Supercharger - Carlsbad, CA (7710 El Camino Real, LIVE 27 Sep 2018, 26 urban stalls)

[JohnnyLounge21]

Thanks for all the thoughts and responses on my rant. There is no doubt that this will be an awesome supercharger added to the network. I actually went by today and can tell that once everything is 100% in place - it's going to be beautiful.

And I indeed realize that supercharger bays/power companies/transformers are not plug & play. My logic is that a pile of money (what I called 'resources' earlier) are. Isn't money the only thing that's limiting the much-needed HUGE SCALE increase in capacity in San Diego County?

All evidence points to this supercharger getting creamed from the day it opens and it will only get worse from there. I'm super excited that something may FINALLY let pressure off Qualcomm - but I just don't think this station will be enough to do that.

There are dozens of cheap 1/2 acre lots (way off interstate) in San Diego county where Tesla could build a 50, 75, 100-bay supercharger. Fill it with cheaper urban chargers! Encourage locals only! Heck - gently chastise road trippers for using it the way that some do locals for using all the rest of the superchargers. I just want my corner of the world to have moderately reliable charging options for Tesla owning road trippers. That's not going to happen anytime soon.

Dare to dream. . .

 

[Point 3]

Nice to be selling so many more cars now but you have to be able service them all and charge them too.

 

[ecarfan]

I’d like to make a plea to only discuss info about this location in this thread...

As would your moderator.

I don’t want to have to pull out a lot of off topic posts that are intertwined with the discussion of this Supercharger location and confuse everyone. Please stay on topic.

And for those who want to complain — over and over again — about “locals” charging at Superchargers, please do that here
For discussing the issue of locals charging at California Superchargers

If you don’t, I will have to move posts. Thank you.

 

[2y3m5d]

Soooo close. Enter uphill from south. I love that there are pull-in (as opposed to back in) stalls: six of those on the west side. Twelve back-in stalls on the east side. Traditional parking as well with lot that will never see much parking, so plenty of room to turn around and/or to actually pass charging cars to queue up from that (north) side.

 

[2y3m5d]

Sorry, my post inserted itself on page 25 instead of 27. Ugh.

To sum up: very close! Six pull-in stalls and twelve back-in stalls on upper level. Two stalls down below. Plenty of non-charging parking to north (not re-paved) where we can turn around or choose to queue from that direction.

 

[Point 3]

View attachment 334312 View attachment 334313 Sorry, my post inserted itself on page 25 instead of 27. Ugh.

To sum up: very close! Six pull-in stalls and twelve back-in stalls on upper level. Two stalls down below. Plenty of non-charging parking to north (not re-paved) where we can turn around or choose to queue from that direction.

Thanks for the pics and nice meeting you there today.

 

[SDSillyCyclist]

View attachment 334312 View attachment 334313 Sorry, my post inserted itself on page 25 instead of 27. Ugh.

To sum up: very close! Six pull-in stalls and twelve back-in stalls on upper level. Two stalls down below. Plenty of non-charging parking to north (not re-paved) where we can turn around or choose to queue from that direction.

Good point about where to line up... I don't think that people will want to have to drive past the stalls to the north side to line up. I can also picture that if there are more than 3-4 cars waiting, it can extend past the driveway to the upper lot and into the alley, and causing traffic flow issues, especially for cars entering from the north and wanting to queue up... Below are some images from Google before the construction started. I haven't been past there lately, are the images still accurate?

 

[Cosmacelf]

@RandyS do you know if the site has gotten sign off yet or whether Sdge has been given the go ahead?

Some more pics from today showing all the upper lot slots. Also, lots of overflow parking spaces left.

 

[gaswalla]

Hasn't even opener yet, and plans to manage overflow lines are being made. Knowing my local friends, maybe Tesla should hire a valet from day one

 

[bstr]

Hasn't even opener yet, and plans to manage overflow lines are being made. Knowing my local friends, maybe Tesla should hire a valet from day one

I was thinking at times when there is a wait, the valet could honor the priority queuing which would be as follows where residents of the following communities rank in order:

1. La Costa - because they live the closest so it's like 'theirs' to begin with
2. Aviara - don't care that it's nicer there, still not your charger
3. Rest of Carlsbad - it's a Carlsbad charger after all (<-me, btw)
4. Leucadia - it's not like you have to go to work, spend the day here
5. Leucadia renters -
6. Encinitas to Chula Vista- maybe try Qualcomm?
7. Oceanside - did you check San Clemente?
8. Elsewhere - it might be a while, pal.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Still no final sign off. Waiting for the contractor to, like, actually finish.

I'm always annoyed at projects like these. The contractors just don't care about doing things quickly, and Tesla doesn't seem to hold them to any time frame. Management has never been Tesla's strong suit.

 

[SDRick]

Has the transformer been installed yet?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Has the transformer been installed yet?

No. SDG&E hasn't even been called to do so yet since the contractor hasn't received final signoff from the city inspector. The contractor is doing what most contractors do, let the project sit idle for weeks until they get around to the do the final 1% of the work. Annoying. Also annoying that Tesla lets them get away with it.

 

[4SUPER9]

No. SDG&E hasn't even been called to do so yet since the contractor hasn't received final signoff from the city inspector. The contractor is doing what most contractors do, let the project sit idle for weeks until they get around to the do the final 1% of the work. Annoying. Also annoying that Tesla lets them get away with it.

While what you say is often true, and may be so in this case, we do not know what the actual hold up is. Perhaps the contractor is waiting on someone else, or a back-ordered part. Besides the transformer, what else must be completed prior to calling the city inspector?

 

[Teriyaki88]

Most contractor's i deal with wants to do the job quickly and get paid quickly so they can move on to other jobs. If i was to make a wild guess the delay would be on the governmental side. Can't wait for this to come alive!

While what you say is often true, and may be so in this case, we do not know what the actual hold up is. Perhaps the contractor is waiting on someone else, or a back-ordered part. Besides the transformer, what else must be completed prior to calling the city inspector?

 

[X-drvr]

Yep. I will never get over the irony of the people in SoCal that can afford Tesla's yet are too cheap to pay for charging at home. And even at SDG&E rates for home power, the argument of "sitting at a supercharger to charge your car locally is not worth your time expended" is valid.


EDIT - just had this thought. We KNOW that long-term supercharging is not good for battery longevity. I wonder if these people are saving enough to pay for the reduced battery longevity (assuming of course they keep the car beyond the battery warranty period).

Who are YOU to say what my time is worth? This post needs to be moved to locals using superchargers

 

[Cosmacelf]

Most contractor's i deal with wants to do the job quickly and get paid quickly so they can move on to other jobs. If i was to make a wild guess the delay would be on the governmental side. Can't wait for this to come alive!

Inspections are pretty straight forward. You call in the morning and they come the next day. Not sure how Carlsbad could be holding this site up, other than pointing out issues that need to be resolved. I noticed that there was some extra conduit and misc. parts still lying around the Supercharger cabinets yesterday. Not sure why they haven't cleaned that up yet...

 

[Cosmacelf]

While what you say is often true, and may be so in this case, we do not know what the actual hold up is. Perhaps the contractor is waiting on someone else, or a back-ordered part. Besides the transformer, what else must be completed prior to calling the city inspector?

The transformer install happens AFTER the city inspector is called and the inspector signs off on the site. As far as I can see, it doesn't look like anything else needs to happen. Maybe the landscaping needs to be done before final inspection? There are still a couple of trees that need to be planted.

 

[bmah]

The transformer install happens AFTER the city inspector is called and the inspector signs off on the site. As far as I can see, it doesn't look like anything else needs to happen. Maybe the landscaping needs to be done before final inspection? There are still a couple of trees that need to be planted.

So no inspections would need to be done after the transformer install?

Bruce.

 

[GoBlue88]

Looks beautiful! And as someone who lives in La Costa about a mile east of this location, I can honestly tell you that I will never use this SpC (except, maybe once, for 5 minutes, to try and beat everybody to be the first person to charge there - HA!). However, I've lived here for 15 years, and that mall has always been a dump in that time, so I am excited to see it finally getting rebuilt with hopefully some high-quality shopping and restaurant options along with the SpC.