Supercharger experiences

[M3BlueGeorgia]

I've tried the search function to no avail. Does anyone recall seeing recent discussion threads regarding owner experiences at superchargers? I am interested in how much additional time I need to factor in planning road trips. Also, what kinds of problems are people experiencing at superchargers?

If you are driving with someone, have them use the onscreen map or Google Maps to display the places near the Supercharger and then plan on bathroom and/or food before you arrive.

If by yourself, plan ahead when not driving, for example while charging.

Because of COVID-19, some places are closed or on restricted hours, which can catch you out if you don't investigate.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Let's face people bathrooms every charger I was at there were no problem with that stuff and there shouldn't be. These are not run down gas stations or truck stops if you can't find a bathroom that's your problem a am a trucker and never have those issues.

Did you type that while driving a truck?

 

[Nickage87]

I've tried the search function to no avail. Does anyone recall seeing recent discussion threads regarding owner experiences at superchargers? I am interested in how much additional time I need to factor in planning road trips. Also, what kinds of problems are people experiencing at superchargers?

From my experience for every 5 hours of driving add 2 additional hours for charging.

 

[israndy]

I agree with the tips above, don't park at the same numbered v2 Supercharger, get food before charging so you don't have to walk so far, plan restroom breaks (in the city I like Toilet Finder on iOS, or Rest Stops Plus on the highway), but in this era of No Public Restroom signs it's smart to keep your coffee container from breakfast in case there are no trees nearby.

I have found ABetterRoutePlanner useful for finding NON-Tesla chargers, I am a CHAdeMO adapter owner. I will make my plans for the trip in advance of going but then when I am actually en route I will just have the TeslaNav take me to the next destination. I don't like using ABRP in the car. It seems to work best on my laptop at home. The only advantage of having it in the car is I can reference the planned waypoints. I will use PlugShare while I am on the route as I sometimes discover chargers I wouldn't have noticed at home. Los Angeles is crawling with free chargers. Although many are closed with Covid (I'm looking at you LA Zoo).

One thing I have been doing is put each of my destinations for the day in the Tesla on-screen Nav, that way they are in my Recents. Typically I will plug into the charger and then update my Nav so it will show me how long I need to charge to get to this destination. In the summer I leave when I will have 7% charge remaining at the destination, in the winter I have been trying 20%, but I got screwed on this most recent trip, perhaps that was the storm blowing in. Fortunately, there was another Supercharger along the way I could stop at.

 

[jjrandorin]

From my experience for every 5 hours of driving add 2 additional hours for charging.

That contradicts a couple other posters above who said they stop every 2 to 2.5 hours for about 20 minutes (so 40 minutes per 5 hours, not 2 hours per 5 hours.

The only way it could take that long is if someone tried to drive 5 hours, then charge to full.

 

[zannman]

Sorry but 24x7 bathrooms are an issue in the age of COVID. If you choose to travel overnight, things get sparse between 10pm-6am. Many of the 24 hour locations are not open all the time any longer. My last trip this included two stops in Meijer parking lots.

 

[dmurphy]

That contradicts a couple other posters above who said they stop every 2 to 2.5 hours for about 20 minutes (so 40 minutes per 5 hours, not 2 hours per 5 hours.

The only way it could take that long is if someone tried to drive 5 hours, then charge to full.

Right — one of the many reasons I suggest new owners find their local Tesla Owners’ Club. Ours at least does a New Owner Bootcamp full of tips and tricks like this — optimal ways to charge, maintenance, software tricks etc. All kinds of great info!

 

[Nickage87]

That contradicts a couple other posters above who said they stop every 2 to 2.5 hours for about 20 minutes (so 40 minutes per 5 hours, not 2 hours per 5 hours.

The only way it could take that long is if someone tried to drive 5 hours, then charge to full.

20 minute will add about 100-120 miles. Which teanslates to 60-70 real world miles. They probably keep tesla stocks this is why 40 minutes became 20 for them.

Also I compare time to travel on ICE car vs tesla. Its not just charging time, but time to get to charger. Also tesla navigation routes via slower roads as it needs to route via superchargers, while ICE routes via highways and those are much faster routes.

 

[jjrandorin]

20 minute will add about 100-120 miles. Which teanslates to 60-70 real world miles. They probably keep tesla stocks this is why 40 minutes became 20 for them.

Also I compare time to travel on ICE car vs tesla. Its not just charging time, but time to get to charger. Also tesla navigation routes via slower roads as it needs to route via superchargers, while ICE routes via highways and those are much faster routes.

I had a bunch of stuff typed here that I decided I didnt want to get into a debate over, but lets just say a couple things here.

1. I dont own any tesla stock at all, so that doesnt apply to me
2. There is a pretty large difference between "120 minutes spent every 5 hours" and "80 minutes spent every 5 hours" which you just casually chopped this down to when I asked the question.

 

[Nickage87]

I had a bunch of stuff typed here that I decided I didnt want to get into a debate over, but lets just say a couple things here.

1. I dont own any tesla stock at all, so that doesnt apply to me
2. There is a pretty large difference between "120 minutes spent every 5 hours" and "80 minutes spent every 5 hours" which you just casually chopped this down to when I asked the question.

80 minutes is charging alone. You get off the road you were riding on, you take slower roads to get to the charger. Tesla routes based on maximum driving distance, it will take a road in the middle in nowhere instead of direct highway to the destination. While you are driving at 30mph local road, ICE car drives 80-90mph highway.

 

[dmurphy]

80 minutes is charging alone. You get off the road you were riding on, you take slower roads to get to the charger. Tesla routes based on maximum driving distance, it will take a road in the middle in nowhere instead of direct highway to the destination. While you are driving at 30mph local road, ICE car drives 80-90mph highway.

OK.

 

[jjrandorin]

80 minutes is charging alone. You get off the road you were riding on, you take slower roads to get to the charger. Tesla routes based on maximum driving distance, it will take a road in the middle in nowhere instead of direct highway to the destination. While you are driving at 30mph local road, ICE car drives 80-90mph highway.

your experience doesnt mirror my own, nor those of the other two posters who mentioned it, but sure, I guess thats how it works for you.

 

[holmgang]

20 minute will add about 100-120 miles. Which teanslates to 60-70 real world miles. They probably keep tesla stocks this is why 40 minutes became 20 for them.

Also I compare time to travel on ICE car vs tesla. Its not just charging time, but time to get to charger. Also tesla navigation routes via slower roads as it needs to route via superchargers, while ICE routes via highways and those are much faster routes.

Almost every charger I've been too is a single turn off the highway. That's the entire purpose of their construction - to facilitate highway high speed driving. (Except the ones around Prague).

Typical arrival at SC are 20%, where car charges around 120kW, which at 20 minutes and SC efficiency pumps around 35kWh or half capacity into the car. Which is about 120 "real world miles". In other words, twice your estimate.

You should probably triple check yer fax

 

[dmurphy]

Typical arrival at SC are 20%, where car charges around 120kW, which at 20 minutes and SC efficiency pumps around 35kWh or half capacity into the car. Which is about 120 "real world miles". In other words, twice your estimate.

And with more 250kW chargers coming online all the time, this story gets even better. Not quite double but still turns that 20 minutes stop into 10-15. Enough for a bio break, grabbing a drink and off we go.

Really, in that 7000 mile road trip, we never found ourselves waiting for the car. We usually took longer to be ready than it did. Absolutely fantastic and we can’t wait to be off Covid house arrest so we can do it again.

 

[KenC]

80 minutes is charging alone. You get off the road you were riding on, you take slower roads to get to the charger. Tesla routes based on maximum driving distance, it will take a road in the middle in nowhere instead of direct highway to the destination. While you are driving at 30mph local road, ICE car drives 80-90mph highway.

Try ABRP. Please tell us one of your routes that requires 2hrs of charging for 5hrs of driving.

 

[run-the-joules]

It’s unquestionably faster to use an ICE, but it’s getting better. It’s about 45 extra minutes to take my car on my several-times-a-year trip between NorCal and SoCal, but with autopilot, the drive itself sucks less so it’s ok.

 

[animorph]

My ABRP plans are usually 20% charge time/80% drive time and they're usually pretty close if we don't delay at any stops. We average 30 min per stop with our older 100D X, per TeslaFi. Long trips might have a couple of relatively long detours (5-10 miles off to on) to reach a Supercharger. And we might not always be taking Google's preferred route, though that has been getting better since we started traveling with the X in early 2017. We travel 7-10 MPH over the speed limit and generally hit a real range of around 90% of rated range in a wide range of temperatures that are above freezing.

It is different than ICE driving. It's kind of like hopping from oasis to oasis. We enjoy the enforced stops, with time to walk around. Between that and AP we're actually still human beings when we arrive after a full day of driving. But if you just can't slow down that much I can see where it could be annoying.

 

[dmurphy]

Between that and AP we're actually still human beings when we arrive after a full day of driving. But if you just can't slow down that much I can see where it could be annoying.

EXACTLY THIS, times 1000! I can’t even explain how good we felt after that 7000 mile trip. I never ever expected that - it wasn’t a drag at all. Quite pleasant surprise.

If you treat the journey as just a chore to get over with as soon as possible, then yeah, I can see the charging stops being an annoyance. But if you can treat it as part of your experience, it’s amazing. Quite literally stopping to smell the roses.... it’s a beautiful country and deserves to be seen that way!

 

[Nickage87]

Try ABRP. Please tell us one of your routes that requires 2hrs of charging for 5hrs of driving.

That's what I use. Phila suburbs to Pittsburgh, ICE

EV

 

[KenC]

That's what I use. Phila suburbs to Pittsburgh, ICE
View attachment 619626
EV
View attachment 619630

So, 5h42m of driving and 1h7m of charging...

But I thought you said:

From my experience for every 5 hours of driving add 2 additional hours for charging.

Is ABRP underestimating how long you need to charge, or are the inputs inaccurate?