Packed Superchargers

[browellm]

I've restarted my regular weekend trip to Liverpool from E.Mids and have a few options now. Long term I can probably go there and back on one charge as it's 240miles, so even in winter I can do it if I'm reasonably sensible. However I wanted to burn off some free supercharger miles before they expire so I had the choice of Keele or Trentham on the way home.

Keele looked very busy from the app, so I gave Trentham a blast. It's really not far off my main route (about a mile or two?) and it's a nice shopping/outlet type place. They are V3 chargers but I didn't get spectacular speeds, although they were adequate. It was pretty busy there too. I was 7/8 when I arrived at about 5pm on a Saturday.

 

[btc1k]

Yeah I totally agree with you. We've heard a lot of nice things from Gridserve and they are doing work, but I don't think it's enough nor in the right places. The Gridserve-only sites (only one so far) aren't on the major motorway routes, and the upgrade of the ecotricity chargers needed to be much more ambitious. They need to have a plan to upgrade all the major motorway services with large-scale hubs as soon as possible, and government needs to help them get the power connections up to speed at the same time.

Clearly Tesla have had a lot of trouble with power connections and planning permission with some of there motorway sites - and have abandoned a lot of them and turned to retail parks etc. This shouldn't be the case, if we had a half-decent government. I'm fed up of seeing all these headlines of new chargers opening up and you look at it and its in a random pub car park on the B573. It's handy if you're going there but not much use for long trips.

That's exactly what government are doing, isn't it?

£950 million Rapid Charging Fund – which is aiming to facilitate the installation of six rapid chargers on each Motorway Service area site by 2023 through financing grid connection costs

 

[Jason71]

That's exactly what government are doing, isn't it?

£950 million Rapid Charging Fund – which is aiming to facilitate the installation of six rapid chargers on each Motorway Service area site by 2023 through financing grid connection costs

that does not exactly sound like a stretch goal! 6 is what we need now at peak time. by 2023 it will already be to few too late
If we are doing grid upgrades they should be designed to support 50+ even if we don't need that many now. Don't want to have to upgrade the cables again in a couple of years

 

[btc1k]

that does not exactly sound like a stretch goal! 6 is what we need now at peak time. by 2023 it will already be to few too late
If we are doing grid upgrades they should be designed to support 50+ even if we don't need that many now. Don't want to have to upgrade the cables again in a couple of years

£950 million is a lot of money - and that's for grid upgrades. So 96 motorway services. £9.9mn a piece.

I'd be surprised if a £10mn grid hookup wouldn't be sufficient infrastructure for private providers to step in and provide more than 6 chargers....

Or if we think it costs £10mn for 6 rapid chargers - then we've bigger problems.

 

[UrbanSplash]

Hope free use of superchargers for some ends soon

no more going ‘for the sake of it’

 

[GRiLLA]

£950 million is a lot of money - and that's for grid upgrades. So 96 motorway services. £9.9mn a piece.

I'd be surprised if a £10mn grid hookup wouldn't be sufficient infrastructure for private providers to step in and provide more than 6 chargers....

Or if we think it costs £10mn for 6 rapid chargers - then we've bigger problems.

That'll be £900M for advice from Grant's pseudonym's brother's friend, then £50M for the grid who will use that for a 'discovery exercise' to conclude it needs £8Bn to complete by 2064.

 

[Ticked]

On the way to Penzance from Kent today, Amesbury had plenty of space but Lifton had a queue around lunchtime. Icing on the cake was Camborne. No need to get involved with Genie Point or Swarco. What a relief.

 

[ParHunter]

Today the navigator constantly switched between Superchargers. We went down from Inverness to York. My plan for charging didn’t survive for long. I was re-routed several times. At first it was Perth - Abington - Scotts Corner, then Abington filled up and I was re-routed to Eurocentral (Glasgow) - Tebay - Scotts Corner. Then when we got to within 10 min of Abington we got re-routed again as Abington had some free chargers. On the way to York it then wanted me to skip Scotts Corner as that one was busy (told me I would arrive with 2% in York - great if you can’t charge up there over night).
But after all that I didn’t have to wait for a slot once. Apart from Eurocentral they were all full at some point while I was there but no one had to wait.

Met a fellow Teslamotorsclub member at Scotts Corner in his red performance M3. Enjoy your NC500 trip!

 

[Alistairuk]

Kent to Glasgow yesterday.

Had a wait at Scotch Corner (8 bay) but only for 10 mins, but a constant stream of cars.

Gretna Services (4 bay) was a constant 3 car queue. The Ionity and Gridserve chargers were packed too. Needs an upgrade!

Not much use to you now but if you do it in the future, you might have been able to make Abington services a bit further north (I’ve managed it most times after scotch corner arriving with 9-11%) - means you need to charge to 85-90% in the SR+ at scotch corner though - it has 8 chargers and usually not a queue like Gretna.

 

[Alistairuk]

If I were Tesla I'd put someone "front of house" or marshall at the busiest sites at the times when they are expected to be busy (e.g. holiday routes). Managing the queues, helping people decide how high to charge, suggesting drivers at 50% continue their journeys ... not a year round job, but might suit a student/recent retiree.

They could easily implement a queue system in the cars nav - when it detects you’ve arrived at a full site - a button pops up “join queue” - you go park nearby - when it’s your turn it tells you what stall to goto and reserves it for a few minutes to give you time to move their… if it times out it gives your space to the next person or if it detects you’ve driven away it removes you from the queue.

 

[Drew57]

They could easily implement a queue system in the cars nav - when it detects you’ve arrived at a full site - a button pops up “join queue” - you go park nearby - when it’s your turn it tells you what stall to goto and reserves it for a few minutes to give you time to move their… if it times out it gives your space to the next person or if it detects you’ve driven away it removes you from the queue.

That sounds eminently sensible and doable

....but 'easily' isn't always the Tesla way so it might be the same process as ordering one of the cars - you ask it to recommend a supercharger, hear nothing for hundreds of miles then at the last minute it allocates one just as you are about to pass the site. If all stalls are full it is your responsibility to find another within 7 hours/100 miles & if you can't, use the app to request a Power Ranger who may or may not be available in time.

 

[gangzoom]

Elon just confirmed again Tesla SCs will be opened up to all EVs starting next month in Europe first.

 

[NewbieT]

Please let them do Norway. There has to be some benefit in leaving the EU ().

If the SuCs are opened up in the UK they’ll become overrun. No other network compares on availability, speed, reliability and price. Every electric car in the UK with CCS will be at an SuC. If that happens I’m going back to ICE. Sorry I’m not queuing every time I need to charge.

 

[gangzoom]

Sorry I’m not queuing every time I need to charge.

How often do you actually need to use SCs? I use them half a dozen times a year if that.

Tesla HASN'T got a choice, if they don't comply with central government policy the SC network will be shut down. This has been known about for YEARS, its always been a matter of when, not if.

The only viable solution is to open more SC sites.

 

[NewbieT]

Just checked. 20 times since April.

UK gov isn’t shutting down Tesla. It might however condition access to the Rapid Charging Fund to public networks (rather than Tesla which is a private network). Tesla has privately funded SuCs for years and DOES have a choice.

 

[gangzoom]

Tesla has privately funded SuCs for years and DOES have a choice.

Tesla doesn't, the top down push to equalise public EV charging has been on going for years. As with things in life if you aim to improve the mean you will often drag down the high margins.

There is absolutely zero point in getting annoyed or upset at this, its happening, and was always going to happen.

The important bit is if central government now uses legalisation to make it easier to connect SC sites to the grid. As expanding the SC is whats needed.

 

[NewbieT]

Tesla should just wait. 2 years and the Gov might have put in the infrastructure and other networks might be available to serve all of the Mini/I-pace/polestar/Niro etc. The reality is there is no competition at this point in Ultra Rapids. Ionity have about 2 sites. Gridserve have 1x 50kW to share between lots of users (if it’s working).

 

[NewbieT]

I don’t disagree it will happen just it isn’t the right time to do it.

If they do it this year or next year in the UK I’ll give it 2 months before making my decision to go back to ICE or not.

 

[gangzoom]

If they do it this year or next year in the UK I’ll give it 2 months before making my decision to go back to ICE or not.

I suspect we'll see it by the end of Q3 if not earlier, Elon's timelines often slip but this feels very real (much more so than FSD beta roll out), the latest App update no doubt has all the background work needed to enable payment for non Tesla cars.

Its also worth remembering when the first Model S was sold in the UK there was NO SC network.

 

[Fursty Ferret]

How often do you actually need to use SCs? I use them half a dozen times a year if that.

Several times a month. If SCs open to other vehicles and the price is less than Ionity I'll go straight to a car with 800V architecture and faster charging.

The SC network was the sole factor in choosing a Tesla - other brands have better toys, better cruise control, better seats, and better reliability.

On top of that, since Tesla owners subsidised the network through higher purchase prices on their vehicles, why the hell should be wait while someone dumps a Prius on a SC for an hour while they have a nice coffee and a cake at Tebay?