Supercharge speed for model X 100D at Cupertino, CA

[xwang]

Hi,

Today is the first time ever tried to use the super charge station in Cupertino, CA. This is a new car delivered early last month.

It only get very low charging speed, very disappointing.

Only charged about 10 minutes and left, since need to pick up the kid.

Has anyone also used the Cupertino super charge station and is this what you expected? 110 miles per hour? It is faster than charging at home, which is about 21 miles per hour. But if I am on long distance trip, it is going to be a problem.

I just wonder if this is specific to this super charge station, since it is just opened recently.

 

[DOCAL]

You can do searches for info on paired stalls, but briefly put you'll see 1A 1B, 2A 2B etc 1A and 1B share power.
Ideally you want to look for a pair where neither A nor B are in use, so you're guaranteed full power. However that's not always possible, especially around the bay area.

First person to arrive at a pair gets full power, second person gets whatever is left over. So if 1A is a car with a very low battery, you won't get much power from 1B. However once 1A has charged enough that they can't pull full power anymore, then there will be more left over.

 

[Yggdrasill]

I'd expect to get around 110-115 kW with that much on the battery. I would think you probably shared a charger with another car.

 

[xwang]

Thanks! I was worried something is wrong with the car.

 

[Dirk]

Cupertino is a very busy station so you were highly likely sharing one transformer with another car. As previously mentioned, check if you have a full pair to yourself.

This mainly is a problem in the Bay Area where there are so many Teslas. For long distance trips, it has never been a problem for me. Most of the superchargers you will use outside of the larger Bay Area will be less than half full so you'll get full power and you will charge (depending on your own battery level) up to the advertised 120 kW or 300+ miles/hour.

The problem in the Bay Area is that (too) many owners who have no problem charging at home, still use the local superchargers because they're "free". It's kind of ironic that people that have $100K to buy a car will sit in their car for an hour to save less than $10! That's not even minimum wage.

I think the solution to this is for Tesla to change the rules and charge everybody, even those with "free" supercharging, when within XX miles of their house. The original purpose of the superchargers is to make long-distance travel possible. It was not to give people free charging for their daily commute. By making it more expensive than charging at home, the problem will largely go away. I understand that over time, the number of people that cannot charge at home (condos, apartments) will go up but at least it will give Tesla time to keep installing more SCs.

 

[Rocky_H]

There has been a pendulum swing in the Supercharger network over the years. For those people in the middle of the country around 2014, 2015 or so, there were so many empty spaces and unconnected routes it was very irritating to hear about yet another 2 or 3 Superchargers being built in California and see discussions about: "I'm driving to there, should I use this Supercharger or that one?" Meanwhile we were screaming about not having ANY! Now, they have done very well connecting the middle of the country, and there are plenty of empty stalls and fast charging speeds, but now the Californians are facing these problems with crowding and not enough capacity because of too many cars.

 

[chillaban]

Agreed with others. On my 100D (model S), I usually see 80-110kW when supercharging on roadtrips (300-400mi/hr) but at Cupertino the once I tried, I only got around 50kW. I wasn't at a paired stall but I was at the last remaining unpaired stall.

I think most likely the transformer servicing this supercharger isn't actually equipped to support full speed charging at every stall. If the station is moderately busy, then you're going to see somewhat reduced rates.

 

[David99]

There has been a pendulum swing in the Supercharger network over the years. For those people in the middle of the country around 2014, 2015 or so, there were so many empty spaces and unconnected routes it was very irritating to hear about yet another 2 or 3 Superchargers being built in California and see discussions about: "I'm driving to there, should I use this Supercharger or that one?" Meanwhile we were screaming about not having ANY! Now, they have done very well connecting the middle of the country, and there are plenty of empty stalls and fast charging speeds, but now the Californians are facing these problems with crowding and not enough capacity because of too many cars.

I remember those days. I almost felt bad being in California LOL
The pairing thing is really an annoying thing to me. Especially now with the newer batteries that keep a high charge rate for a longer time you really get screwed if you happen to be on the other paired stall. It can easily double your charge time. Arriving at a busy 16 stall location or one with stalls on both sides, it is difficult to find an unpaired one especially since the configuration is different for each location.

 

[Rocky_H]

The pairing thing is really an annoying thing to me. Especially now with the newer batteries that keep a high charge rate for a longer time you really get screwed if you happen to be on the other paired stall.

Then you may love/hate this story. On my 5,000+ mile trip in February, I hit 28 different Supercharger sites, and I got a reduced charge rate from pairing for the first time ever in four years in Silverthorne, Colorado!