Supercharger - Lone Pine, CA (LIVE 28 Jan 2015, multiple expansions, 16 V3 stalls)

[ScottRoberts33]

Apparently you can override the 80% limit by just adjusting it in the car or the app.

According to Simon Alvarez’s story on Teslarati, if you’re using the car’s trip planner you should be able to geo up to 100%, albeit at a slower rate. This is a quote from his article.

“Among the ways for Tesla to improve the throughput of its Superchargers is to cap the charging sessions of the company’s electric cars at 80%. According to a Tesla spokesperson, the updated Superchargers will charge a vehicle’s battery very quickly until 80%, after which the charging session ends. Provided that owners utilize Tesla’s Trip Planner, electric car owners would still be able to charge up to 100%, though charging from 80-100% will be at a slower rate.”

I’m curious if this is true.

 

[mspohr]

According to Simon Alvarez’s story on Teslarati, if you’re using the car’s trip planner you should be able to geo up to 100%, albeit at a slower rate. This is a quote from his article.

“Among the ways for Tesla to improve the throughput of its Superchargers is to cap the charging sessions of the company’s electric cars at 80%. According to a Tesla spokesperson, the updated Superchargers will charge a vehicle’s battery very quickly until 80%, after which the charging session ends. Provided that owners utilize Tesla’s Trip Planner, electric car owners would still be able to charge up to 100%, though charging from 80-100% will be at a slower rate.”

I’m curious if this is true.

Charging from 80 to 100% is always at a slower rate. I doubt Tesla would intentionally slow it down further since their goal is to get people back on the road faster.

 

[ScottRoberts33]

Charging from 80 to 100% is always at a slower rate. I doubt Tesla would intentionally slow it down further since their goal is to get people back on the road faster.

Right. I think Simon’s point was you can get greater than 80% if you are using the trip planner. I’m interested if that is what people are finding to be true.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Apparently you can override the 80% limit by just adjusting it in the car or the app.

Yeah, that's not going to help at all then. Don't most people already override the charge limit while on a road trip? Common sense says you should always set the charge limit to 100% to avoid idle fees. That's what I do.
I like the idea of having one stall at the supercharger that can charge to 100% paired with a stall that's limited to 60%. That way people who want to wait can do so.

 

[ka9q]

Common sense says you should always set the charge limit to 100% to avoid idle fees.

I set it to 100% on road trips not so much to avoid idle fees, but to take advantage of extra charge time should I take longer to eat, go to the bathroom or simply walk around to stretch my legs. My #1 wish for the various trip planners is an option to let me manually vary the time I want to spend at each charger to account for things like meal plans.

 

[mspohr]

I set it to 100% on road trips not so much to avoid idle fees, but to take advantage of extra charge time should I take longer to eat, go to the bathroom or simply walk around to stretch my legs. My #1 wish for the various trip planners is an option to let me manually vary the time I want to spend at each charger to account for things like meal plans.

I usually charge the minimum amount needed to get to the next Supercharger except for lunch or dinner stops which are longer.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

With only 2 other cars then charging, we got 80% limited at Lone Pine on Memorial Day afternoon.

That was a real bummer because we ended up having to make a detour to SCV charger in order to get home (90% would have gotten us home).

Why didn't we stop at Indio or Mojave? They were jammed. Mojave had 5 cars waiting when we drove by!

How long until a 20+ stall SC is built on this corridor? Tesla must be looking for locations.

 

[PLUS EV]

I set it to 100% on road trips not so much to avoid idle fees, but to take advantage of extra charge time should I take longer to eat, go to the bathroom or simply walk around to stretch my legs. My #1 wish for the various trip planners is an option to let me manually vary the time I want to spend at each charger to account for things like meal plans.

The whole idea behind idle fees is to increase throughput. Why would they want to provide you a work around to avoid idle fees just so you can occupy a stall that someone else could be using for a longer period of time?

Also, the workaround for the 80% thing is simple. You don't need to use the Nav. You just need to adjust the charge limit after plugging in. It's that simple.

 

[4SUPER9]

Anyway, back to Lone Pine...
This place was packed on Saturday early afternoon. I was the only one heading down. Everyone else was heading up. As suggested upthread, I could have chosen to go to Inyokern instead. Well, not only did I have insufficient charge to make it to Inyokern (left Mammoth with only 170 RM and kept getting warnings to slow down to make it), Inyokern is now far more crowded than LP and Mojave. With only 4 stalls, Inyokern was listed as full every time I checked, both for my entire drive up the hill and back home.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Anyway, back to Lone Pine...
This place was packed on Saturday early afternoon. I was the only one heading down. Everyone else was heading up. As suggested upthread, I could have chosen to go to Inyokern instead. Well, not only did I have insufficient charge to make it to Inyokern (left Mammoth with only 170 RM and kept getting warnings to slow down to make it), Inyokern is now far more crowded than LP and Mojave. With only 4 stalls, Inyokern was listed as full every time I checked, both for my entire drive up the hill and back home.

This makes be sad. Going to have to take the 17mpg beast if I'm driving Friday-Sunday. I had a 30 minute wait at 11:00pm on Friday at Inyokern last time I drove the 3 up there.

 

[mspohr]

Anyway, back to Lone Pine...
This place was packed on Saturday early afternoon. I was the only one heading down. Everyone else was heading up. As suggested upthread, I could have chosen to go to Inyokern instead. Well, not only did I have insufficient charge to make it to Inyokern (left Mammoth with only 170 RM and kept getting warnings to slow down to make it), Inyokern is now far more crowded than LP and Mojave. With only 4 stalls, Inyokern was listed as full every time I checked, both for my entire drive up the hill and back home.

Why didn't you charge at Mammoth? They have lots of stations there.

 

[4SUPER9]

This makes be sad. Going to have to take the 17mpg beast if I'm driving Friday-Sunday. I had a 30 minute wait at 11:00pm on Friday at Inyokern last time I drove the 3 up there.

Remember, this past weekend was Memorial Day. It likely won't be this busy again until next winter.

Why didn't you charge at Mammoth? They have lots of stations there.

I did charge to about 90% upon arrival, then drove around quite a bit the following two days. I left straight from the slopes and didn't want to spend the time to charge again up there.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Remember, this past weekend was Memorial Day. It likely won't be this busy again until next winter.

Yeah, I'll probably risk it for summer trips but next winter will be even worse than this one unless they open more chargers (Kramer Junction and Bishop please!).

 

[mspohr]

Yeah, I'll probably risk it for summer trips but next winter will be even worse than this one unless they open more chargers (Kramer Junction and Bishop please!).

I've only stopped at Mammoth during off season/midweek and I've never seen more than one or two stations occupied. I think it's deserted most of the time. I come from the North then stop at Lone Pine before heading to Death Valley/Las Vegas, desert, etc. so I don't have much experience with the more southern stations.

 

[4SUPER9]

I've only stopped at Mammoth during off season/midweek and I've never seen more than one or two stations occupied. I think it's deserted most of the time. I come from the North then stop at Lone Pine before heading to Death Valley/Las Vegas, desert, etc. so I don't have much experience with the more southern stations.

Maybe I misunderstood you, but Mammoth is not an issue even at the busiest of days. I have once seen all 8 stalls filled. For the most part, I am typically the only one there. LP is a serious choke point, as everyone MUST charge there going north. Going south is optional under the right conditions.

 

[mociaf9]

LP is a serious choke point, as everyone MUST charge there going north. Going south is optional under the right conditions.

Lone Pine Supercharger users, rejoice! On March 27th, Tesla received planning approval for the expansion of the Lone Pine supercharger with 8 additional stalls. They are planning to pave a portion of the dirt lot to the west of the current lot and to install the 8 new stalls along with a new equipment pad + fence. The original 4 hardwired stalls will remain in place but I think the temporary pallet will be removed (though this was not explicitly addressed), which would leave a total of 12 stalls. According to the plans (staff report PDF, which includes the plans), the new stalls will be of the V2, traditional-style supercharger (i.e. 150 kW) variety. Only 2 of them will be pull-in forward stalls like the already existing 4. The other 6 will be placed along the curb for back-in use. That would make the trailer-friendly and non-trailer-friedly stalls evenly divided at 6 apiece.

I've no information about building permits and the Inyo planning office told me they had no information about schedule nor any estimate for when construction might start. But the guy I spoke to did say that Tesla seemed a bit annoyed at the delay entailed in having to go through the review process again for just an expansion. From which, I, somewhat optimistically, hypothesize that they're trying to get it built and operational before Thanksgiving (and/or the start of Mammoth's ski season) this year. Whether that's the case or not, or whether they can/will succeed even if it is, we'll have to wait and see. But I'm glad that Tesla are actively working to address this bottleneck.

 

[Chuq]

Great detective work by @mociaf9 yet again!

 

[Daniel in SD]

Lone Pine Supercharger users, rejoice! On March 27th, Tesla received planning approval for the expansion of the Lone Pine supercharger with 8 additional stalls.

Great news!
For San Diego folks Inyokern is still a bottleneck unless you get a high SoC in San Bernardino. They really need a charger in Kramer Junction too (that and Bishop are on the map). Great to hear they've recognized the problem. I've got an Ikon pass for next season .

 

[McManX]

Excellent news

 

[Doug Martoccia]

FYI. The next big event up at Mammoth is the Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza on 1-4 August. Completing this project by then may be potentially helpful, although I can't imagine that Mammoth will be as crowded as on an ordinary ski weekend.