Supercharger - Vacaville, CA (expanded in 2017, 16 V2 stalls)

[Owner]

I looked more carefully, yes this is Freebirds. Can't go too bad with a burrito - even if it is a "chain".

You can always cross the freeway and go to Fenton's (the second ice cream shop of the old Oakland institution). Crossing the freeway is 1/2 a mile.

you mean Freebirds? It's a pretty big chain, just ask anyone from Texas. It is pretty good. Better than chipotle even, depending who you ask.

Surprisingly, I hear very little talk of people going there regularly. There is also a brand new dickeys BBQ across the street from the supercharger too.


yeah, surprisingly there is no food court in the mall, and there are only the random little places (maybe 2 or 3) and a TCBY yogurt in the mall, but there are a ton of restaurants within a very minimal walk from the chargers. Most of these are even closer to the chargers than the food court at the Folsom outlets: Tahoe joes, dickeys, Freebirds, Olive Garden, Mel's diner, togos, pop eyes, carls jr, taco bell, subway, Applebee's, black oak restaurant, in n out, and hometown buffet. Those are all within a blocks walk (some in the strip mall west of the outlet, some across the street, and some in the other half of the outlet mall on e other side of nut tree).

If you are willing to walk a little further (maybe 1/4-1/2 mile), you open yourself to chilis, bjs, country kitchen breakfast, clay oven, strings Italian restaurant, little mad fish sushi, Chevys, red robin and jack in the box.

 

[ecarfan]

I am at the Vacaville supercharger right now. No other cars here. Plugged into the 4B stall with 146 miles of range displayed and after 5 minutes was only charging at 46kW. Moved to the 1B stall and still only charging at 46-47kW. Seems pretty slow. My display shows 125A, 380V. I have a 6 week old S85 with FW v5.8.4.

Only other supercharger I have been to is Gilroy and am pretty sure it charged me much much faster.

 

[ecarfan]

Re plugged into 1a and tried again. Now getting 134A, 383V, charging at 171mph. Shows 50kW when I change the units.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I am at the Vacaville supercharger right now. No other cars here. Plugged into the 4B stall with 146 miles of range displayed and after 5 minutes was only charging at 46kW. Moved to the 1B stall and still only charging at 46-47kW. Seems pretty slow. My display shows 125A, 380V. I have a 6 week old S85 with FW v5.8.4.

Only other supercharger I have been to is Gilroy and am pretty sure it charged me much much faster.

You might want to call their Supercharger line. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't taper that early.

 

[MichaelS]

This is the same problem people see in Fremont also. Some of the chargers will not output full power for some reason even when only one car is on the pair.

 

[brianman]

Re plugged into 1a and tried again. Now getting 134A, 383V, charging at 171mph. Shows 50kW when I change the units.

In case it's useful and you hadn't seen it:
Data from 16 supercharges, same vehicle, over 3 day period

 

[ecarfan]

And then just when I was ready to leave someone else pulled up to stall 2A and started charging at twice the rate I had been charging at. I had to get going so didn't try another stall.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

And then just when I was ready to leave someone else pulled up to stall 2A and started charging at twice the rate I had been charging at. I had to get going so didn't try another stall.

Did you see what their state-of-charge was when they started charging? You did say that you had 146 rated miles when you started charging so, I'm not surprised that you didn't get better than 50 kW; you are starting well down the taper curve accordingly.

 

[siucity]

Last night I stopped by the Vacaville site on my way home. Someone parked parallel to the curb, so he/she was taking up 4 spots (out of 8 total). But I think this one was understandable, as it had a jetski on a trailer behind it (first time I've seen a Model S with a trailer attached!). Sadly as I was about to take a picture, my iPhone's camera failed on me.

 

[smartypnz]

I believe these trailers are detachable and the Vacaville parking lot has plenty of space. If there was a problem with access needed, I'm sure this owner would have done that.

 

[whttiger25]

Was there today and tried 4 different stalls (all were paired with an existing car, I guess everyone is smart now), but got only 28w on 10% full 90kwh battery first 3 stalls I tried, to me way too low even on paired charger. 4th stall I got 48kw. Charge picked up a bit when I got to about 55% - either because it cooled off a bit or cars left not sure as I was still paired. In the end it took 1hr 30 mins to get from 10% to 80% when Tesla has advertised this should take 40 minutes.

Normally I wouldn't complain but in the last two weeks I had major issues at both Gilroy and Atascadero. The former caused me to be 1 hour late to a dinner party in Cambria because I needed the charge and had no options. I showed up with 2% needing to get to about 80% and it took 2 hours. Not the best way to show off your new car with, sorry I was an hour late, I guess superchargers aren't as good as advertised....

As a new owner I'm disappointed to have so many slow supercharger issues within the first two weeks of ownership.

 

[EVie'sDad]

I don't recall where I read it, but I seem to remember that starting a supercharger session with a battery near fully depleted (e.g. 10% charged or less) as well as almost full (90% charged already) would have the effect of being a little longer to ramp up as filling the bottom and top of the batteries charge requires more delicate voltage tapering, it also increases the likelihood of accelerating battery degradation, if done frequently.

As I typically keep my battery charged between 20% and 80 to 90% I never really experience what the OP is saying. I have not encountered similar experiences, although as already stated some SC stalls seem to be running at less than maximum capacity. Would be curious to have this confirmed or not.

 

[Merrill]

I don't recall where I read it, but I seem to remember that starting a supercharger session with a battery near fully depleted (e.g. 10% charged or less) as well as almost full (90% charged already) would have the effect of being a little longer to ramp up as filling the bottom and top of the batteries charge requires more delicate voltage tapering, it also increases the likelihood of accelerating battery degradation, if done frequently.

As I typically keep my battery charged between 20% and 80 to 90% I never really experience what the OP is saying. I have not encountered similar experiences, although as already stated some SC stalls seem to be running at less than maximum capacity. Would be curious to have this confirmed or not.

Was there today and tried 4 different stalls (all were paired with an existing car, I guess everyone is smart now), but got only 28w on 10% full 90kwh battery first 3 stalls I tried, to me way too low even on paired charger. 4th stall I got 48kw. Charge picked up a bit when I got to about 55% - either because it cooled off a bit or cars left not sure as I was still paired. In the end it took 1hr 30 mins to get from 10% to 80% when Tesla has advertised this should take 40 minutes.

Normally I wouldn't complain but in the last two weeks I had major issues at both Gilroy and Atascadero. The former caused me to be 1 hour late to a dinner party in Cambria because I needed the charge and had no options. I showed up with 2% needing to get to about 80% and it took 2 hours. Not the best way to show off your new car with, sorry I was an hour late, I guess superchargers aren't as good as advertised....

As a new owner I'm disappointed to have so many slow supercharger issues within the first two weeks of ownership.

Was there today and tried 4 different stalls (all were paired with an existing car, I guess everyone is smart now), but got only 28w on 10% full 90kwh battery first 3 stalls I tried, to me way too low even on paired charger. 4th stall I got 48kw. Charge picked up a bit when I got to about 55% - either because it cooled off a bit or cars left not sure as I was still paired. In the end it took 1hr 30 mins to get from 10% to 80% when Tesla has advertised this should take 40 minutes.

Normally I wouldn't complain but in the last two weeks I had major issues at both Gilroy and Atascadero. The former caused me to be 1 hour late to a dinner party in Cambria because I needed the charge and had no options. I showed up with 2% needing to get to about 80% and it took 2 hours. Not the best way to show off your new car with, sorry I was an hour late, I guess superchargers aren't as good as advertised....

As a new owner I'm disappointed to have so many slow supercharger issues within the first two weeks of ownership.

I have had my car 3 years and never experienced your issues, always takes around 45 minutes if I'm at around 50 miles left. Never spent over an hour.

 

[TaoJones]

Was there today and tried 4 different stalls (all were paired with an existing car, I guess everyone is smart now), but got only 28w on 10% full 90kwh battery first 3 stalls I tried, to me way too low even on paired charger. 4th stall I got 48kw. Charge picked up a bit when I got to about 55% - either because it cooled off a bit or cars left not sure as I was still paired. In the end it took 1hr 30 mins to get from 10% to 80% when Tesla has advertised this should take 40 minutes.

Normally I wouldn't complain but in the last two weeks I had major issues at both Gilroy and Atascadero. The former caused me to be 1 hour late to a dinner party in Cambria because I needed the charge and had no options. I showed up with 2% needing to get to about 80% and it took 2 hours. Not the best way to show off your new car with, sorry I was an hour late, I guess superchargers aren't as good as advertised....

As a new owner I'm disappointed to have so many slow supercharger issues within the first two weeks of ownership.

Do get into the habit of calling Ownership (number's printed on each SC pedestal) to report slow/broken SC units. Often, due to monitoring, they already know about a bad unit, and sometimes they don't. The faster/more it's reported, the faster it gets fixed, which is to say that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

With that said, some SC locations are just notoriously slower than others - Oxnard has been one such location no matter whether it's empty or full, paired or not, and regardless of initial battery level (SOC).

 

[whttiger25]

Thanks guys. I did call ownership at each of the 3 times I had issues.

One common denominator is it was seriously hot outside (90-100) each time. Has everyone had success supercharging in very high temperatures? This was at 7pm in Vacaville and it was still 100...can't imagine what it was at noon!

 

[silvers]

I was at the Vacaville superchargers about a week ago, the temperature outside was hot, into the nineties. I connected to the third stall from the left, and was down to about 5%. I had no difficulties charging at all. Unfortunately I did not catch what the kWh rate was, but I went to grab a bite to eat, and by the time I was finished, about 45 min or so, I was at about a 80% charge. There were other vehicles there charging as well, but not every stall was full.

 

[roblab]

My daughter had problems charging at Dublin, but we had no problem at Vacaville the next day (she had about 15 miles left by then). I am quite sure it's a pairing issue. There is no way to know how much that car paired to you is taking, and you only get what's left over. So of course, it will pick up with time, as the other car tapers down as its battery fills.

I see a problem with people who insist on using SCs near their homes. They fill up the spots and go shopping (Vacaville) while they "wait for a charge", instead of charging at home and not having to wait at all, in order to save a few dollars. Then someone driving through, needing a charge, in a hurry, gets stuck.

I don't know what Tesla plans to do about this, but to anyone who plans to charge at the local SC, please, please do it at night or early morning when the charger is empty. As far as Dublin goes, they like to charge their demo cars, and it is not right to do that when you want a fast charge. I would go inside and have them move their cars. Same with any SC at a service center or showroom.

 

[AMPd]

Stopped by Vacaville yesterday afternoon, it was packed with 1 car waiting.
Decided to continue on to Roseville and made it there with 17 miles or range left

I got the unpaired stall and at first I was getting a the full power but once I hit 60 miles of range the charge slowed down to 30amps
Had to move to another stall which was not paired to anyone and that one was maxed out for a few minutes and then again slowed down to around 100 amps

I think the heat is slowing the charge rate down

 

[ddimit]

Stopped by Vacaville yesterday afternoon, it was packed with 1 car waiting.
Decided to continue on to Roseville and made it there with 17 miles or range left

I got the unpaired stall and at first I was getting a the full power but once I hit 60 miles of range the charge slowed down to 30amps
Had to move to another stall which was not paired to anyone and that one was maxed out for a few minutes and then again slowed down to around 100 amps

I think the heat is slowing the charge rate down

Are your cooling fans ramping up? in this heat supercharging the car should sound like a jet engine. I have 0 issues in 100+ degree days traveling and getting max power as long as the BMS handles the cooling of the pack properly.

 

[AMPd]

Are your cooling fans ramping up? in this heat supercharging the car should sound like a jet engine. I have 0 issues in 100+ degree days traveling and getting max power as long as the BMS handles the cooling of the pack properly.

They definitely are
I should note I was in the car the entire time with the AC blasting, reached truckee with 11 miles at night, weather was cooler and it was charging normally