dmd2005
Active Member
A supercharger after Hope heading to Princeton would be nice or even in Osooyoos or Oliver in Wine Country. Doesn't make sense to have a Supercharger in Van or Calgary with with so many Level 2 chargers around.
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dasRad
Member
The problem with charging in Vancouver, at least in the past, is that all the publicly accessible chargers are 6 kW chargers. If you arrive in town with an empty battery you need to plug in for hours before you can go anywhere. A supercharger will alleviate this, although a network of well placed high amperage L2 chargers (16kW) would be more convenient.
KenN
Member
Morristhecat
Member
I've heard that as well. I'm anxiously anticipating the Calgary SC, as then I can drive down, bypassing Red Deer, charge up (getting full speed as I'll be quite low on charge) and return back to Edmonton without breaking a sweat. In the winter, the round trip distance from Red Deer to Calgary and back is such that it can be tight range wise.
They're already on the map for 2016, as is Edmonton.
Supercharger | Tesla Motors Canada
L2s are not fast enough if you're trying to get out of the city, I can't tell you how many hours I've wasted wandering around Oakridge Mall trying to get enough juice to get back to Hope.
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...or for people passing through said city, or for people needing a quick top-up before heading somewhere that doesn't have a charger.
Yes, Tesla did send out such a letter, and the collective wisdom was that Tesla made a mistake, and far too many people received it. I recall hearing Elon himself state there were a small number of people abusing local supercharging... so quite likely only those few people should have received the letter. While I don't recall where/when, comments have been made multiple times supporting the idea that local superchargers are being put in certain cities to enable condo owners/etc to charge if they can't get a charger installed at their home.
They were over-reaching with the letter but I think they still stand by the main issue which is discouraging use of local superchargers. Elon has also mused about Tesla cars putting energy back into the grid. This could create a great arbitrage - go to your local supercharger as much as possible to charge your car and then sell that power back into the grid every day when you are at work plugged into a two way charger. Thanks Tesla for the extra revenue!
pairtrader
Member
They aren't, but certainly should be. It's a real problem downtown Vancouver and will inevitably affect sales. I'm looking to get a charger installed in my Yaletown parking stall and it could be very expensive, not to mention figuring out some way of paying strata for the power since the charger is not connected to my home use. People have arranged flat monthly fees, or some type of metering may be possible, but not ideal. If Tesla was not bound to "free for life", then they could place one in the city and I'd be happy to pay for the use. Since this is unlikely, I'll do the best I can for an install at home, but I think many prospective buyers would avoid the hassle.
A little off topic, but wouldn't something like this satisfy your strata's concerns about power usage? You could just pay the going rate for your kWh usage.
Basic kWh Meter 100A 120/240-volt, 3-wire, 60Hz EKM-25IDS
Basic kWh Meter 100A 120/240-volt, 3-wire, 60Hz EKM-25IDS
pairtrader
Member
Thanks, yes this is what I'll end up having installed, or even a wireless meter. My strata seems to be quite reasonable, but I have the only EV in the building (211 Units) so I'm trying to find the best solution that others can follow without too much cost. Currently, the cost can vary greatly depending how far your parking space is from the main electrical room. I'll be getting a quote next month, but there are rumors of government incentives that could be around the corner that I may wait for. I doubt someone spending 50k on a Model 3 will be willing to spend 2-6k for a home charging setup. I do hope Tesla can figure out a way to get out of the "free for life" restraint within major city limits. I'm sure some of the people "abusing" the local chargers were doing just that, but some were likely just needing to charge faster than the HPWC rate and would be willing to pay.
I think Vancouver is even putting in rules to mandate new construction of condos includes x% of EV parking stalls. I think that's great. Even a 15A 110v circuit @ 12A would theoretically cover an average daily commute provided you have indoor parking.
The "free for life" is such a selling feature that I hope they continue it. There are SOOO many gotchas that any other system of charging/payment adds a crazy amount of complexity and it makes the current system so easy. I can count on one hand how many times I've run across these forums where the SCs are overloaded and practically unusable for a decent amount of time.
Once the Interstate/Interprovincial highway/Inter-metropolitan SC build out is done (Ballpark 50 more SCs required to cover 97% of North America's population) then Tesla need only worry about beefing up the SC #s in metro areas. We are so close (numbers/distance) to covering the major cities in the US, and still pretty close to covering most of Canada's big cities. I'm optimistic that by the time I have a Tesla SCs east and south of Calgary will be in place. (Brooks, Medicine Hat and Fort Macleod are my wishes)
The "free for life" is such a selling feature that I hope they continue it. There are SOOO many gotchas that any other system of charging/payment adds a crazy amount of complexity and it makes the current system so easy. I can count on one hand how many times I've run across these forums where the SCs are overloaded and practically unusable for a decent amount of time.
Once the Interstate/Interprovincial highway/Inter-metropolitan SC build out is done (Ballpark 50 more SCs required to cover 97% of North America's population) then Tesla need only worry about beefing up the SC #s in metro areas. We are so close (numbers/distance) to covering the major cities in the US, and still pretty close to covering most of Canada's big cities. I'm optimistic that by the time I have a Tesla SCs east and south of Calgary will be in place. (Brooks, Medicine Hat and Fort Macleod are my wishes)
Canuck
Well-Known Member
I don't think anyone has actually been prohibited from charging locally, even though Tesla did send out an email on the issue to those who abused local charging (and to many who did not). While SC's are technically for long distant travel, I would think that if you can't charge at home for the reason you state, or other valid ones, and you explained that to Tesla, they would understand and it wouldn't be an issue. In fact, I've read here that people have explained not being able to charge at home when ordering, and Tesla said it was not a concern for them to charge at the SC's. We don't have any locally (well, unless you live in Squamish, Hope, Kelowna, etc.) but I see Vancouver is getting some. There are also a lot of condo/apartment dwellers in Vancouver. It will be interesting to see what Tesla Vancouver says to people who are looking to buy the car and charge only at the Van SC or public charging. I'm going to ask the staff next time I'm at the store to see what they say about it.
dmd2005
Active Member
There are more and more destination chargers in Vancouver and a full charge from Hope, Squamish or Burlington WA will use 200km of range to get to Downtown Vancouver. I was just at Natures Pickin or the former Eco-Dairy in Abbotsford and the CHAdeMO station is up and running now. A Supercharger in Vancouver itself would be nice and the more the merrier, but a Greater Vancouver Supercharger by the Port Mann bridge would make the most sense in Surrey for highway 1 traffic coming from out of town or leaving town.
beeeerock
Active Member
Again, don't want to go too far off-topic, but saw this today and found it quite interesting in what it implies for the future!
ARC development to be first in North America with EV plugs in every parking stall
f-stop
Active Member
Yes, my understanding is that since ~2011, the Vancouver building bylaws have required all new multi-family buildings to provide 20% of parking stalls with "receptacles" for charging EVs, and I believe they must have space in the electrical room to install/upgrade equipment to provide charging to all spaces if needed in future. In some recent mixed residential/commercial buildings I've seen this implemented with a bunch of stalls each with a 110V 15A.
green1
Active Member
And this is the issue, it may satisfy the legality, but it's useless for actual use.
On a related side note, I noticed the EV charging spots at Market Mall in Calgary and was pleased they were doing something for the cause... then I looked at them, 110v outlets? really?
Vancouver has lots of public charging, Calgary has very little, luckily for me, I don't need it in Calgary, but I do need it in Vancouver, I pity anyone doing the reverse of my common trip though.
pairtrader
Member
I have a friend that is a developer and his current project in Langley, that began three years ago, has a 20 AMP outlet (can upgrade to 40 Amp), in one of the two parking stalls that comes with each unit. I believe the power usage is connected to the unit you own. It's good to see that it's being taken seriously as a selling feature. Now I just need to convince him to buy a Model X.
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