Out of curiosity, what did you wind up doing as far as charging? (Like did you wait in line or did you go somewhere else?)
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Supercharger - San Mateo, CA - Park Place (LIVE, 8 V2 stalls)
- Thread starter ecarfan
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- California Supercharging USA
Out of curiosity, what did you wind up doing as far as charging? (Like did you wait in line or did you go somewhere else?)
I just left. I live about 10 miles away so I will give it another shot at an off peak time. My 14-50 will be installed next week as well.
I did find it odd that so many Teslas use the supercharger at 5pm on a Tuesday. The timing seems like a local commuter, not someone on a road trip. Surely someone who can afford a Tesla isn't going to wait in line to save $5 worth of electricity at home and their time value of money is high enough to not have a 200+ mile round trip commute to work. Perhaps they live in an apartment or condo without charging access?
Thanks. If you've been around the forums here for awhile, you'll know there are a variety of theories on this, some rather controversial.
Depending on how much time your car is in your...garage?...if you have a "normal" 15A/120V outlet available, you can charge off of that while you're waiting for the NEMA 14-50 outlet. Yes it's slow (3 miles of range per hour is the rule of thumb for a Model S, not sure what it is for your X), but if you're plugged in for hours, it adds up.
(BTW congratulations on taking delivery of the X, just noticed it in your signature.)
Khatsalano
Member
Roser, congrats. Since you're in Burlingame, an alternative is to actually park your X at the Tesla service center off Rollins since they have a handful of HPWCs up front. If you hit the San Mateo SC in the mornings, it's pretty vacant. Lunch and afternoon rush are the peak according to the attendant.
How is 120V charging treating you? You can also try using your 240V 30A dryer outlet if you have one near the garage and buy the adapter from the service center.
- K
Kipernicus
Model S Res#P1440
Went to the Habit for lunch on Friday and saw that there is now an attendant at the supercharger.
A Tesla employee named Ian is there from 10 to 6.
Main concern is to ensure that people move on when finished charging, not whether they are on a road trip, or locals, or taxis.
(for the record, I did not charge)
A Tesla employee named Ian is there from 10 to 6.
Main concern is to ensure that people move on when finished charging, not whether they are on a road trip, or locals, or taxis.
(for the record, I did not charge)
This morning (Sunday at 1030) I went to use this Supercharger for the first time. I live about 5 miles distant but had never used it. The only reason I decided to use it today was because, due to electrical work being done at my house as part of a solar panel/Powerwall install project, both my HPWC and the 240V/40A outlet in my garage are currently disconnected and have been for the past few days. The only working 110V outlet in my garage is too distant from where I park my Model S in my carport to be used without an extension cord, and I don't have a quality grounded 110V extension cord.
So, off to the San Mateo Supercharger for a quick top up. Except when I arrived all stalls were full and 5 cars were waiting in line to charge. Some of the charging cars were unoccupied, some had a single individual in them. All the waiting cars had a single person in them.
My conclusion: all or most of the cars charging and waiting to charge were local owners and not people on long distance trips. Yes, I am a local owner and this was my first visit to this Supercharger, and I only was there for the reason described above.
While I am glad that Tesla built this charging location (it is obviously better to have it than to have nothing!) it appears to be heavily used by locals. Given that the vast majority of local housing in this area are single family homes I would have thought that most local Tesla owners would have home charging. I acknowledge that some of the owners I saw at the Supercharger this morning could be apartment dwellers with no home or work charging available to them, or even people like me with unusual circumstances.
Yes, the issue of locals using Superchargers has been discussed extensively on TMC in various threads with strong positions staked out pro and con. My position is, don't do it unless you unable to install home charging or cannot charge at work. I do not object to Tesla owners using Superchargers who have no other options, and there are owners like that. I want as many people as possible to own Teslas.
So, off to the San Mateo Supercharger for a quick top up. Except when I arrived all stalls were full and 5 cars were waiting in line to charge. Some of the charging cars were unoccupied, some had a single individual in them. All the waiting cars had a single person in them.
My conclusion: all or most of the cars charging and waiting to charge were local owners and not people on long distance trips. Yes, I am a local owner and this was my first visit to this Supercharger, and I only was there for the reason described above.
While I am glad that Tesla built this charging location (it is obviously better to have it than to have nothing!) it appears to be heavily used by locals. Given that the vast majority of local housing in this area are single family homes I would have thought that most local Tesla owners would have home charging. I acknowledge that some of the owners I saw at the Supercharger this morning could be apartment dwellers with no home or work charging available to them, or even people like me with unusual circumstances.
Yes, the issue of locals using Superchargers has been discussed extensively on TMC in various threads with strong positions staked out pro and con. My position is, don't do it unless you unable to install home charging or cannot charge at work. I do not object to Tesla owners using Superchargers who have no other options, and there are owners like that. I want as many people as possible to own Teslas.
Thanks, good suggestion, but I don't have a CHAdeMO adaptor for my S and do not consider the $450 cost a worthwhile investment for me (it may well be for others).
Owner
Active Member
Owner
Active Member
I have charged there perhaps 5 times. I use it as a final pit stop on my way home from a long trip. I just top it off enough to get home as I'm a Whole Foods junkie, and I can stop in and grab enough to not have to make a run another day. I'm never charging more than 15 minutes.
But there is a busy charger most of the time. I've seen cars waiting about 1/3 of the time. Many appear to be new owners still with their paper license plates. Often people get a Tesla but have not yet rewired their home/garage. Or they may just want to try out the supercharger because it is exciting.
There are a lot of apartments in San Mateo and more and more dense stuff is being built. The situation is going to get even worse with the Model 3. We as owners can't enforce anything on other owners, its only up to Tesla if they ever choose to do so.
But there is a busy charger most of the time. I've seen cars waiting about 1/3 of the time. Many appear to be new owners still with their paper license plates. Often people get a Tesla but have not yet rewired their home/garage. Or they may just want to try out the supercharger because it is exciting.
There are a lot of apartments in San Mateo and more and more dense stuff is being built. The situation is going to get even worse with the Model 3. We as owners can't enforce anything on other owners, its only up to Tesla if they ever choose to do so.
Charging for the first time at this Supercharger. See my post just upthread as to why I am here even though I am local to this location (my home charging has now been disabled for a week because of my solar and Powerwall install). When I arrived here at 7:15 AM only one stall was open. One of the cars is a limo service car. Only two of the cars have someone sitting in the car. And this is well before the Whole Foods Market nearby is open. I am glad to see the additional signage stating "Vacate stall when charging completed".
Owner
Active Member
That is interesting. There is both a Pete's and a Starbucks nearby. Perhaps they are locals getting filled up in two ways in the morning?
I think it is pretty obvious that most if not all of the people charging when I was there this morning were locals.
So I was there for about 20 minutes. In that time the Supercharger went from being 100% full to 0% once I left. Just shows how variable the usage can be.
So I was there for about 20 minutes. In that time the Supercharger went from being 100% full to 0% once I left. Just shows how variable the usage can be.
ken830
Model S 85, Model 3 Performance, Model X LongRange
And we are also more likely to post when Superchargers are full and there is a wait, so the picture we get from online reports must be at least a little skewed.
OK dumb question here (and I really am asking a question because I don't understand): Why is it obvious that most of the people charging were locals? If I'm passing through and need a charge at a Supercharger close to amenities, I'm probably going to find somewhere to use the restroom and get a drink / food, not just sit in the car the whole time. That could take around 10-20 minutes. Wouldn't that be exactly the same behavior you observed?
That having been said, my intuition agrees with you, even though I don't see the evidence that makes this "obvious". And I have no opinion about whether those charging were doing so because (like you) they had no other choice, or because they were just looking for free electrons.
Bruce.
Fair question. In my opinion, if at 0715 AM I see a car either occupied by a single person and/or not showing signs of being full of luggage and no people in it or near it (I glanced in all the vehicles as I walked by to go see if Whole Foods was open) I think it likely that they are not long distance travelers. Out of the 8 full stalls, one car was a limo service, and one was me. So I knew for certain that 2 of the 8 cars were not long distance travelers. Out of the 6 remaining cars, none were heavily coated with bugs, all were CA plates, and based on the other aforementioned indications I think it very likely all were local to the SF Peninsula. But I could be wrong...
Sounds reasonable to me.
I've only been to this Supercharger once, back when I was on a mission to visit all the Bay Area Superchargers (not all on one drive).
Bruce.
whttiger25
Member
I also think this location in particular is troublesome because of it's proximity to san francisco and palo alto which is probably one of the densest tesla-regions in the world, combined with the fact that in general long distrance travel north to south tends to favor the east bay because who wants to drive through san francisco if you don't have to?
Lastly, in your particular case, chargers being full at 7:15am and empty a half hour later certainly suggests locals charging before heading to work. You wouldn't expect a high-density of travelers at 7:15 am, and plenty of people commute from the south up to San Francisco and could easily stop here on the way.
In the end, as someone who has yet to install my own charger (I live in a condo and the process is quite a headache - I am working on it) I have local-charged from time to time including at San Mateo. However, when I do, after about 20 minutes of getting coffee, food, whatever, I return to my car. If there is a line I will leave, and if necessary get back in line, if not, I'll stay until a line forms and then leave. I think locals who supercharge need to adopt a certain level of ettiquette. At a supercharger with 8 stalls, if every car charges for 30 minutes, on average a car should leave every 3 minutes and 45 seconds. I don't see that happening in practice....
Now my recent experience at Burbank was disheartening, as I WAS a traveler with a necessity charge, the chargers were really slow, and people there WERE locals. I knew because it was 5pm, and three of the 5 cars were occupied by people with business clothes on obviously coming home from work. And because of them I waited 45 minutes.
Lastly, in your particular case, chargers being full at 7:15am and empty a half hour later certainly suggests locals charging before heading to work. You wouldn't expect a high-density of travelers at 7:15 am, and plenty of people commute from the south up to San Francisco and could easily stop here on the way.
In the end, as someone who has yet to install my own charger (I live in a condo and the process is quite a headache - I am working on it) I have local-charged from time to time including at San Mateo. However, when I do, after about 20 minutes of getting coffee, food, whatever, I return to my car. If there is a line I will leave, and if necessary get back in line, if not, I'll stay until a line forms and then leave. I think locals who supercharge need to adopt a certain level of ettiquette. At a supercharger with 8 stalls, if every car charges for 30 minutes, on average a car should leave every 3 minutes and 45 seconds. I don't see that happening in practice....
Now my recent experience at Burbank was disheartening, as I WAS a traveler with a necessity charge, the chargers were really slow, and people there WERE locals. I knew because it was 5pm, and three of the 5 cars were occupied by people with business clothes on obviously coming home from work. And because of them I waited 45 minutes.
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thecloud
As rhythm raced inside, the ship came alive
While I'm not disagreeing with the observations that @ecarfan made, I realized that I tick all of those boxes when I'm long-distance traveling. So it's really not safe to assume anything.
1. Luggage. We try to keep everything out of sight whenever we leave the car. Our suitcases are either in the frunk, or in the trunk under the parcel shelf. The inside of the car is clean.
2. Bugs. At every stop, I am completely OCD about getting bugs off the front end of the car, and cleaning the windshield.
3. Not being in the car. Since I have to charge for 30 minutes, I might as well stretch my legs, go find a restroom, get Starbucks or food. In my experience, the people I see just sitting in their cars while waiting to charge are often limo drivers. The ones I've talked to, who are up and out of their cars walking somewhere else, are the owners who are on long-distance trips.
4. Being there in the morning. That's when charging is least busy, so I now get up early for long trips. Granted, I don't usually reach the first supercharger stop before 9, so 7:15 is a bit early unless I'm on the road at 5 AM.
5. CA plates. Remember that you can drive all day without ever leaving the Golden State, and lots of folks regularly make the trip to/from the L.A. area.
1. Luggage. We try to keep everything out of sight whenever we leave the car. Our suitcases are either in the frunk, or in the trunk under the parcel shelf. The inside of the car is clean.
2. Bugs. At every stop, I am completely OCD about getting bugs off the front end of the car, and cleaning the windshield.
3. Not being in the car. Since I have to charge for 30 minutes, I might as well stretch my legs, go find a restroom, get Starbucks or food. In my experience, the people I see just sitting in their cars while waiting to charge are often limo drivers. The ones I've talked to, who are up and out of their cars walking somewhere else, are the owners who are on long-distance trips.
4. Being there in the morning. That's when charging is least busy, so I now get up early for long trips. Granted, I don't usually reach the first supercharger stop before 9, so 7:15 is a bit early unless I'm on the road at 5 AM.
5. CA plates. Remember that you can drive all day without ever leaving the Golden State, and lots of folks regularly make the trip to/from the L.A. area.
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