I don't use that SC, just want to suggest that you use your car nav to check how busy it is. You can do that whenever you want as long as your car has a 3G signal. So check it periodically to get a sense of the usage before making your trip.
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Supercharger - San Juan Capistrano, CA (7 V2 stalls)
- Thread starter airj1012
- Start date
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- Tags
- California Supercharging USA
I was there yesterday and there were 2 spots available as of about 10am. Single data point, so I agree that using the nav is a better way to tell.
BrokerDon
Active Member
If you want to minimize your chance of SC wait times, I'd avoid the SJC SC by SC'ing at:
However the optimum way to plan your trip using EVtripPlanner.com on a tablet (I use an iPad Air 2) so you can "adapt & improvise" en route and at your Carlsbad destination.
Alternately learn to embrace the SC wait & charging times by getting out and walking the neighborhoods. Lots of places to see, food & beverages to eat, stores to shop, and scenery to enjoy.
- Santa Ana
- San Diego
- Fountain Valley
However the optimum way to plan your trip using EVtripPlanner.com on a tablet (I use an iPad Air 2) so you can "adapt & improvise" en route and at your Carlsbad destination.
Alternately learn to embrace the SC wait & charging times by getting out and walking the neighborhoods. Lots of places to see, food & beverages to eat, stores to shop, and scenery to enjoy.
Just reporting back my experience @ this station. I ended up visiting this station since we were only heading to Carlsbad from southern LA. With my 60D I really don't need a charge @ Fountain Valley.
It was about 11AM on Saturday and the place was full with 1 car waiting. There was an attendant there keeping track of queue. I waited about 15min and was able to get in 4A. I was at 60% or so and it only took about 15-20min to charge to 100%. I was still waiting in line @ El Champeon!
On the return trip I could've skipped SpC since I got some juice @ Legoland, but decided to stop by to experience it since the map shows availability. Unfortunately when we arrived it was full. It was about 9:30PM on Sunday. Waited 10-15min. This time it took a full 30min to get to 100% from 60%. 1A spot I believe.
It was our first time experiencing SpC'ing. I'd avoid this station if possible
It was about 11AM on Saturday and the place was full with 1 car waiting. There was an attendant there keeping track of queue. I waited about 15min and was able to get in 4A. I was at 60% or so and it only took about 15-20min to charge to 100%. I was still waiting in line @ El Champeon!
On the return trip I could've skipped SpC since I got some juice @ Legoland, but decided to stop by to experience it since the map shows availability. Unfortunately when we arrived it was full. It was about 9:30PM on Sunday. Waited 10-15min. This time it took a full 30min to get to 100% from 60%. 1A spot I believe.
It was our first time experiencing SpC'ing. I'd avoid this station if possible
As that was you first experience with supercharging, I hope you don't mind some advice-- don't charge to 100% unless you actually need that range. Just charge to what you need to get to the next charging stop, plus a buffer. Charging to 100% slows down the process for you and everyone behind you. Remember the last 20% can take almost as long as the first 80%Just reporting back my experience @ this station. I ended up visiting this station since we were only heading to Carlsbad from southern LA. With my 60D I really don't need a charge @ Fountain Valley.
It was about 11AM on Saturday and the place was full with 1 car waiting. There was an attendant there keeping track of queue. I waited about 15min and was able to get in 4A. I was at 60% or so and it only took about 15-20min to charge to 100%. I was still waiting in line @ El Champeon!
On the return trip I could've skipped SpC since I got some juice @ Legoland, but decided to stop by to experience it since the map shows availability. Unfortunately when we arrived it was full. It was about 9:30PM on Sunday. Waited 10-15min. This time it took a full 30min to get to 100% from 60%. 1A spot I believe.
It was our first time experiencing SpC'ing. I'd avoid this station if possible
People are in "fill 'er up" mode from ICE cars. That's not appropriate for EVs when traveling.
HookBill
Member
If you are looking to eat while you are there go next door to the El Adobe restaurant. Lots of early California history in that building. Also, the Nixon's used to eat there when they visited the Western White House years ago and there are two chairs still used today that were the Nixons's official chairs. They have name plates on their backs. You should see them as they are high backed and stick out from all the other chairs. Ask to sit in them if they are available.
I have a 60D so it does not taper toward the end. My last 20% is missing in the first place. I do not have a next charging stop as my destination is between 2 chargers. Regardless, thanks for the information.
There are chademo stations near the SJC SC. If I needed to recharge around that area, I'd use a chademo station. They are usually empty. Moreover, coming down from LA to north county San Diego, there are lots of Chademo stations in north county.
I hardly ever need to visit superchargers but had to stop at SJC Tuesday evening on the way back from LA -- didn't quite have enough to get home and needed just 25 miles added. There was a line, super frustrating after a long day of driving. I talked to some people in the process of charging and there were several locals waiting on 100% full charges. One lady was nice enough to leave at 93% and let me take the spot. I finally plugged in for a few minutes and left as fast as I could.
I know this topic has been beaten to death, but I don't understand why people who can charge at home instead waste their time and mine at superchargers. (Thanks for letting me rant!)
Maybe some stalls could be "pay all the time" to connect, even for cars with lifetime free charging? I'd be more than happy to pay if it meant no waiting when busy. It would also free up stalls for Model 3 owners, who will only be supercharging when they really need it, too.
I know this topic has been beaten to death, but I don't understand why people who can charge at home instead waste their time and mine at superchargers. (Thanks for letting me rant!)
Maybe some stalls could be "pay all the time" to connect, even for cars with lifetime free charging? I'd be more than happy to pay if it meant no waiting when busy. It would also free up stalls for Model 3 owners, who will only be supercharging when they really need it, too.
rxlawdude
Active Member
No, this is a problem at SJC and Fountain Valley. I'm starting to see the same at the Santa Ana SpC (as I drive by it 5x/wk), as in all 12 stalls full at 8am on a weekday. All due respect, but those don't sound like travelers.
My personal take on the whole locals charging thing is that Elon plain screwed up. He wanted to use free Supercharging for life as a marketing slogan, which helps Tesla sell more cars, but at the same time totally screws over actual customers. Anyone who had actually researched EV charging or just economics of the tragedy of the commons (Btw, this isn't the only time I've seen Elon ignorant about basic economics) would have realized that Tesla should have put a small charge on Supercharging to match local prevailing nighttime rates.
As it is, we are 4+ years into the Supercharging era and Orange County to San Diego has never had a properly functioning Supercharger setup. By properly functioning I mean being able to charge at 60+ kW and without waiting for a slot.
And it isn't clear that the two new ones in the planning stages will actually fix things. SJC was supposed to fix things, and it was overloaded from the day it opened, as was San Diego.
As it is, we are 4+ years into the Supercharging era and Orange County to San Diego has never had a properly functioning Supercharger setup. By properly functioning I mean being able to charge at 60+ kW and without waiting for a slot.
And it isn't clear that the two new ones in the planning stages will actually fix things. SJC was supposed to fix things, and it was overloaded from the day it opened, as was San Diego.
Absolutely. The Model S should have only included x amount of kWh of free charging per year, and everyone should pay beyond that amount. That covers everything: the occasional road trip, marketing karma, crowding at chargers.
It pains me that people can still get lifetime free charging with referral codes because it means the problem will just get worse. Free lifetime charging needs to stop as soon as possible.
TaoJones
Beyond Driven
The problem is largely localized to the Southwest Region and the poor management thereof. SJC as an island was a mistake from day one, as has been San Diego as an island. Only when there is relief (see SD #2 someday along with Clemente and Carlsbad (now permit-ted) in some relationship to density will there be progress.
Placing SCs in busy shopping centers is brain dead stupid. I could sugarcoat that but I've seen enough in 3 years along with having visited about 200 SCs continent-wide to know the difference between sound deployment and lazy deployment. Orange County was at one time the most owner-dense county in the States, and it had ONE SC while LA County had 4 (at the time). Add to that increasing ownership in North (San Diego) County not to mention San Diego proper and even without livery you can see the problem.
Livery alone will torpedo capacity. More power to the independents and Tesloop, who will hit SCs up to 3-4x/day, but sheesh.
Then you've got daily commuters who bought EVs *because* of their commute.
Add to that the non-garaged that Tesla has welcomed since Day One.
Very few garaged owners are taking up SC spaces by comparison. Remember that people are more lazy than they are cheap.
Take away the BS about SCs being only for distance travel (a lie oft parroted by the NIMBY/exclusionists) and clearly there's a challenge to simply manage capacity. Well, in every other region of the country, Tesla has excelled at this. Not in the Southwest Region. Easy problem to solve? No. But that's why Supercharger Team Project Managers get paid the average bucks to work lots of overtime for free.
And so it goes. Happily, as free supercharging goes away, so will some of the livery-related excesses. Not overnight, but those 100,000 or so cars won't last forever.
Disagree all you want. But that's how it is.
Placing SCs in busy shopping centers is brain dead stupid. I could sugarcoat that but I've seen enough in 3 years along with having visited about 200 SCs continent-wide to know the difference between sound deployment and lazy deployment. Orange County was at one time the most owner-dense county in the States, and it had ONE SC while LA County had 4 (at the time). Add to that increasing ownership in North (San Diego) County not to mention San Diego proper and even without livery you can see the problem.
Livery alone will torpedo capacity. More power to the independents and Tesloop, who will hit SCs up to 3-4x/day, but sheesh.
Then you've got daily commuters who bought EVs *because* of their commute.
Add to that the non-garaged that Tesla has welcomed since Day One.
Very few garaged owners are taking up SC spaces by comparison. Remember that people are more lazy than they are cheap.
Take away the BS about SCs being only for distance travel (a lie oft parroted by the NIMBY/exclusionists) and clearly there's a challenge to simply manage capacity. Well, in every other region of the country, Tesla has excelled at this. Not in the Southwest Region. Easy problem to solve? No. But that's why Supercharger Team Project Managers get paid the average bucks to work lots of overtime for free.
And so it goes. Happily, as free supercharging goes away, so will some of the livery-related excesses. Not overnight, but those 100,000 or so cars won't last forever.
Disagree all you want. But that's how it is.
I agree with your post. SJC is one of the worst Super Chargers for always being full and the layout makes it hard to wait in line. I agree that I would rather pay so I can charge when on a trip and not have to wait. To me it is not about free charging it is about fast charging which lets me travel a lot.
Exactly. While free Supercharging is a cute marketing GIMMICK, it isn't all that important or useful. Much more massively useful for everyone is being able to Supercharge quickly when traveling.
As much as I appreciate Elon for his vision and creating the first awesome electric vehicle, he isn't perfect, and makes some pretty big mistakes.
rxlawdude
Active Member
I agree 100% of the SpC in busy shopping centers. And in parking lots of tech companies (SD - Qualcomm) miles from freeways. Or on the top floor of a busy shopping center's parking structure (Temecula).
I agree that livery is a real problem (Burbank). I don't think Elon or Tesla thought that through, but it would have been very simple to exclude livery (or any use for hire) from free supercharging.
"BS" of SCs for distance travelers? So you're saying you are perfectly fine waiting for the local to be dropped off by their SO after leaving their MS/MX in a SpC stall for hours? I'm not okay with that.
TaoJones
Beyond Driven
Good catch re Temecula - forgot about that one. Yeah, livery is frustrating. On the one hand, you can't fault the independent operator who shells out his own money for a Model S, works 7 days a week, puts 20,000 miles on the car in 4 months servicing clients he's had for 20 years back and forth from John Wayne to LAX and similar, solely for using what he paid for - albeit 3-4x/day. On the other, it appears that the whole Uber/Lyft/livery thing caught Tesla by surprise and probably the pay as you go model is meant to impact those "for hire" scenarios. Or maybe not, given Tesla's response at Schiphol (we'll build more) and Straubel's comment that all was well until 1,000,000 vehicles *polite cough*. I doubt Tesla Sharing will come to pass in the next few years, anyway, but that's another matter.
With regard to the local owner scenario you've outlined above, my take since early on is this: ICEing by our own is the NUMBER ONE problem associated with capacity planning. No faster way to turn an 8-stall SC into a 2-stall SC than for owners to not vacate their stalls when their charges are complete. Not five minutes later, not ten minutes later, not overnight *twitch* but WHEN DONE. That means returning to their chariots a few minutes prior to charges completing. I don't care if they're local garaged, local non-garaged, livery, or travelers.
Further to that point, while $0.40/minute is a nice start, I'd like to see $1/minute after 60 minutes lifetime, and $5/minute after 360 minutes lifetime (or similar). I don't know anyone who's inconsiderate enough to let their car sit during a nice leisurely dinner who's going to get off their (rhymes with ass) for $24/hour.
I've seen, as I'm sure you have, FAR more ICEing by our own than ICEing by actual ICEs.
Second to that would be unnecessary pairing, of which I saw a bunch this past series of road trips. Great way to meet and gently educate new people, that.
Having said all of that, I don't care if a non-garaged person goes off and does whatever while their car charges as long as they get out *when the charge is done*. And I haven't seen a significant number of garaged folks "freeloading" in SoCal *relative to what I do see a lot of* and that's livery. Now, admittedly, that's because I avoid SJC and FV like the plague, and because I tend to use SCs near LAX at off hours. Back in the day, I'd use the gas station at Costco after work like everyone else and had to wait up to 25 minutes for a pump. I haven't had to wait for an SC for 25 minutes yet, nor do I expect to either before or after the Model 3 ramp. I've shared that use case and why it won't be a problem in a different post already.
rxlawdude
Active Member
So this can all be distilled down to: Livery and locals welcome. Inconsiderate louts that idle in a stall, not so much.
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