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Supercharger - Clare, MI
- Thread starter Big Earl
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- clare michigan supercharger
No. If there was any alert, I would have stopped in Lansing or selected another route.
I arrived in Clare with 15% so it was not like I was pushing the limit.
Also, drove to consumer energy and it was locked up like fort know with no one around, most likely because it is Sunday.
We ended up at Soaring Eagle Casino (20 miles south of Clare), they have 1 destination charger. The Valet's need to let you in the garage to use, they were very nice and helpful.
The trip plan estimated our stop in Clare at 20 minutes. Since it was down it added 4 hrs to our trip. 1st road trip in the Tesla will probably be our last.
Once we made it to Gaylord the Tesla was charging at 140kwh. Went from 0 (yes 0) to 80% in 35 minutes.
I arrived in Clare with 15% so it was not like I was pushing the limit.
Also, drove to consumer energy and it was locked up like fort know with no one around, most likely because it is Sunday.
We ended up at Soaring Eagle Casino (20 miles south of Clare), they have 1 destination charger. The Valet's need to let you in the garage to use, they were very nice and helpful.
The trip plan estimated our stop in Clare at 20 minutes. Since it was down it added 4 hrs to our trip. 1st road trip in the Tesla will probably be our last.
Once we made it to Gaylord the Tesla was charging at 140kwh. Went from 0 (yes 0) to 80% in 35 minutes.
mrau
Authorized Driver
@Mwolfe sorry to hear about the Clare superchargers being down and extending your drive. Not sure if Tesla has a way of instantly updated their SC maps when sites are temporarily down. Hopefully there will be more Level 2 chargers popping up at businesses with the new rebate program by Consumers Energy. Also, the PlugShare app does not show that the Consumers Energy site in Clare is fenced in and has limited hours. The other day I stopped at the Consumers Energy site in West Branch that is right off I-75. They have two chargers on each side of their building and they are not fenced in. I just assumed all the Consumers Energy sites would have 24/7 access.
Thanks for the updates and hope the rest of your trip has more adventure and less stress.
Thanks for the updates and hope the rest of your trip has more adventure and less stress.
The charging stations at the Consumers Energy location in Clare are located outside of the fence unless something has changed recently. PlugShare and satellite images show the same thing.
The plug share app was a life saver. It located the casino destination charger and it found several J1772 at car dealerships in Mt pleasant, but I did not try the car dealers since it was Sunday. In planning our trip back I looked at the consumers energy profile on plug share. It looks different than the consumers energy I was at. Since the fence was locked up I can't tell as the charger may have been on the other side of the building. For the return trip I will ensure I arrive in Clare with enough range to make it to a supercharger in case it is still down. Part of traveling is the "adventure" it could have been worse.
The biggest disappointment is Tesla service. I have had 2 roadside calls, 2 mobile appointments and 1 service center visit. Only the service center was a positive experience. My first roadside experience was so bad that I purchased a AAA membership. Tesla needs to fix thier service before the Germans start selling a good electric car or they will loose a significant portion of their customer base.
The biggest disappointment is Tesla service. I have had 2 roadside calls, 2 mobile appointments and 1 service center visit. Only the service center was a positive experience. My first roadside experience was so bad that I purchased a AAA membership. Tesla needs to fix thier service before the Germans start selling a good electric car or they will loose a significant portion of their customer base.
This may be the second time this supercharger has gone for someone down since opening in late May. How did you figure out it wasn't working? Did you try multiple chargers?
Thanks big Earl, looks like I was one street short of the other entrance. Now I know.
mrau
Authorized Driver
Thanks @Big Earl . That's very similar to how the West Branch location is set up as well. I suppose the charge stations may be easy to miss if you arrived at night and you saw the fence first and just figured it was locked up. Next time I am in Clare I will stop at Consumers Energy and take a look. I'll update the PlugShare app as well if needed.
edit: just saw @Mwolfe response. Makes sense now why he thought it was fenced in. Good to know they are still 24/7 access.
edit: just saw @Mwolfe response. Makes sense now why he thought it was fenced in. Good to know they are still 24/7 access.
Mrau- There are 8 stalls in Clare 4a&b. When we arrived there was a ‘15 model s. Spoke with the owner, they were not charging and they left. There was a model 3 in one spot, did not speak with them. Tried all 7 open spots. All indicated external hardware issue (should have taken a picture of the error). While on hold with Tesla roadside another model 3 arrived and could not charge. It’s like a breaker tripped or someone shut off the power to all 4 units.
mrau
Authorized Driver
Thanks @Mwolfe. Looks like the outage happened shortly before you got there. Quite possibly luck just wasn't on your side that day. Hopefully that didn't carry over to the casino as well. 
I just entered a route to the Clare SC from the car and it popped up a Temporary Closure notice when you choose it as a destination. So it appears that if Tesla knows it is down, they will let you know as well. Nice.
I just entered a route to the Clare SC from the car and it popped up a Temporary Closure notice when you choose it as a destination. So it appears that if Tesla knows it is down, they will let you know as well. Nice.
BoerumHill
not great not terrible
We were the family in the black 3 that pulled up. We held for total of 48 minutes on two separate calls before finally getting someone who tried telling us they were working. He finally admitted they weren’t communicating so possibly down. We made it to Gaylord w 18 miles and barely made the ferry for a meeting on Mackinac Island.
@Mwolfe @sq.in. did either of you notice if the normally backlit red TESLA letters on the charging pedestals were actually lit up? I'm curious if they just didn't have power at all or whether there might have been some other fault. Though since Mwolfe mentioned the display showing an external hardware error after plugging in, that probably meant that they had some electricity so that they could send the signal to open the charge port door when pressing the button on the connector.
Sorry you had that issue on that charger in Clare. It does seem to be a bit of a pain that one.
Hopefully you don't let this one bad experience sour you on taking road trips in the Tesla though. I've been to over 400 unique ones around the country and I can say my experiences have been very positive. Although....when I got to Clare the first time I was in the area it wasn't working at that time either.
I'm actually in Texas right now on another road trip and all the SC's I've been to have all been working just fine. My only complaint would be the inconsistent application of the AB paring at some locations...but that's a topic for another day.
Anyway...don't lose faith in the SC network. Tesla does have the best one out there. I don't disagree that they need to improve their service though...but thankfully the Chargers usually just work and you don't have to worry about them. This issue seems to be very specific to Clare at this point.
Hopefully you don't let this one bad experience sour you on taking road trips in the Tesla though. I've been to over 400 unique ones around the country and I can say my experiences have been very positive. Although....when I got to Clare the first time I was in the area it wasn't working at that time either.
I'm actually in Texas right now on another road trip and all the SC's I've been to have all been working just fine. My only complaint would be the inconsistent application of the AB paring at some locations...but that's a topic for another day.
Anyway...don't lose faith in the SC network. Tesla does have the best one out there. I don't disagree that they need to improve their service though...but thankfully the Chargers usually just work and you don't have to worry about them. This issue seems to be very specific to Clare at this point.
The GOOD: Charged successfully yesterday at Clare SC with my 2014 MS85 (July 20) en route from Traverse to Detroit/Royal Oak - worked great!
The BAD: At 1:30 a.m, en route back to Traverse - Clare's SC had NO power. With exactly 50 miles range remaining, and 50 miles to the Cadillac SC, and no charge cable with me, I had to drive 35-40 mph for about 35 miles to add sufficient range to make it (Arrived actually with 7 miles left). BUT- DO NOT attempt this EXCEPT late at night, with no traffic.
If Tesla is going to be kind enough to program the nav with stark WARNING prompts that charging is REQUIRED to make it to your destination THEN it would seem to me that Tesla should be able to also warn you LONG BEFORE you attempt to arrive at an SC that is out of service, even temporarily, that YOU SHOULD CHARGE ELSEWHERE. I passed up other SC's only to have to go through this situation which could have been avoided.
Thank you!
The BAD: At 1:30 a.m, en route back to Traverse - Clare's SC had NO power. With exactly 50 miles range remaining, and 50 miles to the Cadillac SC, and no charge cable with me, I had to drive 35-40 mph for about 35 miles to add sufficient range to make it (Arrived actually with 7 miles left). BUT- DO NOT attempt this EXCEPT late at night, with no traffic.
If Tesla is going to be kind enough to program the nav with stark WARNING prompts that charging is REQUIRED to make it to your destination THEN it would seem to me that Tesla should be able to also warn you LONG BEFORE you attempt to arrive at an SC that is out of service, even temporarily, that YOU SHOULD CHARGE ELSEWHERE. I passed up other SC's only to have to go through this situation which could have been avoided.
Thank you!
mrau
Authorized Driver
Thanks for posting and glad you made it @madox008 .
Tesla does indicate on the car map if a SC is temporarily out of service. Not sure of the delay time from when it is actually out to when Tesla knows about it. Should this happen again in Clare, there is a free Level 2 charger about 2 miles north at the Consumers Energy office. That would have given you some extra cushion.
I wonder why it was not working. Lots of storms yesterday so it could have been a power outage in the area.
Tesla does indicate on the car map if a SC is temporarily out of service. Not sure of the delay time from when it is actually out to when Tesla knows about it. Should this happen again in Clare, there is a free Level 2 charger about 2 miles north at the Consumers Energy office. That would have given you some extra cushion.
I wonder why it was not working. Lots of storms yesterday so it could have been a power outage in the area.
It happens sometimes. Arlington, VA is in this same state of partial operation.
They’re advertising jobs for Supercharger techs if you know anyone who’s interested.
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