I live in the Bay Area. I decided to take a Road Trip with my wife to Los Angeles, spend a day or two as tourists, then return home. We ended up skipping the tourist part due to Supercharging problems.
We arrived in Los Angeles with only 40 miles of range left and went to the Hawthorne Supercharger. Driving down from the Bay Area I used the Superchargers at Harris Ranch and Tejon. They worked fine except for stopping about halfway through the charge. Reinserting the Charger plug allowed them to complete the charge normally. I added enough miles each stop to safely take me to the next supercharger.
At Hawthorne, it was 7 am Wednesday when we started trying to supercharge. We managed to add 100 miles of range, then could not get charging to work.
Our goal was to add 200 miles of range, so we could tourist in LA for the day, then have enough range left to return to the Tejon Supercharger on our way home.
Charging Problem Description:
I plugged into the Supercharger at the Hawthorne Design Center.
It started normal charging, adding 100 miles range.
Then the charger stopped charging.
I then had 140 miles range.
I plugged in the charger again.
The displayed voltage rose normally into the mid 300s.
I heard some electronic "clunking" sounds.
The display shifted to say the car was charging.
But Amperage stayed at zero. No charging was occurring.
A nice Tesla employee, at the Tesla Design Studio tried to help, getting the factory to watch the car's log each failed charging attempt. We tried several charging stations, powering off the car, etc.
After 3 hours of trying we gave up, and drove to the LA service center.
We spent 3 hours there slow charging while waiting on feedback from the log analysis of our failed charging in the morning. Without resolution of the problem, we decided to return home and let the Fremont Service Center look into the problem.
Not knowing if my car was at fault, or the Supercharger, planning the return home took some care.
We decided to drive to the Tejon Supercharger for one last supercharger try. If it failed, cross over to the 70 amp J1772 charger at Rabobank in Santa Maria, and take the Rabobank run up 101 to the Bay Area. Some Rabobanks along 101 have 70 amp J1772 charging.
But the Tejon Supercharger worked, so we went on to The Harris Ranch Supercharger.
At Harris Ranch the problem occurred again. We had just enough range to get to Gilroy, but didn't have enough range to get home. If we couldn't supercharge in Gilroy, then some SemaConnect J1772 chargers were there to get us enough charge to get home.
In Gilroy the supercharger worked. Being tired, I charged just enough to get home, and returned home.
I don't know if the Superchargers are at fault, or my car's software, or the car's hardware. I'll let the Fremont Service Center decide on what needs to be done.
I guess the lesson I learned is not to take ambitious road trips until many others have ironed out the problems. And if you do take one, be sure you have a patient wife.
We arrived in Los Angeles with only 40 miles of range left and went to the Hawthorne Supercharger. Driving down from the Bay Area I used the Superchargers at Harris Ranch and Tejon. They worked fine except for stopping about halfway through the charge. Reinserting the Charger plug allowed them to complete the charge normally. I added enough miles each stop to safely take me to the next supercharger.
At Hawthorne, it was 7 am Wednesday when we started trying to supercharge. We managed to add 100 miles of range, then could not get charging to work.
Our goal was to add 200 miles of range, so we could tourist in LA for the day, then have enough range left to return to the Tejon Supercharger on our way home.
Charging Problem Description:
I plugged into the Supercharger at the Hawthorne Design Center.
It started normal charging, adding 100 miles range.
Then the charger stopped charging.
I then had 140 miles range.
I plugged in the charger again.
The displayed voltage rose normally into the mid 300s.
I heard some electronic "clunking" sounds.
The display shifted to say the car was charging.
But Amperage stayed at zero. No charging was occurring.
A nice Tesla employee, at the Tesla Design Studio tried to help, getting the factory to watch the car's log each failed charging attempt. We tried several charging stations, powering off the car, etc.
After 3 hours of trying we gave up, and drove to the LA service center.
We spent 3 hours there slow charging while waiting on feedback from the log analysis of our failed charging in the morning. Without resolution of the problem, we decided to return home and let the Fremont Service Center look into the problem.
Not knowing if my car was at fault, or the Supercharger, planning the return home took some care.
We decided to drive to the Tejon Supercharger for one last supercharger try. If it failed, cross over to the 70 amp J1772 charger at Rabobank in Santa Maria, and take the Rabobank run up 101 to the Bay Area. Some Rabobanks along 101 have 70 amp J1772 charging.
But the Tejon Supercharger worked, so we went on to The Harris Ranch Supercharger.
At Harris Ranch the problem occurred again. We had just enough range to get to Gilroy, but didn't have enough range to get home. If we couldn't supercharge in Gilroy, then some SemaConnect J1772 chargers were there to get us enough charge to get home.
In Gilroy the supercharger worked. Being tired, I charged just enough to get home, and returned home.
I don't know if the Superchargers are at fault, or my car's software, or the car's hardware. I'll let the Fremont Service Center decide on what needs to be done.
I guess the lesson I learned is not to take ambitious road trips until many others have ironed out the problems. And if you do take one, be sure you have a patient wife.
. I'm more like your wife, I think. But my son has pointed out my tendency to just take off cross-country and 'figure it out as we go'. It's more fun that way!
