Superchargers in California will be clogged in 12 months, unless?

[Sasmania]

Congestion in the Bay Area in SoCal is far worse than it was a year ago. A year ago I could charge in San Mateo in the middle of the day without a wait.

Now there are 8+ car waits like this:

Yes that's really 8 cars in line.

What's worse is that 8 of the last 9 charging sessions I've only gotten 1/2 to 1/4 of the charge rate that I used to get. Every time I call Tesla for whatever site I'm having the slow charging at they always tell me that the site or stall I'm at has known issues and that there's a service ticket out to fix them.

Tesla doesn't appear to be enforcing the idling policy so folks are ignoring it and just parking for as long as they want.

Yes, Tesla really needs to start enforcing the idling policy. And they need to incorporate the fees in real time to the App and the notifications. "You are now being charged .40 cents a minute until you move your car". The plan to only charge people once they go to a service center is not effective in my opinion.

On the flip side, at least you HAVE SuperChargers in SF and LA. In Phoenix (5th largest city in USA), we don't have 1 SuperCharger. Same with Seattle.

 

[sorka]

On the flip side, at least you HAVE SuperChargers in SF and LA. In Phoenix (5th largest city in USA), we don't have 1 SuperCharger. Same with Seattle.

But there are superchargers just outside Phoenix along all the major routes. I travel to visit my dad there, family friends in Tucson, and visit the Grand Canyon several times a year and the Phoenix area superchargers are very well placed. We don't need one in Phoenix because we'll use a destination charger when we stay there.

I agree they need to fix the app to do real time audible idling fee notifications.

 

[Sasmania]

But there are superchargers just outside Phoenix along all the major routes. I travel to visit my dad there, family friends in Tucson, and visit the Grand Canyon several times a year and the Phoenix area superchargers are very well placed. We don't need one in Phoenix because we'll use a destination charger when we stay there.

Yea, but that's like me saying LA doesn't need them either as there are plenty of destination chargers in LA too. Yet LA has 5 or 7 in town.

 

[sorka]

Yea, but that's like me saying LA doesn't need them either as there are plenty of destination chargers in LA too. Yet LA has 5 or 7 in town.

Let me put it another way. The greater Phoenix area has enough superchargers in just the right locations to service long distance travelers passing through whether they are going straight through or staying for a night or more.

 

[Sasmania]

Well, by that theory, LA doesn't need the 9 SuperChargers between Temecula and Oxnard (only 120 miles apart), yet they do. You have as many in LA as we have in all of AZ. Lol

I'm all for more SuperChargers....everywhere, in both city and country side.

I'm just making the point that a crowded SC is better than no SC at all...

 

[Webeevdrivers]

Curios about something. We are not TESLA owners but are an all EV house hold. 2016 Leaf SV and 2015 Smart Cabrio ED. We do about 10,000 to 15,000 km per year. We rarely ever need a fast charger and do most of our charging at home (we have a 10k juice box) or occasionally where we shop. Do tesla owners tend to not charge at home as much? Maybe because of the battery size? Maybe you guys just do longer trips. Just curious.

 

[sorka]

Well, by that theory, LA doesn't need the 9 SuperChargers between Temecula and Oxnard (only 120 miles apart), yet they do. You have as many in LA as we have in all of AZ. Lol

I'm all for more SuperChargers....everywhere, in both city and country side.

I'm just making the point that a crowded SC is better than no SC at all...

Agreed. But I'll bet my entire life savings that 90% of the charging at those 9 superchargers are by those that live in the area.

 

[sorka]

Curios about something. We are not TESLA owners but are an all EV house hold. 2016 Leaf SV and 2015 Smart Cabrio ED. We do about 10,000 to 15,000 km per year. We rarely ever need a fast charger and do most of our charging at home (we have a 10k juice box) or occasionally where we shop. Do tesla owners tend to not charge at home as much? Maybe because of the battery size? Maybe you guys just do longer trips. Just curious.

Many Tesla owners who live by superchargers charge there because it's free and they can save money by not charging at home. There is also a considerable subset that supercharge locally because they live in apartments or condos and don't have access to any charging at all. Early on, like in 2012, Tesla even advertised that supercharging was appropriate for apartment dwellers. They soon removed that wording. They then changed it again to focus more on long distance travel only removing the "where charging at home is inconvenient".

 

[smartypnz]

Looks like Tesla will have to open Fremont 2 soon. The SC's at Fremont 1 do get waiting lines more and more. Can't depend on Dublin if in a hurry. Don't know if it's locals that may be the problem, but we are traveling to different parts within the Bay area and need to charge just a little to make the round trip home (about 120 miles south of SF).

 

[TexasEV]

Curios about something. We are not TESLA owners but are an all EV house hold. 2016 Leaf SV and 2015 Smart Cabrio ED. We do about 10,000 to 15,000 km per year. We rarely ever need a fast charger and do most of our charging at home (we have a 10k juice box) or occasionally where we shop. Do tesla owners tend to not charge at home as much? Maybe because of the battery size? Maybe you guys just do longer trips. Just curious.

A year or two ago Tesla said 10% of charging was done at superchargers. Don't know if that's still true.

 

[David99]

I live in LA and had my Model S for 3 years now and 110k miles. I use Superchargers a lot obviously. I don't think the situation has gotten worse in the last 12 months. Tesla obviously has sold many more cars and almost half of all Teslas sold are sold in California. That fact alone should make everyone who says California gets special treatment realize it's not the case. But that's beside the point. Just as much as Tesla has been selling more cars, they have opened or expanded Superchargers here. As far as I can tell, they kept up pretty well. You can drive around California without having to worry about waiting in line. It happens here and there on very busy days, but that's about it. Barstow for example had the longest line ever with more than 20 cars waiting. I have used Barstow many many times on my trips. I have never ever had to wait there. Never. The problem is stories about congested Superchargers are making the news (at least here), but it's not representative of the normal situation.

I don't worry too much about the issue, because my experience is that it is not an issue 99.9% of the time.

 

[azred]

Let me put it another way. The greater Phoenix area has enough superchargers in just the right locations to service long distance travelers passing through whether they are going straight through or staying for a night or more.

Yeah, we have it made in Arizona...as long as we give back the southeastern quarter of the state to Mexico. There is a Supercharger 25 miles South of my home in Chandler, which means my S60 can barely get to my son's home in SE Tucson and back without finding a destination charger...and there are precious few of them in Tucson for a day trip. This means we usually take our ICE to Tucson. You might have to wait in a Supercharger line in California but name a large city in California that is as isolated as Tucson. I am amazed that you mentioned Tucson in your "all is well in Arizona" comments. The 2017 Supercharger map shows a new site East of Tucson, which will be worthless for those of us traveling the heavily traveled Phoenix-Tucson corridor. The Casa Grande Supercharger was placed too close to Phoenix.

 

[Lu Ann]

Yeah, we have it made in Arizona...as long as we give back the southeastern quarter of the state to Mexico. There is a Supercharger 25 miles South of my home in Chandler, which means my S60 can barely get to my son's home in SE Tucson and back without finding a destination charger...and there are precious few of them in Tucson for a day trip. This means we usually take our ICE to Tucson. You might have to wait in a Supercharger line in California but name a large city in California that is as isolated as Tucson. I am amazed that you mentioned Tucson in your "all is well in Arizona" comments. The 2017 Supercharger map shows a new site East of Tucson, which will be worthless for those of us traveling the heavily traveled Phoenix-Tucson corridor. The Casa Grande Supercharger was placed too close to Phoenix.

I travel frequently between north Phoenix (absoulutely no Supercharger access) and Tucson for business. I can't even add the time up I have wasted waiting at L2 chargers in Tucson! There is definitely a need in that area of Tucson.

I also have needs to travel south of Tucson or near the border of New Mexico. I need to drive an ICE for those trips. It isn't even possible to travel there with any type of an adapter. Not to mention the impossiblity of traveling east on I10 from Tucson to El Paso, Texas. Superchargers are really quite overdue in this area of the country.

 

[smsprague]

Nice thing about Casa Grande is that it's never crowed and gives a high rate of charge. Only once in my twice monthly trips over the last year from Tucson to Prescott have I gotten a low rate of charge.

 

[Sasmania]

I travel frequently between north Phoenix (absoulutely no Supercharger access) and Tucson for business. I can't even add the time up I have wasted waiting at L2 chargers in Tucson! There is definitely a need in that area of Tucson.

I also have needs to travel south of Tucson or near the border of New Mexico. I need to drive an ICE for those trips. It isn't even possible to travel there with any type of an adapter. Not to mention the impossiblity of traveling east on I10 from Tucson to El Paso, Texas. Superchargers are really quite overdue in this area of the country.

Yea, I get your frustration. Lucky for me, I go N to Flagstaff all the time, and that's a breeze, but going S is a challenge.

The irony is that while there are 9 SC's in LA, many claim "the SC network is only to enable road trips." Oh really? Then why is Tesla doing so much in-fill in (some) cities before getting the actual road trip routes done? You can't yet travel from Tucson to Texas because I-10 is still not done when 7 SC's would have connected Tucson to San Antoinio. It's not just blocking Tucson to Texas, it's blocking everyone on the southern route from San Diego all the way to Miami who doesn't want to have to go hundreds of miles out of their way to reach their destination.

 

[sorka]

Yeah, we have it made in Arizona...as long as we give back the southeastern quarter of the state to Mexico. There is a Supercharger 25 miles South of my home in Chandler, which means my S60 can barely get to my son's home in SE Tucson and back without finding a destination charger...and there are precious few of them in Tucson for a day trip. This means we usually take our ICE to Tucson. You might have to wait in a Supercharger line in California but name a large city in California that is as isolated as Tucson. I am amazed that you mentioned Tucson in your "all is well in Arizona" comments. The 2017 Supercharger map shows a new site East of Tucson, which will be worthless for those of us traveling the heavily traveled Phoenix-Tucson corridor. The Casa Grande Supercharger was placed too close to Phoenix.

Yea, I hadn't considered that the 60 would be a stretch. Fortunately not an issue for me in my mere P85D.

As far as destination charging when I visit my in-laws, even though we have the Fresno supercharger, I always plugin my 50 amp extension cord to their dryer outlet. Can you not plug in and charge at your son's house?

 

[sorka]

Nice thing about Casa Grande is that it's never crowed and gives a high rate of charge. Only once in my twice monthly trips over the last year from Tucson to Prescott have I gotten a low rate of charge.

I've had the same experience. When we go to Tuscon, I charge to 80% at Casa Grande and that gives us enough to drive around there and still make the return trip to Casa Grande when we leave. I think that would be a stretch for a 60 though although a 60's 100% charge is really only an 86% charge on the 75 battery. Still the charge taper makes the wait longer for that battery than a larger battery. If I were doing regular long distance travel like that I would definitely picked the 90D over a rear wheel 60.

 

[calisnow]

Let me put it another way. The greater Phoenix area has enough superchargers in just the right locations to service long distance travelers passing through whether they are going straight through or staying for a night or more.

No, it does not.

 

[calisnow]

Agreed. But I'll bet my entire life savings that 90% of the charging at those 9 superchargers are by those that live in the area.

I use So Cal's superchargers on the regular and I do not live next to one or use one for daily charging. So Cal is a big place and the chargers are needed to make cross-so-cal travel convenient in many cases. Live in Yucaipa and want to go to San Diego and back? Good thing there is a charger in Temecula. Santa Monica to palm springs and return? Same deal etc.

 

[sorka]

No, it does not.

Well it does for me and I've used every one of them and have never had to wait in line.