Charged here last night. This truck stop is still pretty busy despite the cononavirus apocalypse so be careful at maintaining your 2 yard halo. I've noticed convenience store/truck stop folk in less populated areas are not very good at this social distancing stuff. I got a lot of stares for wearing my mask. The McDonalds now closes at 10pm, which is too bad because the drive thru seems like a safer option. The Subway was still open at 11:30pm. Not sure when or if it closes. No doors on the restroom which is nice in this situation.
I hit 250 kW back on May 10th. Had been driving for a while so the battery must have been at the ideal temperature.
I went to the Tumwater SC for the first time a few days ago. GREAT LOCATION! I was ice'd out by a big pickup, but he came back in from the store with his lunch and was off. The Pilot convenience store is very nice! There's a McDonalds, a Subway, a Cinnabon as well as grocery store items. The restroom was very large and most important CLEAN! This is the BEST location in Washington that I've been at. This will be my go to place going forward!
I drove to the Tumwater Supercharger for R&D purposes. Here's the charging power I got tonight, using my Model 3 Performance. It maxxed out at 250 kW exactly, for about 30 seconds. I had been driving approximately the speed limit on I-5 for over an hour before charging, and had selected this Supercharger as my destination in the Nav so the car knew to pre-heat the battery. I arrived with about 14 miles of range left. The data was collected with the FlexCharging smart charge app on my smart phone, and with some extra graphing on the side.
I stopped to charge here yesterday and it was down. All but 3 chargers where wrapped in plastic and the 3 remaining ones started to charge and then threw an error and stopped. The people inside the gas station said the owner was in dispute because Tesla put to many chargers in and it was affecting their parking and they wanted them gone. They also said the dispute had been going on for a couple of weeks with no resolution and they expected it to get to the media soon. Luckily, the Lacy charger is only a few miles away.
Could be that Tesla actually put in too many... or could be the owner thought they would randomly see one or two Tesla's there every now and then and other times the chargers would sit empty, like a lot of other DC fast chargers around the Pacific NW.... underestimating Tesla!
Maybe your right. I would guess the latter. If the agreement was for 6 and Tesla installed more, they would immediately notice that during construction and the issue would have been raised then. The amount of use is probably what caught them by surprise.
Considering we all were saying how crowded this location would be, and worried about people blocking chargers, either the owner literally didn't chat with his employees or swing by this location AT ALL during construction, or they absolutely thought they could play this game with Tesla and still have full use of the spaces. I'm not sure what Tesla's agreements are, but I'm sure there is some hand over of money besides just the promise of "more business."
That service station is a traffic disaster. When we were there, someone in a U-Haul van underestimated the size of the vehicle and got stuck in the McDonald’s drive through lane for a good 20 minutes. The Superchargers were indeed very busy and there is limited parking for the store.
I'm not surprised it's busy. It's the easiest on and off between Portland and Seattle, literally feet from the end of the offramp. Compared to Lacey or Kelso it's a breeze, and really even compared to Centralia it's easier, with better services nearby for travel.
If there is a “fight”, think Tesla will give in and try to relocate this location? Or do you think the station owner will give and try to acquire the lot next door and pave some more parking? Or just be hostile to Tesla owners and maybe even encourage customers to park in the spots?
it's strange, I've charged there a number of times, bought something from the store most every time I was there. You'd think the added business would be worth it to them. Maybe not.
The Tesla users are a really obvious group to go after, so I'm zero surprised that with how pinched the space is, the site goes after them.
This seems really silly. One would imagine Tesla's contract clearly spells out how many stalls will be installed, and that they are for the exclusive use of Teslas. Plus, a clause that deals with an owner backing out of the deal. I imagine if the owner tries to pull out, they'll get stuck with the construction bill. That being said, this is really cramped location. They really do need more parking. The only plus side is the gas pumps are nearby, so easy access to the squeegees.