Tesla's Destination Chargers growing rapidly - an under reported story

[HookBill]

ecarfan, not to stray too far from the intent of this thread but I would like to thank you for creating a topic that does not bring about controversy and flaming comments and insults from various tesla/non-tesla fanboys. It is a ray of sunshine reading such positive comments while helping to educate those of us who follow this forum on positive items that many times simply get overlooked and under appreciated.

 

[Curt]

The ever-expanding network of Destination Chargers is particularly exciting for Roadster owners, since we don't have the Supercharging option. I select my hotels on all of my road trips to take advantage of Destination Chargers.

 

[thecloud]

The ever-expanding network of Destination Chargers is particularly exciting for Roadster owners, since we don't have the Supercharging option. I select my hotels on all of my road trips to take advantage of Destination Chargers.

I'm curious to hear what your experience has been at hotels/motels with destination chargers.

Was it self-park? First-come, first-served? If so, was there ever a point where you didn't get to charge because the spots were taken?

Or did you hand over your key to a valet so they could move your car later when it was done charging?

 

[JSergeant]

I've stayed at hotels with Destination Chargers fairly often on our various cross-country trips. They have enabled us to visit places where the Superchargers didn't (and most cases, still don't) go. Some examples:

Last year we went through the Canadian Rockies from Seattle to Calgary and Edmonton. We stayed in the Comfort Inn in Airdrie (north of Calgary) and the Coast Edmonton Plaza hotel in Edmonton, both of which have Destination Chargers which made the trip possible.

We visited Louisville, KY before there were any Superchargers in Kentucky by staying at the 21 C Hotel. Same thing with Bentonville, AR, where there is another 21 C Hotel (which are fantastic hotels, BTW.)

On our recent cross-country trip we visited Fargo, ND, staying at the Element Hotel and using the Destination Charger, and then drove North to Winnipeg where we stayed at the St Norbert Hotel, again using the DC. Earlier on the same trip we stayed in the Alt Hotel in Montreal (Griffintown), which also has 2 DC's, which were much more convenient than having to trek to the Supercharger in Montreal traffic. The Alt Hotel was also one of the nicest and least expensive hotels on the whole trip (partly due to the exchange rate.)

I'd also like to put in a good word for the Sun Country chargers in Canada, which made possible some more of that trip - across to Regina, up to Saskatoon (where we stayed at the Delta Bessborough hotel, which has a Sun Country charger), and then across to Medicine Hat, where we stayed at a brand new Hampton Inn, which had both a Tesla DC and a Sun Country Charger. In between the hotels we used Sun Country chargers either at Peavey Mart's or random small town locations. We stayed for 4 days in Kelowna, BC at the Best Western Plus, which not only has the Tesla Superchargers and a Destination charger, but also four Sun Country chargers! BTW many of the Sun Country chargers are 72 amp, so if you have dual chargers or the high amperage charger you can get faster charging. I am looking into whether I can upgrade my S90D to high amperage for future trips.

We make a point of trying to stay at hotels with Destination Chargers if the hotels are reasonably priced - unfortunately a lot of the DC's are at fairly expensive hotels.

 

[ecarfan]

ecarfan, not to stray too far from the intent of this thread but I would like to thank you for creating a topic that does not bring about controversy and flaming comments and insults from various tesla/non-tesla fanboys

Thank you. I am hoping this thread can stay positive and constructive.

I'm curious to hear what your experience has been at hotels/motels with destination chargers.
Was it self-park? First-come, first-served? If so, was there ever a point where you didn't get to charge because the spots were taken?

I have stayed at other places in California with Tesla HPWCs and with "generic" J1772 chargers. Every destination sets their own policies and it varies quite a bit. I have not yet arrived at a destination and discovered that no chargers were available but of course that could happen and will likely happen to me at some point as the number of EVs grows (but the number of destination chargers will also continue to increase). My advice is, before booking a destination that has charging, to talk to them directly and ask about their charging rules. Then after you book, the day before you are to arrive call the destination and remind them you are coming and will need charging.

The more destinations install charging and hear from EV owners about their needs the easier it will be for us. It's still early days and sometimes destination staff have no idea their employer offers EV charging or they know very little about it. Educate them, and be patient.

 

[ecarfan]

Also, my wife and I never miss an opportunity to let a destination that doesn't offer EV charging know that they should, and that the Tesla Destination Charging program will give them two chargers, free! Most destinations know nothing about EVs or the Tesla program. Every time you stay somewhere, talk to them about it.

 

[thecloud]

My advice is, before booking a destination that has charging, to talk to them directly and ask about their charging rules. Then after you book, the day before you are to arrive call the destination and remind them you are coming and will need charging.

This is very good advice.

The more destinations install charging and hear from EV owners about their needs the easier it will be for us. It's still early days and sometimes destination staff have no idea their employer offers EV charging or they know very little about it. Educate them, and be patient.

We've encountered two types of staff: the ones who have no idea what we're talking about ("Sorry, I don't know, I'll have to ask [some person who isn't here]"), and the ones who say, "Electric car charging? Sure can! Not a problem!" and then it turns out to be a not-free J1772 station, or a standard wall outlet without a dedicated EV stall. One hotel where we stayed last year had a HPWC which was first-come first-served, and the same Model S was occupying that spot for the entire weekend that we were there. It seemed petty to complain about it, although I would have if I didn't have any other charging option (we ended up using Chargepoint.)

In retrospect, I didn't know the right questions to ask about available facilities and usage policies. It seemed enough to ask "do you offer EV charging?" and hear an affirmative answer. As you said, education and patience are needed, for everyone involved. I am still learning what my actual needs are. Do I really need to stay plugged in overnight, when three or four hours at 30A might suffice and allow another driver to charge their car? Or if I need to charge overnight, can I reserve the charger? Trips are always less stressful when you can know what to expect.

 

[KJD]

We've encountered two types of staff: the ones who have no idea what we're talking about ("Sorry, I don't know, I'll have to ask [some person who isn't here]"), and the ones who say, "Electric car charging? Sure can! Not a problem!" and then it turns out to be a not-free J1772 station, or a standard wall outlet without a dedicated EV stall. One hotel where we stayed last year had a HPWC which was first-come first-served, and the same Model S was occupying that spot for the entire weekend that we were there.....

Sometimes plugshare comments will alert you to this kind of abuse.

I have also been known to leave notes on cars that use charging stalls as "long term parking spots".

 

[AB4EJ]

I'm curious to hear what your experience has been at hotels/motels with destination chargers.

Was it self-park? First-come, first-served? If so, was there ever a point where you didn't get to charge because the spots were taken?

Or did you hand over your key to a valet so they could move your car later when it was done charging?

I have had good experiences here - (at least with Hilton) - you simply inform the desk when using the charger and give them you mobile phone#; if someone else needs the charger, they can call you and you can move your Tesla. I just parked my car at HPWC charging slot at Hilton in Gulf Breeze (FL) - it stayed there unmoving for 2 days, and nobody else needed to charge. In fact, this was good publicity for Tesla, as I did see curious people checking out the car sitting at the charger station, which is right outside the main entrance.

My policy is, if I can do it, to patronize hotel properties which have HPWCs, to give them business in appreciation for putting in the HPWC. (These properties tend to be more expensive, at least what I have seen so far). Here in the southeast, my car is usually the only one to use the charging station, sometimes for a long time.(This may change once the Model 3 comes out).

 

[TexasEV]

Really bad form. How do you know no one else wanted to charge there? Maybe the person didn't think to ask at the desk if the car parked there could be moved. There were several shift changes at the desk. How do you know that each clerk knew she should call you if someone asked? And why should someone have to go to the trouble of trying to find whose car it was THAT FINIHSED CHARGING THE PREVIOUS DAY?

Your car likely finished charging during the first night. When you went out that morning you should have moved the car to a regular parking space. That would have been the polite thing to do, without having to be asked.

 

[KJD]

I have had good experiences here - (at least with Hilton) - you simply inform the desk when using the charger and give them you mobile phone#; if someone else needs the charger, they can call you and you can move your Tesla. I just parked my car at HPWC charging slot at Hilton in Gulf Breeze (FL) - it stayed there unmoving for 2 days, and nobody else needed to charge. In fact, this was good publicity for Tesla, as I did see curious people checking out the car sitting at the charger station, which is right outside the main entrance.
.

Why not just move the car after the charging is complete?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Yeah, be nice and move the car once it finishes charging (like the next morning). Takes 5 minutes.

 

[AudubonB]

As ecarfan's original post requested others to share their experiences I am going to, as I've been biding my time awaiting the appropriate venue for doing so. Unfortunately, the experience is not a good one - but I PROMISE to update it if circumstances so merit.

Over the past year, I have spent a good amount of time and a very large amount of extremely hard-won goodwill in my industry campaigning heavily amongst other Alaskan lodges and such, teaching them about Destination Chargers and the benefits for them of same. I then contacted TM and requested that we be added to the program. Our operation is, indeed, a poster child for what a Charger Destination should be: higher end, as environmentally friendly as anyone, anywhere on earth can be in the accommodations industry, eye-candy scenery...if we could become a DC site, other operations also would fall in line and the far-flung tourist destination that is Alaska's road system would become accessible to Teslas...

...and the response from Tesla was silence. I tried again - same non-response.

I am playing the long game here, and taking the bit in mouth trying to ready both Alaska and Tesla for each other in anticipation of the Model 3 onslaught. My frustration is exacerbated because of the now very long-standing TM website commitment to opening a Service Center in Anchorage...still nothing on that front, either.

Alaska is a highly unfortunate in that it is

* big, sparsely populated country
* immensely popular as a tourist destination, and one that almost exclusively is centered around automotive tourism
* highly affluent - one of the highest per-capita disposable incomes of the 50 states
* too far from NoAm population centers to be connected....for a long time...to the rest of any Tesla network*
* needful of its own SvC (or 2 or 3)

and so we have neither chickens nor eggs here. The fourteen or so Teslas now extant are, absolutely obviously, hardly worthy of Tesla reaching out to assist, in ways like DCs, BUT the most effective way for TM to sell more cars here would be to prime the pump in this most parsimonious of options.

It absolutely galls me no end that TM has shown itself hugely ready to supply DC equipment to many, many hundreds of AirBnBs in regions already heavily served by charging options, but that it gives not even short shrift but absolutely zero shrift to real businesses in a location for which the emplacement of same would utterly advantage Tesla in opening up a very, very ready market for its vehicles.

I am, as is evident from the above, extremely disappointed all around.

*Paul Carter's post #20 about attempting TM to provide DCs throughout northern BC is, indeed, welcome and necessary initself, but it is neither sufficient nor a necessary step for Alaska to be provided with its own grid of DCs

 

[thecloud]

I was doing some homework to follow up on @ecarfan's suggestion of proselytizing for the Destination Charging program. If you go to the Contact Us link on that page, it takes you to a sketchy-looking web form which uses some non-https links, hosted by a site called Wufoo. Their About Us page reads like a "Silicon Valley" parody.

 

[TexasEV]

I was doing some homework to follow up on @ecarfan's suggestion of proselytizing for the Destination Charging program. If you go to the Contact Us link on that page, it takes you to a sketchy-looking web form which uses some non-https links, hosted by a site called Wufoo. Their About Us page reads like a "Silicon Valley" parody.

If someone doesn't like the web form, they can email [email protected].

 

[thecloud]

If someone doesn't like the web form, they can email [email protected].

Thanks for the suggestion. How did you discover that email? I didn't see it on either page.

Trying to be constructively critical here. Putting myself in the shoes of a hotelier, I would expect to be contacting Tesla and giving my details to Tesla, not some unrelated web developers who like broadswords, dragons, and eating crayons for a dollar. This feels like an outsourced handoff, even if it's all run by Tesla using a web form service. The site doesn't inspire confidence when my browser (Firefox) tells me that the connection is not secure. In this case, it's just that they're loading an image over http instead of https, but it's not a good first impression... why do I need to hand my name, email, and phone number to something called "Wufoo.com" rather than Tesla?

But I'm not a hotelier, so I don't need to submit that form. Next time I stay at a hotel without EV charging, I'll be sure to provide them with the email address.

 

[TexasEV]

You click the contact us link on the tesla.com destination charging page and that form called Destination Charging comes up to enter your contact info. I really don't think the average hotel manager is going to look at the web address, much less investigate the domain.

 

[Chuq]

The destination charger program is fantastic in my little corner of the world. There are only about 10-12 Teslas vehicles in the state - yet seven destination charger locations!

 

[ecarfan]

The destination charger program is fantastic in my little corner of the world. There are only about 10-12 Teslas vehicles in the state - yet seven destination charger locations!

In Tasmania! That is outstanding. Electricity is everywhere..

 

[Chuq]

In Tasmania! That is outstanding. Electricity is everywhere..

And it's all clean here too