Supercharging on I90 can be lonely

[RobertSeattle]

My family is on our first big Tesla trip from Seattle to Big Sky/Yellowstone.
My supercharger experience (all during daytime as well) has been:

Ellensburg: 30 minutes - 1 other Tesla
Ritzville: 30 minutes - nobody
Coeur d'Alene - 1 hour - nobody
Superior - 20 minutes - 1 other Tesla
Missoula - 50 minutes - nobody
Butte - 50 minutes - nobody
West Yellowstone - 40 minutes - 1 other Tesla (looks like it was parked overnight from dew)
West Yellowstone - 50 minutes - nobody
Bozeman - 25 minutes - nobody

Is this pretty typical?

 

[ModelX]

Yep!

 

[TaoJones]

Pretty much, yep.

With about 150 SCs visited, I've only had to wait at 3 of them.

 

[ibdb]

I've found myself at Ellensburg alone, and I've found cars waiting because every supercharger was in use. Most often I've found 1 or 2 cars there -- it all depends on when you hit it.

 

[Lyon]

The only one I've waited for was in Las Vegas and it was on the weekend of the Gigafactory opening. During that same trip there were several stops (especially closer to the event) where the station was mostly full. The majority of the time, however, Supercharging is a lonely thing to do. It's a great time to walk the dog though.

 

[GHammer]

Yup, pretty typical outside of California. Our recent trip from Oregon to Denver to Vegas and Home was,
Detroit Oregon 1 pulled in as we left.
Baker City Oregon-1 other
Boise-1 pulled in as we left
Tremonton UT-nobody
Salt Lake City-nobody
Price UT 1 other
Green River (twice) nobody
Grand Junction CO (twice) nobody
Glenwood Springs CO (twice) nobody
Silverthorne CO 1 other
etc.....You get the idea.

 

[ZBB]

We were the only one Supercharging at most of those earlier this month (all except Ellensburg and Ritzville - our route didn't take us through those).

Over our 4600 mile road trip this summer, where we visited 29 Superchargers, all except one had either just us or one other car.

 

[Rockster]

I drove from Dallas to Tampa and back and only saw a single other Tesla supercharging on the entire round-trip.

 

[ChadS]

We just hit all those same chargers last week. We were the only one at most of them. A couple had one other car. On the way home, in Ellensburg, we pulled in to an empty station, but there were three others when we left.

In well over 200 charges at 90 different Superchargers, we have never had to wait. I am starting to feel less envious of our first year of ownership when all the chargers were in California...

 

[cpa]

One year ago for us:
The Dalles: 3 others besides us
Ellensburg: We were the only ones
Ritzville: One other charging when we arrived. We were spending the night, so I charged the next morning. Next morning one arrived whilst charging
Couer D'Alene: One charging when we arrived; one other arrived. (We were only there 15 min.)
Ritzville, Part Deux: We were the only ones
The Dalles: Two others charging when we arrived.
Woodburn: Four others charging when we arrived

Some smart person on this site should write an app for us to access when we Supercharge for us to input key data like day of the week, time o'day, number of users upon arrival, number of users upon departure and wait time, if any. (Hint, hint.)

 

[SageBrush]

Nice counterpoint to the doom&gloom threads of SC inadequacy.

 

[RobertSeattle]

One year ago for us:
The Dalles: 3 others besides us
Ellensburg: We were the only ones
Ritzville: One other charging when we arrived. We were spending the night, so I charged the next morning. Next morning one arrived whilst charging
Couer D'Alene: One charging when we arrived; one other arrived. (We were only there 15 min.)
Ritzville, Part Deux: We were the only ones
The Dalles: Two others charging when we arrived.
Woodburn: Four others charging when we arrived

Some smart person on this site should write an app for us to access when we Supercharge for us to input key data like day of the week, time o'day, number of users upon arrival, number of users upon departure and wait time, if any. (Hint, hint.)

I just wish Tesla would update the App or website and have real-time data on the SCs like ChargePoint, etc does.

 

[RobertSeattle]

Nice counterpoint to the doom&gloom threads of SC inadequacy.

Yes - this was my first big trip with with a Tesla and seeing some of the California SC issues made me pleasantly "disappointed" at how quiet the Pacific Northwest I90 SCs were.

 

[David99]

Outside of California, yes. I've done 40k miles on road trips, 50 different Superchargers and 300 times Supercharged in the last 2.5 years. It's pretty typical to have very little company at Superchargers.
In California I don't remember the last time I had an empty Supercharger. It's much busier here

 

[Ciaopec]

It's a lonely job but someone has to do it. Happily, I, like most people here are the ones who GET to do it!

 

[Lyon]

It's always frustrating to me when I hear people say that "I've never seen anyone here, I just assumed no one used these things" when I talk with locals. I patiently explain that most people using the station will only need to stop for 15 or 20 minutes and that it would be easy to miss them unless one were watching all the time. I'm pretty sure all of these stations are getting used at least daily at this point; they just don't stick around all that long.

 

[PtG62901]

I just wish Tesla would update the App or website and have real-time data on the SCs like ChargePoint, etc does.

I'm waiting for Tesla to provide live security feed of the SC area. It would be nice to see the line.

 

[Bighorn]

On one of my cross country trips, I charted occupancy by total stalls and it was 5%. That was a couple years ago--it was a bit higher on this current 12,000 mile loop, but lots of solo charging still.

 

[RobertSeattle]

Just got back to Seattle from Big Sky, MT - 727 Miles in 12.5 hours - 1 driver (and 2 ten-year-olds). Every SC from Butte to Ritzville was a nobody - Ellensburg, WA had one other Tesla - the dirtiest X I've ever seen.

 

[Bighorn]

Just got back to Seattle from Big Sky, MT - 727 Miles in 12.5 hours - 1 driver (and 2 ten-year-olds). Every SC from Butte to Ritzville was a nobody - Ellensburg, WA had one other Tesla - the dirtiest X I've ever seen.

Did you account for the time change? That's super fast--it's tough to exceed a 55 mph average regardless of how fast you drive.