Trip Report : South Bay Area to Kirkwood Ski Resort

[listy]

San Jose to Kirkwood Trip Report 70D

1. Drove to Manteca SuperCharger

• At Manteca charged to 220 Miles
• Arrived at Kirkwood: 24 miles left
• The temperature was approx. 5 Celcius (40F) and foggy most of the way.
• Drove conservatively at speed limit mostly using Autopilot to Kirkwood

2. Arrived at Kirkwood

• Only 1 other vehicle at destination charger.
• I charged to 170 miles. 5 hours of charging, added 145 miles of charge.
• Temperature was from 6 Celcius to 14 Celcius on the way back

3. Arrived Home

• Arrived home with 24 miles of charge and did not stop on the way back.
• Total 175 miles. Initially drove conservatively, as the navigation system was telling me I would not make it back with my current charge.

Comments

• I did not research the Manteca supercharger location enough, but there is no nearby coffee shop. Suggestion get you coffee then charge. No services close by. They are increasing the size of this station by an additional 12 stalls.
  
  
• At Kirkwood, the local staff guided me to the VIP parking section (no fee when I went in early Dec) where I was able to use the Tesla destination charger. The staff was kind enough to guide me in and find a working charger. I did not test all the stations. There was a ModelX 90D already charging. The staff said they could arrange the cars into position to use all the car chargers. I cannot say if that is true. The staff said that sometimes things can freeze over
  
  
• From Kirkwood, my estimation was that to get back to Manteca required 70 Miles of charge.

Suggestion

There is no sharing protocol, so here is a suggestion.
If you see that charging will be busy, do put your phone number on the dash. I really really needed to charge or else I would not have been able to return. Jackson has a level 2 charger, but it would be slow.

 

[marcmerlin]

thanks for the report. I did the same in a 90D, once in heavy snow
Marc's Blog: cars - Driving from the South Bay Area to Kirkwood in a Tesla Model S 90D

 

[listy]

Update Dec 2018

• I went on Dec 2, which was a very very busy day and the road was icy. Temperature was about -8 Celsius. I lost 10 miles just parked outside without charging.
• The entire parking lot was full and 6 of the 7 chargers were full.
• I was able to get a charger late in the afternoon and charged until 65miles. I then drove to Folsom, with about 20 miles left.

Help in Future

• It would be good to have a way for those who have enough charge until.

 

[bmwmkc323i]

I'm glad I found your post as I am planning a trip to Kirkwood as well and this info is really useful. I have a Model 3 long range battery with AWD and living in Pleasanton. My plan is to charge at home to 100% (310 miles) just before we leave which will be about 5am. Its 149 miles from my home to Kirkwood. I am assuming that the cold weather temperature and also driving up the mountain on 88 will affect my range.

Will I be able to make it to Kirkwood from Pleasanton directly if having 100% without needing to stop at the Tesla supercharger in Manteca?
Or is it safer to goto Manteca (40miles from Pleasanton) first on the way to charge back up to at least 90-95%, then drive to KW?
Do you know what is the fee to park/charge your car at the Tesla destination charger in that parking lot?

 

[AustinP]

If you leave with 100% and drive only 40 miles to the SuC in Pleasanton, you might need a long time to charge to 100%.
I would use abetterrouteplanner.com to do some simulation.

 

[listy]

Losing Charge in Parking Lot

• Also if it is cold at Kirkwood and you are in an open space you will lose charge, if you have not found a charger.

Update

• Kirkwood had 1 extra charger available, but the cars were parked in such a way that no other car could have been able to get into the parking spot correctly
• It seems like about 2:45 one of the chargers becomes free so you should be able to get additional charge to get you to either Folsom or Manteca. Jackson does have a paid charger (need to ensure you have an account)

Ask -- is there some way advocate to Kirkwood to optimize their environment? Especially if we could share the charger with people who could really benefit from charging from 1-4pm.

 

[bmwmkc323i]

@listy
If you see this message this evening, and if you dont mind, can you please text me at 925-963-8278?

 

[bmwmkc323i]

@listy
If you see this message this evening, and if you dont mind, can you please text me at 925-963-8278?

actually never mind, I went to KW today with my model 3 with a full 100% charge of 310 miles from Pleasanton and made it there with 93 miles left and I didn't stop at Manteca super charger first. Didn't use my heated seats or turn on the heater at all. When I arrived at exactly 8am, there was 4 other Tesla's already charging and I was able to get the last spot, and very lucky! 2 Tesla chargers were not being used either, probably because of the small amount of space to be able to park 6 cars at once and to reach each charger. It was odd, the first charger was only giving me 6-7 mph. After a few minutes, I switched to the other available charger and was able to get 30 mph! Most likely I'll have to try to leave home 1/2 hr earlier to be sure I can get a spot.

 

[listy]

Thanks for the update on Model 3 Kirkwood trip @bmwmkc323i . A friend had the same question. Did you have to pay the $25 parking fee? Do you think with 93 miles - (vampire cold weather drain during day) you would have had enough charge to Manteca?

Any thoughts on how to share chargers at Kirkwood? With more people using electric cars (I saw a bolt and Rav4 recently) - Kirkwood needs a different model. Is asking Kirkwood to build out more charging infrastructure or implement a 3 hr charge limit model worth asking for?

For me, with a 70D during ski season on weekends, Kirkwood is not going to be an option anymore.

 

[bmwmkc323i]

Yes, I had to pay the $25 VIP parking fee. I didn't mind though, because I can use the charger as long as I needed and also parking there is so close to the stairs and easy. Since it was my first time driving a ev to Kirkwood, I didn't know what to expect, so I charged the car to 300 miles just before I left at 4pm. From Kirkwood to my house in Pleasanton, it showed 150 miles. But when I arrived home, it showed I had 200 miles left!! Regen didn't kick in until after 60 miles. During the drive up and drive back, I didn't use any of the heated seats, didn't turn on the heater, and I also turned off cabin overheat protection. Not sure if that mattered or affected the range, so I didn't use them just in case. So with 93 miles left, I actually think I may have made it back to Manteca in this case. But then again it would depend on a lot of factors like weather/rain/snow.

while charging, a few Kirkwood guys that handle the chargers, happened to be inspecting the Tesla destination chargers. I gave them the information I had experienced regarding the one charger that was only giving me 6mph and the one I used which was getting 30mph, and they were surprised. They will have it checked out to find out the reason. For people who see this post and go up to KW, do not use the Clipper Creek chargers. They are very slow. A model X owner was using it and he was only getting 5-6mph as well. I gave them my own feedback about the charging setup. I told them I thought the chargers were too close to one another and it prevented at least 2 Tesla cars to fit in that small charging area.

Yes, I think next time you are up at KW, you should give your feedback about their charging process, othwerwise nothing will change.

 

[bmwmkc323i]

Forgot to also mention in my reply, that I think one way that can work to share the chargers for people who really need it, is to have some type of queuing system. This can be done by a sign up sheet near the charging area or maybe handled by the KW parking lot employees to keep track of who is next in line to use it, etc. Say 1 person is done charging, they could text/call the next person on the list to let them know they are done, and that person can come take his spot to charge his car.