Supercharger - Los Gatos (expanded Jun 2021, 20 Urban stalls)

[bmah]

Charging at Los Gatos now. It’s full here and pedestal 5A has damage to its connector. Apparently it burned out part of a Model 3s charge port just before I arrived, but he was able to plug in to another stall. One of the other owners here is calling it in to Tesla now but there’s a 50 minute wait on the phone.

Bruce.

PS. Thanks @Ulmo for the approach plate.

 

[Ulmo]

The signs saying no parking between 3AM and 5AM are still up. Tesla should update nav and their home page to reflect the SuperCharger hours.

 

[ecarfan]

If I needed a charge there between 3 and 5AM I would go ahead and plug in, and if an officer came by and said “sorry no parking at this time” I would say “I’m not parking, I’m charging my car and I’ll be done in a few minutes.”

 

[sorka]

Stopped doesn't mean parking and neither does refueling

 

[HandleX]

The signs are just there so people don't leave (or sleep in) their car's overnight. If I needed to charge between 3am-5am I would just stay with my Tesla. I doubt Los Gatos PD is worried about "sketchy" Tesla owners. I've usually go there in the late evening/night and I haven't seen LGPD once.

 

[Ulmo]

Thanks for all your responses! That does make me feel better about people charging there between 3AM and 5AM.

This morning I was driving past the SuperCharger in a Mercedes at ~4AM and ended up at the 24 hour Safeway, and a LGPD cop shined his light in my cabin briefly. The whole thing kind of spooked me. Go back to your regularly scheduled lives ... sorry to disturb. There was a red Tesla charging there at the time and I didn't see the cop disturb them.

 

[Ulmo]

That’s 1 Tesla leaving, 1 Tesla in a slow charger (level 2), and 5 free SuperChargers.

I just saw a Model 3 pull up to a Level 2 charger by Hwy 9; apparently, it’s charging! Meanwhile, I saw 3 more Teslas come in from Hwy 9.

Counting Teslas at this SC is so complex due to the myriad statuses that it indicates a richer fuller variety of use.

It looks like Tesla will need to add the expansion chargers soon. If Elon can keep focused on charging for charging, that can be a real economic reality.

As I was leaving, only one supercharger spot was free.

 

[sorka]

View attachment 346033

It looks like Tesla will need to add the expansion chargers soon. If Elon can keep focused on charging for charging, that can be a real economic reality.

Especially since they just announced unlimited free supercharging for Model 3's.

 

[ecarfan]

Especially since they just announced unlimited free supercharging for Model 3's.

Clarification: any Tesla purchased using a referral code will get 6 months free Supercharging, not “unlimited” which previously meant “for as long as you own the car”. See
Tesla tweaks referral program, replacing $100 credit with six months free supercharging

Let’s not derail this thread with a discussion of that recent news, please discuss here
New referral program now has 6 month unlimited supercharging for ALL Teslas(incl. MR Model 3)

Thank you.

 

[Warbird]

Can confirm the dangerous nearby bump at the transition between the two parking lots. Most passenger cars bottom out. Be careful, do not attempt to drive over it.

 

[wws]

If you are on Santa Cruz Ave, it is really easy to just cut through the right side of the Safeway parking lot, down to the alley.

 

[SMAlset]

Can confirm the dangerous nearby bump at the transition between the two parking lots. Most passenger cars bottom out. Be careful, do not attempt to drive over it.View attachment 346234 View attachment 346235 View attachment 346234 View attachment 346235 View attachment 346236 View attachment 346237

Wow that's really bad especially for EVs (battery pack on their underside). People should call the City and ask that the bump be grounded down. If enough people call in to report it as an issue, they might get on it. Probably no one thinks of EV's undersides but with that location those are exactly the cars that will be using it, Teslas and non-Teslas.

In the meantime if we are in the area I will try to remember to enter through Safeway parking lot as wws suggested to avoid scraping the underside of our car. Our Model S has air suspension which might help. @Warbird what type of car is shown in the photos?

Really appreciate the map of showing where it's okay to enter and where it's not (NO on Santa Cruz between Starbucks and Comerica Bank) that was posted by Ulmo.
Supercharger - Los Gatos (LIVE 24 Sep 2018, 12 Urban type)

 

[Musterion]

Wow that's really bad especially for EVs (battery pack on their underside). People should call the City and ask that the bump be grounded down. If enough people call in to report it as an issue, they might get on it. Probably no one thinks of EV's undersides but with that location those are exactly the cars that will be using it, Teslas and non-Teslas.

In the meantime if we are in the area I will try to remember to enter through Safeway parking lot as wws suggested to avoid scraping the underside of our car. Our Model S has air suspension which might help. @Warbird what type of car is shown in the photos?

Really appreciate the map of showing where it's okay to enter and where it's not (NO on Santa Cruz between Starbucks and Comerica Bank) that was posted by Ulmo.
Supercharger - Los Gatos (LIVE 24 Sep 2018, 12 Urban type)

@Warbird is showing a Model 3, presumably normal height and not lowered performance model, based on wheels. It is possible Model S on High or Very High might fare better but it has longer wheelbase so maybe not. I didn’t want to try it myself.

 

[PLUS EV]

It's clearly a Model 3. You can see the door handles in one of the pics.

 

[Warbird]

@SMAlset, @Musterion, @PLUS EV

Its a first production Model 3. A raised S with air suspension might clear it, and X for sure.
They cannot grind it down without drainage from the Starbucks parking lot spilling into the charger lot.
Its pretty clear the purpose of that hump is to direct drainage to the drain in the Starbucks lot, 30 feet towards the Safeway.
Its one of those humps that must be there, or houses on the other side of the charger lot could get flooded.
They could build up the ramp on the charger lot side, but I doubt they will with out an act of congress.
Its been there a while, the scrapes on top of the hump look like a war zone.
Best to just avoid it, you only have to scrape it once to learn
There are three other ways into that charger lot.

 

[Warbird]

The hump is where the Blue left pointing arrow is next to the "S" in Starbucks on this map, not where the red X is.
You could enter where the red X is, but you would need to go around Coldwell to avoid the hump.
Supercharger - Los Gatos (LIVE 24 Sep 2018, 12 Urban type)

 

[Ulmo]

The hump is where the Blue left pointing arrow is next to the "S" in Starbucks on this map, not where the red X is.
You could enter where the red X is, but you would need to go around Coldwell to avoid the hump.
Supercharger - Los Gatos (LIVE 24 Sep 2018, 12 Urban type)

Corrected: I got rid of the big blue arrow from my nav app, and replaced it with a red X and a "HIGH HUMP" label.

 

[nate_sanders]

Heads up to all who charge in the Los Gatos location. I've been charging at the Los Gatos Super Charging station for the past 4 weeks. However, today when I was plugged up and charging I heard a loud thump on the top of my car. I have the Model S with a panoramic sun roof. I then looked up and my rear sun roof glass panel was shattered.

I immediately got out of the car and while I was getting out a 2nd pine cone struck the top of my car. I looked up into the trees and saw that there were 2 squirrels that were chewing the pine cones loose and dropping them to the ground so they could later climb down the tree and retrieve them for food.

My car ended up with a shattered sun roof and a golf ball sized dent on the top edge. I just finished reporting the incident to Tesla customer support and sent in a request to have my car picked up and towed to the San Jose body shop location for repair.

Beware of the possible damage that could happen to your car here.. Hopefully they will find a solution before other customers cars are damaged.

Cheers,
Nate Sanders

 

[SMAlset]

Holy crap Nate that’s terrible. Not nice of those squirrels to bomb your car like that. Thanks for letting us know. Was your only damage to the roof area? People might think of pine cones as small light weight things on holiday wreaths and table displays but I’ve seen some massive, heavy, pine tree projectiles here in the Bay area at the base of pines in the area. Not really sure what anyone can do about it. They’ll fall naturally even if the squirrels don’t knock them down.

Wonder if this was ever brought up when selecting the site. Since this was originally regular parking spaces I’m sure the City has had similar reports in the past. Still haven’t had the need to stop there to charge since they opened it up and now I’ll be thinking about your incident. At first when I saw the cracked window glass photo, before reading your post, thought it was due to the human kind of property damage.

BTW cones aren’t the only thing to be wary of when parking under pines. Pine sap too.

 

[bmah]

My car ended up with a shattered sun roof and a golf ball sized dent on the top edge. I just finished reporting the incident to Tesla customer support and sent in a request to have my car picked up and towed to the San Jose body shop location for repair.

Yikes, that's awful...sorry that happened. :-( Hope it can be fixed soon. Just wondering, why'd you have the car towed? Was it not drivable?

Bruce.