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Is anyone only charging for free at a supercharger?
- Thread starter Right_Said_Fred
- Start date
One of the reasons I'm getting a MS is go I never have to wait at a gas station again, even for 5 minutes. I'm never using a SC locally. However, I also rarely ever go shopping and I work out on the bike or at home. If someone had a MS, and a charger next to the gym he/she visits 4 days a week, I could see him/her charging every other day while they work out and avoid doing it at home....
Yep, I ran into a nice gentleman with a 60 that charges very often (3X per week or more) at Hawthorne for his commute from Palos Verdes to Downtown Los Angeles/West LA. I had to think that his time was more valuable, but free stuff makes you do wierd things!
deonb
Active Member
Tesla knows where you live. If you're "local", they can limit the charge to what you need to get home. That will also enable them to install SC's in large cities, which is currently not practical.
jeff_adams
Member
This brings up a good point. We don't know if Tesla got a good lease at Gilroy because the outlet mall expected to capture business from the people charging up. The gym would be happier with locals using the supercharger, restaurants would prefer travelers.
NigelM
Recovering Member
For those who think blocking a supercharger to save a few bucks off your electricity bill is perfectly ok, let's hope no-one is blocking chargers for you when you're on a road trip.
For everyone else, does range anxiety now get replaced by charging anxiety? "Yeah Tesla has superchargers but they're always occupied...."
For everyone else, does range anxiety now get replaced by charging anxiety? "Yeah Tesla has superchargers but they're always occupied...."
my understanding is that daily use of supercharging is not recommended and detrimental to the battery over the long run (repeated high speed charging = damage to battery). this is do to the enormous amount of heat involved, as well as "charging to full" at these heat levels. #1 killer thing to a lithium ion battery is heat. so unless I'm wrong I would never do what the OP suggested.
yeah, that's not creepy or anything. I don't think limiting your charge based on where you live fits with the whole free charging thing. Free charging, but wait we see that you live within 50 miles of this charger, so no electricity for you. Just go ahead and charge everyone then, if you are going to do that.
If a clear case of abuse did occur, say a guy hogging a supercharger for large chunks of time daily, then Tesla can deal with this on a case-by-case basis.
The Supercharger can no doubt query the car for its VIN. They can program Superchargers at that one location to refuse his VIN. He'll still be allowed to charge anywhere else in the network, so he can road trip like anyone else, but he'll no longer be able to abuse his local Supercharger.
The Supercharger can no doubt query the car for its VIN. They can program Superchargers at that one location to refuse his VIN. He'll still be allowed to charge anywhere else in the network, so he can road trip like anyone else, but he'll no longer be able to abuse his local Supercharger.
bollar
Disgruntled Member
I'm no longer surprised at how rude / selfish people can be. However, I do think a text that says, "Your Tesla has finished charging. There are 3 Teslas waiting to charge" would motivate all but the most self-absorbed people to move their car.
...and Tesla knows where I'm going how, exactly?
Being local doesn't mean you're going home, that you don't need a quick turn-around charge that you can't get at home, etc.Never mind that Tesla said "free charging," not "free charging as long as you're not within X miles of home." I wouldn't bother using a supercharger near me, good grief, but I think (as with the other threads we've already had on this topic) folks are overreacting (general comment, BTW).
Plus if someone's topping off regularly, they're probably not getting a full charge, thus not "blocking" (using!) the supercharger for long anyway. Let's not confuse "using supercharger" with "leaving car parked when done charging"--Tesla should work towards ways of addressing that (as mentioned in other threads, whiteboards/app features/"contact driver" feature/etc.)...that's totally uncool, I agree. Folks should monitor their car or estimate when they're done so they can clear out of other folks' way.
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I think just the first part would suffice (simpler for Tesla, too) and it's a great idea.
Technically, Tesla hasn't promised that a "parking spot near the charger" is free. I'm not suggesting they charge for the space while charging, but they're well within their rights to charge an increasingly absurd "parking fee" the longer you camp out there while full.
NigelM
Recovering Member
But would anyone really bother to wait there while topping off to save a few cents worth of electricity?
bollar
Disgruntled Member
Well, you need a call to action, but, "Your Tesla has finished charging. Please move the car out of the Supercharger bay now." would probably be good enough. Or remove "please."
Yep, some people would. Some people go weird at the thought of "free".
I've mentioned this on another thread... a while back installed a charger at our office, and let it be known that anyone could use it as long as they checked in with us. We wanted to help the EV community by facilitating long-distance trips. Then we discovered that someone was charging their brand-new Ford Focus EV every night in our parking lot. The guy was getting maybe a couple of bucks worth of electricity every night, sitting in his car for hours to do it. So we try to do something good for the community, and get a leech instead. Disappointing.
I stayed until 10 pm one night, and had a pleasant chat with him. He's not been back since. (I've heard he's been spotted doing the same thing at another business.)
People do crazy things just to save a few bucks. Tesla could still keep this free and outwit the scofflaws. You could deal with this by having an electronic waiting list required at each charger station via 3g web page (somehow only enabled when there is contention perhaps). The person who charges every day for say less than 50 miles range has to wait until the others are done before they can start.
And they can reduce this problem as others suggested by having much less expensive regular chargers available with tesla s outlets that charge at the same rate as the 'slowed down almost full battery' supercharger rate. these should be cheaper too for Tesla to add.
There is always going to be a few butt heads who takes up the free charging spaces all day but don't really need it. It will take a while for adequate rule making and social pressure to come to bear on this issue so we can avoid the tragedy of the commons. If no one is using a charger, then there's no harm for having your car there. But if you block it from someone else, then you are causing some unnecessary pain.
At my company, we have too many electric cars (mostly leafs, but volts and teslas and roadsters too), so we developed a kind of social compact that you can move chargers around to a car with an open port when the current car is full. If you need an emergency charge, send mail to a certain email list and someone will move. We have the complexity that we have 30 amp j1772, 120v and 240v outlets, so there are different capabilities for different cars. There is a kind of social compact that if you don't need a charge (big tesla battery) maybe you should wait until the end of the day to take an optional charge.
This might be too much trouble for some people, but it's a way to maximize the resource and have everyone have enough.
And they can reduce this problem as others suggested by having much less expensive regular chargers available with tesla s outlets that charge at the same rate as the 'slowed down almost full battery' supercharger rate. these should be cheaper too for Tesla to add.
There is always going to be a few butt heads who takes up the free charging spaces all day but don't really need it. It will take a while for adequate rule making and social pressure to come to bear on this issue so we can avoid the tragedy of the commons. If no one is using a charger, then there's no harm for having your car there. But if you block it from someone else, then you are causing some unnecessary pain.
At my company, we have too many electric cars (mostly leafs, but volts and teslas and roadsters too), so we developed a kind of social compact that you can move chargers around to a car with an open port when the current car is full. If you need an emergency charge, send mail to a certain email list and someone will move. We have the complexity that we have 30 amp j1772, 120v and 240v outlets, so there are different capabilities for different cars. There is a kind of social compact that if you don't need a charge (big tesla battery) maybe you should wait until the end of the day to take an optional charge.
This might be too much trouble for some people, but it's a way to maximize the resource and have everyone have enough.
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Al Sherman
It's about THIS car.
^^^This. Or something similar. There's no easy answer. Like it or not there will always be a small percentage of folks who simply don't care about anyone else. At all. This percentage will grow as we continue to put Teslas on the road. The only way to stop these people is to make it less attractive to block the Superchargers. Charging an exorbitant parking fee after the car is full (within a reasonable grace period 1/2 hour, 45 minutes, 1 hour) will have these people sprinting back to their cars to avoid paying the fee. Cell calls, text messages, friendly reminders will all work for "us." This small percentage will never stop unless it costs them. Never. They simply don't care.
Mark Petersen
Model S EU P71
Well I dont see a large problem with people charging 20-50 miles each Day, they will be ther for 10 min
The problem is more that they Connect the car and lave for 2 houres
So a posible solution is that tesla add a small display that show how long a car has not been charging, so the police can issue a tickit for parking in an ev charging bay
A more evel solution is any car that have been fully charge, and left for 30 min is now part of V2G and is discharged to 10% and has to be unpluged for 2h before V2G is reset
The problem is more that they Connect the car and lave for 2 houres
So a posible solution is that tesla add a small display that show how long a car has not been charging, so the police can issue a tickit for parking in an ev charging bay
A more evel solution is any car that have been fully charge, and left for 30 min is now part of V2G and is discharged to 10% and has to be unpluged for 2h before V2G is reset
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