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Holiday travel availability / congestion at CA Superchargers; possible solutions, complaints, comments, discussion
- Thread starter SilverSp33d3r
- Start date
Remember Covid times - so this year decreased travel than normal Thanksgiving holiday weekend. So this year it cannot be representative.
No doubt, but last year that's the only thing all non Tesla owners talked about. At the rate that Tesla is building superchargers, next year will hopefully be the same.
Clearly, Kettleman, Bakersfield, Buttonwillow and Harris Ranch continue to be a choke point. I think it’s because you have the i-5 coming up from the south and many east west drivers coming over on the I-40, having come through a dry patch from Flagstaff to Bakersfield. Maybe Tesla should increase capacity at Bakersfield somehow.
Had this year been a normal Thanksgiving with no covid, I am guessing we would have seen long lines like in the past.
At some point, every little roadside town with at least some services (fast food, restaurants, coffee, gas stations, etc) will get a supercharger. The LA<->SF route will be the first one. But with the rate Tesla is making cars, it is inevitable.
For example, just here in the Bay Area, look at the 2 Gilroy SCs, or the 2 Manteca SCs. Both are at adjacent freeway exits, each servicing a different shopping plaza. In the next few years, I bet we'll be seeing a bunch more like that.
It seems that they have opened a bunch of new superchargers on 101 and firebaugh on 5, and that it would have relieved the pressure we saw last year. My guess is that lines would have been a lot shorter than last year.
Part of me is a little surprised that there aren’t more SC’s at Gas Stations.. I know, I know it really sounds counterintuitive, but a couple SC at say a Chevron or Exxon or BP series of chains along primary and secondary routes would bring drivers to those locations, where they would certainly patronize the stations stop and go store (where they make the MAJORITY of their revenue) and the other establishments in the near area.. say the Starbucks, the Cracker Barrel, Stokeys, whatever. Sure, its much easier to put in a bunch of SC with all the required infrastructure necessary, transformers, big power feeds, but for a small SC with two stalls say can’t take that much extra main from the power company to support. Just a thought.
Last years pressure was really mostly caused but the I-5 shutdown over the grapevine for days on end, and forced everyone onto the 101 to get north south from LA north. I’d like to see what THIS year looked like around Thanksgiving. as much as people shouldn’t have been traveling, MANY were and most (90%+) were doing it by car. I had planned to head from San Fran to DC for a coming emergency, and was going to take the Tesla, but in the end had to scramble something with 8 seats and a lot more speed to get here faster. ;-). :-(..
Nice.
Yes it seems more needed in the Buttonwillow area. Not just for holiday travelers, but also for racers doing EV 'track days' at the Buttonwillow Raceway. I'd suggest a site at the Pilot truck stop at the Lost Hills exit. (Not much in the way of amenities at the race track exit itself.)
yea if they did 4 V3 stalls at every Shell or Arco or Chevron that would be killer. The only problem is that’s probably not how their cost model would be most efficient. I think they’re more cost effective with less locations than gas stations but much more stalls per location as is being deployed now.
It's actually a much harder sell for them than you're making it out to be. You're right that almost all their profits come from the convenience store sales and not the gas/diesel sales. But their business model is heavily reliant on volume/turn over because it's all a numbers game--some small % of energy patrons will come inside to buy something in the C-store, so they make their money by trying to maximize the number of potential customers mostly by having as high a throughput as possible.
Today's DCFC charging technology is between 4 and 16 times slower than filling up a tank of gas. To make DCFC hosting attractive to most of those stations, you'd need to show that EV drivers were likewise 4 to 16 times more likely to come in and spend money than gas/diesel buyers. Or some equivalent combination of more coming in and them spending more money inside, etc. But that just isn't at all realistic. Especially when you consider that the longer the charging session, the less likely they are to spend money in the C-store and the more likely they are to walk to one of the other area businesses you listed and spend their time and money over there. Local business ownership is generally not communal so that isn't going to be a selling point for the hosting property.
They are facing the same challenge due to increased fuel efficiency in cars. Better mpg means cars need to refuel less often and they are feeling the pinch because volumes are down as a result. A lot of the industry response to that has been a concerted move away from the simple convenience store and to stores with a wider range of options, like made to order food, with the goal of increasing the percentage of people who come inside and getting them to spend more money when they do. Good examples of this are Wawa and Sheetz. And not very coincidentally, those are also some of the chains that are most supportive of EV charging.
This time I agree with you.
I feel like truck stops and the larger format stations (like you say, Wawa, Sheetz, Flying-J, etc) would be perfect for EV charging. They are already along all the freeways, often will have sit-down dining, and have tons of space. I know there are a few SCs at some truck stops, but Tesla and the other DCFC operators really should strike a deal with one of the larger operators. Similar to Tesla's deal with Target, and EA's deal with Walmart.
sperkin
Active Member
This year's bottleneck was Tejon Ranch and Inyokern. Inyo was 4/4 (even with 1 broken charger) for many hours after I snapped this pic. Tejon always had 1 open spot (not sure if it's a broken charger or not).
Less travel this year, but if Tesla doesn't fix those choke points then we'll see lines there next Thanksgiving and Xmas.
Less travel this year, but if Tesla doesn't fix those choke points then we'll see lines there next Thanksgiving and Xmas.
Seems nobody really knew about Firebough, that stations seems to still have disproportionality low capacity utilization. I think that can only mean that people had their PLAN how and where/when to stop, and didn’t necessarily let the in car SC recommendations plot it out. I still think my idea from LAST year, with more Tesla central planning of vehicles, in car nav destination understanding, vehicle speed, when which cars are expected to get to which SC’s, we could stage it all out at SC’s like landing jumbo jets every 60 seconds. ;-)
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ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Mojave and Inyokern are definitely problematic, but I don't think you can realistically call Tejon Ranch a "bottleneck" any more - it's more busy at this point due to the habitual nature of us humans. With Santa Clarita and the 2x Bakersfield options, there's really no NEED for anyone to stop at Tejon any more. We're just used to it at this point.
Side note, Tesla's gonna have to do something soon about the "big red bar" utilization representation on the charger map. It's a mess. I'd love a switch to little circular pie charts with some green/yellow/red color coding (and clicking on any one of them to get the actual stall utilization numbers).
sperkin
Active Member
Mojave and Inyokern are definitely problematic, but I don't think you can realistically call Tejon Ranch a "bottleneck" any more - it's more busy at this point due to the habitual nature of us humans. With Santa Clarita and the 2x Bakersfield options, there's really no NEED for anyone to stop at Tejon any more. We're just used to it at this point.
Santa Clarita is far from the freeway. I remember charging there once during Thanksgiving or Xmas travel a couple of years ago. The freeway was jammed packed and going Off and back On was a nightmare. I avoid it now. I think most would use Tejon Ranch instead and get food and use the bathroom at Firehouse Subs.
When I come back from SF, I always hit up Tejon Ranch for a bathroom break and then Burbank, Glendale, or Pasadena SC for dinner/bathroom break before heading home.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Agree, Tejon is the best in the area for on/off and food options. Would love to see an expansion there on the east side of the freeway to open up even more choices.
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