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Kbra
Member
GKwey
Member
Using local supercharger for free is one of the benefits owning a Tesla. If you can afford a Tesla you can afford the cost installing a NEMA 14-50 receptor or two in your garage for convenience. If that is not possible due to other limitations than cost, or before that is done; then using supercharger is the only option. Nothing wrong about it. At any urban supercharger station, no need to identify who are locals and give them disapproval stare.
jeffro01
Active Member
So you're going to continue to accuse me of buying my Tesla for what you perceive to be the wrong reasons simply because I want current and future owners to not abuse local supercharging? Really??? So in you're world I should just encourage everyone to buy one regardless of where they charge even though it directly impacts the rest of us when we travel? Well hell, why don't we all simply stop charging at home and drive to our nearest supercharger and charge there? I mean, what would be the consequence of that? Hey, we all get free electricity so there's that, right?
Why don't you take a break from unicorn land and come back to reality with the rest of us? It's absurd that you'd accuse me of buying the car for, what you perceive to be, the wrong reasons simply because I believe that superchargers aren't to be hogged by locals who can't or, even worse, won't charge at home\work.
It's going to get even worse with the Model 3, especially in CA where I consistently come up to full superchargers, and I can promise you that when I encounter a local hogging a space away from someone like myself who is trying to take a trip, I will continue to do what I do now, ask them to move their car and go charge at home like their supposed to be doing. To date, every time I've said this I have gotten a response similar to this "yeah I know, but this is free and home isn't and I only live a short ways away so it's just cheaper and easier for me to come here"... Yeah... Now tell me again, who bought their cars for the wrong reasons again???
One last thing, really, just stop with the cryptic BS... You're an adult, I presume, so talk to others like an adult would. For starters stop being so passive aggressive. If you're going to say something like "People are smart enough to see what you're trying to do", then own up and actually say what your trying to imply. It's simply childish, either you're an adult, or you're not.
Jeff
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Ha, so now I'm an elitist because I want the buyers of Tesla to stop hogging local supercharging spots for free electricity when they should be charging at home? Nice. So I suppose your time has no value to it's cool for you to wait, for an extended period of time at times, for a local to finish their charge so they don't have to charge at home where it's not free? Well my time does have value and this is happening more and more frequently as Tesla sales more cars. While this may be confined to CA right now, it will continue to get worse in urban areas as Tesla continues to grow. I find it laughable that you continue to assert this is an isolated problem, it's not, it's a very consistent problem and getting worse and worse by the month.
Jeff
chriSharek
Member
There is a lot wrong with it. The SCs were never intended to support local charging. Think about after 50,000 Model 3s are hitting the roads each year. Local charging using SCs will ruin the opportunities for other traveling Tssla owners.
Solar panels last 50 plus years. 5o years of clean energy, more than offsets the vague claims made by the author of this article. Even if one assumes this information to be correct, which I myself am not at all sure of. I wonder what the motivation of the author is if he completely forgets about the benefits to one's pocketbook, and the environment of not having to burn 50 years of coal?
TaoJones
Beyond Driven
The FUD is strong with this one.
There are 100% more Teslas on the road now than a little over a year ago when I bought my car. SCs were not overrun then, and they're not overrun now. Even in underserved Orange County (containing most owners of any county) with 1 SC until recently (while Los Angeles County has 4), the hype surrounding SJC was mostly that - hype and FUD.
For 1.5 years now, Tesla has committed to DENSITY as well as DISTANCE in their SC deployment. They understand that an owner may live in a Culver City condo and work in Newport Beach. If that owner is part of the subset I've defined, you'll see that owner at the Fountain Valley, Redondo, or Fox Hills SC probably twice a week every week. And that's just fine. Would that person prefer to charge at home and start each day with a full tank? Of course - as would we all. But that's not reality for a few. It's unfortunate that you don't like it, but that's how it is, and that's how it's going to be. Tesla is perfectly capable of managing demand for the cars it sells.
Again - SCs were not overrun a year ago, they are not overrun now, and they will not be overrun next year, or the year after that. By the end of 2018, there might be 75,000 M3s produced - 30,000 of which for North America. Drop in the bucket. So now we get to 2019. At which point the sky *still* won't have fallen. And so it goes.
I drive, much of the time, within the metaphorical canary in the coal mine (LA/OC County). I visited 29 states' and at least 1 province's worth of superchargers last year. The problem *you* have imagined does not exist *systemically* and it does not exist *locally*. ICEing I did see, less than 5% of the time. Number of times I saw full SCs? Twice - for a total of 3 and 5 minutes each, in Washington State and at SJC *before* they built FV. The vast majority of the time, I was lucky to see another car. Are there occasionally saturated SCs and lines? Sure - see Harris or Tejon Ranch during a holiday weekend. That's why 2 more SCs were sited nearby. It's called capacity planning - and Tesla is good at it. Not perfect, but still world class good. Have a little faith.
And none of this takes into account that 90% of Model S/X owners and probably 70% of Model 3 owners don't and won't use SCs. Nor does it account for improvements in infrastructure. Much like people on March 31st at showrooms, I can guarantee that the day they finally permit and build dedicated HPWC spaces for local harbor residents, I'll be the first in line saying "Take my money!". But until *that* day, you'll find me about once a week at one of the 6 SCs in the area. With no waiting, and with Tesla's blessing. Density. Distance. Ohm. Breathe.
But good luck with your witch hunt. Tiki torches, pitchforks and garden gnomes can be found at Home Depot or Lowes. Don't forget extra fuel.
jeffro01
Active Member
I'm not imagining anything, I'm seeing this at supercharger site after supercharger site. For someone who claims to get out a lot, you sure don't know what you're talking about. You can call it FUD all you want, but it's pretty hard to do so when you clearly have no clue with regards to what's actually happening today. I have yet to pull up to a single supercharger and not had to wait at least a few minutes, sometimes much longer. I've only been an owner for 5 months now so, if this is what I'm seeing now, how could it possibly get any better?
If it were up to me, which it isn't and I realize that before you go off and make another obtuse comment, I'd severely restrict supercharging for owners who clearly aren't charging at home\work. That would A, force you to do something about the lack of home\work charging, or B, go buy another car to drive. Again, if you can't charge at home\work, then don't buy the car.
Now I realize Tesla isn't going to do anything about locals, such as yourself, abusing their supercharger capabilities. Why would they? There in the business of selling cars to whomever wants to buy one and it wouldn't be helpful if they cutover a segment of customers, regardless of whether their ownership is detrimental to the rest of us. Again, they are in the business of selling cars... I just wish they'd do "something" to curtail this abuse by people like you.
Jeff
I live a bit south of San Francisco on the peninsula. The SF Peninsula has a very high concentration of Teslas, I suspect the highest in the world, as I can't be on the freeway for more than 5-10 minutes before I start seeing them. I don't use local Superchargers to me (San Mateo and Mountain View) because I don't need them, but I don't begrudge their use if owners can't charge at home (and many condo and apartment dwellers cannot, through no fault of their own). My wife and I do a lot of long distance trips in our S, putting 40k miles on it in just over two years and stopping at Superchargers all over California and in nearby states probably over one hundred times. Only twice have we had to wait for a stall; a couple of minutes at Tejon and about 10 minutes at Burbank. Many times on our trips we are the only car charging, most of the time less than 50% of the stalls are in use. Sometimes Harris Ranch and Tejon have been pretty busy, but it's only occasionally been a problem and with Buttonwillow now online I think that issue is resolved for the time being.
Tesla is doing a great job building out the Supercharger network in the western US, which is the only area I have personal experience with. I am confident the company will build out the network appropriately as they sell more cars. They now have a lot of experience siting and building Superchargers, and it's not rocket science.
It would be appreciated if some of those contributing to this discussion could lower the intensity of their posts and moderate their tone. This is not life and death. It's about EV charging. Sky, not falling.
Tesla is doing a great job building out the Supercharger network in the western US, which is the only area I have personal experience with. I am confident the company will build out the network appropriately as they sell more cars. They now have a lot of experience siting and building Superchargers, and it's not rocket science.
It would be appreciated if some of those contributing to this discussion could lower the intensity of their posts and moderate their tone. This is not life and death. It's about EV charging. Sky, not falling.
I am glad you had no problems so far - but this is just your experience. Mine is quite different. I travelled to Chicago 3 times last year, an stopped 3 times at the Old Skokie Road supercharger. First time I charged reasonably well - although shortly after pulling in all chargers were taken so charging slowed down. Second time was lucky - one charger just opened up as I was pulling in. None of the drivers were around, and none of the Tesla's moved out before I left - you'd imagine that last to arrive will not be first to leave. Third time all slots were taken. I thought perhaps the service center guys are charging the CPOs there (the Illinois CPOs are stored at that location) and went in to ask them to move one of their cars so I can charge and get on my way home. They said none were theirs - just local folks charging. Luckily I had enough to get to the supercharger on the way to Milwaukee.
So in summary, I cannot count on this SC - I have to make a long stop in Rockford to be sure I have enough to go in and out of Chicago. Thank you to all the local crowd who charges there to avoid the prohibitive cost of ~0.12$/KWh. And I guess this is also the reason other metropolitan areas do not get superchargers either....
byan1232
Member
I think there is no point arguing about it here. Clearly we all have different views and experienced different scenarios regarding superchargers. Honestly, if someone who lives nearby wants to use the supercharger, than so be it. As long as they are not taking the last spot (in other words, prevent someone who is traveling from using it) than it should be fine.
Technically, we did spend $90k+ on a car and it INCLUDES access to the supercharger network. End of story.
Technically, we did spend $90k+ on a car and it INCLUDES access to the supercharger network. End of story.
Kipernicus
Model S Res#P1440
+1, ecarfan
Unfortunately, no amount of educating/wishing that people will do the right thing is going to drag them away from that magic word, FREE.
Until it stops being FREE, more and more locals will justify hanging around at the supercharger while they shop, read, play candy crush, call mom, take a walk, take a nap, etc etc etc.
When it stops being FREE, those with home charging options will use them, and those without options will happily pay for the SC. I'm guessing they don't like waiting in line at the SC either.
Unfortunately, no amount of educating/wishing that people will do the right thing is going to drag them away from that magic word, FREE.
Until it stops being FREE, more and more locals will justify hanging around at the supercharger while they shop, read, play candy crush, call mom, take a walk, take a nap, etc etc etc.
When it stops being FREE, those with home charging options will use them, and those without options will happily pay for the SC. I'm guessing they don't like waiting in line at the SC either.
MarcG
Active Member
Jeff have you only charged at San Mateo and/or Mountain View?
In my 1+ year of ownership, with over 100 supercharging sessions at 31 unique locations, the aforementioned 2 are the only ones where I ever had to wait.
byan1232
Member
actually it is NOT FREE. It is either included in the price of your model S or you paid to have it added.
That would be Hong Kong.
As home or office charging is not an option for many Tesla owners in Hong Kong, the SC network here (also high concentration) is purely used for local charging, as there is no long distance routes in HK itself.
gnxs
Member
I've charged at that location several times before trips into WI and I've been to that store on many other occasions (I bought my CPO there). One time I was there with one other car SC'ing, the rest of the time I was alone. Surprised to hear you've had issues there as that location. Except for the single SC (2 plugs) at West Grand in Chicago, I've always found IL Superchargers to be completely underutilized. West Grand usually has Chicago Livery Teslas charging there.
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