Question for those with free supercharging

[tga]

They throttled me back to 80 percent fill up cause it was HIGH use spot.

You can always move the slider back up if you need more than 80%

They also have installed software that reports where we r every charge.

The cars have always done that, since day one. It's nothing new.

 

[ewoodrick]

One interesting benefit of the horrible charging speeds of my P85DL is that it takes FOREVER to charge fully. The last time I tried to supercharge from 20-100% while eating a meal, it took over 90 minutes and never went above 97%. At that rate, I’d never accrue idle fees! Also, I was the only car at the supercharger , so I wasn’t too concerned about blocking others. As a comparison, my model 3 at the same charging station took about 45 minutes to fully charge to 100%.

Arrgghh, the impoliteness and issues caused by "Free Supercharging" If you were paying for it, you wouldn't ever think about charging at a Supercharger for 90 minutes!

When charging at any DC Fast Charger (and other EVs know and apply this as well) all you should ever charge to is 80-90%. Past that point, the charge rate is generally decreased to the point where a L2 charger can charge as fast and is much more efficient.

You P85DL evidently needed some battery conditioning and that's why it took so long. Best way to fix this is to charge to at least 90% and leave it there for many hours, if not days.

 

[Galve2000]

I understand that the idle fees accrue only when the charger is 50% or more occupied. I doubt I would need to overnight at a supercharger, except once every 2-3 years -- but, I would like to do so, when it is clear that it is so late that 0 (average) Teslas are going to roll in for a charge while I sleep. Having said that, how can Tesla determine that 50% of the site is occupied? The telemetry they currently use is about as accurate as predicting the weather 14 days in advance -- as can be seen in the in-car Center Console navigation.

There is at least one member on this forum who left his car overnight at a supercharger assuming the likelihood of the stalls filling more than 50% would be 0 and then got slammed with a few hundred dollars in idling fees for that session. I believe a portion or all of it was credited by Tesla under "good will" but that was in the early days of idling fees.

I'm not sure tesla will be so generous today.

 

[Peter Lucas]

Arrgghh, the impoliteness and issues caused by "Free Supercharging" If you were paying for it, you wouldn't ever think about charging at a Supercharger for 90 minutes!

When charging at any DC Fast Charger (and other EVs know and apply this as well) all you should ever charge to is 80-90%. Past that point, the charge rate is generally decreased to the point where a L2 charger can charge as fast and is much more efficient.

You P85DL evidently needed some battery conditioning and that's why it took so long. Best way to fix this is to charge to at least 90% and leave it there for many hours, if not days.

What do you mean by the L2 charger is much more efficient?

 

[BrownOuttaSpec]

What do you mean by the L2 charger is much more efficient?

I assume he means its more efficient because it would be using 100% of its capacity to fill it up with a L2 charger So you would be getting the full 8kW out of 8kW up to 100% battery charge whereas with a L3 you would be getting 10% of its total capacity like 10kW out of 100kW and the amount of electricity tapers off as it gets full to prevent the battery from being damaged. Just a guess though

 

[ewoodrick]

I assume he means its more efficient because it would be using 100% of its capacity to fill it up with a L2 charger So you would be getting the full 8kW out of 8kW up to 100% battery charge whereas with a L3 you would be getting 10% of its total capacity like 10kW out of 100kW and the amount of electricity tapers off as it gets full to prevent the battery from being damaged. Just a guess though

That and the fact that there are a lot more L2 connections than Superchargers.

 

[EVDRVN]

Arrgghh, the impoliteness and issues caused by "Free Supercharging" If you were paying for it, you wouldn't ever think about charging at a Supercharger for 90 minutes!

When charging at any DC Fast Charger (and other EVs know and apply this as well) all you should ever charge to is 80-90%. Past that point, the charge rate is generally decreased to the point where a L2 charger can charge as fast and is much more efficient.

You P85DL evidently needed some battery conditioning and that's why it took so long. Best way to fix this is to charge to at least 90% and leave it there for many hours, if not days.

The SC network was originally intended for road tips not local charging (fact). It is beyond rude when people that are not traveling extreme distances between an SC sit and charge past 80%. So may times I am doing 500 miles and roll in at 10% and would have been at about 120kW plus but get about 60 because some local person needs to charge from 90-10 daily. There are other examples but it is a complete time suck to be on a very long road trip and have to share a stall with people that do this or create lines at an SC to get to high levels they do not need. I've been driving an EV more than 15 years and there used to be really good etiquette around charging but now I see some pretty obnoxious owners including ones that sit in stalls and chat even when not charging while there is a line. There is no reason to charge more than 90% or even up to 90 unless you have a very long distance between and SC and you are just wasting time and aging your pack. Last week I did a trip over 500 miles and I had to wait for a local guy who told me that he charges every day from 80-90, that guy added about 1 hour to my trip between getting the stall and the added traffic that I could have missed in the metro area, Please don't be that person free SC or not.

 

[ohmman]

One exception to the 80-90% rule is if you are range limited. Even in Supercharger-rich California, I’m often needing to charge to 95%+ when pulling my camper with my X90D. Good news is that I plan to upgrade to the plaid version this year if the range bump is significant.

 

[ewoodrick]

One exception to the 80-90% rule is if you are range limited. Even in Supercharger-rich California, I’m often needing to charge to 95%+ when pulling my camper with my X90D. Good news is that I plan to upgrade to the plaid version this year if the range bump is significant.

By itself, just because you are towing, doesn't mean that you should. It's if you can't reach your destination. And since most campgrounds have the NEMA 14-50, you should be able to roll in at a low charge.

If you NEED to go to 100% do it. If you need to do it daily or weekly, then charge at home or get another vehicle.

 

[ohmman]

By itself, just because you are towing, doesn't mean that you should. It's if you can't reach your destination. And since most campgrounds have the NEMA 14-50, you should be able to roll in at a low charge.

If you NEED to go to 100% do it. If you need to do it daily or weekly, then charge at home or get another vehicle.

I’m pretty sure my phrasing made it clear that people with limited range, such as my example, sometimes need to do it. That was the point of the post. I cannot make it between Superchargers without a full charge in many locations. Obviously I also charge at the campsite - there is an entire logistical plan that goes into travel, but full charges are a necessity more frequently than I’d like.
Now my Model S with free Supercharging? That almost never sees a charger. I’ve plugged it into a Supercharger once in the last year or two, and that was just to test a newly operational charger.

I fully understand common courtesy, which means not taking up valuable space when you don’t need to do so.

 

[ucmndd]

Let’s try this again.

The SC network was originally intended for road tips not local charging (fact). It is beyond rude when people that are not traveling extreme distances between an SC sit and charge past 80%.

It matters not one bit what the first 20 supercharger stations were “originally intended” for. Tesla actively sells and markets cars to people in dense urban areas without access to garages, assigned parking, or reasonable availability of overnight L2 charging. To suggest that anyone using a feature they paid for (either directly or indirectly) in precisely the manner Tesla markets and encourages is “beyond rude”, because it inconveniences your unfettered access for the one use case YOU deem worthy, is rather self-righteous.

 

[EVDRVN]

Let’s try this again.



It matters not one bit what the first 20 supercharger stations were “originally intended” for. Tesla actively sells and markets cars to people in dense urban areas without access to garages, assigned parking, or reasonable availability of overnight L2 charging. To suggest that anyone using a feature they paid for (either directly or indirectly) in precisely the manner Tesla markets and encourages is “beyond rude”, because it inconveniences your unfettered access for the one use case YOU deem worthy, is rather self-righteous.

I did not say that, the SC stations are abused by local residents I never said they can't or should not use them. Nice try though.

 

[EVDRVN]

One exception to the 80-90% rule is if you are range limited. Even in Supercharger-rich California, I’m often needing to charge to 95%+ when pulling my camper with my X90D. Good news is that I plan to upgrade to the plaid version this year if the range bump is significant.

Noted in my posts. Anyone that has been in this space a long time knows where the real issues lie and it's easy to identify the guilty parties.

 

[ewoodrick]

I’m pretty sure my phrasing made it clear that people with limited range, such as my example, sometimes need to do it. That was the point of the post. I cannot make it between Superchargers without a full charge in many locations. Obviously I also charge at the campsite - there is an entire logistical plan that goes into travel, but full charges are a necessity more frequently than I’d like.
Now my Model S with free Supercharging? That almost never sees a charger. I’ve plugged it into a Supercharger once in the last year or two, and that was just to test a newly operational charger.

I fully understand common courtesy, which means not taking up valuable space when you don’t need to do so.

And to think that I was interpreting "range limited" as non-LR vehicles, which really has nothing to do with it.

As in my clarification, it's only if you need it to reach your next destination.