Is 72w worth waiting?

[JetFalcon]

Is using a 72w supercharger worth using if it's more on your route? It be obvious to use a 150w or 250w supercharger if it's on your way, but if you had to go slightly outta your way for the benefit of faster charging, how far should you travel outta the way to use a faster supercharger over a 72w?

I think the 72w is kind of worth using if you plan on leaving your car parked for a while. I only used it today, I think it took 25-40 min to get from 6% to 55%. I think it take a while if I'm literally waiting in the car doing nothing. Do you guys try avoid using 72w if you are near empty and need a nearly full charge to around 70%-100%. I never tried doing a full charge at a 72w. Maybe only once in Phoenix AZ because that was the only supercharger near the downtown area and anything faster was like gonna be an hour round trip outta the way. That city only has 3 superchargers in the entire area which is terrible, you really gotta plan your commute to get to those very few superchargers, maybe 4 if you wanna count Buckeye.

 

[Watts_Up]

72w ?

If you share a 150 kW, and many are in fact 130 kWh, you will get the same speed with a 72 kW, especially when your SoC is around 60 or above.

The 72 kW are in general located near a shopping center, so users in general are not in a hurry.

I wish, on the supercharger map display, that the supercharger speed was indicated next to the number of stalls available, to help selecting your next stop.

 

[pb2000]

Electricity is electricity. If you have to detour >15 minutes round trip at highway speeds, 72kW chargers can actually be competitive

 

[Rocky_H]

Is using a 72w supercharger worth using if it's more on your route? It be obvious to use a 150w or 250w supercharger if it's on your way, but if you had to go slightly outta your way for the benefit of faster charging, how far should you travel outta the way to use a faster supercharger over a 72w?

That's kilowatts (kW), by the way. The answer depends greatly on what model of car people have, in that it depends on what power level your car is capable of accepting. So how much lower is 72 kW?

On my old 2014 Model S85, by the time I'm to about 40% or more, 72 kW is the max level of power I would have anyway. So for me, 72 or 150 or 250 kW stations are all really about the same, and I wouldn't choose any type over any other. What's on the route IS the fastest. But for people with newer cars, which can take the 250 kW maximum, they can be using 150+ kW up to 60 or 70% or so, so it really would be half speed charging for almost the entire session if they were stuck at 72 kW.

 

[GtiMart]

Absolutely true @Rocky_H , but then you add temperature in the equation. Plenty of people arrive with a cold or warm but not hot enough battery (some don't want to precondition or do it too short). They typically get lower than 72kW for a long while, and by the time they could get more their SOC is too high. So 72kW isn't bad at all. As you say, I'll take what's on route and adjust the time I stay there depending on the SOC I need to reach the next charger.

 

[bradtem]

What are you doing while charging? If you don't have an answer for that, my view is you're doing charging wrong -- you should always charge where there is something to do that you planned to do already. Usually eating. If eating, all speeds of chargers are good, in fact slower can be better (don't have to get up during your meal to move the car.) Shopping can be the same except for very short trip. If just peeing and using your phone, the 72kw may be about 10 minutes slower to get you to 50-60% -- they are all the same after that. Don't go more than 10 minutes out of your way to avoid it.

 

[JetFalcon]

What are you doing while charging? If you don't have an answer for that, my view is you're doing charging wrong -- you should always charge where there is something to do that you planned to do already. Usually eating. If eating, all speeds of chargers are good, in fact slower can be better (don't have to get up during your meal to move the car.) Shopping can be the same except for very short trip. If just peeing and using your phone, the 72kw may be about 10 minutes slower to get you to 50-60% -- they are all the same after that. Don't go more than 10 minutes out of your way to avoid it.

Arcades that have level 2 charging or 72w charging are good. Because as an advantage player I may stay at an arcade for 8 hours. Or go to 3-4 arcades in a single day. It be nice if Phoenix Arizona arcades had more level 2 chargers because my group commutes to many arcades in the area. We could always be topped off if every single arcade stop had one but they don't.

Dave and Busters San Diego has a Volta charger and so far I have always been able to charge there as there is always one available. In 4 hours I will have a full charge from 50% to 100%. Which is nice because I may spend 4-8 hours there trying to get tickets. I get to win prizes under retail and get free charging.