Supercharger - Leesburg, VA

[T3slaOwner]

I've always gotten a person when I've called. Sometimes it takes a while on hold, but someone always answers. Live support hasn't disappeared.

With Tesla you can't count on things staying the same for very long. The only thing about Tesla that is consistent is change.

 

[T3slaOwner]

My bad, then, excellent. Good to know we can still get live support. Thanks for verifying!

I do know some hours the only one that works is Roadside, since I believe the others are 9-5 or something close in Pacific Time, but that's to be expected. Back when they had longer hours also.

I don't agree. Roadside is when you need someone to come to you... i.e. you are broken down. Charging issues should also be available 24/7 since it may result in you being stuck somewhere.

 

[tpalino]

Because I didn't see a followup here, it looks like 4 is working now. At least 4B, which I'm using.

 

[Vladimer]

Pardon my confusion. Out of curiosity.... Are these super chargers where they charge you for idle time? I have free charging. The Tesla chargers in my work parking lot (at Tysons Mall) are free however long you are there. However, up in Jersey City at the Northport mall, they are superchargers and they bill you for any idle time (over a reasonable amount).

Which are these in The Village?

 

[Big Earl]

Pardon my confusion. Out of curiosity.... Are these super chargers where they charge you for idle time? I have free charging. The Tesla chargers in my work parking lot (at Tysons Mall) are free however long you are there. However, up in Jersey City at the Northport mall, they are superchargers and they bill you for any idle time (over a reasonable amount).

Which are these in The Village?

All Superchargers have idle fees. Destination chargers do not. These are Superchargers.

 

[T3slaOwner]

Pardon my confusion. Out of curiosity.... Are these super chargers where they charge you for idle time? I have free charging. The Tesla chargers in my work parking lot (at Tysons Mall) are free however long you are there. However, up in Jersey City at the Northport mall, they are superchargers and they bill you for any idle time (over a reasonable amount).

Which are these in The Village?

The idle fees only kick in if half the chargers are in use. Superchargers are paired. Plug into one of the two ports (1A vs 1B) and you can get all the current your car will take. If someone plugs in with you, your current drops to about 118 kW (I forget the exact number) and he gets 36 kW or so max. As your car charges and draws less current, the other car will get more current. Some have said this happens in steps of 36 kW. I can't verify the steps, but I can verify that as the charge rate ramps down for one it ramps up for the other.

The point of describing this is that when half the chargers are in use, anyone else wanting to plug in will potentially get less than their needs. So idle fees accrue. If you leave your car after it is charged, you may have been lucky that the station was not half full.

 

[mociaf9]

The idle fees only kick in if half the chargers are in use. Superchargers are paired. Plug into one of the two ports (1A vs 1B) and you can get all the current your car will take. If someone plugs in with you, your current drops to about 118 kW (I forget the exact number) and he gets 36 kW or so max. As your car charges and draws less current, the other car will get more current. Some have said this happens in steps of 36 kW. I can't verify the steps, but I can verify that as the charge rate ramps down for one it ramps up for the other.

The point of describing this is that when half the chargers are in use, anyone else wanting to plug in will potentially get less than their needs. So idle fees accrue. If you leave your car after it is charged, you may have been lucky that the station was not half full.

Leesburg is an urban-style supercharger. Ergo, no dynamic power sharing. Each stall gets a dedicated 72 kW max, and you use as much of it as your car can take regardless of whether someone is in the paired stall or not. Somewhat illogically, the same idle fee policy still applies at urban-style superchargers. A more nuanced policy that upped the occupancy threshold at urban superchargers might be fairer given the differences in power sharing, but IMO increasing the policy's complexity to account for the type of supercharger isn't really worth it. Better to just have a straightforward limit that always applies.

 

[T3slaOwner]

Leesburg is an urban-style supercharger. Ergo, no dynamic power sharing. Each stall gets a dedicated 72 kW max, and you use as much of it as your car can take regardless of whether someone is in the paired stall or not. Somewhat illogically, the same idle fee policy still applies at urban-style superchargers. A more nuanced policy that upped the occupancy threshold at urban superchargers might be fairer given the differences in power sharing, but IMO increasing the policy's complexity to account for the type of supercharger isn't really worth it. Better to just have a straightforward limit that always applies.

I thought Vladimer was talking about charging in Tyson's.

Of course it makes sense to implement a better policy at urban chargers. What is the point of penalizing anyone when they aren't doing any harm? That's the point of the 50% policy at Superchargers. At Urban chargers it should be more relaxed like 80% or maybe two open stalls.

Charging is already actually very complex. Superchargers, Urban chargers, destination chargers, Chademo, CCS, J1772, 15 kW, 50 kW, 75 kW, 150 kW, 250 kW... maybe I'll just stick with my truck and look for cheap regular gasoline. That's simple and they have apps for it. What name do they use for the higher current Superchargers... Hyperchargers? Ultrachargers? Uberchargers?

They even figured out a way to simplify USB. We need to put those people on EV charging.

 

[mcot222]

I thought Vladimer was talking about charging in Tyson's.

Of course it makes sense to implement a better policy at urban chargers. What is the point of penalizing anyone when they aren't doing any harm? That's the point of the 50% policy at Superchargers. At Urban chargers it should be more relaxed like 80% or maybe two open stalls.

Charging is already actually very complex. Superchargers, Urban chargers, destination chargers, Chademo, CCS, J1772, 15 kW, 50 kW, 75 kW, 150 kW, 250 kW... maybe I'll just stick with my truck and look for cheap regular gasoline. That's simple and they have apps for it. What name do they use for the higher current Superchargers... Hyperchargers? Ultrachargers? Uberchargers?

They even figured out a way to simplify USB. We need to put those people on EV charging.

If transformer size is the limitation than you could still be hurting others even at an Urban site.

 

[T3slaOwner]

If transformer size is the limitation than you could still be hurting others even at an Urban site.

Huh? Can you explain that?

 

[mociaf9]

Huh? Can you explain that?

I think they're a bit confused or mistaken. What they're talking about may be a thing at some sites, but it isn't relevant to idle fees or limiting the power at other stalls by remaining plugged in after charging finished. They're talking about the utility transformer being sized smaller than the total kW theoretically achievable by the supercharger cabinets operating at maximum power. E.g if there are 12 stalls (6 cabinets), the supercharger hardware could be capable of putting out ~900 kW but the utility transformer might be 750 kW (really in kVA. But being plugged in and not charging in such a situation wouldn't be hurting the others' rates. So, it's irrelevant to idle fees.

However, we've strayed far off the topic of this thread, which is about the Leesburg superchargers in specific. If any of you want to continue the discussion, you should start a new thread in Supercharging & Charging Infrastructure

 

[PStewart]

I like all the shopping options.

 

[gnuarm]

The idle fees only kick in if half the chargers are in use. Superchargers are paired. Plug into one of the two ports (1A vs 1B) and you can get all the current your car will take.

The pairing is only on the 150 kW chargers. They fixed that problem with the urban chargers, giving 75kW max no matter what... lol!

The idle fees are charged randomly. I've been hit with idle charges when I was one of two vehicles on 8 stalls. Their system is flawed and there is no means of challenging the charge. At some point, this is going to result in a class action suit.