I know people do it, but owning a Tesla without access to even a basic 120 volt outlet at home or at work would drive me crazy.
Urban Supercharger - Downtown - Seattle, WA
- Thread starter geoc
- Start date
golfpilot
Member
This charger is a total waste of resources. This is not an economical location for a supercharger. I am on vacation from California. I rolled into this garage, took me a few minutes to get to the charger because cars were pulling in and out. Plug in and asked the valet guy about the rules and he said after 10 minutes it’s $6 a half hour and $10 for a hour.
So I went back to my car unplugged and headed to the exit.
I roll up and hand the lady my ticket and she says $6. I said there is no grace period? She said it was 10 minutes and I got there 30 seconds late.
I asked for my ticket, and went in reverse to go back to the chargers to use the whole 30 minutes. A guy stopped me and said I’m not allowed back down. After arguing for 5 minutes he agreed to let me out but I’m not allowed back.
There is no way Tesla agreed to put superchargers on here with these terms. What a total scam.
The incentive to have these chargers at your location is that drivers will use your locations tenants. Shame
So I went back to my car unplugged and headed to the exit.
I roll up and hand the lady my ticket and she says $6. I said there is no grace period? She said it was 10 minutes and I got there 30 seconds late.
I asked for my ticket, and went in reverse to go back to the chargers to use the whole 30 minutes. A guy stopped me and said I’m not allowed back down. After arguing for 5 minutes he agreed to let me out but I’m not allowed back.
There is no way Tesla agreed to put superchargers on here with these terms. What a total scam.
The incentive to have these chargers at your location is that drivers will use your locations tenants. Shame
^ the prices are posted, although I assume you missed them. There is absolutely no free parking in DT Seattle anywhere. Not sure what you expected there. This supercharger is used a lot (I spy on it via in-car nav) so that means the location works just fine.
^^ Was about to say the same. The downtown Seattle and Vancouver chargers are actually heavily used, but mostly as urban superchargers. Still sucks you had a bad experience though. If you arrive on weekends or after 5pm on weekdays your entire stay is only a flat $7. Maybe knowing that you’ll still be able to consider this location for future use?
I love and hate these. I love that they have a BUNCH of destination chargers if I’m going to be roaming around downtown for a bit. Yes it’s expensive, but most garages downtown are. If I need a supercharger in downtown, I’m sure happy I can use this one. The only thing I really hate is no overnight parking. I would love to just pay $40 or something, plug into the destination charger for four or five hours while walking around and doing dinner or a show, come back to move my car and then walk across the street and stay at the Hilton. If I could swing that, I would always stay at the Hilton (nice with not too terrible rates) and be all charged up at any time.
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GHammer
What a long strange trip its been.
This location is no different from dozens of other urban downtown core superchargers across the US and Canada.
I've just uploaded to YouTube a video on how to approach the Seattle Supercharger from I-5 northbound, I-5 southbound, and I-90 westbound. Hope it helps people new to the area and locals that haven't visited this supercharger. I've visited a lot of supercharger locations on the west coast and as far east as Ohio, and this is one of the most complex locations I've encountered.
Ya, it’s pretty complex. I’m glad you showed the superchargers, I was there in September and followed the same way you did direct from the gate down to the destination chargers on C and never saw the signs to the superchargers OR saw them. Either the garage was full enough that it blocked the view, or something was changed since then. I avoided the superchargers because I had ample time and had originally heard it was very difficult to back the car in and that it was right near the valet stand. I didn’t feel like looking like a fool in front of valet trying to back in while other cars were trying to get to the valet, but from the looks of it in your video, the only people I would hold up with a 20 point turn would be other Tesla owners 
Curious for first hand comments on anyone that’s left the car in that garage overnight. Do you get warned that they’ll tow your car? Or do you just not have access to it during the “closed” hours and pay the max parking fee?
Certainly don’t want to risk getting the car towed, but would love to roll in at like 6pm, hit the level 2, and come get the car the next morning at like 9am. Doubt the garage is very busy that time on a Friday night or weekends either...
Curious for first hand comments on anyone that’s left the car in that garage overnight. Do you get warned that they’ll tow your car? Or do you just not have access to it during the “closed” hours and pay the max parking fee?
Certainly don’t want to risk getting the car towed, but would love to roll in at like 6pm, hit the level 2, and come get the car the next morning at like 9am. Doubt the garage is very busy that time on a Friday night or weekends either...
Guess hard to read through all the posts but i'm bringing this back around for those who want to know why there's no more grace period!
An alternative to this SC if you have the CHAdeMo adapter and are travelling through downtown Seattle on a weekday are the two "free" 50KW CHAdeMO chargers at Wells Fargo Center at 999 Third Avenue. They have a short grace period 10 to 12 min which is sufficient to swing in and check if either is available before moving on to the Union Square SuperCharger which is about 3 blocks away.
I work nearby and sometimes park in this garage when I drive in. They are lightly used but if one breaks it can be down for a long time (like weeks or months) and they are in two very tight spots (see PlugShare for latest details). There have also been some problems with the "EV chargers = EV only Parking spot" crowd in the garage also.
I work nearby and sometimes park in this garage when I drive in. They are lightly used but if one breaks it can be down for a long time (like weeks or months) and they are in two very tight spots (see PlugShare for latest details). There have also been some problems with the "EV chargers = EV only Parking spot" crowd in the garage also.
this is why the grace period has been removed. the lady at the booth said people have been abusing the grace period
The post you quoted was a joke obv.
I did outline the method to avoid paying for parking previously in the thread though. It was inevitable that Tesla owners would be half-sharp in implementing it anyway. Certain demographics just love the idea of being "clever" and can't help themselves. I wouldn't even be surprised if some people rubbed it in their faces and explained to the attendants what they were doing. The same thing happened at the San Diego (A Street) supercharger by the way.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some people didn’t even think they were being “clever” but more thought “I’m not PARKING, I’m using the Tesla spaces for the superchargers!”
andrewFW
Member
Thanks for the video, it was very helpful. I was able to get straight to the destination chargers. No way I would have found them otherwise. I just took a look at an ionic that was plugged in to one like the non Tesla cars in your video. At first I thought they were using a Tesla to j1772 adapter, but they actually are just Tesla chargers with a j1772 handle. The signs on the wall all say "Tesla charging only", except for the two ones at the end which say "electric vehicle charging only". Very cool!
Man, this garage sucks on weekends. So many stairs and locked doors. $7 for all day parking at the destination chargers is pretty good though, if you’re going to be downtown.
EchoDelta
Supporting Member
The most annoying thing Imo is no cell signal- can’t do a lot of productive things in the car, and can’t check charge remotely.
For what it's worth, I accidentally overstayed the charge's completion there once by quite a bit (because of not having cell reception). The stalls were more than half full, but I never got the charge completion overstay fine. I wonder if Tesla knows there is no cell service down there and is a bit more lenient on overstaying a completed charge.
ALSET YXES
Member
SCs or level 2? SC is included in the valet cost there. Level 2 is "free" as well. Not all SCs are equal...
