Wiki UK and Ireland Supercharger Site News

[bainsy]

I am at the Maidstone Superchargers (Kent, near notts cutts)

I haven’t owned a Tesla for very long (less than a month) so it’s my first time driving into a supercharger (rather than reversing) and I can tell you right now it’s a absolute faff.

Especially with a car with no USS… it was quite tricky to know how close I really was

 

[JupiterMan]

I am at the Maidstone Superchargers (Kent, near notts cutts)

I haven’t owned a Tesla for very long (less than a month) so it’s my first time driving into a supercharger (rather than reversing) and I can tell you right now it’s a absolute faff.

Especially with a car with no USS… it was quite tricky to know how close I really was

there's a whole separate thread for people to whine about USS removal ... keep this for supercharger news pls!

 

[cezdoc]

For anyone in South Wales, the Supercharger at Celtic Manor in Newport now seems to be functional, few points:

- It only shows up on my phone in the Tesla app, the car still hasn't updated to display it
- All but one stalls were 'blocked off', the one I used presumably opened by someone else using it
- The ticket machine didn't charge me for parking - perhaps because I wasn't there for long or it doesn't charge electric vehicles? (Never been before)

Edit: Just read up and realised most of this information is already known, apologies

View attachment 884063

No doubt this has been noted by passers-by and locals, but just to confirm that by mid week the barriers were removed and Newport, UK was added to the in-car Nav database.

 

[cezdoc]

But where are they getting the juice from? The 4 unused superchargers were unused because of insufficient power on the site, and painting them green won't change that. Conversely, if the supply issue has been overcome then why take them away?
Maybe the answer is in the small print of the Tesla/WB contract, but it doesn't seem to make that much sense.

I suppose this is comparable with what happened at Hartshead Moor E & W last year: there were 8 stalls built at each site that took years to be powered up, at which point on both sides only 6 got commissioned with the other two being removed and replaced with Welcome Break units.

 

[PB1975]

Fleet Southbound has Tesla contractors on site now. My bet is that the site will be commissioned but maybe with 4 removed to make way for AppleGreen chargers like Northbound. Welcome Break wouldn’t be installing if the power issues hadn’t been resolved, so I think we have grounds for optimism.
I will try and pop down there later to see what’s going on.

 

[qwickshot]

I imagine Tesla and welcome break have reached some sort of deal doing forwards.

Welcome breaks approach to rolling out their own network is actually quite risky for them. If they get it wrong, it really will drive customers away from their service stations. Particularly when those customers will be stuck there for 30 mins or more and may spend money on overpriced food, drink or snacks.

If you think about it strategically, it’s probably within their interests to get a few tesla chargers on all their sites to get that all important pin in the Tesla map given Tesla only direct to their own chargers.

If the tesla chargers are full, you’ll probably use an Apple Green one instead.

 

[PB1975]

I imagine Tesla and welcome break have reached some sort of deal doing forwards.

Welcome breaks approach to rolling out their own network is actually quite risky for them. If they get it wrong, it really will drive customers away from their service stations. Particularly when those customers will be stuck there for 30 mins or more and may spend money on overpriced food, drink or snacks.

If you think about it strategically, it’s probably within their interests to get a few tesla chargers on all their sites to get that all important pin in the Tesla map given Tesla only direct to their own chargers.

If the tesla chargers are full, you’ll probably use an Apple Green one instead.

Agreed. It seems their priority is to make profit from the charging costs rather than profit from increased footfall to the services. My logic would be to make my service areas first choice for charging and then benefit from the captive audience of customers spending 30-60 minutes spending money inside rather than relying on ICE drivers who are stopping for a quick trip to the toilets.
I disagree about using AppleGreen instead though, if I saw Fleet Northbound as full on the car’s screen I would likely push on to another supercharger (Tongham/Heathrow etc) if I can rather than gamble on a third party network which may also be full.

 

[qwickshot]

I should add, that point wasn’t just about fleet, but welcome break services in general.

For me it would depend on how many 3rd party chargers there were. In 5 years there might still be only 8 superchargers still but there could be 50 apple green ones with good availability.

You might not also be able to push on due to your available range.

 

[PB1975]

Heston Services Eastbound on the M4 now have Supercharger bases installed. Looks like 8.

 

[PB1975]

Fleet Southbound update: four tombstones removed. So it looks like 8 will go live and, like northbound, 4 will become AppleGreen universal chargers.

 

[arg]

If you think about it strategically, it’s probably within their interests to get a few tesla chargers on all their sites to get that all important pin in the Tesla map given Tesla only direct to their own chargers.

That much makes sense, but if the strategy is to cream income by causing an artificial shortage of supply of Tesla charging then it seems a very short-term one: taking away 2 stalls gives a short-term small profit (but not much - only clipping the peaks) as against just installing the Applegreen ones as additional rather than alternative, but given the rapidly increasing demand as EV sales expand they will need to be adding them back before very long.

I suppose one possibility is that Fleet/Hartshead had their supply upgrades planned to match Tesla's installation and they need to boot out some Tesla stalls to get capacity for their own without paying for yet another supply upgrade. Also not impossible that the original supply upgrade, though designed by/for Tesla could have been paid for by WB in whole or part.

 

[francis247uk]

@PB1975 Many thanks for the update, do you have any pictures of the works at either Fleet Services Southbound/Northbound, also what do the Tesla contractors look like, are they driving "Ranger" model S's or liveried vans or something? (Just curious)

 

[PB1975]

@PB1975 Many thanks for the update, do you have any pictures of the works at either Fleet Services Southbound/Northbound, also what do the Tesla contractors look like, are they driving "Ranger" model S's or liveried vans or something? (Just curious)

Fleet Southbound is a G4E transit which are Tesla’s own contractors.
I plan to pop down there after lunch so will take photos (and have a chat?).

 

[Karlcole]

Anyone notice the increase of prices tofay. Seems we are now back to the 50kwh pricing

 

[PB1975]

I just visited Fleet Southbound and had a chat with the contractors. Both North and Southbound are now 8x SupercharGerd and 4x Applegreen. Going live in the New Year.

 

[Jason71]

Anyone notice the increase of prices tofay. Seems we are now back to the 50kwh pricing

Can you elaborate? do you mean 50p/kwh?

 

[Karlcole]

Can you elaborate? do you mean 50p/kwh?

Yes exactly that

 

[Buzzliteyear]

Which chargers?

 

[Guppykev]

Fleet Northbound has now had the 4x unused Superchargers removed which will likely be replaced with AppleGreen chargers (Welcome Break’s own network).
This is sad news as it doesn’t bode well for the Tesla-Welcome Break relationship and may mean we are unlikely to see any expansion of old sites.
Background: Old Supercharger network lead left to join Welcome Break to lead their network rollout.

Same at Sarn Services, Bridgend!

 

[SteelmanMFC]

Tongham up from 40p - 50p as in pic