SuperCharge every day?

[spentan]

spentan, 15-20 min walk each way would mean 30-40 min just to go back and forth not including the time spent at the gym. Parking your S at the Supercharger for an hour or more when it's most likely going to be done charging long before you get back wouldn't be cool IMO. SJC is going to be a busy supercharger site, so, please be considerate.

Of course.

I still haven't even got to the US yet let alone get a tesla, will see how it goes.

 

[scaesare]

Another comment from that same thread:

Over the holidays I was driving from Los Altos to Truckee - which I cannot do non-stop - and pulled into the Vacaville Supercharger. It was nearly packed (one bay open) with locals. I was only able to get 30kW until someone left.

I have trouble understanding why these people bother. With a PG&E E-9 rate they can charge at home off-peak for $0.04/kWh. A full 85kWh charge will cost them $3.40 and they can enjoy the comfort of their home while they charge. They really must value their time at a very low rate if they are willing to spend an hour or more to save $3.40.

 

[digitaltim]

To me location is the key...

The superchargers need to be in between real destinations - not destinations themselves.

Travel rest stops in between major cities seem to be the best. The local commuter will not waste their time and the real long distance commuter/road tripper will find an empty bay.

This has been my experience leveraging the DE stop when commuting weekly between Baltimore and NY/NJ for the last year. The four bays have only been filled once and 9 times out of 10 I am the only one there.

 

[scaesare]

To me location is the key...

The superchargers need to be in between real destinations - not destinations themselves.

Travel rest stops in between major cities seem to be the best. The local commuter will not waste their time and the real long distance commuter/road tripper will find an empty bay.

This has been my experience leveraging the DE stop when commuting weekly between Baltimore and NY/NJ for the last year. The four bays have only been filled once and 9 times out of 10 I am the only one there.

Tesla has indeed stated that the supercharger placement on major routes between cities is to enable long-distance travel, and not to replace "destination charging"... so I agree with you on that.

Unfortunately, with the number of people who commute significant distances in to major urban centers, once there are 100K+ Tesla's on the road, it will only take a small percentage of Tesla owners to saturate the supercharges during the several hours at common commute times if they decide to "commute supercharge" rather than charge at home.

Incidentally, I've seen the same at the Newark DE, station. I've used it half a dozen times, and only once were there more than 2 of us there...

 

[Kraken]

Another comment from that same thread:

About that comment..... There are only 2 or 3 locals... Unless you include the whole Bay Area and sacramento area as local..., so that is by far a false statement.


I am one of those locals, and it wasnt me.

 

[EdA]

I had an interesting experience over the weekend - took a roadtrip from Boston to Philly (and back).
Due to the cold temperatures (12F) I went stopped at the Milford, CT supercharger for a 5 or 10 minute charge
before hitting the Darien, CT charger [I preferred to drive "at speed"] where there was another guy charging. He left
and different Model S showed up. We were on separate "pairs". At some point a "local" showed up for about 10
minutes or less and was gone.

If this is the charging profile of the "locals" this isn't too bad IMO. Of course I've never seen a backup at a SC.

 

[scaesare]

Certainly lots of folks are of the opinion that the wording on Tesla's web page does not prohibit using supercharging specifically to avoid having to pay your own electrical costs. And technically they are right. That's the letter of the law.

But I don't think it's the spirit of the law. Just because something is not prohibited does not mean the usage aligns with the intent of the provider. Tesla has always discussed supercharging as removing the obstacle to "long distance travel" and take a "road trip" (Elon's words), where you don't have alternative typical destination-style charging available. Note the description on Tesla's web site regarding supercharging on the Model S page:



Now, folks may want to make the argument that a long commute is a road trip. I tend to disagree if you could reasonably arrange for facilities to charge on a regular/daily basis. If you can do that, and instead are using superchargers just to avoid paying electrical costs even if it's several hundred dollars, (after all, cost of commute is part of considering a job), then my opinion is that you using the system in a way that Tesla was not really intending.

As an example: hotels provide free ice for guests. In several situations I'm aware of where our large organization was arranging for a convention, it became obvious that some guests were using the ice machines to fill their coolers for the activity the next day. It only took a small percentage of folks abusing that resource to cause problems for the vast majority of the rest of the folks.

Was that usage expressly prohibited? No. Was it a problem to do as it wasn't in line with what was intended? Yes.

And therein lies the rub: The usage of superchargers other than for what's intended will not scale well.

Most people probably take road trips every few months on average. If it's every 50 days on average, Tesla needs to accommodate 2% of Model S users concurrently, spread out over the common travel hours of a given day. If instead just 5% of folks supercharge every day, and likely during commute hours, then the load at those times could easy be 10x what Tesla has planned for. If you keep biting the hand that feeds you, sooner or later you are going to regret it.

So, I'm under no delusions that people will go to whatever means to save a buck, but I think it's unfortunate. And although it has to do with HPWC charging at a Tesla Gallery location no longer being offered, I find one of the factors leading to that decision telling, according to Lump: "I was told some locals were abusing the privledge & leaving their cars there all day long so they were forced to close it off to all".

I fear similar will happen with supercharging over time if folks abuse the system.

[Zombie thread resurrection alert]

Interestingly, folks have noticed some change in wording on the Supercharger page in a related thread that might add some support to the point I was trying to make year some time ago:

MY CAR WON'T CHARGE FASTER THAN 60KW THREAD

 

[paco3791]

That's a more interesting thread than it appears on the surface. Thanks for linking!

 

[scaesare]

That's a more interesting thread than it appears on the surface. Thanks for linking!

Sure.

I certainly hope the 60KW thing is just an anomaly...

 

[island]

I had an interesting experience over the weekend - took a roadtrip from Boston to Philly (and back).
Due to the cold temperatures (12F) I went stopped at the Milford, CT supercharger for a 5 or 10 minute charge
before hitting the Darien, CT charger [I preferred to drive "at speed"] where there was another guy charging. He left
and different Model S showed up. We were on separate "pairs". At some point a "local" showed up for about 10
minutes or less and was gone.

If this is the charging profile of the "locals" this isn't too bad IMO. Of course I've never seen a backup at a SC.

Probably was me as I'm about 5 minutes away from both Darien Supercharger locations - 4 stalls at each. Every few days I stop to charge and I see other Teslas every so often, but never more than one other charging at a time. I always stay in the car to work while I wait. Haven't charged at home yet.

 

[bonaire]

Bump to see if anyone wants to extend the thread with discussion given the new pricing structure of SuperCharging.

Any current commuters installing HPWC or L2 at home or as an owner with continued "supercharger-for-life", making any changes at all? I'm interested to hear if any existing owners making any changes. Seems to me that CPO and private resale values may be going up a little bit.