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Tesla High-usage Supercharger Station Max battery charge of 80%
- Thread starter Rkoroma
- Start date
Wooloomooloo
Member
The sooner they start hard enforcing this 80% limit, the better. The 50 mins or so it takes to squeeze in the last 5% at these busy locations really doesn't help congestion.
That’s is very true but I put this out just for the people on road trips who really need the extra juice to limit the frequency of stops. But for the regulars that Supercharge and leave their vehicles for hours, I’m glad they’re enforcing this especially in CA.
Wooloomooloo
Member
Yeah fair enough, but TBH given the spacing of Superchargers and the charge speed at different levels of charge, it very rare for it to be worth committing an extra 30 mins getting an extra 10% charge at the very top end, to get to a charger an extra 25 miles away.
Maybe if it's the last sprint home or something, it could make the difference, but again spending an extra 30 mins charging to avoid a 15 mins stop nearer to your destination, doesn't make sense time wise.
It doesn't really affect people traveling but more to free up space for people that are locally supercharging.
The first SC that we had in San Diego is next to Qualcomm where all the employees use it. It was always busy.
I agree! I certainly don’t do it! I’m a 80%-90% type of guy. My Model S only has 260 miles and that’s good enough for my long commutes to San Diego.
I’ve been there before and it’s packed with empty cars. People charge there just to charge not because they actually need it. Hope the fines for over exceeding your Supercharging limit increases.
Try taking highways besides the interstates in the mountain and plains states and you'll find that a charge over 80% is often needed. Supercharging stations can be 100 miles or even 200+ miles apart if travelling north/south in the plains.
d21mike
Active Member
The problem you are missing here is the added wait time for the Superchargers that are FULL or likely to be FULL the closer you get to home. In my case the Superchargers are less busy at the location for my trip home. But once I get anywhere near my home the Superchargers are FULL. My 80% rated charge is 197 miles. But I never get a full 197 real miles unless driving quite slow compared to other drivers on the highway. So add the extra travel time due to slower travel speed and also the wait time at local superchargers and the extra time for charging > 80% is definitely worth it. Also, in my case I only use Superchargers about 4-6 times per year. Wouldn't you think that travelers like myself are not the problem with over crowded Superchargers? Again, I say it should not be applied to cars > 50 or 100 miles from home since they are not the problem.
Wooloomooloo
Member
And maybe the software can be smart enough to figure this out. So if you need to charge to 95% to make that trip, it's OK you can. But if you charge to 95% and then go home and leave your car idle for a week, you can a surcharge or something.
I think I’m general Tesla just wants to be fair. Some Tesla employees also own Tesla’s as well and they have a direct line to complain about the absurd wait times. I think this is a situation about common courtesy and in the old Tesla days people had that. Now there are 100,000’s more vehicles on the road and not enough chargers. That’s why they have updated the Superchargers and the vehicles to accept a higher charge rate. Just happy to help spark the conversation.
It's been brought up elsewhere, but charging over 80% is almost always important for people towing with their vehicle. I am about to embark on a 2000+ mile trip with our Airstream, and I will definitely need to get close to 100% on a regular basis. I understand what Tesla is trying to do here, and I'm sure there's a good implementation in the future that solves problems without creating new ones.
On most road trips, overcharging at one stop in order to skip another one often takes more time than just stopping at both. There are, of course, exceptions, where one stop has a long diversion, heavy traffic, is out of order, etc. But generally speaking, it's faster to run in the bottom half of the battery and stop more often than it is to charge full and skip charging stops.
The big issue is that some folks charge to 100% at Superchargers in order to make shopping trips and meal breaks longer. It's more convenient for them because they don't have to come out and move to another spot, but less convenient for others who are waiting in line to use the Superchargers. Superchargers are there to get you down the road, not provide destination charging at your favorite restaurant or mall.
I'm in favor of the 80% limit at busy stations. However, that limit should be relaxed in locations without heavy Supercharger coverage and in off-peak hours where the stations aren't generally busy. For example, Murdo, SD is only 4-stalls and can see high utilization, but a 100% charge can be required depending on weather and your destination. Stations like this should never be limited. Conversely, Springfield, VA can get busy at times, but there are several other Supercharging options within 10 miles and several more within 100 miles, so you'd never need more than 80% leaving Springfield.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
The first thing they need to do is figure out how to detect when stalls are broken and not show them as unoccupied. Even better would be to somehow show wait times in the nav system. Then only have the 80% limit when the station is actually congested.
The solution to the problem of some people needing to charge to 100% (which is very rare!) is to have one stall with a 100% limit paired with a stall with a 60% limit. The other stalls should have an 80% limit.
The solution to the problem of some people needing to charge to 100% (which is very rare!) is to have one stall with a 100% limit paired with a stall with a 60% limit. The other stalls should have an 80% limit.
