Supercharger accessibility during busy holidays

[Daedelous]

New M3 owner here. Holidays are coming up and I plan to do some driving to visit family. How busy do the superchargers get? Will it be long waits at every super charger on key travel dates ,or longer?

Do I need to worry at all?

Thanks!

 

[TampaRich]

The answer is, it depends. List out the superchargers you think you might hit and I bet there are members on here with holiday experience at them.

 

[Silicon Desert]

yup agree with Tampa. It just depends..... mainly on where you travel. I travel all over the USA and my delays (small ones) have been in big busy cities. Out on the interstate, I have practically no issues.

 

[pdxrajiv]

Depends. Even on the interstate, you can find bottlenecks.
Corning, CA ; Ritzville, WA; Superion, MT; Beaver, UT immediately come to mind.
Busy cities also pose a problem at times.
You have to plan to handle the unusual/unexpected with grace, factoring in what you know now.

Just like the rest of life!

 

[Daedelous]

Any super charger

The answer is, it depends. List out the superchargers you think you might hit and I bet there are members on here with holiday experience at them.

I knew I forgot something.

Driving will be southeast US, specifically Washington DC - Atlanta route. Mostly I-85 I imagine.

Likely stops may be one or two of:

South Hill, VA (maybe)
Henderson, NC
Charlotte, NC
Greenville, SC

 

[ewoodrick]

It depends on where and when you are going, but yes, some may get busy and probably most all will have the request not to charge beyond 80% showing.

BUT, that doesn't mean doom. I can travel 500 miles and never waste time charging. By planning breaks and meals with charging, you can often make a family trip even shorter than having to stop at gas stations.

 

[theflyer]

Any super charger


I knew I forgot something.

Driving will be southeast US, specifically Washington DC - Atlanta route. Mostly I-85 I imagine.

Likely stops may be one or two of:

South Hill, VA (maybe)
Henderson, NC
Charlotte, NC
Greenville, SC

Well, each new Holiday season is like starting the game over again with 10s of thousands of new owners and many new supercharger locations. If you are traveling on the highest-of-high travel days (e.g., Wednesday before Thanksgiving), I would take a few extra steps/precautions to minimize any hassles.

1. Leave fully charged so you have as much range in the bag as possible.
2. Once you're below about 60%, check how busy each supercharger is as you approach. If it shows less than half occupied, consider stopping for 20 minutes and charging up. The displays showing how many stalls are occupied are notoriously inaccurate but its better than nothing.
3. If you will have charging at your destination, plan to arrive at a low state of charge.

By stopping for 20 minutes before you need to, you buy yourself more range, so if your planned stop further down the road has a wait, you might be able to just bypass it altogether.

South Hill was a very early supercharger and there is nothing there. It is in the parking lot of a bar/restaurant. The parking lot is not lit. You might consider stopping for 10-15 minutes at one of the three big supercharger stops around Richmond and then pushing through to Henderson, NC, which just opened in June and is at a Sheetz. If you have an LR Model 3, you should be able to make Henderson directly from DC.