San Marcos Supercharger: Is it just really slow?

[PattyChuck]

Drove down to San Marcos, TX (south of Austin) from Northwest Indiana this weekend to visit in-laws. Started on Friday afternoon, stopped overnight in St. Louis and OK City (4 and 6-year old traveling with us). Destination charging in both STL and OKC, worked like a charm. Every Supercharger along the way we saw speeds in excess of 100KW at each station. We get to San Marcos, visit with grandma and grandpa, and then head to the hotel. I drop off the family and head to the San Marcos Supercharger. The entire time I was there, the charging never went above 60KWs. There was an X plugged in for about 30 minutes, and when he unplugged, my rate didn't change. What gives? Anyone have any experience with this station? I have very little experience with Superchargers even though I've owned a Tesla since 2013. Is this typical and I just got lucky with the five other Supercharges we visited?

 

[PattyChuck]

I should mention... I was at about 27% SOC, and it is a nice 78° and breezy. Gave up when I hit 236 miles of Rated range because I just wanted to go unwind at the hotel.

 

[BerTX]

It would help if you could include your state of charge and what type of battery you have. The charging at Superchargers tapers off as the battery becomes more charged. Certainly, at some point in charging from 0 to 100%, you will hit a 60kW rate on ANY supercharger. Not knowing your SOC makes it impossible to know if the SC was functioning correctly.

I have used that location numerous times and never had a problem. However, I always go off walking around the mall or get BBQ in the food court, so I don't really know the specifics.

I will let you know that, since there are 5 stalls there, one of them is NEVER paired. I try to use the center back-in stall when possible.

EDIT: see that you posted your SOC, that should help

 

[PattyChuck]

Plugged in again tonight, 37% SOC. Charge jumped to 115KW and stayed there for about three minutes, then fell to 30KW. I moved the car (I was the only one there at the time) and again, charging started at 115KW and fell to 30KW, then leveled off to 40KW. I called Tesla, and they said they were having issues with the San Marcos chargers. He recommended which bay I should use, and told me to leave the car plugged in even if the charging dropped. Car started charging at 115KW, so in order to not tempt myself, I went for a walk. Got a few minutes away and couldn't help myself, so I checked on the app. Charging had dropped to 13 (yes, thirteen) KW. However, by the time I got back to the car, it had leveled off to 60KW. Left when I got to 90%. It took just over an hour to go from 37% to 80%.

 

[sorka]

Plugged in again tonight, 37% SOC. Charge jumped to 115KW and stayed there for about three minutes, then fell to 30KW. I moved the car (I was the only one there at the time) and again, charging started at 115KW and fell to 30KW, then leveled off to 40KW. I called Tesla, and they said they were having issues with the San Marcos chargers. He recommended which bay I should use, and told me to leave the car plugged in even if the charging dropped. Car started charging at 115KW, so in order to not tempt myself, I went for a walk. Got a few minutes away and couldn't help myself, so I checked on the app. Charging had dropped to 13 (yes, thirteen) KW. However, by the time I got back to the car, it had leveled off to 60KW. Left when I got to 90%. It took just over an hour to go from 37% to 80%.

8 out of my last 9 supercharging sessions at various superchargers near the Bay Area have been just like this. Every time I call Tesla at whatever SC I'm at and they always tell me that there's reduced service in the stall that I'm in and that a ticket has been issued to fix it.

This is a huge change from 2 years ago when I first bought the MS when I got superfast charging all the time at any supercharger.

 

[EVCarGUy]

Bay Area have been just like this.

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I stopped at Truckee (the original behind Safeway) on Monday with less than 50% charge. It started at 40kwh, and within a minute dropped to zero and then ramped back up to 70kWhr for 2-3 minutes and then dropped to 50kWhr.

Truckee has been like this for months

 

[sorka]

.

I stopped at Truckee (the original behind Safeway) on Monday with less than 50% charge. It started at 40kwh, and within a minute dropped to zero and then ramped back up to 70kWhr for 2-3 minutes and then dropped to 50kWhr.

Truckee has been like this for months

As I've mentioned in other threads, I can no longer recommend Tesla to those that plan to do a lot of long distance travel via supercharger. It's very unfortunate. Last year, a Baron's article came out and slammed Tesla for not really being the largest charging network. I came Tesla's defense stating all the reasons why CHAdeMO wasn't really a competitor and almost all of those reasons were things that made the supercharging network way more convenient *AND* reliable. If that Baron's article came out today, I think I wouldn't have made any comment at all