Mark E
Member
I'd agree with the airport, but seeing how much they'd want plus the hassle of getting in and out somewhere close by might be a better option.
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Supercharger - The Star, NSW
- Thread starter One Gear
- Start date
Forgive me if I repeat something that has been said prior, but I have just joined the forum.
Tesla promised a growing number of Supercharger Sites. Not the reverse. Losing a site such as the Star, with its high utilisation has a much greater negative impact on Tesla owners than newly commisioned regional site which has low utilisation. (There were spiderwebs on some of the Heatherbrae Charger posts!)
In one form or another Tesla is still offering "free supercharging for life". NO conditions, NO small print. Hearing the line AFTER I purchased my X that Superchargers were "meant for owners transiting through and not daily charging" is welching on a promise.
Tesla promised a growing number of Supercharger Sites. Not the reverse. Losing a site such as the Star, with its high utilisation has a much greater negative impact on Tesla owners than newly commisioned regional site which has low utilisation. (There were spiderwebs on some of the Heatherbrae Charger posts!)
In one form or another Tesla is still offering "free supercharging for life". NO conditions, NO small print. Hearing the line AFTER I purchased my X that Superchargers were "meant for owners transiting through and not daily charging" is welching on a promise.
SACL currently charge registered transport operators through their toll tags, first 30mins free, then $4.00 per 30mins. There are two holding bays, one near the old Mercedes dealership which is being knocked down, and the other between KFC in the IMO Carwash. There's plenty of room for some posts there, but is that cost prohibitive?
I'd like to see a supercharger somewhere out Pennant Hills Road area to support those coming in from the north but wanting to visit the Blue Mountains or Bathurst. Its ok to travel into St Leonards, but I think it Tesla could do better. A couple of stalls at the airport would also no doubt be useful.
As for the Heatherbrae charger, that is near where I travel a lot and will be very handy to me!
- Brendon
As for the Heatherbrae charger, that is near where I travel a lot and will be very handy to me!
- Brendon
Mark E
Member
I've never needed to use a supercharger in the metro area since I charge at home. Superchargers were always positioned as enabling long distance travel - from before I ordered my car in 2011, or it was delivered in 2014, when there were no superchargers in Australia. I'm more likely to use Heatherbrea than the star's old site.
There ARE a growing number of supercharger sites - or are you ignoring Cooma, the announcements for Lorne, Bathurst, Keith, Horsham, Nowra, Brisbane, Gympie and Bunbury. In the last 2.5 years we have gone from none, to having a full route from Melbourne to Brisbane. This year they have added Cooma and Ballarat, plus also announced permanent replacements for the sled type superchargers in Coffs Harbour and Euroa.
You should also realise that Tesla didn't close this site, the Star did. Tesla are likely to open another site in the metro area, although I'd prefer one either out on the M7 to cater for people driving from Goulburn to Heatherbrea without going via the city, or somewhere else outside of the metro area so that we can go to more places easily - e.g. The one going to be built at Bathurst. Something on the inland route to Brisbane or the inland route from Sydney to Adelaide via Hay.
I don't see any change in the policy other than the end of free supercharging for new cars purchased, which I have no problem with. The early adopters like myself buying the car is the reason why there is a model X for you to buy, and since most of us ordered before there was even a store in Australia, the reason why Tesla is even here.
Chuq
Active Member
There are quite a lot of new users in this thread - welcome.
Just wanted to reiterate what Mark E said - for a majority of people, the most useful spot for a fast charger is *not near you*. You could have four superchargers in Sydney, or four superchargers between Sydney and Melbourne. I know what most people would prefer.
Sure, you (if you purchased a S/X) are entitled to charge at superchargers as much as you like. But if you are doing it every day, or even more, then that's part of the reason why limits for new owners have been imposed.
Just wanted to reiterate what Mark E said - for a majority of people, the most useful spot for a fast charger is *not near you*. You could have four superchargers in Sydney, or four superchargers between Sydney and Melbourne. I know what most people would prefer.
Sure, you (if you purchased a S/X) are entitled to charge at superchargers as much as you like. But if you are doing it every day, or even more, then that's part of the reason why limits for new owners have been imposed.
lennier
Member
Elon has been quite specific at various times that Superchargers were intended for long distance travel and not for daily charging including specific emails sent to owners. Whilst there may be no stipulation of this in 'contracts' to consider 'reneged', daily or frequent local use is clearly against the intention and implementation of the infrastructure and unsustainable.
He also said they'll be adding more inner city superchargers this/next year for apartment dwellers who can't install HPWCs at home. I hope they manage to negotiate a replacement site soon.
Why invest in 2nd rate infrastructure when the promise was do more sites not less on the network ?
Reminds me of the very questionable deal that was struck for Ben Keneally (husband of ex NSW Premier/ Botany Labor Mayor) giving him exclusivity to set-up a Battery Swap station at Barrangaroo. It was based around the GM Volt, so like the car, the plan failed.
GM's Holden, Better Place reach charging-station agreement for Australia
Define "long distance"?
There is also the sentiment that Tesla owners should charge at home or "work".
I'm a Tesla Hire Car owner, and travel in a day, what some Tesla's do in a week or more - is that long distance?
My "work" happens to be Sydney's roads, so I charge at "work" where there is a convenient Supercharger.
Tesla Australia stuffed up, stood by and did nothing when told of The Star shutting down MONTHS AGO. The head of Supercharger roll-out can't even effectively engage with a State Treasurer wanting to throw $$$$ at them to accelerate the Charger network roll-out in their State.
5 million people PLUS! And 5 charge posts. It's a sad inditement of Tesla management.
I'd love to see your sources for your assertion that the NSW State Treasurer wants to finance additional Tesla Superchargers that are only compatible with Tesla's.
5 million people but 1059 EV passenger vehicles in NSW of which 618 are Tesla's.
Source: Registration
Tesla is not perfect and I agree that they have struggled to communicate a consistent policy on Supercharger access but the bottom line is that they cannot pay for all the energy and remain viable long term, so if someone was to base a business on the assumption that Tesla would provide free Supercharging is a risk to that business.
I didn't say the "NSW State Treasurer". (Who is making the assertions here? )
Tesla understands the requirements of commercial operators. The salesperson never made any mention of restricting energy supply to our application of Tesla vehicles. In fact they get great benefits from the many people we pick up and introduce to the new world EVs.
Most users may only do a few hundred Kms a week. I picked my X on the 28th of April, and the odo reads 16,500km. It's a tool, not a toy.
Not making assertions just trying to understand.
Perhaps you need to clarify what you mean when you said.
Sydney was a bit unique in having 2 Supercharger locations, and the fact that one of them has closed down is no breach of contract. Disappointing and perhaps annoying, but even petrol stations and auto dealers close down and move.
Drive past BMW Rushcutters Bay and all you will see is a big building site, must be very inconvenient to anyone wanting to service their BMW in the area.
Perhaps you need to clarify what you mean when you said.
I'm personally not aware of any state treasures wanting to do that, least of all Dominic Perrottet MP; I'm also not aware of what lobbying Tesla has done with the State government, they may have done plenty but our current conservative government is not normally inclined to such largess, perhaps you have some special understanding that you would like to share?
Sydney was a bit unique in having 2 Supercharger locations, and the fact that one of them has closed down is no breach of contract. Disappointing and perhaps annoying, but even petrol stations and auto dealers close down and move.
Drive past BMW Rushcutters Bay and all you will see is a big building site, must be very inconvenient to anyone wanting to service their BMW in the area.
Shock-On-T
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Tesla has 18 supercharger sites in Hong Kong.
London has 9 supercharger sites.
Sydney has 1 site.
It's pretty obvious that HKs sites in particular are for local use. I don't imagine there's a ton of road tripping across the border.
Sydney needs superchargers at its peripheries, to enable heading off in each direction. One in the North, one in the West, one in the South.
Case in point:
When I'm on call, I set my daily charge limit to 90% (S75D). I live in Turramurra.
Last Saturday I drove Turramurra - Westmead - Auburn - Liverpool - Westmead - Liverpool - Turramurra.
Got home about 4pm with 15%, plugged in.
Got a request for assistance at John Hunter in Newcastle 30 minutes later. Car was at 19%.
If there'd been a supercharger on the M7, I'd have grabbed 15 minutes during the day.
If there'd been a supercharger at Hawkesbury, Tuggerah or Morisset I'd had stopped on the way to Newcastle.
Instead the only solution was to drive back down the highway to Artarmon (of all places), charge for 30 minutes then drive to Newcastle, do my job then drive north to Heatherbrae for another 30 minutes before heading home.
A bit of a whinge, I grant you, and definitely first world problems, but come on Tesla the biggest city in this country could use a bit of charging infrastructure.
London has 9 supercharger sites.
Sydney has 1 site.
It's pretty obvious that HKs sites in particular are for local use. I don't imagine there's a ton of road tripping across the border.
Sydney needs superchargers at its peripheries, to enable heading off in each direction. One in the North, one in the West, one in the South.
Case in point:
When I'm on call, I set my daily charge limit to 90% (S75D). I live in Turramurra.
Last Saturday I drove Turramurra - Westmead - Auburn - Liverpool - Westmead - Liverpool - Turramurra.
Got home about 4pm with 15%, plugged in.
Got a request for assistance at John Hunter in Newcastle 30 minutes later. Car was at 19%.
If there'd been a supercharger on the M7, I'd have grabbed 15 minutes during the day.
If there'd been a supercharger at Hawkesbury, Tuggerah or Morisset I'd had stopped on the way to Newcastle.
Instead the only solution was to drive back down the highway to Artarmon (of all places), charge for 30 minutes then drive to Newcastle, do my job then drive north to Heatherbrae for another 30 minutes before heading home.
A bit of a whinge, I grant you, and definitely first world problems, but come on Tesla the biggest city in this country could use a bit of charging infrastructure.
Mark E
Member
More sites , yes. More Metro sites? I don't ever remember that promise. There are more sites on the network, a lot more, just not ones dedicated to you specifically. Entitlement much?
Mark E
Member
So Tesla should subsidise your business and ignore how 99.99% of owners will actually use the car?
What exactly do I need to clarify?
Clearly Tesla hasn't done much /achieved much with the NSW Govt. Perhaps the exclusivity of a typical Tesla site, not having other charging platforms on site, and/or some adaptor/step down transformer that would allow other EVs to charge off a Tesla post. An income stream Tesla have forgone for the sake of exclusivity.
Yes I do have a "special understanding" provided by the access my job affords me. Discretion doesn't allow me to share anything more at this stage.
A city of 5 million people being "unique" in having 2 sites. OK let's just run with that thought.
Tesla goes "OOPS! Sydney is totally overserviced with the amount sites and charging posts so we will allow a 50% REDUCTION in the choice of sites.
I was told in October 2016 that "free Supercharging" would come to an end. Orders before the end of the year would have this ownership feature FOR THE LIFE OF THE CAR. "Even if it's a commercial vehicle doing 60,000km per year?" I honestly asked.
"Yep! It's attached to the VIN No of the car, if it's still alive, Tesla will charge it for free". No Conditions.
He also added that the reason for the free supercharging coming to an end was to help fund the DOUBLING of Supercharger sites. This hasn't happened. Tesla has dropped the ball in regards to Supercharger roll-out here in Sydney and around Australia. 6 months on and only 2 new sites, and one shut down.
