Nightmare! (Supercharger queues)

[NewbieT]

We will never build enough infrastructure for the peak of peaks. We haven’t yet built enough for the daily peaks (if you drive a non- Tesla). Behind the curve and will stay behind the curve. No sign of the rapid charging fund yet. Queues at Christmas will be the norm. Definitely need to sort destination charging.

People are getting wiser but there’s still a lot of educating to do. Father-in-law looking at self-charging hybrids. I had to explain it wasn’t a perpetual motion machine.

 

[Rooster6655]

Warwick south services, lunchtime today (27th) -
All chargers in use, 7 Tesla's waiting, and all gridserve taken.
At least the Tesla owners were polite and setup (and maintained) an orderly queue.

Waited 20 min for a charger, but was done & out in 16min for the next driver.
Warwick northbound showing waits as well.

If I had to travel during peak seasonal periods then I would be looking for alternative chargers on route outside the typical ones, chargers at services will also be the busiest and especially the Tesla chargers for their convenience

 

[Andy B]

How long before someone makes a lightweight flex-fuel micro gas-turbine with a Tesla connector that fits in the frunk?

 

[GDW1986]

Whilst I’ve been quite lucky in being able to avoid travelling on the two major peak days, it is annoying that all superchargers at Exeter services appear to be out of action, which would be my obvious target for charging heading up from Plymouth to Bromsgrove.

Is everyone else seeing this?

On the plus side, gave me an excuse to avoid the in-laws for an hour watching Rick and Morty whilst charging in a Lidl car park.

Edit: Exeter seemingly online again now, but has been on and off the last few days (at least according to the app)

 

[spooksman]

Never takes the mainstream 'press' long to jump on and have a go...

Queues stretching for hours show what it's like to own a Tesla at Christmas

'You can always rely on the British public to make an orderly queue.'

metro.co.uk

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Never takes the mainstream 'press' long to jump on and have a go...

Queues stretching for hours show what it's like to own a Tesla at Christmas

'You can always rely on the British public to make an orderly queue.'

metro.co.uk

And Teslas in the UK can easily use other charging locations! Now you'll see whether Tesla responds with expansion as they've done to holiday lines in the USA, particularly in California and Arizona.

 

[Adopado]

No sign of the rapid charging fund yet.

Indeed! I was curious about how this government fund was being used so I went onto the government web site to find out ... of course not a penny has actually been spent ... so I sent an email to enquire. Here it is and the reply I received back in October:


From: *****
Sent: 22 October 2022 15:35
To: RapidChargingFund <[email protected]>
Subject: Rapid Charging Fund for Motorway and A Road services

I note that the information for this fund was published on gov.uk in September 2021. However, in the “How to Apply” section it continues to say "The fund is not yet open for applications. Further details will be available shortly.” Clearly we are beyond the “shortly” timescale now! Is there a planned date for the acceptance of applications to this fund?

Regards,

*****



Hi *****,

The Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) is a £950 million fund to future-proof electrical capacity at motorway and major A road service areas to prepare the network for a fully electric car and van fleet. As such, the RCF will specifically focus on upgrading the grid network infrastructure to motorway service areas and major A roads only and will not be funding the actual rapid chargers themselves. However, please feel free to direct to us any questions or information you have.

The timing and process for the delivery of this funding, including who can apply, is currently being planned and will be confirmed in due course. We will conduct a public consultation on proposals in Spring 2023.

Kind Regards,
Rapid Charging Team
Office for Zero Emission Vehicles




__________________________________________________________________________________________
This email has originated from external sources and has been scanned by DfT’s email scanning service.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[init6]

As for nightmare - 1 of my twins has marked travel sickness and our route was altered from the norm due to roadworks closing a stretch of the M42, so having to run the A46 from Coventry to Strensham was not a pleasant diversion! Overall, the journey was extended by nearly 2 hours, but I narrowly avoided having to clean the car interior

So the nightmare had little to do with the Supercharger wait?
Hyperbole aside (great name for a Tesla ) what other car would have told you the status of the fuel point? I appreciate it can be difficult to keep your eyes on the SuC status on the nav map (co-pilot job), but it is very good at predicting the wait times. I had a similar experience (although shorter and with no kids) yesterday at Eurocentral. Forewarned is Forearmed and all that.

 

[15Peter20]

See my blog ‘how I survived for an hour with a sprained finger. Now that’s a nightmare.

 

[imstitch]

I was caught up in the Tebay saga, towards the tail end of it later in the evening as I only waited around 50 minutes. Still pretty bad, between the M8 Preston and Glasgow, there's a total of 18 superchargers. Should be double/triple that considering the amount of Teslas on that road, Tebay seems to have waits all the time now even during non holiday time. If you are travelling at motorway speeds, it really isn't possible to travel between that stretch of road without charging (Maybe model s/x with bigger batteries can make it further), which only makes it worse. If Tebay had 20 on each side and Abington/Gretna both had 12-20, that would probably satisfy demand for a few years. Seems better to add more stalls than new locations on such a sparsely populated route.

 

[Adopado]

Should be double/triple that considering the amount of Teslas on that road, Tebay seems to have waits all the time now even during non holiday time.

It's certainly a busy site these days (and the one I have most used) but I have never actually had to wait ... so clearly there are still slightly quieter times (I've probably shot myself in the foot now ... guaranteed to be delayed next time!). I believe the northbound side is due for Superchargers at some point so that would help enormously: Penrith - Tebay Northbound | Tesla Heading further north there is permission for 9 chargers at Annandale Water services according to supercharge.info though I didn't see that on Tesla's site.

 

[MkPotato]

Hyperbole aside, it clearly depends on how much on-the-road charging you do. Most will do very little, but the rub is that even if you do very little, you want it to be a pain free experience when you do use it (and it’s reasonable to be a bit angry if it all goes pear-shaped). Since superchargers and rival chargers) are expensive to build and maintain, you can’t expect huge excess capacity (which is a bit hypocritical if you’re just an occasional user), but on the other hand, if infrastructure gets too far behind EV numbers, it’ll all grind to a halt. Similarly cost per kWh has to be reasonable.

I do wonder if leaving it to “the market” is the best idea to be honest.

 

[MkPotato]

I was caught up in the Tebay saga, towards the tail end of it later in the evening as I only waited around 50 minutes. Still pretty bad, between the M8 Preston and Glasgow, there's a total of 18 superchargers. Should be double/triple that considering the amount of Teslas on that road, Tebay seems to have waits all the time now even during non holiday time. If you are travelling at motorway speeds, it really isn't possible to travel between that stretch of road without charging (Maybe model s/x with bigger batteries can make it further), which only makes it worse. If Tebay had 20 on each side and Abington/Gretna both had 12-20, that would probably satisfy demand for a few years. Seems better to add more stalls than new locations on such a sparsely populated route.

Yes Tebay is woefully inadequate, particularly as it gets very slow when lots of people are charging, which then compounds the problem. As you say, it’s a critical point for the links to The Lakes and Scotland. As is Abington if you’re going to Scotland as it’s pretty much one charge from the Greater Manchester area. (In fact The Lakes really needs something before the Kendal junction, as Tebay is quite a detour if you visiting South/Central Lakeland).

 

[ACarneiro]

I've heard some "horror, nightmare, apocalyptic" stories from around the country yesterday. 20 cars waiting for over 2 hours at the services on the M6 in Cumbria, Telford queues of 4 cars (last stop before mid Wales) etc. I guess its seasonal traffic. I wonder if this is going to be like our ability to deal with snow? As its only once or twice a year, the infrastructure to deal with it will never be built and we just suffer for those few days because the other 361 days a year it's fine. (I've never had to wait more than a few minutes for a charger in a number of years but have heard of these queues a few times in that time).

Telford really could do with being upgraded to v3.
There’s still space to install more chargers, mind you.
One way or another it will need some sort of expansion soon…

 

[gangzoom]

I was caught up in the Tebay saga, towards the tail end of it later in the evening as I only waited around 50 minutes.

Imagine paying £50K+ for any other product, than waiting 1hrs in a queue when you just want to be home - Did you also have to pay to charge?

7th winter with owing an EV, our other combustion car is going no where fast.

 

[Jason71]

Telford really could do with being upgraded to v3.
There’s still space to install more chargers, mind you.
One way or another it will need some sort of expansion soon…

Like you i live near Telford. And while that would be nice. based on the utilisation, I doubt it's a priority. It's empty a lot of the time. As the last chance supercharger on the way to north wales from the Midlands I am guessing it has a few holiday days a year where it is a must charge for those heading into to badlands. But on average utilisation i bet its nowhere near the top 20. As you say though. Plenty of space and Given proximity to Telford probably power BUT its Welcome Break so some of their charges are a far more likely addition i would think.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Warwick south services, lunchtime today (27th) -
All chargers in use, 7 Tesla's waiting, and all gridserve taken.
At least the Tesla owners were polite and setup (and maintained) an orderly queue.

Waited 20 min for a charger, but was done & out in 16min for the next driver.
Warwick northbound showing waits as well.

Your version of "nightmare" involves a 16 minute wait?

 

[Jason71]

Your version of "nightmare" involves a 16 minute wait?

Seems i have a nightmare everytime i go out anywhere with my wife by that measure.

 

[init6]

Seems i have a nightmare everytime i go out anywhere with my wife by that measure.

See other post

 

[yessuz]

Tere is

My brain is hurting trying to imagine how Warwick or Banbury would be part of a route to Newport including the M42 at some point. The roads were certainly busy today, we drove Oxford - Ashbourne and back but fortunately didn't need to charge

going to be another SC at tamworth, there is Instavolt at appleby mcdonalds... M42 at least in some parts will not be that bad