Leaving car plugged in overnight at supercharger?

[Tomilett]

I am staying at a hotel tomorrow night, arriving late after a long drive and leaving early for another long drive (i.e. I need a full charge). The car park has 12 supercharger bays, but no other slow chargers.
Am I OK to plug in all night? It won't get busy, I am on free Supercharging and have never had idle fees before, and I really don't want to get up in the middle of the night to move the car!
Poor form or ok?

 

[dhrivnak]

Normally poor form and IF by some chance 6 other bats get used you will likely incur idle fees. So I would tend to move after I unpack and or plug in before breakfast.

 

[beatle]

I'd just charge it up to 100% and leave it overnight. Of course people will say not to leave it full for very long, but you're not going to destroy the battery by doing it once.

Or just charge to whatever you can stand and wake up a bit early to top the car off if you really need 100%.

I'd probably just find a hotel that has a destination charger though. That's what I did on my car's maiden voyage when I drove it back over 700 miles.

 

[ucmndd]

Sounds like it will be fine.

 

[Jonathantuba]

I would never do that and have been in that situation many times. I partially charge while checking into hotel and unpacking. Then unplug and move car, then charge up to near 100% while having breakfast in morning. NEVER leave plugged in overnight at Supercharger!

 

[Ostrichsak]

I am staying at a hotel tomorrow night, arriving late after a long drive and leaving early for another long drive (i.e. I need a full charge). The car park has 12 supercharger bays, but no other slow chargers.
Am I OK to plug in all night? It won't get busy, I am on free Supercharging and have never had idle fees before, and I really don't want to get up in the middle of the night to move the car!
Poor form or ok?

If the location you're SC'ing at has no idle fee restrictions you can leave a note in your window with your number to call if the spaces are full. Be willing to move your car if the phone rings at 2:00am.

If the location has restrictions (or maybe even if not) I'd set an alarm to go move your car. It takes like 2-minutes to do and is truly the right thing to do. I've done it before even if we're sleeping in the car as it charges and I'm someone who doesn't easily fall back asleep if woken.

 

[drtimhill]

I am staying at a hotel tomorrow night, arriving late after a long drive and leaving early for another long drive (i.e. I need a full charge). The car park has 12 supercharger bays, but no other slow chargers.
Am I OK to plug in all night? It won't get busy, I am on free Supercharging and have never had idle fees before, and I really don't want to get up in the middle of the night to move the car!
Poor form or ok?

Would you be happy if you arrived at a supercharger full of cars that were fully charged but just sitting there, with no free spaces?

 

[Ostrichsak]

Would you be happy if you arrived at a supercharger full of cars that were fully charged but just sitting there, with no free spaces?

Been there, done that. No, I wasn't. It's incredibly inconsiderate.

 

[RoBoRaT]

I am staying at a hotel tomorrow night, arriving late after a long drive and leaving early for another long drive (i.e. I need a full charge). The car park has 12 supercharger bays, but no other slow chargers.
Am I OK to plug in all night? It won't get busy, I am on free Supercharging and have never had idle fees before, and I really don't want to get up in the middle of the night to move the car!
Poor form or ok?

I personally would not keep my car idling in an SC even if zero fee, but to answer the rest of your question, maybe you can charge to 90 percent, then start charging to 100% from the App while getting ready in the AM.

 

[Birdman325]

I agree. SChargers are for charging. Not overnight parking. Absolutely poor form. (My view).

 

[sorka]

Plus it's just not good for the battery to leave it at 100% all night long. I wouldn't even charge to 90 the night before. Why not just go out and plug it in first thing after you wake up. It'll be charged by the time you shower, pack, eat, etc.

 

[Tomilett]

thanks for all replies.
I don't know how long you guys take to "unpack" at a hotel, but I'm hoping to be asleep within 20 minutes of arriving (at 11pm) in the carpark, and as I have to be somewhere at 8am an hours drive away, I'm not planning on a leisurely breakfast where any serious charging would be possible.
I also can't envisage there being any more than a couple of cars there at any time in the night. We're in national lockdown and only "essential" travel is allowed. My car is a 2014 S85 so supercharging isn't so "super" any more, it'll need a good 2 hours of charging to get from 5-10% to 100%. I'll still only do 95% at night and then put it up to 100% when I wake up, so it might get somewhere close to 100% before I leave.
I will leave a big note with phone number in my windshield and will move it in the extremely unlikely event that the place becomes completely full. I think the chance of that happening is so small, but I don't want to be discourteous. I also don't want to drag myself out of bed half way through the night to move it when there are 11 free bays all night long. I would have much preferred a slow charger (destination or 3rd party) but there wasn't anything on the route (and half the hotels are closed as so few customers at the moment).
Tom

 

[MN-MS100D]

Ok, so you asked if it was ok to block a charger all night and most responses said it was bad form, but you are going to do it anyway. Remember this when you need a charge on the road.

 

[scaesare]

The question is not always "If I behave this way, will it have significant negative impact?"

It's often, "If everybody behaves the way I do, will it have negative impact?"

Why do you not litter? It probably won't really affect the environment significantly...

 

[Ostrichsak]

Ok, so you asked if it was ok to block a charger all night and most responses said it was bad form, but you are going to do it anyway. Remember this when you need a charge on the road.

You mean to tell me that when you owned an ICE car you never pulled up to a gas station, put the gas filler nozzle in your car, set the trigger to auto fill and then just walked next door to a hotel to check in and go to sleep for the night? I thought everybody behaved this way not just EV drivers. I mean, there's other pumps... right?

 

[ucmndd]

Some of you are being a little ridiculous about this particular set of circumstances. I’d likely do the same thing OP is asking about.

Even here in Teslafornia I can’t imagine a scenario where a supercharger was full between 11pm and 7am, outside of the crazy holiday fringe cases and some of the shopping center stations around SF / LA that stay busy until ~midnight. If I arrived at a mostly empty 12 stall charger at 11pm, I’d feel quite safe in my reasoning that it’s not going to become massively impacted by a gang of gypsy Teslas at 3am traveling under the cover of night, and that I’d be just fine - inconveniencing no one - until 7am.

The question is not always "If I behave this way, will it have significant negative impact?"

It's often, "If everybody behaves the way I do, will it have negative impact?"

Thankfully Tesla has built a rather effective dollar-a-minute deterrent to dissuade “everyone” from doing this in circumstances where it has the possibility of affecting others.

 

[Big Earl]

You mean to tell me that when you owned an ICE car you never pulled up to a gas station, put the gas filler nozzle in your car, set the trigger to auto fill and then just walked next door to a hotel to check in and go to sleep for the night? I thought everybody behaved this way not just EV drivers. I mean, there's other pumps... right?

The obvious difference being that the ICE car would be full in 5 minutes, while the old Model S will take two hours.

 

[Tomilett]

I put a big note in marker pen with my phone number just in case, but seriously does anyone imagine this is going to be full at any time overnight?

 

[drtimhill]

I put a big note in marker pen with my phone number just in case, but seriously does anyone imagine this is going to be full at any time overnight?

Totally agree, its unlikely. But the trouble is, where do you draw the line? Sure, I dont doubt you wont be rude, as you already showed you are considerate by posting the question in the first place. But others will start to push it .. and push it .. until suddenly its impossible to find a charging slot. I've already seen cases of Teslas simply using charging slots as parking space, and not even plugging in at all. Sad but true.

 

[drtimhill]

Even here in Teslafornia I can’t imagine a scenario where a supercharger was full between 11pm and 7am, outside of the crazy holiday fringe cases and some of the shopping center stations around SF / LA that stay busy until ~midnight. If I arrived at a mostly empty 12 stall charger at 11pm, I’d feel quite safe in my reasoning that it’s not going to become massively impacted by a gang of gypsy Teslas at 3am traveling under the cover of night, and that I’d be just fine - inconveniencing no one - until 7am.

But what's the real inconvenience of moving it? Sure, you have to wake up, put on pants, move car, go back to bed. Doesnt seem too much to me, and I'd certainly do that (since I've done on destination chargers as well).