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Unplugged by another S owner...

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Oh, that reminds me, I forgot one other charging related story of our long road trip...

While charging at the Natick Mall on Sunday afternoon on our way out of the Boston area after a visit to the south shore that chewed up a decent amount of charge, we'd stopped in at the Tesla store and chatted with the store manager, then headed over to the Cheesecake Factory to get some sweets to eat. Wife is now joking that owning an EV is going to fatten us up, as every stop seems to involve more treats than healthy food, doh!

Anyhow, while we were waiting to pay our check, got a call from the Tesla store manager, who was coordinating with an incoming owner in need of charge. At that point the smartphone app was showing enough charge to get us to the Darien CT SuperCharger, so we had no problems heading to the parking garage and passing the charging cable on to the other owner (also heading down to CT I think) who was now waiting for their turn. Also saw another vehicle there with a roof rack (Thule?) with a bicycle attached, first time seeing one of those on a Model S!

Since Tesla can easily determine ownership and location of any Model S based upon VIN, I'd certainly be willing to sign up for some Tesla coordinated / brokered scheduling service for SuperChargers / Tesla store chargers, and even public chargers. Since I didn't leave any detailed contact info with the store manager, not sure if they looked me up by VIN to get my cell phone number or what, as we hadn't left any sign on the car in this case, as we expected to be back well before it was done charging.
 
Since I didn't leave any detailed contact info with the store manager, not sure if they looked me up by VIN to get my cell phone number or what, as we hadn't left any sign on the car in this case, as we expected to be back well before it was done charging.

I plugged in at the Toronto store once and the rep was there bringing a customer back from a test drive. I asked if I should leave my cell phone number in case they needed to unplug me and he said "no, we know who you are and can reach you if we need to". The funny thing is, I don't remember ever giving Tesla my cell number. Maybe they sucked it out of my Bluetooth connected phone and downloaded it to Mission Control :wink:
 
It's an optional setting...the car will also send you an alert (not sure if it's a text or an alert from their app) if charging is stopped...that's something that should, ASAP, be added to the Tesla App, IMO.
Having automated notification if charging stops before completion would be great!

On a prior shorter overnight road trip, had to leave the car a significant distance from our hotel (Great Wolf Lodge in Concord NC), and the charger crapped out in the middle of the night. Only way I knew that was by checking the charging status via the smartphone app before going to bed... instead of going to bed I ended up having to make my way to the charger at about 1AM to sort out with ChargePoint WTH was going on (turned out the charger died, at least they had multiple others available in that park-n-ride lot), then stayed in that area until it had enough charge to get us home (wasn't going to make the 5+ mile hike to the car twice, as this was well past the point when any bus was running, and was too cheap to call for a taxi)

Problem I'm seeing with this notification scheme, chargers in underground parking garages are likely in areas that do not have any reliable cell service, and also not likely to have any WiFi service (if/when Tesla ever gets around to enabling that)
 
Having automated notification if charging stops before completion would be great!

On a prior shorter overnight road trip, had to leave the car a significant distance from our hotel (Great Wolf Lodge in Concord NC), and the charger crapped out in the middle of the night. Only way I knew that was by checking the charging status via the smartphone app before going to bed... instead of going to bed I ended up having to make my way to the charger at about 1AM to sort out with ChargePoint WTH was going on (turned out the charger died, at least they had multiple others available in that park-n-ride lot), then stayed in that area until it had enough charge to get us home (wasn't going to make the 5+ mile hike to the car twice, as this was well past the point when any bus was running, and was too cheap to call for a taxi)

Problem I'm seeing with this notification scheme, chargers in underground parking garages are likely in areas that do not have any reliable cell service, and also not likely to have any WiFi service (if/when Tesla ever gets around to enabling that)
I had a ChargePoint crap out on me on a trip where I really needed as much charge as possible. I was 4 blocks away at a baseball game when I just happened to check my app and saw that charging had stopped. Took 10-15 min to sort out that I was SOL with ChargePoint (other than the "door #2" 120v outlet) and really had quite an issue with getting a full charge.
 
Problem I'm seeing with this notification scheme, chargers in underground parking garages are likely in areas that do not have any reliable cell service, and also not likely to have any WiFi service (if/when Tesla ever gets around to enabling that)

Don't CharePoint chargers themselves have this capability? I have an account (signed up a while ago) but have only used their network once. I thought they could text a bunch of different status messages (complete, unplugged etc.).
 
Don't CharePoint chargers themselves have this capability? I have an account (signed up a while ago) but have only used their network once. I thought they could text a bunch of different status messages (complete, unplugged etc.).

I have had a terrible time figuring out how to configure them and get them to work. I think I had one successful status update...
 
Don't CharePoint chargers themselves have this capability? I have an account (signed up a while ago) but have only used their network once. I thought they could text a bunch of different status messages (complete, unplugged etc.).
Ah, that is true, the ChargePoint chargers themselves have some sort of (wired?) connection to their mother ship, but pretty sure they aren't dependent upon an independent cell-phone signal for each unit.

In the case where I'd had issue with a ChargePoint charger, I could tell from their smartphone app that the charger wasn't working as expected.

I guess I could have used that app to identify if the charger in Potomac was at fault, but I'd have no way of knowing there was trouble with the Tesla app. Given that there were more chargers there in one location than I've seen in about half of NC (must have been 8 or 10 of them), since I didn't jot down which charger stall I was in, not sure I'd have been able to tell from their web site if a charger showing issues was indeed the one I was using.
 
Don't CharePoint chargers themselves have this capability? I have an account (signed up a while ago) but have only used their network once. I thought they could text a bunch of different status messages (complete, unplugged etc.).

Yes. The first time I used a ChargePoint charger I incorrectly disconnected the charging cable from the adapter rather than terminating the session at the charger. I received a text message telling me that my session had ceased unexpectedly. I don't recall the exact message.

Larry
 
If you didn't have contact info and I had noticed your car there for hours on end, I would assume you were done charging. The idea that you would schedule a charge wouldn't cross my mind because it's kind of a daft thing to do in this scenario.

It might indeed take "hours on end" to complete a charge. At a ~40mi/hr charge rate a full charge could take nearly 7 hours for this specific incident. And that's with a 70A charger, which is rather rare. More than double that time to 16+ hours for a 30A station. Thus your "assumption" that a a person charging overnight at a hotel would by finished at 8am based solely on time is suspect in itself.

In addition, this circumstance involved a person recently arriving who had no idea how long I had been connected. As the S doesn't provide any "completion" indication, the only real indicator would be the charger itself, should it provide one (some places simply have NEMA 14-50 receptacles, which don't).

So, as I said earlier, I am happy to try and modify my behavior by "charging early, charging often", but your idea that purely elapsed time is the basis for determining a charge is completed is presumptuous.

Incidentally, "daft"? I'll not return the insult, but that's an interesting term to throw at somebody when your assumptions are not grounded in the math.
 
More than double that time to 16+ hours for a 30A station.
The typical 30A chargers in the wild can deliver very poor results, as often they are at the end of a very long cable run, resulting in some serious voltage drop. The one we used at the science center in Richmond was delivering ~197V when we were there, so it was adding ~17mi/hr.

The solution to the shared charger problem involves both better information on charging status from Tesla (existing indicator light on the charging receptacle displaying realtime status all the time would help greatly) and the habit when traveling to charge ASAP and not worry about any potential battery damage or charge loss due to reaching maximum charge a few hours before intended departure.

If Elon says not to worry about battery damage due to charging to full capacity or using SuperChargers frequently, I'm certainly not going to worry about it while on the road if he says it is covered under the warranty.
 
Yup. We used the 30A charger at a Nissan dealership down in Norfolk. ~17 miles/hr is what we were seeing as well.

As has been recently discussed elsewhere, if a business is fed by a 3-phase transformer, their feed for a charger will start at 208V, rather than 240. Accounting for line loss, , low 200's for voltage is not uncommon.

This was actually a factor at the Omni's 70A charger as well. It was providing a ~41 mi/hr charge rate... as opposed to the nearer 50 mi/hr rate you would expect with a 240V circuit.
 
If Elon says not to worry about battery damage due to charging to full capacity or using SuperChargers frequently, I'm certainly not going to worry about it while on the road if he says it is covered under the warranty.

My take on this is that it may not "damage" the battery, but it may hasten capacity (range) degradation which is not covered by the warranty. Having said that, I'm doing a Range Charge tonight for a particularly long business trip I have to take tomorrow.
 
Wow, I never would have thought there was this much drama with EV charging. It's clear that we need more public charging stations. This thread is discouraging and I'm actually reconsidering my purchase. I rarely encounter lines at the gas pump and I expect the same at the charger.
 
This thread is discouraging and I'm actually reconsidering my purchase.

As the OP that started this thread, I say that this is a minor hiccup in the generally awesome experience of owning a Model S. And, as I think was demonstrated here, what everybody wants is ultimately the same thing: the continued success of a car that will drive an infrastructure that will make such minor issues a thing of the past. I think everybody is generally trying to do the right thing.

Will there being some growing pains along the way (both technical and human)? Sure. But it's a small bump in the proverbial road in my opinion.
 
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Wow, I never would have thought there was this much drama with EV charging. It's clear that we need more public charging stations. This thread is discouraging and I'm actually reconsidering my purchase. I rarely encounter lines at the gas pump and I expect the same at the charger.

Agree, these are very rare circumstances and we're in uncharted territory of a Brave New World with long range/high capacity vehicles and people taking long trips. These issues will work themselves out, new "rules" will be established and 'confrontations' will become less common. This shouldn't discourage you any more than isolated reports of cracked windsheilds or dead 12v batteries. These are the "one-off" situations.
 
I wouldn't be discouraged whatsoever!

I live in a relatively charger-free area (when compared with parts of California), and have had my Model S since early November.

In that time, we've put over 16,000 miles on the car, with only a few charging challenges along the way.

As a daily driver car, it can't be beat! Charging at home each night leaves me with more than enough range for any daily driving and most short weekend jaunts.

The only real issues have come up during long road trips where we head off into territory that has minimal charging infrastructure.
 
I plugged in at the Toronto store once and the rep was there bringing a customer back from a test drive. I asked if I should leave my cell phone number in case they needed to unplug me and he said "no, we know who you are and can reach you if we need to". The funny thing is, I don't remember ever giving Tesla my cell number. Maybe they sucked it out of my Bluetooth connected phone and downloaded it to Mission Control :wink:

@dflye and @mknox
I've had the exact same experience here at the Newport Beach Fashion Island store. I'm pretty sure they have access to the Tesla customer database (same as in the service centers). I believe they look up your information based on the VIN number of the car.

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Wow, I never would have thought there was this much drama with EV charging. It's clear that we need more public charging stations. This thread is discouraging and I'm actually reconsidering my purchase. I rarely encounter lines at the gas pump and I expect the same at the charger.

I agree with @scaesare, this is definitely a small bump on the road. I think the majority of our charging experiences are positive and we just don't publicize them because they are the norm. It's the few negative experiences that perhaps get more attention but I hope they don't dissuade you from the amazing experience of owning/driving a Model S
 
Wow, I never would have thought there was this much drama with EV charging. It's clear that we need more public charging stations. This thread is discouraging and I'm actually reconsidering my purchase. I rarely encounter lines at the gas pump and I expect the same at the charger.

The thing to remember is that probably 90% of all of your charging will be at home so having something like this happen is going to be a rare occurrence. But with that being said, this kind of thing is going to only get more frequent as EV adoption grows and we would be fooling ourselves to think otherwise.
 
Really? You're splitting hairs. Are you just gonna leave my charge port door open?

No other option (your adapter locks to your car) . . . not that I'm likely to be anywhere near your car anyway, let alone unplugging it, don't worry.

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I feel there needs to be more intelligence in the charger.

Would be great if a charger comes with multiple, e.g. 4 plugs, and knows when one port is ready it switches to the next in line.
if it does not detect a charge in progress it will switch so the scheduled charge would be not charging, it would have switched to the other port.
For slow chargers especially at hotel/airport locations and such this would make sense. One charger could supply 4 parking slots and service more cars...

That's a really interesting, cool idea!

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too bad you weren't notified that the EVSE was free at 10AM so you could have used it.

Gah, yes...only so much to do at the Science Museum.... I killed time at the Science Museum the first time we used the Omni charger, and wow, slow charger and we weren't interested in the museum. After an hour or two we just drove back to the Omni, hoping it'd be free. Hindsight's 20/20, I know, but a general recommendation to everyone--if the best charger's in use, try calling periodically to the business it's at, to see if it's freed up.

@dflye: Sorry, I just hate to think of you sitting there for 6 hours at the Science Museum. ;-(

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Yesterday, as I pulled into the parking lot, I saw a lady going around trying to unplug other plugged in vehicles for their BMW. It just felt too disrespectful of others property, so I rolled my window down to ask what she's doing. She told me that there's another lot close by and that I should go there for charge. WTF??? I told her you can't touch other people's car like that to which she replied, "they're done charging". "if you keep doing that I'm going to have to call security" - she got into her bmw and left after I said that.

I'm confused. She was in a car that does not plug in, trying to swipe a spot that's clearly intended for cars to charge?! WTF indeed, if I'm reading you right!