Supercharger - Barstow (EXPANDED, 5 stalls added, now 16 total)

[Jay MX]

If anyone is on this route today and has any insight as to volume at Barstow I would greatly appreciate it. I'm leaving Vegas at 3 p.m. headed to LA on my first MX road trip. I'm a bit nervous, but have other options in mind.

Anyone who travels this route frequently -- I have a MX 90D. If I charge up fully in Primm, I know I can make it to Rancho C. but can I realistically make it all the way into West Hollywood?

 

[freeewilly]

The problem is, there's no easy way to show if people are waiting. I guess they could do some sort of check of the cars in proximity to the charger and if they see more than are charging they could assume there is a wait.

And what would happen with a scenario like monday where one of the chargers wasn't working. It would look like there was a spot open when really there wasn't.

It's not that hard. Tesla has live data on every single supercharger, a simple software program can determent the usage of each supercharging station. They can display Red/Yellow/Green lights on the map.

For example:
Heavy usage: 9 out of 10 stations are constant been used
Normal usage: half of the chargers are been used
Light usage: only a few are been used

 

[David99]

... but honestly they have not been pro-active with Barstow and they have only themselves to blame for the damage these issues are doing to their brand. It is a choke point on one of the busiest road trip routes that exist. They had 8 stalls 2 years ago. And in that time they've at least doubled the number of cars on the road. Yes they added Primm and Rancho, but most people still have to stop at barstow - and people shouldn't have to hog spots at Primm charging to 100% (very inefficient time-wise) just so they can make it to rancho.

Do they realize that once they deliver those 500k+ model 3's, they're probably going to need 30+ stalls at Barstow?

Exactly this! Adding more stalls or even another station. As this discussion shows and the one about the 'express Supercharger', there are many things Tesla could have done to help. A valet service, notifications in the car, adding temporary chargers, have a person at Rancho and Primm Supercharger inform about the bottleneck at Barstow and suggest to charge fully and skip it. There are many things that Tesla could have done.

 

[David99]

Anyone who travels this route frequently -- I have a MX 90D. If I charge up fully in Primm, I know I can make it to Rancho C. but can I realistically make it all the way into West Hollywood?

Most probably not unless you drive pretty slow. There is no risk trying, though. Drive as you like, then when you get close to Rancho you can see if you have enough to make it home or not and then just stop and charge for 10 min there.

 

[jboy08]

I was bored out of my mind and was posting about my trip earlier, but my S90D with a full charge @ Primm got to Rancho with only 16 miles left. When I said I was driving aggressively, I was going 84 mph uphill/straightaways and about 80 downhill.

What saved me the most was after Hesperia where I coasted downhill around 70 mph.

 

[AZbba]

Any reports from today?

 

[4SUPER9]

Any reports from today?

Or from today? Interesting that their was such a massive queue last Monday, and no reports from this Monday after the NYE weekend.

 

[spentan]

Am driving up tomorrow for CES. I have my laptop and iPad for some HBO Go (Just getting into Westworld) just in case

 

[David99]

I drove through there today. Both Primm and Barstow were not busy at all. Primm had one car leaving as I came at 7 pm and Barstow was half full but was almost empty when I left despite that there was LOTs of traffic going back from Vegas to LA.

 

[spentan]

When I arrived, 4 status occupied. When I left there were two cars waiting. All were Ses, mine was the only X

 

[AEdennis]

Just arrived Vegas... There were two when I arrived, and a fourth joined soon after (that was close to 11am this morning)

 

[4SUPER9]

Unless I am planning a very long distance trip, I would never take my Tesla on these short local trips if there is a chance that I have to wait to start charging. Not only does that add time in of itself, the rate of charge would be reduced. I can typically make the Vegas to LA run in under 4.5 hours. Adding another 90 minutes plus is not worth it.

 

[S-dog]

I have it on good authority that Barstow enlargement/bulletproofing is being super-expedited. Orders from the top!

 

[gauss256]

Arrived about 3pm today. There are now 10 cars in line. It took 20 minutes for the first car to leave and open up a spot after I got here.

 

[RubberToe]

I have it on good authority that Barstow enlargement/bulletproofing is being super-expedited. Orders from the top!

Can't be, Trump isn't sworn in till the 20th...

RT

 

[Owner]

Arrived about 3pm today. There are now 10 cars in line. It took 20 minutes for the first car to leave and open up a spot after I got here.

Wow that's surprising for a Wednesday.

 

[gauss256]

Wow that's surprising for a Wednesday.

Maybe everyone is going to CES, like I am.

 

[PLUS EV]

I was surprised by it too, but CES makes sense. There's obviously a lot of crossover between that crowd and the Tesla crowd.

#MakeBarstowGreatAgain

 

[BrokerDon]

#MakeBarstowGreatAgain

Now THAT'S funny !!!

 

[AEdennis]

At 6:02 pmish, I was # 4 in line...

IMG_20170104_175940 by Dennis Pascual, on Flickr

Took 26 minutes before I plugged in....

There has been at least 1 stall available for a while since I'm in the car while charging.