Improving Supercharger Availability $0.40 idle fee

[DrivingRockies]

Hopefully when spots do start to fill there will be a notice on the app you are about to get charged with enough time to walk from the restaurant to relocate the car.

 

[SageBrush]

Well done, Tesla

 

[Mattzilla]

Elon MuskVerified account‏@elonmusk
@TeslaMotors We are going to modify this so that people only pay a fee if most bays are occupied. If the site is basically deserted, no problem to park.

Glad to see Elon is reasonable and will do the right thing.

 

[RAW84]

Glad Elon stepped in about not requiring a payment if stalls are empty. I am curious, however; one sentence in the article stuck out to me, "deter owners from leaving their cars at Superchargers after reaching their preset charging requirements". Makes me wonder if the fee will begin after you have reached the charge amount that the car has deemed necessary for you to get to your next destination. Could be problematic. Granted that wasn't a direct quote from Tesla so it could be incorrect/misleading.

The most logical way to implement this would be to start the clock when the car reports 'charging complete'.

Many people supercharge without putting in a preset destination.

 

[Zythryn]

Is no one upset about this?

I've maybe seen another tesla once or twice at a SC. This rule will not effect me, but it should be after SC is full. Easy to monitor.

Also I'm assumeing you can not schedule charging?

Also how will this stop a tesla or any other EV or ice from parking there and not plugging in?

For a hotel for example, I could park there assuring a spot and plug in when I wake up 1.5 hours before check out.

Another problem - can't you just start your climate control once you get an alert from your phone? Hence not having a full charge anymore..

Seems like a rushed plan. Again this doesn't effect me personally in any way. I charge at home 99% of the time.

If your requirement for any solution is for it to singlehandedly fix every possible scenario... get used to disappointment

 

[AnxietyRanger]

As Hercule Poirot would say, it is important to consider the psychology here.

$0.40 a minute may not be a lot of money for Tesla owners, but the knowledge of receiving a punishment from Tesla will have some impact. It may not just be exactly the impact Tesla would hope (shortening stays at SCs).

On one hand it may lenghten some charges as people increase their charging percentages to give them more time. On other hand some customers will dislike having to inconvenience themselves to avoid the negative feeling of punishment (a negative feeling many will thus associate with Tesla ownership).

It will also elevate old issues into the forefront in a new way, e.g. shared stalls. Now the free charging time becomes unpredictable because your punishment is dependent on how often there is or isn't a car slowing you down through a shared charger. Planning isn't straightforward...

Or there may be other consequences we can not think of.

This is not to say Tesla should do nothing. This may overall work. Just pondering the psychology.

 

[Jeff N]

Hmmm.... suddenly those slow superchargers in California might have the side bonus of letting you eat/shop/nap before your car is done. (I kid, I kid - stop throwing stuff at me!)

The whole idea behind the placement of the chargers is that you can go get something to eat or do some shopping. In many locales there's quite a distance one would have to walk. 15 minutes is a reasonable amount of time.

So Bolt EV charging is now often actually more convenient and sometimes cheaper, at least in my common long-distance driving routes in California.... At least when stopping for a bigger charge.

 

[roblab]

I worry that some people might try to game this by topping up to 100% when they really don't need to. That adds another 15-20 minutes?

Yeah, for sure. I would think 90% would be a better top, but some people can't make it to the next supercharger without 100%

I wonder what would happen if they charged 10 cents and 80, 20 cents at 90. But of course, then you couldn't "charge free", the inalienable right of all Tesla owners. This is payment for blocking, not charging.

 

[scottm]

They don't know the location to that level of precision. Could be a nearby non-SC spot.

Exact geo Location doesn't matter. They know if the car has moved... without any geo information. They just see if the car has rolled any distance, by operating it. Looking at the run logs.

 

[ibracem]

I started reading this thread this morning and enjoyed reading the different sides of this argument. It appears to have two major parties - California congested SC locations, and everywhere else. I happen to live in the "everywhere else" camp in the upper midwest. We have very few SC, but also very few Teslas in the area. I was happy to see by the time I got to the last few pages of this thread, it was already addressed. Those of you in California do have some valid frustrations and complaints, but your weather is not one of them. Ha ha. It's -10 degrees here right now, so go outside and enjoy the sun with your sunroof open for me. . . .

 

[Pwdr Extreme]

It's -10 degrees here right now, so go outside and enjoy the sun with your sunroof open for me. . . .

It's -25 degrees here right now, -53 degrees with windchill. I see you're in Fargo, I have a cousin there I visit often. Tesla's site says I-94 from MT across ND will be covered by superchargers in 2016, doesn't look like that is going to happen, hopefully won't be too long though.

 

[cinemasatty]

The most logical way to implement this would be to start the clock when the car reports 'charging complete'.

Many people supercharge without putting in a preset destination.

True; however, on an extended road trip, it wouldn't be ideal to be penalized if I charged my car to higher percentage than the minimum required amount needed to reach the next destination. Again, this is my only real concern and it may be completely misguided as this could be a false assumption.

 

[Bishop]

while i agree with the idea .. i do have an issue with the time limit .. it takes longer than 5 mins to get coffee at starbucks should i be penalized 40 cents for that .. and if i dont get a notification from the app how am i supposed to know its actually complete and then there are those days when it simply can not connect to the car in the 1st place

 

[Topher]

I would hate to be in a position of desperately trying to get a hold of the renters to get them to unplug the car as I see the idle fee's going up, and up.

Time to rewrite your renter's agreement.

Or burn a lot of heat once I get the fully charged notification if my power will go down enough to give me more time?

You can probably heat the car easily on 1kW, Superchargers are 100 times that.

We are going to modify this so that people only pay a fee if most bays are occupied. If the site is basically deserted, no problem to park.

The things to avoid is unexpected charges. If the SC is empty when I get there, and so I go take a nap; then a caravan of 8 Teslas comes through, fills all the stalls, I get a five minute warning, or worse sleep through it and end up getting fined large amounts. I would prefer just knowing I have to move the car after its charged.

Thank you kindly.

 

[MP3Mike]

it takes longer than 5 mins to get coffee at starbucks should i be penalized 40 cents for that ..

So you only need to charge for 5 minutes and you can't wait until you are done with that to go get your Starbucks? And if it took 6 minutes you would be charged $2.40, not $0.40. (The fees start as soon as the charging is done, they are just waved if you unhook within 5 minutes.)

 

[Bangor Bob]

So Bolt EV charging is now often actually more convenient and sometimes cheaper, at least in my common long-distance driving routes in California.... At least when stopping for a bigger charge.

FWIW, several of the private charge networks also have "idling" fees, and have for some time.

 

[Merrill]

I have never left my car sitting and plugged in after it was charged, I'm always at the car before the charge is finished. This needs to be done because Tesla needs to have the availability to charge when they start producing the Model 3. So one of many things they will need to do to make this happen.

 

[Jeff N]

FWIW, several of the private charge networks also have "idling" fees, and have for some time.

Sure, and I fully support that.

I was making the case that my charging times will more closely match how long it takes me to walk, sit, order, eat, pay, and return to my vehicle. With a Bolt EV I will have less need to jog back in the middle of dining to move my car....

I've been looking for the silver lining on my somewhat longer charging times and, thanks to Elon, I just found it.

 

[BluestarE3]

Maybe modify the plan to only start the idling clock if no one is sitting in the driver's seat when charging is complete? This is based on the premise that if an empty station later fills up, the driver will notice (or other drivers will request) that he/she vacate the spot for others. Cars "abandoned" by their drivers at a charger cannot be asked to move, so the penalty incentive needs to come into play. If you're sleeping it off at a vacant station, someone may call the cops on you, but you wouldn't be charged an idling fee. Of course, some people may just place sandbags or something in the driver's seat to fool the car and Tesla into thinking the car is occupied.

 

[omarsultan]

I am in support of keeping the simple plan. First it eliminates any confusion about whether you might nor might not be charges and second it reinforces good habits: unplug your car when its done charging.