn’t really seem like there was too much congestion or long lines this 4th of July. Granted, nothing can truly compare to after Christmas 2019 when the I5 was closed for 2-3 days, forcing all traffic to the 101 for north south travels.
Does it seem like Tesla’s free holiday supercharging during mornings and evenings had any measurable impact, or maybe the mobile SC trucks?
Does it seem like Tesla’s free holiday supercharging during mornings and evenings had any measurable impact, or maybe the mobile SC trucks?
Yeah it was surprising nobody posted anything of substance to this thread the entire weekend. On our trip to Portland, OR, the only place where we had to wait for a charger wasn’t even in California (Springfield, OR), and that was for less than five minutes, late Sunday morning. Red Bluff was pretty busy on Sunday afternoon, if we’d showed up there about 10 minutes later we’d have been waiting, but we didn’t see more than 3 cars in line at any time and they all got charging spaces within 10-15 minutes.
Bruce.
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