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My car won't charge faster than 60kW
- Thread starter David99
- Start date
If they are intentionally throttling, then this is the best theory I've heard and makes the most sense.
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I contacted both my DS and sales rep. I've asked them to provide me some sort of written statement, even through email, that Tesla is not throttling charge rates due to policy. If they can't provide me an answer even as simple as "Tesla does not have a policy to throttle Tesla charging", then I will be canceling my order which is scheduled to be picked up on Monday 3/30, two weeks from today.
In fact, because of this, I'm delaying the installation of the HWPC until I can get confirmation of this.
If Tesla was actually doing this, it would be a deal killer for me.
I have a 260 mile round trip commute to work and would be hitting a particular Super Charger up several times a week on my way to and from work.
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
Done already. The local lead tells me "I have not heard of this" (contradicting the statement that this was rolled out to service centers today) and promised to follow up with the factory and find out.
I needed to schedule my annual service today so instead of calling, I actually drove to my service center (Van Nuys) and spoke with 2 reps. They looked dumbfounded - this was the first they've heard about throttling. They both confirmed that there has been absolutely no communication from corporate today about throttling/limiting of local SCs. One rep said that such a change would be huge and very disruptive. Other rep said "stop reading the forums". Until there's an official announcement from TM or Elon don't believe everything you read on the forums.
Since you have your car back, head out to Culver City, Redondo or Hawthorne and test your theory there. I'll be charging up at Oxnard again this afternoon.
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
Wow, that's a gruesome commute. 20+h a week in the car, on top of the hours spent at work. Yikes.
cpa
Active Member
It could easily be directly related to the spike charges imposed by the utilities. Demand charges (here in California) are determined each monthly billing cycle. I seem to recall that PG&E is around $25 per kilowatt, but do not quote me. Anyway, it is possible that Tesla has determined that each supercharger location will have a monthly cap in order to reduce costs. As the demand charges each month approach that cap, charging rate slows, not just for locals but for everybody. Tesla has mountains of data on its supercharger usage sitting at the Hawthorne lobby. Tesla knows peak charging times and rates and quantities delivered among other things. I know nothing about composing computer programs, but it would seem to me that it would be fairly easy to develop a program to scale down Supercharger rates based upon their historical data and attainment of X kilowatts delivered during the monthly billing period. Using Rancho Cucamonga as an example, if Tesla can reduce the spike charge each month by 200kW, those savings could add up across 170+ locations and twelve months.
What would be interesting to see if those who have been throttled at these locations if they were to charge at 0400 or some other hour where usage is non-existent. And at different times of month to see if it has to do with each billing cycle.
What would be interesting to see if those who have been throttled at these locations if they were to charge at 0400 or some other hour where usage is non-existent. And at different times of month to see if it has to do with each billing cycle.
Zarwin
Member
This is probably NOT the reason, but, looking at just NC, there are three data points I see. SarahsDad (Charlotte supercharger local) posted twice and I (Burlington supercharger local) posted once. Of the three attempts, two were full rate and one was throttled (SarahsDad's first post). The demand peak/window for commercial use from Duke Energy is between 6AM and 10AM this month. Only the throttled attempt was within this window.
Attempts:
SarahsDad 9:40AM throttled
SarahsDad 12:52PM not throttled
Zarwin 2:39PM not throttled
This is pure correlation with a tiny sample size that likely has nothing to do with causation, but just wanted to note it.
Attempts:
SarahsDad 9:40AM throttled
SarahsDad 12:52PM not throttled
Zarwin 2:39PM not throttled
This is pure correlation with a tiny sample size that likely has nothing to do with causation, but just wanted to note it.
Obsoletion
Member
I was going to suggest that but I didn't want to get you in hot water or something with your local Tesla service by having a bunch of people calling and saying so and so said.
Same here. Called a buddy of mine at a remote (from me), unnamed service center somewhere in the US. "We would know of this months in advance. Nothing like this has come our way."
eye.surgeon
Active Member
I wouldn't be sad if Tesla did institute some type of throttling for locals using a supercharger near their home to be honest. They're not designed for that and the system requires some degree of self-regulation which a small minority are not demonstrating. It hurts people in actual need of a charge rather than just saving a buck. Having said that I think it's very unlikely to happen, Tesla is too customer-service oriented to take the PR hit.
Well, either Obsoletion is just flat out lying, which I doubt, or this Hector Reynoso is totally wrong and Tesla Corporate needs to be notified. The actual way the repair diagnosis is worded doesn't prove intentional throttling, but that guy should be throttled if you bungled the communication so badly, along with a cryptic written diagnosis as to make a customer believe it's intentional.
It could also be that this guy has gotten a heads up sooner than others.
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Except that it will just increase congestion and piss people off. If someone is charging at a local SC just so they can avoid paying a higher electric bill, throttling is not going to make them go away. It will just make them stay there longer.
In my case, the SC I'd most often use is 60 miles from my.
It could also be that this guy has gotten a heads up sooner than others.
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Except that it will just increase congestion and piss people off. If someone is charging at a local SC just so they can avoid paying a higher electric bill, throttling is not going to make them go away. It will just make them stay there longer.
In my case, the SC I'd most often use is 60 miles from my.
Depeche Mode
Member
It's NOT OUR problem... it's theirs when we bought our car it was a BIG thing that:
1) Free charge for life
2) Half a charge in 20 minutes
3) 170 miles in 30 minutes
Very clear also on their internet site...
If they want to do a change on their current policy, well, they can do it but it would only apply WHEN the policy will be change (probably thursday) and THEN it will affect new owners POST-thursday...
Other than that they expose themselves for unwanted lawsuits... not good for them, not good for the image...
Good luck on that one. Many people have been rejected even after offering to pay for installation. Just trying to get the HVAC fixed in an apartment is a major undertaking--and it's supposed to work as part of your rent.
Wrong, they are designed to be used to charge up the battery. Nothing more, nothing less. "Why" someone uses it is not for us to impose our own lifestyle on theirs. Are there people who only supercharge to save a buck? Sure. Is it hurting others? Nothing more than anecdotal speculation at the SJC SC. Even though Tesla initially came up with the network to enable long distance travel, real world experience has demonstrated that it now goes beyond that. Otherwise, they would not be building a dense network of SC's in the SoCal area. There will be at least 7-8 SC all within 100 miles or so each other by 2016.
Huh, I would've thought demand peaks would correspond to those on my TOU plan. Meaning afternoon instead of morning. What happens between 6-10 AM? Factories starting up?
Has anyone experienced throttling on weekends?
The "non-lowering-suspension"-gate had language about "lowering at speed"on the web site and it did not stop Tesla unilaterally changing every air car in the fleet permanently (even though the placebo button came back eventually). The air cars still do not lower as they used to.
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