I’m going to call BS on this post.
That route is 625miles. You said you had to charge 3 x 50 min. Unless you started nearly empty, your story doesn’t add up.
You should have been able to do it with a couple of 30-45 minute charges.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Long range travel
- Thread starter Zohar
- Start date
That route is 625miles. You said you had to charge 3 x 50 min. Unless you started nearly empty, your story doesn’t add up.
You should have been able to do it with a couple of 30-45 minute charges.
iaflyer
Member
There are chargers even on the "back roads". You just gotta know where to find them:
Obviously around Knoxville and Chattanooga there are lots, but plenty of other chargers are showing up on Plugshare outside of I-75
Oldschool496
Member
Oldschool496
Member
He is dead on. His first stop was 50++ mins in the Bay Area itself to get a full charge before he started his journey. Then two more.
The first one does not count, it like packing for the trip. Leaving prepared helps.
Except this isn't feasible.
In Southern California at least, "15-20 minutes" is only the case during severely off peak time frames. Morning commute? Lunch hour? Afternoon drive? Fuhgettaboutit. Superchargers are clogged.
Once a week or so, I do a run from the Central Coast to Orange County and back. Roughly 130 miles each way, sometimes driving in-between. It's on the outer edges of our MX100D freeway/'real world" range.
In a material number of instances, I've waited several minutes to an hour just to get a charger slot, and even then, end up in a secondary charger to someone else charging quickly.
These in particular are perennially full:
- Culver City
- Fountain Valley
- Santa Ana
- San Juan Capistrano
Notably, nothing in Irvine.
V3 isn't here yet and until it is, this is the reality of supercharging and it isn't the panacea many think it to be.
Last edited:
gavine
Petrol Head turned EV Enthusiast
Right....you should always start any long journey with 100% charge. Your first stop should be after several hours of driving.
Oldschool496
Member
Your making me shudder to think I will be waiting like that, then it'll be ending.
Granted, I did not take into account his particular location, which started in the S.F. bay area. However, we seem to have opposite perspectives about which is the normal condition and which is the outlier. I had used over 60 different Supercharger locations across about 16 states, and I have still never yet seen a site full, ever. Most of the time, they're not even half full. You happen to live in the one state that is the most full and lacking in capacity--a state I haven't charged in. So which is the norm? Your one state, or all the other states?
California is the largest car market in the country, and near the top globally. I'd wager it's the largest Tesla market, as well-- just judging by the number of showrooms.
It's absolutely a frequent enough condition here, along with several other key runs -- LA to Phoenix, for example, where a supercharger there broke down and left folks in a multi-hour wait -- that is has us pausing before considering another Tesla. For our use case, another "100 miles" of range (realistically ~60 miles) would alleviate the need for supercharging altogether.
EV Registration By State: Tesla Model 3 Brings New Records
Looks like CA dwarfs most of the rest of the US combined. Perhaps the thinking from Tesla is these folks will/should be charging at home (which I agree with), but the reality is these are clogged with regular / everyday superchargers that screw it up for the rest of us.
Mdoss
Member
I hear this all the time. One should charge at home. In theory, yes. Reality is different in California. In the Golden state only 10% of the population can afford their own home. The vast majority is renting and or living in apartments / condos. The vast majority of people can not charge at home. The situation is similar in most cities in every state where, again, the vast majority of people live. Most people do not have their own homes and can't charge at home. Can we just once and for all accept reality and realize that in the future EVs will need public charging and that 'charge your car at home' isn't an option for the majority of people
I've rented at least two places and installed a 240v outlet in the parking area/garage. One of these was from a very large apartment owner (Irvine Co) the other from a private party - who was eager to have it installed and we ended up splitting the expense. There are plenty of rebates from the utilities to offset this cost, which is typically less than the cost of gas for a few months.
Lots of vast overstatements there.
I don't deny that apartment situations are a problem with charging at home. That is certainly true.
But to state that it's the case for "the vast majority of people" is just blatantly false and flies in the face of all the statistics.
Across the U.S. states, the percentage of multi-family dwelling buildings ranges from about 20% to a high of about 40% Overall nationally, single family dwellings run about 60%.
So stating that it's a majority of people who don't live in standard houses is the opposite of the statistics. Here are plenty of references on this.
Historical Census of Housing Tables - Units in Structure
United States - Housing units by units in structure - multi-dwelling structure, percent, 2009-2013 by State
Topic: Residential housing in the U.S.
I admit I remembered it incorrectly. I looked it up and the study says 70% in California can't afford a home, in cities it is 85%. 70-85% is still a vast majority.
I guess we can look at the housing situation in different ways, but it would get way off topic here. I'm guilty of putting out numbers which can always be disputed by looking at the data in different, equally valid, ways. My point is more, the argument 'charge at home' isn't an option for many people. Especially in cities, most likely people have no home charging option. People will need public charging because they don't have a home charger.
In the last years I have called countless apartments just to see if they have EV charging options or would be willing to let me install one offering to pay for it. The answer was always no, and no. They don't care and don't want to deal with it.
OK, that's fine. Most of California is damned expensive.
But don't just make up the assumption that the rest of the country is just like that.
Similar threads
- Article
