Supercharging pain in rear

[oktane]

Taking a road trip in CA this weekend and needed to stop at the Burbank SC. I had about 60 mi rated range left and several hundred to go. Got the last open stall in the station with 3-4 cars waiting in line. My car was charging at a paltry 35 kW, with over 2 hours needed to make it to my next waypoint. Other SC gave me 115 kW.

This is not what I signed up for. My time is waaay more valuable then waiting 2 hours at a Starbucks in the ghetto for what would have been a 7 minute fuel stop.

I didn't realize that when all SC stalls are occupied they lower the output. What's the point of having more stalls?

Pretty eye opening. I probably won't waste time driving my Tesla on a road trip anytime soon. Hope instead of penalizing Tesla owners for idling he builds many more SC stations instead.

Happened to also be at the Porsche dealer this weekend with a friend. The $150k I paid for my Tesla buys a lot of Porsche. And I don't have to see all the miserable Tesla drivers camped out like bums sleeping in their cars at the SC stations.

 

[LastGas]

The Superchargers are paired: 1A-1B, 2A-2B ... When one car is charging on one of the pair, it charges at full speed. When a second arrives, it gets what's left over. At least in theory, when the first car leaves, the second becomes the priority car and charges at full speed.

I have seen instances when one of the chargers is just slower than normal, and no other cars are charging. In that case, move to another charger pair.

 

[oktane]

Good to know. However sounds like a serious design flaw. All stalls need to be upgraded and more added in these areas before fining consumers. That's the obvious solution but not the cheapest.

 

[TexasEV]

I think you post here enough to know that Burbank is not the typical supercharger experience.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Taking a road trip in CA this weekend and needed to stop at the Burbank SC. I had about 60 mi rated range left and several hundred to go. Got the last open stall in the station with 3-4 cars waiting in line. My car was charging at a paltry 35 kW, with over 2 hours needed to make it to my next waypoint. Other SC gave me 115 kW.

This is not what I signed up for. My time is waaay more valuable then waiting 2 hours at a Starbucks in the ghetto for what would have been a 7 minute fuel stop.

I didn't realize that when all SC stalls are occupied they lower the output. What's the point of having more stalls?

Pretty eye opening. I probably won't waste time driving my Tesla on a road trip anytime soon. Hope instead of penalizing Tesla owners for idling he builds many more SC stations instead.

Happened to also be at the Porsche dealer this weekend with a friend. The $150k I paid for my Tesla buys a lot of Porsche. And I don't have to see all the miserable Tesla drivers camped out like bums sleeping in their cars at the SC stations.

Sounds sad. We're just not quite to electric car utopia yet. I wouldn't want to be in any kind of hurry doing a road trip through California in an electric car. We're still very much early adopters. It's going to be a while before long distance travel is as convenient as doing it in an ice.

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

Like others have said you probably arrived later than someone else so you will have slower charging for a while until they are almost full. However if you were getting that rate for more than 1 hour then something is wrong with the charger. I suspect Burbank charger are being used heavily and hence why they are showing reduce charging.

There are a list of supercharger I avoid unless I absolutely need to stop. Burbank is one of them.

 

[adwang]

Tried SuperCharger the first time yesterday. I was not prepared for the shock. It took me 1 hour to charge from 150mile to 250mile for my S90D. The initial charge rate was like 10mile/hour, i thought the stall I use had issues so I moved to a different one. Quickly, I realized that cold weather was limiting the charge speed. After 30min, the charge rate goes up to 100mile/hour.

Way slower than I thought I heard from tesla.

Now, for winter driving and charging, prepare charge frequently and longer.

 

[habanero69]

The Superchargers are paired: 1A-1B, 2A-2B ... When one car is charging on one of the pair, it charges at full speed. When a second arrives, it gets what's left over. At least in theory, when the first car leaves, the second becomes the priority car and charges at full speed.

I have seen instances when one of the chargers is just slower than normal, and no other cars are charging. In that case, move to another charger pair.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What I've found to be true when charging.

 

[habanero69]

Tried SuperCharger the first time yesterday. I was not prepared for the shock. It took me 1 hour to charge from 150mile to 250mile for my S90D. The initial charge rate was like 10mile/hour, i thought the stall I use had issues so I moved to a different one. Quickly, I realized that cold weather was limiting the charge speed. After 30min, the charge rate goes up to 100mile/hour.

Way slower than I thought I heard from tesla.

Now, for winter driving and charging, prepare charge frequently and longer.

I don't think this is true at all temperatures that you may consider cold. I was able to charge from 30+ degrees just as fast all the way to 70 degrees. Maybe once you fall much below freezing for the starting BATTERY TEMP, that might be the case, and for below zero, I'm sure there would be significant impact.

 

[andrewket]

Burbank seems to be problematic location and is not typical or representative of most SuCs. Having said that, it could be an indication of what is to come with M3.

How to make the best use of the SuC network is covered ad nauseam on here in other threads and in YouTube videos. A little bit of knowledge will go a long way.

1. Skip Burbank
2. Arrive at the SuC with as few miles as possible but over 10 to maximize charge rate
3. Charge only as much as you need to get to the next charger
4. The miles/hr charge rate displayed is an average of the entire session. kW is an instantaneous rating.
5. Stalls are paired. Avoid a used pair if possible.
6. Charge with a warm battery if possible. In cold weather, driving, stopping to charge, and then on to your final destination and return will likely be faster than driving, reach destination, allow car to cold soak, charge, return.

 

[oktane]

I think you post here enough to know that Burbank is not the typical supercharger experience.

And that's supposed to be an excuse on behalf of Tesla? You either own stock or they are paying you… lol. Keeping my fingers crossed that Tesla works quickly to address customer concerns.

 

[JasonA-EV]

then waiting 2 hours at a Starbucks in the ghetto.

LOL this made me laugh you thinking Burbank is ghetto! You haven't heard about other SC locations then

Anyways, Burbank is a known slow problem and I think they are throttling power to get around demand charges from BWP.

 

[Bet TSLA]

And that's supposed to be an excuse on behalf of Tesla? You either own stock or they are paying you… lol. Keeping my fingers crossed that Tesla works quickly to address customer concerns.

What it was supposed to mean is that you are likely less ignorant than you sound. There is no question that EVs on a road trip are currently less convenient and slower to refuel than ICEs. Of all the EV manufacturers only Tesla has provided a top of the line EV refueling infrastructure. It still sucks, but it will get better as the technology improves.

So what is it you don't understand? Me, I'm thrilled to be driving the future. Yeah, it's not as great as I'd like in all ways yet. But, wow, I sure think they've got the local driving thing nailed -- no more visits to the gas station and only a few seconds to plug in and unplug at home. Close to perfection!

 

[JRMW]

The $150k I paid for my Tesla buys a lot of Porsche.

Every car has strengths and weaknesses

The $157k Porsche Cayenne can haul a lot. But only goes 0-60 in 3.8 seconds. Plus it's a gas car so you have to waste 5 minutes of your life and $3-4 per gallon every 2 weeks or so

The $142k Porsche Panamera does it in 3.5. But at 15 mpg you're stuck with that same gas related problem

Porsche 911 Turbo will get you 2.9 second. But try hauling something in that. Again, meet the gas station. Often.

So yes, the Tesla fails the road trip convenience test.
But a $150k Tesla excels at the combo of speed (beating all three Porsches), people hauling, gear hauling, and day to day refueling hassle you get with the others.

I personally don't road trip. I fly. So this issue doesn't impact me. But that's why I chose a Tesla.

On a side note, an empty Airline jet takes 4.9 seconds to get to 60mph. Loaded it's 6 to 10 seconds. So much slower. But then it can go 550mph+ And haul hundreds of passengers

Strengths and weaknesses.

All that said, yes more SC are needed

 

[sorka]

The only time I've experienced charging that slow is when there's an actual problem. You'll get more than even if you start 1 second on the pair after the first guy starts at 0% SOC.

I was at Fremont a few weeks ago and experienced 27KW for 2 hours. I thought about leaving that stall and getting back in line but just suffered through it as I was getting work done for work on my macbook. I of course called the supercharging number and they confirmed that the stall I was in was having some sort of issue and that they'd report it "right away".

This is the third time in the last 6 charging sessions that I've experienced god awful slow charging(actually one of the time was my wife when I wasn't there):

Wife just said she's never driving the Tesla again......

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Good to know. However sounds like a serious design flaw. All stalls need to be upgraded and more added in these areas before fining consumers. That's the obvious solution but not the cheapest.

Precisely: Tesla's approach was an attempt to keep the cost of the charging network down. To have all stalls full and everybody charging at full power would _double_ the cost of the required hardware.

But then, that wouldn't do anything to stop people parking their cars at Superchargers, which leaves fewer available charging spaces, and decreases the effective capacity of the system, effectively increasing the numbers of stalls needed to meet demand, and thus increasing cost of the system. The idle fee, ironically, is an attempt to lower the cost of charging.

The pairing does at least allow you to plug in and leave your vehicle, rather than have to wait until somebody else unplugs and moves their car.

 

[Lloyd]

I was told by the service adviser at Burbank that the Local Grid Feed was maxed out, and that additional power for the existing superchargers, and/or additional SC's was not available without a major upgrade of the local grid.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Wife just said she's never driving the Tesla again......

One of my favorite old threads. We need to get that one opened back up

 

[Yggdrasill]

Burbank sounds like a prime candidate for adding Powerpacks. Add a couple of MWh of energy storage and the peak power output should be improved substantially.

 

[Merrill]

In 3 1/2 years I have never waited more than 50 minutes.