Supercharger - St. Charles, MO

[John Stuckey]

Thanks for the updates. I got my CHAdeMO adapter today.
I am curious why Tesla has not fixed a problem that is two and a half months old, well documented and has been reported to Roadside Assistance several times. Seems strange.
I called the Roadside Assistance number, answered the questions honestly and got routed to my area service center. And they told me that they did not know anything about the St Charles charger except what comes up on the website supercharger map.

 

[grichard]

Wouldn't surprise me if the problem were with getting a response from our local Electric Monopoly.

 

[greencharge]

Time for solar panels and battery packs at the superchargers

 

[Ddowns2050]

Has anyone used this charger lately. Is it still not working properly?

 

[greencharge]

I used it on feb 21, despite the nav showing out of service, it worked fine

 

[John Stuckey]

Got this from the mother ship this afternoon after I emailed them about the intermittent problems that I have read about:
"The St. Charles Super charger is up and running, but there is still an open notification that there has been intermittent problems related to the power company in the area that is extending charge times significantly. Unfortunately due to the issue being on the power companies side we do not have a timeline as to when this issue will be fully resolved, but it is an issue that we are aware of and are attempting to resolve as quickly as possible."

 

[greencharge]

I guess they are taking their own sweet time, the SC didn't work this afternoon, I am charging at a green lots CHADEMO about 4 miles from the SC

 

[John Stuckey]

Please move this to a better place if there is one.
The St Charles charger has been problematic for at least 4-5 months. Tesla is blaming the local power company. I have not checked but I doubt that businesses in the local area are tolerating rolling outages for the last 4-5 months.
While the issue is being resolved Tesla could choose to mitigate the St Charles problem and prepare for the I70 - I44- I40 connection by installing a SC at Troy, IL. asap. Troy, IL is in a different electric supplier area so conflicts with the St Charles power company are not an issue. Maybe give St Charles another 6 months and if it is still flaky cut their losses and move the SC equipment to a new site that has consistent power. Very weak or broken links in the SC chain are a real problem for Tesla. I realize that all of this is new but not being able to resolve a power supply issue after a site goes live does not reflect well on Tesla or the local power company. The problem might be that the local power company does not need to care about how it is viewed. Either way, Tesla needs to be proactive and the Troy, IL SC might be a good move now.

 

[Sudre]

For those who do not have Ameren as a customer I can tell you from personal dealing with them in St. Louis City that they are not the greatest. Several years ago my UPS's kept kicking on because power would drop to 90-100 volts during the hot summer days. I checked with several neighbors and tested their power and they had the same issues. All of us were on the same transformer. We all called Ameren several times to try and get them to fix it but they didn't seem to care. (lower power equals less efficient A/C units equals more money for Ameren)

The problem was fixed several weeks later once the defective transformer developed a bullet hole and burnt up. Ameren was forced to come out and replace it that day.
I am NOT suggestion anyone do anything to the transformer at the SC location. We have no idea why there is a problem there.
I only mentioned the fix that worked for my neighbors to show how Ameren puts things off... and no it wasn't me.... didn't even own a gun at that time.

The best fix for Tesla would be to install a battery bank to buffer power.

 

[John Stuckey]

That's funny!

 

[John Stuckey]

Big new! Terre Haute may be coming online very soon - like this month?
218 miles from Columbia to Terre Haute. Could be a shorter CHAdeMO adventure in St Charles!

 

[Guy V]

Checked it out again today. Still wildly erratic. Seemed to me to be voltage related and working better at low state-of-charge. Amps displayed would swing up when voltage rose, drop with voltage drop. Managed to add 102 miles in 2 hours with 94 of that in the first hour. By the time I got bored and went home voltage was fluctuating from 379 to 387 while amps bounced from 0 to sometimes up to 40's.

Before I left another MS passing through on his way to DC plugged in with low state-of-charge . He was getting erratic charge that was averaging 60+ mph, hoping to get enough in a reasonable time to get to Effingham. He said St. Charles was the only badly performing SC he had encountered. I gave him my phone number and said he could charge at my house if it got really bad.

 

[scole04]

Checked it out again today. Still wildly erratic. Seemed to me to be voltage related and working better at low state-of-charge. Amps displayed would swing up when voltage rose, drop with voltage drop. Managed to add 102 miles in 2 hours with 94 of that in the first hour. By the time I got bored and went home voltage was fluctuating from 379 to 387 while amps bounced from 0 to sometimes up to 40's.

Before I left another MS passing through on his way to DC plugged in with low state-of-charge . He was getting erratic charge that was averaging 60+ mph, hoping to get enough in a reasonable time to get to Effingham. He said St. Charles was the only badly performing SC he had encountered. I gave him my phone number and said he could charge at my house if it got really bad.

I had the same experience yesterday. Spent 3 hours charging in St. Louis on my way back to DC. Amperage was up then down and all around. No way to go around this location so I hope it gets fixed.

 

[Sudre]

I am just back from checking out the chargers. Figured since I could route around to drive by them on the way home from Hermann, MO I might as well see if they were working.

I only plugged in for a short while. I have an A 60kWh battery (don't know if it means anything). The charge started off a little rocky hoovering around the 18amp range but after a minute or so it took off and went up to 150+ mile/hour. I was in the 5th spot from the left (if you are facing the units). I didn't want to wait so after taking on 40 miles of range at a solid stable charge I unplugged and headed home.

For the record that is about half the actual potential. It was at like 384 volts and 150 amps.... or around 60kWh. I was the only car there and I had under 30 miles of range when I plugged in. I had a friend and her mom with me who were really interested in everything about the car so I didn't look back to see if the charge advanced any further before I unplugged.... I was too busy showing them the superchargers around the world and how easy they are to find in the car on the screen. My friend commented that the screen said it would take an hour to charge... I have a 60kWh battery.

 

[scole04]

I am just back from checking out the chargers. Figured since I could route around to drive by them on the way home from Hermann, MO I might as well see if they were working.

I only plugged in for a short while. I have an A 60kWh battery (don't know if it means anything). The charge started off a little rocky hoovering around the 18amp range but after a minute or so it took off and went up to 150+ mile/hour. I was in the 5th spot from the left (if you are facing the units). I didn't want to wait so after taking on 40 miles of range at a solid stable charge I unplugged and headed home.

For the record that is about half the actual potential. It was at like 384 volts and 150 amps.... or around 60kWh. I was the only car there and I had under 30 miles of range when I plugged in. I had a friend and her mom with me who were really interested in everything about the car so I didn't look back to see if the charge advanced any further before I unplugged.... I was too busy showing them the superchargers around the world and how easy they are to find in the car on the screen. My friend commented that the screen said it would take an hour to charge... I have a 60kWh battery.

I've had two experiences. One around 4 AM, I got 170 mph and it stayed steady there. Second time during the day the amperage would contually go up for a bit and then go back down.

 

[pwildani]

No charging today or yesterday for me, both around 9pm. I got 0 to 10 amps and the car didn't report any gain in range over 10 minutes before I gave up.

The service center at Olive and I-170 can sometimes lend out a CHAdeMO adapter and Greenlots has two such stations in the area: one at a Comfort Inn at Page and I-270 and another at the Best Western "The Charles Hotel" over near St. Charles.

 

[grichard]

Man, I feel for everybody who's messed up by this.

I live just east of the airport, so somewhat close, and would be happy to lend my chademo adaptor if folks need to charge locally. PM me.

 

[snellenr]

It's concerning that this problem has dragged on so long, since I planned to come through there heading northeast in April. I suppose I can call the SuperCharger number before I leave, but does it make sense (for a P85) to plan on range charging in Columbia, MO and then head up U.S. 54 to Springfield and bypass St. Charles completely?

The route planning screen didn't show this as out-of-service (or diminished capacity, whatever) the last time I checked...

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Oh, have I got a story for you about this SC from earlier this week.

Picked up a new (to me) P90D and this was my first Tesla Road Trip.

Despite visiting with the St. Louis SC a few minutes prior to update the ownership info (scan DL and temp registration), I was told by Tesla HQ that it would take "3 to 5 business days" for my app to include this MS (we have two other MS's as well). They didn't mention this SC had any issues, however, despite being located only a few miles away. A "heads up" would have been nice.

Had called Tesla HQ the day prior with concern re: the Nav display indicating a problem at that Supercharger, but received the same guidance as was relayed by TM above: it works, just not great.

Plugged in and noted a good strong charge rate--only needed 20 minutes of charge--even with another MS on site.

Figured I was good to go and had lunch for 45 minutes.

Came out to see that I needed 5 minutes more charge time, despite the 45-minute lunch! So much for the initial report; not having app access to this MS to monitor the charge was a bad thing.

Waited another 5 minutes while display amps erratically ranged from 0 to ~15, but mostly zero or single-digits. No improvement in range after another 5 minutes so I called Tesla Roadside Assistance and they advised that my "car was charging." This was odd as that's not what I was showing.

Gave up and proceeded to next Supercharger. Ended up driving with no AC, mirrors folded, hypermiling/drafting to arrive with barely 3 miles of range left . . . not a great Tesla experience.

The fact that it's not been addressed after all these months is UNSAT.

Perhaps public shaming of the utility (if that's the issue) via the media or a lawsuit will fix the problem?

Come on Tesla--you're all about the Customer Experience so please, address this now.

Thanks.

 

[Guy V]

They have to fix this or shut it down on the map. It is way beyond a case of limited service.

If Ameren power in St. Charles is this deficient now it will be even more disastrous as the traditional local under-voltage summer season approaches.

It's time for them to make that Southwestern side of St. Louis pin on the 2016 map active.

Likely they have more power available in the Fenton area where TWO major Chrysler plants closed.

As a note: I walked around back of the shopping center with my dog, following the power poles. Back in the far corner is big cell tower and equipment building. I noticed that the cooling units were struggling to run off and on in the same pattern as the voltage fluctuation as the Supercharger. Maybe if that phone installation goes toast as the weather heats up the situation will get more attention from Ameren.