Should I be concerned about my first Supercharge after delivery working properly?

[Reid]

I'm considering leaving for a roadtrip the day I get my 3. My destination ~200mi away has a wall of destination chargers, very neglected, but I *expect* them to work; I'll call soon to see if the front desk person has any idea.

Out of general prudence I plan to Supercharge at a place about halfway there; my thought was generally if I have any trouble with the charging experience (car not properly linked to an account, etc, more than actual car-related issues), I can still turn around and make it home and live to fight another day, rather than continuing on and praying the destination chargers work (I have no other options at my destination).

Thoughts? Have there been horror stories about supercharging not being "enabled" from day 1, or is it generally considered rock-solid?

Maybe I can swing by a local supercharger an hour before I leave for my trip just to make sure everything's 100%. I won't have many hours in my day before I leave on the trip to figure it out, but who doesn't want to take the new toy for a spin?

 

[swaltner]

There have been a handful of instances with Supercharger functionality not working on new cars, but these instances are VERY rare.

In an abundance of caution, before I left the local area on a trip that REQUIRED a Supercharger to complete (350 mile round trip on a day trip), I stopped at the SuperCharger located 20 miles from home. I had done a fair amount of driving that day, so was down to about 40% charge. Plugged in for just 3 minutes to verify that everything worked (hardware in the car, billing on the credit card, etc...). With that brief test, which is all that’s required to test functionality, I felt comfortable doing the longer trip that required the Supercharger. Be aware that if you stop at a Supercharger with a mostly full battery, the charge rate will be very slow. That’s not an indication of a problem.

Regarding the destination chargers at your destination, check plugshare.com for any/recent reports of successful charging sessions. Leave a check-in report when you stay there to assist other drivers in determining the health of the station. There’s not really maintenance to do, so it’s kind of difficult to neglect EV charging stations. Even if the destination chargers don’t work, depending upon where this is, there might be other local options for charging to get you enough range to get back to the Supercharger on your return trip.

 

[DriveMe]

I think going on a trip on Day 1 is rather risky (with any new car). What if your delivery is delayed? What if you find a small issue with the car that the SC will need to fix? Besides, if this is your first Tesla, you may need some time to learn the controls and get used to the car. Personally, I would take a week just to familiarize myself with the car, it’s charging, etc.

Also, I don’t know if you are planing on doing any paint protection, but if so, it’s better to do it right away, before taking any trips.

 

[GSP]

@Reid

Given your ability to cancel your trip, and low likelihood of problems, I would not bother checking if supercharging works before leaving. If you had more time before your trip, then checking would have been nice.

If PlugShare doesn't have any other 240 V charging options at your destination, other backup options for charging would be to use a 120 V outlet (ask first) and stay an extra day or so, or find a campground with 14-50 outlets. Ask the campground if they have "50-Amp service" available on the day you need it, and how much they charge. This can vary anywhere from "EV charging is not allowed" to the full daily camping rate, to $10 to Free.

Good Luck on your first trip,

GSP

 

[SpiceWare]

Its possible, depending upon your delivery location, that they may have tested it for you. The Houston-North Service Center is also a Supercharger location, when I picked up my 3 the charge screen showed they'd used the Supercharger.

 

[TexasEV]

There just no reason to think you might have a problem with supercharging your new Model 3. Of the infrequent issues people have had with the car, that’s not one of them.

 

[Need]

If there is a supercharger nearby, I would test it out asap. I actually planned to stop by one to test on my way back from picking up the model 3 later this year. It's not a common problem, but we had supercharging problem with our model x last year, so it doesn't hurt to test.

Just to clarify that our problem with the model x was that they made the charge port too tight for the newer model x last year. It fits the normal UMC plug and wall connector plug just fine with a bit of force. But with any supercharger plug, it was super super tight. I can push it if I body slam it in, but my wife could never had plug one in and it is her car. I don't think this is a problem on the model 3, but there is no reason for me not to test it out before I really need to supercharge it.

 

[Holo]

I, too, have a new MS and a long trip coming up that will require supercharging to complete. I decided I didn't want any unpleasant surprises so I visited the closest supercharger to my home (about 30 miles away) just to try it out and make sure everything worked as it should. It did! And now I feel much more secure about the long trip.

 

[animorph]

We went for a cross-country trip about 2 weeks after our X was delivered. Given that the car would be loaded with stuff for the trip, my wife would be co-driving, and there was no good Plan B, we tested at a nearby Supercharger. No problem. If your trip prep is less complex, you're on your own, or you have an easy backup I wouldn't bother with a dry run.

The main problem we have at Superchargers is selecting a non-paired spot (#A and #B share a charger stack and second car to connect will charge slower). I can't count the number of times I've pulled in to some random spot three spaces away from any other Tesla and find that I'm at a charger that's paired with an occupied charger. The numbering scheme is kind of random at times, and it's hard to see the numbers behind a parked car.

 

[SpiceWare]

I can't count the number of times I've pulled in to some random spot three spaces away from any other Tesla and find that I'm at a charger that's paired with an occupied charger.

I had that happen when I was up in Wisconsin, specifically parked away from the other car to avoid being paired, so was puzzled by the exceedingly slow rate of charge. It'd be nice if they'd designed the Superchargers with indicator lights on top:

• green = full power
• orange = shared/reduced power
• red = broken

 

[Reid]

In an abundance of caution, before I left the local area on a trip that REQUIRED a Supercharger to complete (350 mile round trip on a day trip), I stopped at the SuperCharger located 20 miles from home. I had done a fair amount of driving that day, so was down to about 40% charge. Plugged in for just 3 minutes to verify that everything worked (hardware in the car, billing on the credit card, etc...). With that brief test, which is all that’s required to test functionality, I felt comfortable doing the longer trip that required the Supercharger. Be aware that if you stop at a Supercharger with a mostly full battery, the charge rate will be very slow. That’s not an indication of a problem.

Great idea-- Turns out they just opened a supercharger about 4 miles from my house (and another 6 miles from my house!) just last week, so now I'm set! Talk about great timing. Agreed, all I want to make sure is that the car starts charging, not worried about how fast

Regarding the destination chargers at your destination, check plugshare.com for any/recent reports of successful charging sessions. Leave a check-in report when you stay there to assist other drivers in determining the health of the station. There’s not really maintenance to do, so it’s kind of difficult to neglect EV charging stations. Even if the destination chargers don’t work, depending upon where this is, there might be other local options for charging to get you enough range to get back to the Supercharger on your return trip.

Thanks. There are no other 'local' options, but likely I can make it back to the original supercharger or another one on the other side of the mountain if the destination charger doesn't work. Thanks for the tip on plugshare, just downloaded and started using it recently, but didn't even think to check this destination. Looks like a roadster charged there 2 months ago and it's rated 10/10... although with a "3/6 Tesla chargers offline" comment from a year ago; needless to say it's a pretty remote location

I think going on a trip on Day 1 is rather risky (with any new car). What if your delivery is delayed? What if you find a small issue with the car that the SC will need to fix? Besides, if this is your first Tesla, you may need some time to learn the controls and get used to the car. Personally, I would take a week just to familiarize myself with the car, it’s charging, etc.

Also, I don’t know if you are planing on doing any paint protection, but if so, it’s better to do it right away, before taking any trips.

If there are any issues with delivery, I'll take a different car, that's no problem. I'm not worried about getting used to the car, just mainly wanted to ensure I'd have no charging snags. Being able to test a Chargepoint and a Supercharger on the day of my trip should be enough though.
Thanks for the tip, but I'm not planning on going the PPF route.

@Reid
If PlugShare doesn't have any other 240 V charging options at your destination, other backup options for charging would be to use a 120 V outlet (ask first) and stay an extra day or so, or find a campground with 14-50 outlets. Ask the campground if they have "50-Amp service" available on the day you need it, and how much they charge. This can vary anywhere from "EV charging is not allowed" to the full daily camping rate, to $10 to Free.

Ah yes, the destination charging site also has a couple of Clipper Creek J1772, that would make a good backup.

Thanks, all!

 

[SpiceWare]

Ah yes, the destination charging site also has a couple of Clipper Creek J1772, that would make a good backup.

I saw a suggestion somewhere (maybe a YouTube video) about putting a distinctive label/sticker on the 1772 adapter to make it less likely you'll accidentally leave it behind.

 

[Rocky_H]

I basically concur with @TexasEV that Supercharging wouldn't be one of my concerns--haven't heard of any problems with it in new cars specifically. But I just don't feel comfortable recommending taking a trip in the first week. If there's some problem that's going to shake out, it will show up early, and I've seen a few reports of some kind of random electronics thing with a sensor failure or something that throws a bunch of errors and causes problems.

 

[dbemis]

I saw a suggestion somewhere (maybe a YouTube video) about putting a distinctive label/sticker on the 1772 adapter to make it less likely you'll accidentally leave it behind.

That's a good tip!

 

[Boourns]

I think a couple of the very early VINs had a problem supercharging that necessitated hardware replacement -- the charge port was slightly misshapen. But I haven't heard about that in a long time.

Go. You'll be fine.

 

[Reid]

In the end, it got delayed by a week so I drove my Golf up to the mountains, I think it's a lot more fun in the twisties anyway

Picked up our 3 today, very happy with it!

 

[seyclone]

The only issue here is whether your on-line account was properly set up. Your car can be charged by a super charger. It was charged at the factory and at the Service or delivery center.
When I took delivery my first stop was a supercharger 4 miles from home. I plugged in. All the proper lights and indicators came on, I sucked up $3.48 worth of go-juice, I left.
As an aside, it almost didn't pay to install my L2 charger at home. The Supercharger is so much faster and costs about the same.

 

[TexasEV]

As an aside, it almost didn't pay to install my L2 charger at home. The Supercharger is so much faster and costs about the same.

Isn’t your time worth anything? There’s nothing like plugging in overnight and waking up to a full charge (90%) each morning.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Picked up my X at the factory and immediately began driving back to my home In San Diego. Had some anxiety about the Supercharger system, so stopped at the first one on the way to check it out. Worked perfectly and my confidence level shot way up!

Rest of the the trip was uneventful and I began my love affair with Tesla.

 

[seyclone]

Isn’t your time worth anything? There’s nothing like plugging in overnight and waking up to a full charge (90%) each morning.

Being retired, my time is enjoyable wherever I am. There's a brand new supermarket in the same complex as the chargers. I have about 8 or 9 books on my Iphone. SO, if I don't have some project or some other way to get into trouble at home, the car is very comfortable, and we're talking about spending ~45 minutes getting a full charge. I will charge at home the majority of the time because the L2 charger puts less strain on the batteries. Also get to meet some interesting people.