Supercharging etiquette

[ck867]

What do you do if you show up to a Supercharging station and it's full? How do you "get" in line for the next spot?

 

[csshih]

usually people form a queue in the lot, it's fairly obvious when that is the case! just don't block anyone from coming out.

 

[crackers8199]

this happened to me saturday night in vegas (town square). when i came out of the restaurant we had dinner at, there was a model S sitting in the lane next to the superchargers (not in a parking spot) clearly waiting since all 10 were in use. i saw him and waved him to follow me down to the end (i was at the last one), and moved my car to another spot and he took mine. he got out and thanked me before i went on my way.

 

[MikeATL]

What do you do if you show up to a Supercharging station and it's full? How do you "get" in line for the next spot?

My limited exposure to Supercharger at this point found they have plenty of capacity, but as hundreds of thousands of these M3's get out there, it is going to get tighter. I'd fully expect they have plans to add a queue system to the network and cars in route to each SuperCharger could join the queue on their Navigation System and be updated on their status.

 

[David99]

Just look around if you see any other Tesla's waiting near by. If you can, go behind them. If it's not possible to form a physical line, then just remember you was there before you and let them pull in first when something opens up. I have supercharged about 1000 times over the last 4 years. It's rare that you have to wait. Some stations that are known to be busy have valet people take you car and handle it for you. Tesla is awesome that way.

 

[chillaban]

Some places allow queueing in the lane but other places don't allow you to queue due to the way it blocks traffic…. When there's not an obvious queue, I'll usually park nearby the other Teslas and get out and try to talk to those owners waiting. Usually they're both polite and pretty eager to assert who was there first


But FWIW, I've had a few situations in the past where someone just cuts the queue obliviously and tries to park and charge. In all of those circumstances, just letting the driver know that there's a queue was all it took to get them to move out of the way.

I think in our minds we'd like to think 99% of those kinds of drivers are deliberately being jerks when in reality I think that's less than a 1% ordeal. I'm sure you'll run into someone with no moral compass who will just shrug and plug in anyway. But I've yet to see that happen.