Improving Supercharger Availability $0.40 idle fee

[S4WRXTTCS]

I lead a pretty rich, full life without one, I think. This is the first time I've ever felt the need (or desire) to get a smartphone. I thought about getting one for this purpose, but I'm pretty sure the expense of the hardware and data plan are going to outweigh any the idle fees for a while.

The fact that you lead a rich, full life is THE reason to get one.

What do you think you're doing anyways? That's not how you're supposed to live. Your life is supposed to be checking in on Facebook while your standing in line, and taking selfies.

Don't you know the meaning of your life is how many likes you get?

 

[msnow]

It's not the thread that's the problem...

I *think* I know what you mean but there are other remedies for that.

 

[AudubonB]

Mmh hmmh.

As I figured. Just didn't want the forum and its entire membership to get into trouble with the A.S.P.C.D.H.

 

[mblakele]

 

[BrokerDon]

How about having Tesla lower the Superchargers charging rate for any Tesla user within range of the owner's home charger to the same charge XX kWh rate as their home charging? As a 2016 Tesla P85D owner with an 80A / 240V Tesla High Power Wall Charger I think an 19.2 kWh (80A x 240V / 1,000) limit on my charge rate is reasonable. This should significantly discourage "locals" from charging their Teslas on for free on their local SCs which makes Tesla owners who are on a "road trip" wait while they save a few ¢

 

[MP3Mike]

How about having Tesla lower the Superchargers charging rate for any Tesla user within range of the owner's home charger to the same charge XX kWh rate as their home charging? As a 2016 Tesla P85D owner with an 80A / 240V Tesla High Power Wall Charger I think an 19.2 kWh (80A x 240V / 1,000) limit on my charge rate is reasonable. This should significantly discourage "locals" from charging their Teslas on for free on their local SCs which makes Tesla owners who are on a "road trip" wait while they save a few ¢

They are already showing that they value their money more than their time, so by doing that you just make the problem worse by having them clog up a stall longer than necessary.

What if all they have is a 120v 12A plug in the garage, are you going to limit them 1.4kW? And what about people with no home charging, do they get limited to 0 kW?

 

[Cyclone]

I'd like a show of hands wrt keeping this thread open versus closing it.

Closed unless/until Tesla makes a policy change or someone actually gets a charge so we have "1st hand experience". The last dozen (likely more) pages are just moving in circles.

 

[FlatSix911]

So would an inconsiderate driver like this have to pay $1.20 a minute?

View attachment 207827

Did you call Tesla to report the incident?

Roadside Assistance is available 24/7/365
Call 877-79-TESLA (877-798-3752)
Technical Support & Roadside Assistance

 

[4SUPER9]

I was out skiing for a few days and couldn't bother (and could no longer care) about this thread with the same circle of arguments for 43 pages. I am only posting here now to point out my experience: I charged at the Mammoth Supercharger last night. Started with about 45 miles range in 2° weather. I was the only one there. Got an initial charge rate of 2 mph (I don't recall the Amps), ramping up to a reasonable rate after a full 30 minutes charging.
The original estimate to complete my charge was 1 hour, 19 minutes. That never happened. I spent a leisurely 2 hour dinner at Rafters (stay away, it took our waiter over an hour to check in on us), and eventually reached 265 RM, with my max charge being 270. I did not receive any alerts, not even one saying I was close to being done, and definitely no idle fees notice (again, though, I was the only car there).

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Thank you, 4SUPER9. I actually agree with the encouragement to move onto experiences. I think the differing opinions on the pros and cons have been mapped out. They are what they are and it is quite OK to disagree of course.

Instead, seeing how predictable Supercharging is and how the planning of people, reactions as well as applying of charges changes/happens is still valuable and not so well covered or still unknown.

 

[Cloxxki]

If you charged to 90%, app declares the car is done, can you up it to 100% and order a second round of desserts before you wander back to the car?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Did you call Tesla to report the incident?

Roadside Assistance is available 24/7/365
Call 877-79-TESLA (877-798-3752)
Technical Support & Roadside Assistance

It was my first time seeing this and I forgot. We did tweet Elon.

If I see something similar in the future, I'll be sure to contact them and give specifics.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

If you charged to 90%, app declares the car is done, can you up it to 100% and order a second round of desserts before you wander back to the car?

I don't see why not.

Keep in mind though that if there are folks sitting in line waiting for a spot to charge they are likely hoping you choke on the second dessert...

 

[bhzmark]

Let's say you visit a Supercharger three times a week. Each week one of those times you sovershoot by 10 minutes, resulting on $4 penalty (in reality sometimes you wouldn't, othertimes you would more). At your next annual service visit, you will have accumulated $208 of penalties, a significant addition to your annual charges. Add in there that one significant mistake and it is much more. Frankly, the grace is tight enough and the charge high enough - and those service visits rare enough - that I'm not sure $5-$25 is the reality for anyone actively using Superchargers (unless using them very defensively). If you are suddenly adding 25-50% to your service center bill, that stops being an insignificant line there. No?

GTF out of the way if you are done and chargers are busy.

Being rude now has a minor personal monetary cost.

But the cost is so minor that I'm scared that price insensitive Tesla buyers will now think that they are purchasing the right to clog superchargers and this won't help and may even make things worse.

 

[haleakala]

Next week when Supercharging isn't free anymore.. has anyone said what the cost will be after the first free 1000 miles? $/kWh? (I'm asking about the charging cost, not the idle-fee cost.)

 

[TexasEV]

Next week when Supercharging isn't free anymore.. has anyone said what the cost will be after the first free 1000 miles? $/kWh? (I'm asking about the charging cost, not the idle-fee cost.)

Supercharging will still be free next week except for cars ordered starting next week. And no, Tesla hasn't announced the rates for those yet.

 

[engle]

I would argue a lot of people would rather just take the ICE. No?

@AnxietyRanger, with all due respect, don't you have something more important to do then clog up this thread with your endless posts? Why not wait until you personally incur a SC "idle fee", and then share your experience with us?

 

[JRMW]

That opinion unfortunately has not received much traction on this thread. But I agree, if the idle charge started at original estimation only, not sooner I would have no issue with it. It would be predictable to regular, reasonable people

I do NOT want this to happen..the reason:

As it stands, I usually get a first estimate that is wildly too long, as charging gets going. It'll say "1 hour 20 minutes". But then it jumps down quickly (so like 45 minutes) and that one is somewhat accurate (give or take 5 minutes)

If we went with your solution, it's pretty obvious what would happen. Tesla would Change the charging time prediction algorithm.

So you'd plug in your car. It would predict 35 minutes to get you back in time. Then you'd find you still have 20minutes of charging time left when you get back

Then you'd be angry because you cut dinner short just to get back to a not fully charged car.

 

[Cyclone]

I do NOT want this to happen..the reason:

As it stands, I usually get a first estimate that is wildly too long, as charging gets going. It'll say "1 hour 20 minutes". But then it jumps down quickly (so like 45 minutes) and that one is somewhat accurate (give or take 5 minutes)

If we went with your solution, it's pretty obvious what would happen. Tesla would Change the charging time prediction algorithm.

So you'd plug in your car. It would predict 35 minutes to get you back in time. Then you'd find you still have 20minutes of charging time left when you get back

Then you'd be angry because you cut dinner short just to get back to a not fully charged car.

Versus now you be mildly annoyed to be charged an idle fee when you returned based on what the car told you. If I reliable got all the notifications that charging is close to complete, that would be great. But I don't always get those notifications and sometimes don't even get the charging complete notification. So now, even though the car said "1 hour 20 minutes", I have to watch the app for when it decides to end sooner. I dislike that.

To be clear, I'm living with it and I'll pay the idle fee charged to me because of this, but it is annoying when all I did was follow what the car told me.

 

[jya*]

https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharger-idle-fee says that the idle fee will be charged if at least 50% of spots are full "once the charge session is complete". This doesn't specify whether the fee/no fee determination is based solely on the instant that charging is complete, or on a minute-by-minute basis thereafter. Does anyone have any data that would clarify this point?