-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
cablue
Member
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
Thanks for the pics, ggr. Buzzbuzz and I are going to get up really, really, really early on Saturday to meet them in Springfield OR. Then we'll see them again in Seattle on Sunday.
I still can't believe that just 3.5 years ago I was using campgrounds to do this trip. And 2.5 years ago I was terribly excited to have 17kW HPCs along this route. Even with Superchargers, EVs take longer on a road trip...but not very much longer, and man it sure is nicer, cheaper and cleaner.
I still can't believe that just 3.5 years ago I was using campgrounds to do this trip. And 2.5 years ago I was terribly excited to have 17kW HPCs along this route. Even with Superchargers, EVs take longer on a road trip...but not very much longer, and man it sure is nicer, cheaper and cleaner.
TonyWilliams
Active Member
JPP
Active Member
adiggs
Well-Known Member
Hey Tony - that sure does look like the BC2BC route
We may need a different category for the Model S participants next year (you know: E-Z Mode and Those-That-Work-For-It, or something like that
).
We may need a different category for the Model S participants next year (you know: E-Z Mode and Those-That-Work-For-It, or something like that
).
Ames
Member
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
We may need a different category for the Model S participants next year (you know: E-Z Mode and Those-That-Work-For-It, or something like that
Indeed.
At the National Plug In Day event in Seattle last month, we gave an award for the person that had taken the longest EV road trip. The problem was, there was a tie as we had two BC2BC participants there.
The tie was easily broken because one of them drove a Model S...while the other owner was a Leaf driver with a 5-year-old in the car. The crowd unanimously decided that the Leaf driver had the longer trip...
Funny you ask; when I saw it I first thought it was different -- a bit lighter -- but then another Dolphin Grey showed up and it was the same color. It was very early morning (we watched the sun rise from the car park deck) when I took those photos, so maybe it was just the difference in lighting.
TonyWilliams
Active Member
Hey Tony - that sure does look like the BC2BC route
We may need a different category for the Model S participants next year (you know: E-Z Mode and Those-That-Work-For-It, or something like that
Probably three classes, 100 mile range, "unlimited" range and motorcycle, but still an Overall Winner.
Don't worry, the "Supercharger martini crowd" will be in for a rude awakening at BC2BC-2014.
JPP
Active Member
I attended the Tesla event @ Chrissy Field in SF. The venue was excellent. Beautiful fall SF weather, on the water, with the view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Great choice by TM corporate, especially given the short time to plan. I arrived at 0830 (officially an 0900 start), and there was a small group of Tesla staff/employees set up at a table at a fenced off part of the parking lot. The only marking was a not to obvious Tesla flag planted along the main road at the water to show the small side road to take to the reserved area. There was a National Parks ranger/guard there with a movable barrier, and Model S arrived all morning and were guided into place in the designated parking area.
At the beginning, 1 team of drivers for the Supercharger trip was there, having driven up from San Diego, with 1 of the 2 grey P85s decked out with the graphics of the trip (the other was stuck in SF traffic and arrived at 0930). FWIW, they did charge @ Fremont before coming to SF. I did speak to one of the teams of drivers. Sounds like the event was thrown together by TM at the very last minute (thus the very short notice), based upon the completion of the west coast supercharger network, and that all plans, graphics, t-shirts, invites, press releases, etc were pulled together very fast.
As the morning progressed, more Tesla staff and many more owners arrived, with about 25 Model S from all over the Bay Area (including some corporate vehicles with MFG tags). Even with the 2-day notice, it was a really great turnout. Most colors and options (several Sig red), even one handsome brown with chromed 19” wheels (nice…retro). There were also 2 black S85 from a new local limo company marketing ‘green’ travel and wine country tours (lots of room in the S for golf bags and many cases of wine). Yes, commercial, but not offensive and in good taste (they even showed a mod to the frunk with a snap-in snap-out vinyl padded skirt/liner to protect the front bumper/nosecone when loading/unloading the frunk). They also added their own rear seat/floor center console for beverage holders (…essential in their business).
Photo up on a low hill at the side of the parking area:
There was a table set up by TM with breakfast snacks (pastries, bagels, water, coffee), which went quickly. The press was there (several local news crews, photographers). There was lots of mingling and show and tell, and interaction with the Tesla staff. Interested passers by (dog walkers, bikers) also stopped by. The event was low key, casual & cordial. Jerome G was there in his personal Model S, and I got to chat with him at length (notes posted to appropriate sub-topics). He actually commented to me that he would have really liked to participate on the road trip, but did not have sufficient time.
Towards the end, of the event, Jerome spoke to the group (probably at least 100 people there) to thank all of the owners, supporters, and employees. He talked a bit about the efforts in rolling out superchargers in the US (as we know, the delays are not technical, but political & jurisdictional with different rules & regs, real estate issues, permitting, etc). He then introduced the head of the supercharger group (sorry...missed the name) who was there with about 6 of his group. He spoke briefly and emphasized the hard work and some of the challenges in getting superchargers rolled out. He did note that the superchargers are fully telemetered and monitored real time 24/7/365, and if any faults or problems pop up, they are immediately aware. He says that there has not been a lot of down time, and that even if a single charger is down, others in the cluster are up.
Photo shows Jerome on the left, head of SC group on the right:
There was time for questions, and one question pertained to having some kind of notification about supercharger unavailability/down time available to S owners/drivers. Sounds like this is not likely to get to us owners anytime soon. The idea of SMS or push notifications when your S is done supercharging was brought up, and the appropriate team(s) are working on this (no ETA). Jerome was asked about how the superchargers are depicted on the MCU/nav screen, and how the distances to the chargers are usually shown ‘as the crow flies’ and not necessarily true driving distance. Jerome said that there is an upcoming major nav update with many new and improved features (he did not say much but clearly was very excited about it), and there will be a fix/enhancements to the supercharger mapping.
In terms of supercharger priority, the installation of basic supercharger hardware/functionality is job 1 (as many as fast as possible), then improvements to power/kW, then site improvements as needed, and then, far down the line, solar canopies with on site battery storage. No plans/promises (when asked) about any change/upgrade to fix the issue of 2 cars sharing 1 supercharger and the impact on charge rate/time.
Jerome was asked about battery swapping, and he said that it was a different topic under development—clearly not a big priority or what he/TM wanted to showcase. Someone asked about installing a supercharger @ home (maybe not an owner…) and he was told that he need 480v 3 phase 120kW service to his home, so not too likely. Jerome did however mention that TM is apparently actively talking to high-end hotels, restaurants, etc about essentially giving them HPWC systems for free, if they will install them and pay for the power. TM clearly is looking at every angle to get more charging infrastructure in place for us owners. He was asked about supercharger placement within metropolitan areas, and that is not the plan or goal, Superchargers are to optimize long distance travel. The next big push is to get the east coast network up, and then they will do an east coast supercharger event as well (no time given).
After questions ended, t-shirts commemorating the event were handed out, and then the teams moved to their cars to depart for the run up north.
At the beginning, 1 team of drivers for the Supercharger trip was there, having driven up from San Diego, with 1 of the 2 grey P85s decked out with the graphics of the trip (the other was stuck in SF traffic and arrived at 0930). FWIW, they did charge @ Fremont before coming to SF. I did speak to one of the teams of drivers. Sounds like the event was thrown together by TM at the very last minute (thus the very short notice), based upon the completion of the west coast supercharger network, and that all plans, graphics, t-shirts, invites, press releases, etc were pulled together very fast.
As the morning progressed, more Tesla staff and many more owners arrived, with about 25 Model S from all over the Bay Area (including some corporate vehicles with MFG tags). Even with the 2-day notice, it was a really great turnout. Most colors and options (several Sig red), even one handsome brown with chromed 19” wheels (nice…retro). There were also 2 black S85 from a new local limo company marketing ‘green’ travel and wine country tours (lots of room in the S for golf bags and many cases of wine). Yes, commercial, but not offensive and in good taste (they even showed a mod to the frunk with a snap-in snap-out vinyl padded skirt/liner to protect the front bumper/nosecone when loading/unloading the frunk). They also added their own rear seat/floor center console for beverage holders (…essential in their business).
Photo up on a low hill at the side of the parking area:
There was a table set up by TM with breakfast snacks (pastries, bagels, water, coffee), which went quickly. The press was there (several local news crews, photographers). There was lots of mingling and show and tell, and interaction with the Tesla staff. Interested passers by (dog walkers, bikers) also stopped by. The event was low key, casual & cordial. Jerome G was there in his personal Model S, and I got to chat with him at length (notes posted to appropriate sub-topics). He actually commented to me that he would have really liked to participate on the road trip, but did not have sufficient time.
Towards the end, of the event, Jerome spoke to the group (probably at least 100 people there) to thank all of the owners, supporters, and employees. He talked a bit about the efforts in rolling out superchargers in the US (as we know, the delays are not technical, but political & jurisdictional with different rules & regs, real estate issues, permitting, etc). He then introduced the head of the supercharger group (sorry...missed the name) who was there with about 6 of his group. He spoke briefly and emphasized the hard work and some of the challenges in getting superchargers rolled out. He did note that the superchargers are fully telemetered and monitored real time 24/7/365, and if any faults or problems pop up, they are immediately aware. He says that there has not been a lot of down time, and that even if a single charger is down, others in the cluster are up.
Photo shows Jerome on the left, head of SC group on the right:
There was time for questions, and one question pertained to having some kind of notification about supercharger unavailability/down time available to S owners/drivers. Sounds like this is not likely to get to us owners anytime soon. The idea of SMS or push notifications when your S is done supercharging was brought up, and the appropriate team(s) are working on this (no ETA). Jerome was asked about how the superchargers are depicted on the MCU/nav screen, and how the distances to the chargers are usually shown ‘as the crow flies’ and not necessarily true driving distance. Jerome said that there is an upcoming major nav update with many new and improved features (he did not say much but clearly was very excited about it), and there will be a fix/enhancements to the supercharger mapping.
In terms of supercharger priority, the installation of basic supercharger hardware/functionality is job 1 (as many as fast as possible), then improvements to power/kW, then site improvements as needed, and then, far down the line, solar canopies with on site battery storage. No plans/promises (when asked) about any change/upgrade to fix the issue of 2 cars sharing 1 supercharger and the impact on charge rate/time.
Jerome was asked about battery swapping, and he said that it was a different topic under development—clearly not a big priority or what he/TM wanted to showcase. Someone asked about installing a supercharger @ home (maybe not an owner…) and he was told that he need 480v 3 phase 120kW service to his home, so not too likely. Jerome did however mention that TM is apparently actively talking to high-end hotels, restaurants, etc about essentially giving them HPWC systems for free, if they will install them and pay for the power. TM clearly is looking at every angle to get more charging infrastructure in place for us owners. He was asked about supercharger placement within metropolitan areas, and that is not the plan or goal, Superchargers are to optimize long distance travel. The next big push is to get the east coast network up, and then they will do an east coast supercharger event as well (no time given).
After questions ended, t-shirts commemorating the event were handed out, and then the teams moved to their cars to depart for the run up north.
