The v2 charger shut down on me today in Calgary (Balzac) at -30. Unplug/replug brought it back, but so you know...
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Supercharger - Winnipeg, MB
- Thread starter MarcoRP
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The v2 charger shut down on me today in Calgary (Balzac) at -30. Unplug/replug brought it back, but so you know...
Andy O
Member
I tried the second charger from the west (1B) tonight, with mixed results. I drove a short distance to it, with no precharge preparation. The temperature was -20C. For the first 11 minutes no charging occurred then it began. The rate slowly rose from zero to a medium rate. After about a half hour of this my state of charge had risen from 39% to 52%. Then the rate of charge suddenly dropped to zero. I waited another 20 minutes to see if charging would start again but it didn't, and I quit when I saw that my state of charge was actually dropping but I was still being billed at 21 cents per minutes! Thanks Tesla! I unplugged and tried again but the charger wouldn't work (red light).
So I moved to charger 1A, the westernmost one. It worked fine and I got another 27% of charge rapidly.
This is how I'm feeling. Not only is having broken chargers poor service, but the complete lack of accessible information exacerbates the situation. It is joined by Tesla's lack of information as the chargers were/are being installed, here and along the TC Highway and in Grand Forks and Fargo, the fact that workers on the chargers were subject to non-disclosure agreements so even they couldn't tell us anything, and, as far as I'm aware, no way to contact that company to ask what's going on with this or any other sort of problem.
The NDA's are common on most all supercharger installs for contractors. There are many moving parts to an installation such as this. From power company, local government, land owner, and of course Tesla. Why NDA? I would say to protect both parties you and the contractor. One, the contractor is not aware of what Tesla's full intentions are to 100% on timing, nor to all the other factors that go to an install. Telling you this week or 24 hours till it is fixed puts them and you in jeopardy. Maybe not in a town like this, but anywhere else you could be looking at a promise not delivered with people stranded. I personally would never believe what I hear because of this, and is often why they would not like to share. Also maybe keep the job they have.
Manitoba Keith
Member
Thanks @AndyO Good to have accurate information and to know that 1 pedestal (of 8) is working!
VERY HARD to recommend a Tesla as a serious car, when it is only a town car in the winter.
One of the reasons I purchased a Tesla was the Supercharging Infrastructure.
When the charging network doesn't work, I wish for my Chevy Volt or a second car.
Guess that is the benefit of living north of 49.
CBC should do a review of this vs the guys that were trying to make it across Canada (but never made it) on Tesla SuC Network.
VERY HARD to recommend a Tesla as a serious car, when it is only a town car in the winter.
One of the reasons I purchased a Tesla was the Supercharging Infrastructure.
When the charging network doesn't work, I wish for my Chevy Volt or a second car.
Guess that is the benefit of living north of 49.
CBC should do a review of this vs the guys that were trying to make it across Canada (but never made it) on Tesla SuC Network.
Ummm. This is ridiculous.
The gas station by my daughter sells cheap gas. One time there was a problem and they ended up replacing about 50 engines in the cars because of that. It’s REALLY hard for me to jump from there into saying that nobody should buy a Toyota.
The Polo Park Charger is what, 200 feet away from a Chademo charger? Blaming the car for a charging problem is ridiculous. There were always problems with gas stations, including that pumps would, could and did occasionally freeze up. If you depend on it, get an alternative charging method for yourself. The VAST majority of this country doesn’t have Superchargers. So if you’re making long distance drives you should already have an alternative.
See also number one vs number two diesel, and or gas line anti-freeze. Various issues with block heaters... Canada is cold. There are consequences all around.
10s of thousands of people on here have driven without Superchargers, and still love our cars. Even in the winter, even when it’s REALLY cold. So, sorry, Tesla’s we’re awesome long before Superchargers we’re invented. They’re still awesome.
And sorry, but at -30, I’m just fine with employees leaving it offline until it’s warmer, which might mean spring.
I will say this, Tesla (North America) needs a CCS adapter. Not having one is dumb and lazy since it already exists for Europe.
Great if they know what the issue is, and can't solve it currently. Not so great if they haven't isolated the issue. Going to be hard to replicate it till next winter even if they are made in Buffalo, New York.
Cross country travel without having to sit for hours charging is pure Tesla. Car or not. Tesla has extended that in the sales process of the car. For a fact no one I know that bought a Tesla in the last 3 years that I recommended would have bought the car absent the Supercharging network(35+). People from all over need any charger to work based on plans and time they have available to them. Taking 3 or 4 chargers out of the TCH could extend peoples trips by days not hours.
Andy O
Member
I see 2 issues here, one being that the chargers don't work very well and the other being that we car owners aren't told what's going on.
I can understand that there is a problem with newly designed V3 chargers and our cold weather and I can live with this problem, but it's made more difficult by not knowing what the whole situation is.
Long distance travel is made unfeasible when the chargers you are depending on may not be there or working. Missing or broken chargers mean long delays. This is true even for trips between Winnipeg and rural Manitoba, and longer winter trips along the TransCanada Highway can even be dangerous. Are the superchargers along the TCH mostly working? Which ones work? Which ones don't?
This lack of information concerns me. Does Tesla know and care that the Winnipeg chargers aren't working? Should we just wait for spring? Tell us, and let us plan. What do we have to do? Wait for a tweet from Elon?
I have a friend who will buy a Tesla when there are working superchargers at Grand Forks and Fargo. I have to tell him not yet; I have to tell him that there is no reliable information on when; I have to also tell him that the newly installed charger aren't reliable enough.
Tesla Corporations needs better communications.
XHabjab
TSLA Bull
I disagree with this. The Tesla "fuel" station experience is part of the car purchase and availability of a functional charger is a reasonable expectation. A "plan B" is reasonable but an offline charger is a broken promise. When I get to a Supercharger, I expect it to work. A nearby Chademo doesn't work for me; I do not have the required adapter, and don't consider it reasonable to have to have one for my Winnipeg (or other) travels. The gas station analogy doesn't work. If you encounter a nonfunctional gas station in Winnipeg, there probably 50 others in the enclosing square km.
Almost all of the Trans Canada Superchargers are spaced about at the distance limit of the smallest car battery in worst case bad weather. If a charger is down, there is no backup within the charge level of the car. A stranded car.
I'm with @Andy O and @Manitoba Keith on this issue. If CBC interviews some disgruntled Tesla owners, Tesla should be embarrassed for it. It is nothing less than poor customer service.
And a down charger because of power problems or acts of God is reasonable for a day or two. Taking a Supercharger site offline for a season is nonsense.
[Similar situation going on right now in Ft. Stockton TX. Probably other places too.]
XHabjab
TSLA Bull
Despite the common name, CCS in Europe and CCS in North America are 2 different plugs.
Providing an adapter (CCS or otherwise) is not just a matter of building something and making it into a commercial product. It is not laziness to be without one.
The CCS1, CCS2 and Chademo connectors (it could be argued the Tesla one too) are the result of an organization, a standards group and management/control group. The Tesla Chademo adapter exists because Tesla got approval, paid licensing fees to make and they pay royalties for each one sold.
Europe (whatever that means) decreed that the standard charge connector will be CCS1. Tesla got permission to make that adapter and paid the money etc.
Tesla asked for but did not receive permission to make a CCS2 adapter (ie. North America).
The Tesla, CCS1 and CCS2 connectors are all CAN based and speak the same language. It is just pins and pin placement that are different (and current carrying differences on the DC connections).
The Chademo adapter has completely different signalling which necessitates that ridiculous adapter and cable.
The CCS adapters would be much smaller than the Chademo, but they are tangled up in red tape.
In several years, we may see standardization of connectors, but not now. And it's not laziness on Tesla's part.
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No problem. Buy a Nissan Leaf. Or a Toyota Murai.
I’m ok with everything you said up to the point about the car being a problem. The issue is charging, not the vehicle. This is obvious because the resolution has NEVER been a change to the car (other than gas, which is a charging/fuel change).
I’m completely with you in wanting better charging options. I’ll even agree that better communication from Tesla Corp would be better, but PlugShare makes clear that the Superchargers are unreliable, and Tesla won’t like having a bunch of <5 scoring chargers...
Andy O
Member
I don't see where I said that the car was a problem. Could you point that out to me? I did imply that the supercharger network isn't complete enough, and this is a problem.
How do you know that Tesla cares about < 5 scoring chargers? They should but I don't know of any communication on the topic. Tesla is fair and often generous to us, its customers, but they keep us in the dark too much.
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You wrote:
I have a friend who will buy a Tesla when there are working superchargers at Grand Forks and Fargo. I have to tell him not yet; I have to tell him that there is no reliable information on when; I have to also tell him that the newly installed charger aren't reliable enough.
I read this as “avoid the car”, not “more chargers would be better”. My several year old car is fantastic and has been from day 10 or 12 (it had a bad camera initially, so no cruise or autopilot, and I lift Calgary for Weslaco Texas with it an hour after we picked it up.). But charging gets better all the time. Interestingly, Winnipeg has more DCFC stations than Calgary. Twice as many at one point. Officially, we don’t even have a supercharger, it’s in Balzac, which would be like St.Andrews to Winnipeg. So yes, fast charging sucks. But it’s getting better fast, and the car is awesome.
I also agree that there should be a standard. If CCS doesn’t want Tesla, then Government should mandate Tesla. I don’t care which, but it should be standardized. Perhaps Electrify Canada will add Tesla ports to all their new stations, as they have with some in the US.
Andy O
Member
You understood me correctly and although your point was clear enough I didn't understand it when I posted (although I figured it out later). Tesla vehicles are very fine, but I do have to warn people who ask that taking a road trip near Winnipeg is still difficult. My friend is not willing to wait while a car charges slowly, and I sympathize with his point of view since I've spent hours myself charging in the cold.
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Andy O
Member
XHabjab
TSLA Bull
I think your warning is valid and applies if the choice is between a Tesla and ICE. If your friend(s) is/are choosing between a Tesla and another EV, the Tesla should win that race. After all, all of the other chargers in the area (besides YWG, Nott and Inn at the Forks) work on all (or most) EVs. If you discourage your friend into buying a Nissan Leaf instead of a Model 3, you have done them a disservice.
The problem is, that then the person is locked into a crappy, depreciating car. In 6 months, when the chargers are fixed, the person either takes a big depreciation loss, or stick with something FAR less than a Tesla for years. And as BMW shows, that depreciation is accelerating for ICE.
It makes no sense to make a multi-year decision based on a short term problem. Particularly if the majority of the pain is resolved by an adapter that costs less than 1% of the car price.
Chademo is $500. Just buy one and have quickish charging now, plus backup coverage now and later. Is whatever car the person buys going to depreciate LESS than the cost of the adapter (as well as operating and maintenance costs) during the time he/she owns it?
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