UK Supercharger locations currently unbalanced.

[germinal]

I weekly drive Dover -> Newcastle and back.. With an ICE. I think it's possible with a Tesla but I'm not sure it would be a great experience. The SC along the way only have 2 stalls, so the chance of them being occupied might be very real :s also no SC on the A1, and I wouldnt call the A1 a quiet road

 

[arg]

Hi folks. I've been in a discussion on Twitter about UK superchargers not being able to support high charging at more than one stall at a time. Any truth in this ?

This is a standard feature of almost all Superchargers everywhere: they are installed in pairs, and the total power to each pair is limited to at most 145kW. An individual car can draw up to 120kW, so if two cars are plugged in and both cars are almost empty they will start charging at around half the rate they would otherwise have received. However, a car can only take the maximum power for 10 minutes or so, hence unless both cars arrived simultaneously the first one has probably already reduced its charging rate by the time the second one arrives. By the time the car(s) are 60% full, they are only drawing about half the maximum rate anyhow. There's a huge number of permutations of how much charge each car had when you arrived and how much it wanted to leave with, but a penalty of 10-15 minutes if you have to share is probably typical.

As regards the UK rather than anywhere else, there are rather more locations here with only a single supercharger (ie. a pair of stalls), so there's slightly more chance that you are forced to share - if you arrive at one of the larger sites and there is a car already charging, you can choose one of the other pairs of stalls and avoid sharing. On the other hand, there's not so many cars here yet: at most locations you rarely arrive at the same time as another car.

There is also the question of what the power limit is to the pair of stalls: sites with lots of stalls tend to need a new transformer/substation installed, and a new installation will obviously be set up for maximum theoretical power; sites with only 2 stalls might be using power that was already there and could be limited to whatever power was available. For example, the Warrington supercharger was reported to have limited power when first installed, but some time later there was an upgrade and charging rates while sharing improved.

 

[creatingwake]

All this talk of North, south inequality and Wales has no coverage at all.

Does anyone know what happened to the Aberystwyth SC that appeared on the "coming in 2015" map around the start of this year?

Disappeared. Disappointed.

Wife's family all live between Aber, and Bangor. We will be iceless when our 85D arrives, we could make it there and back on a range charge but would very scratching for power whilst up there. A few national trust sites with 7kW doesn't really cut it!

 

[Brunel]

Wake creator, hello to another Brizzle resident. The Clubhouse Event at WD had good news about Wales and definite SCs, but still ironing out site power details.

 

[Rluner]

Excellent news, Hopwood Park Services Redditch Road Birmigham, United Kingdom B48 7AU
With 6 #Superchargers, available 24/7 is open.

http://www.teslamotors.com/findus#/...174336?place=birmighamhopwoodparksupercharger

This is in a great location for North South travelling IMHO and [if we exclude Birmingham Hyatt] is sensibly spaced between other surrounding super chargers, albeit another clocked up for the South! I just had to point that out, in case you had forgot the start of this thread.

 

[mgboyes]

Rumours on twitter today of groundworks at Gretna services next to the existing Ecotricity points.

 

[Rluner]

Very interesting, I haven't noticed that on Twitter, can you point me to a hash tag or user please?

 

[mgboyes]

Matt Beard on Twitter:

 

[Rluner]

Matt Beard on Twitter:

Ty.

Gretna has been long needed and overdue for North South travel. Fingers crossed.

More pictures please if anyone is passing, of the ground works development further to Matt Beards Twitter post.

Lets see that SC in Gretna!

 

[mgboyes]

Gretna:

 

[FinnDriver]

Yes, you are absolutely right of course. The geographic centre of the Great Britain represents the precise centre of the land mass of our noble land, irrespective of the density and distribution of the populationliving within its borders.

Let us just for a moment put aside the clear disadvantage that owners in the North of England and Scotland find themselves in by the current phase of Tesla's SC roll-out program. May I appeal to the commercial logic of those who feel themselves victims of some kind of yet another North -South discrimination. Tesla owners are after all by definition, self-determining and therefore are far more likely to be business owners or senior directors.

It would be logical to assume that the SC roll-out program is based on hard-nosed commercial considerations, so let me pose this question; where would YOU start if you were in that Tesla planning room? Picture the scene if you will; one huge map on the wall of the outline of the United Kingdom. On that map, probably in various colours will be the densities of the population. You know, the amount of people actually living and working in their various areas. Armed with a whole bunch of very clever marketing material including stuff like the density and location of the Tesla target audience (you lot), they try to work out where the first tranche of support services needs to be most effective. After they have burned out a whole bunch of calculators and slide rules (anyone under 40, ignore that last part), they find that the epicentre of Tesla-centred purchasing decisions does not appear to be in Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire at all. After all the algebra, quadratic equations, calculus and all that stuff that totally defeated me at school, it would appear the commercial centre point of the UK is not just south of Dunsop Bridge, but it might even be south of Oxford.

My theory is that instead of a deliberate attempt to antagonise, marginalise and discriminate all you Scots, Geordies, Lancastrians, and fine folk of the Ridings and County Durham, they were actually trying to maximise the use of a limited budget set aside to provide as much effective customer satisfaction as they could provide. They were being as efficient as they knew how.

That is my theory, but hey, what would I know, I don't work at Tesla and who knows who they were trying to tick off?

 

[Rluner]

so let me pose this question; where would YOU start if you were in that Tesla planning room?

I would start just as Tesla did in London.

However then I would roll out with as even as possible distance gaps across the UK, to allow travel to and from London to the rest of the UK.

What the hell happened in Wincester? Are the SCs about six miles apart? Where is the logic there?

The gap from Warrinton to Edignburgh airport is just over 200 miles. Try doing that a few times in winter with a family. To close for comfort on range.

Roll on Gretna and the othe one north of Gretna, to plug in gap mentioned.

Ty Elon for an amazing car, and building a great SC network.

 

[mgboyes]

What the hell happened in Wincester? Are the SCs about six miles apart? Where is the logic there?

The logic is that they want to build a network out of sites with 4 or 6 bays, but were forced by the Ecotricity spat to scrabble around second-class locations where the most they could fit was 2. So they built 2 x 2 bay sites rather than 1 x 4 bay one.

 

[Rluner]

I noticed today another well located SC, far nearer to completion than I expected. Photo taken a few minutes ago.

Lets clock another up for up for the South.

(Joking apart, I am very happy to have these southerly SCs, please don't take my North South split to serious)

Oxford, Wheatley services, London road by M40, interchange 8A.

 

[Rluner]

Well at last, one for the North!

At a much needed location Abington [Supercharger] ML12 6RG

This finally makes the Edinburgh airport SC accessible from Warrington SC in all weather conditions and at, I guess most speeds. (Below maybe 100 mph!)

http://www.teslamotors.com/findus#/bounds/51.6723432,0.148271,51.3849401,-0.3514683?place=abingtonsupercharger&search=store,service,supercharger,destination%20charger

I think someone at Tesla web development is having a laugh at me as the link displays the London area.

 

[dpeilow]

Gretna is also officially live, so that makes your Warrington to Edinburgh trip even easier.

 

[Rluner]

Gretna is also officially live, so that makes your Warrington to Edinburgh trip even easier.

I'd missed that one, so Ty.

Another for the North! Gretna Green.

Tesla Store, Service Centers and Chargers

 

[FinnDriver]

I would start just as Tesla did in London.

However then I would roll out with as even as possible distance gaps across the UK, to allow travel to and from London to the rest of the UK.

What the hell happened in Wincester? Are the SCs about six miles apart? Where is the logic there?

The gap from Warrinton to Edignburgh airport is just over 200 miles. Try doing that a few times in winter with a family. To close for comfort on range.

Roll on Gretna and the othe one north of Gretna, to plug in gap mentioned.

Ty Elon for an amazing car, and building a great SC network.

Winchester

I would start just as Tesla did in London.

However then I would roll out with as even as possible distance gaps across the UK, to allow travel to and from London to the rest of the UK.

What the hell happened in Wincester? Are the SCs about six miles apart? Where is the logic there?

The gap from Warrinton to Edignburgh airport is just over 200 miles. Try doing that a few times in winter with a family. To close for comfort on range.

Roll on Gretna and the othe one north of Gretna, to plug in gap mentioned.

Ty Elon for an amazing car, and building a great SC network.

Winchester North serves the A303 East-West traffic (and should be 3-lane all the way), Winchester South is just off the M3 covering Southampton, Portsmouth and the M27.