745 miles (5 supercharger sessions) in one day

[PRJIM]

Is there a Tesla advised limit to how often/how much one should use the Supercharger before damaging the battery? I presume daily use if you live nearby is not advisable?

Tesla has stated that supercharging frequently will not damage the battery. Charging frequently in range mode will cause premature wear on the battery though.

[mcornwell]

Do you have suggestions for good an Energy Apps?

Stephen, I think Josh was saying that having the Tesla energy app on the screen at all times is a must.

[JoshG]

Yes, was referring to the built-in energy app. While it could use improving, it's pretty good. And I don't think a 3rd party app would have access to enough of the battery SOC data to be useful, but I could be wrong. (Maybe if it had an OBD dongle?)

[JoshG]

do you have any details of each leg of the journey... miles driven, energy consumed, time spent charging, etc?

Afraid I didn't keep accurate records, sorry.

While I did prove to myself that this can be done, I'm not sure, even with Superchargers, that I can say it's a piece of cake, or that it's for everyone. It's not like filling with gas. It produces some anxiety as you weigh tradeoff of waiting for more charge level (as the rate of charging begins dropping) vs just going with less "cushion" of range. The other thing that nearly got me in trouble were the relatively large elevation changes which drastically affects range.

But in the end, charging time added more than a full hour of time to the normally 5.5 hour journey, each way. Not something everyone will find acceptable, and that's with easy access to Superchargers my whole journey. Half-hour supercharges are NOT enough to safely get to the next one.

So Superchargers minimize range anxiety, but don't eliminate it.

And there's a new anxiety that's very real: Supercharger availability anxiety. If the station is in use, you might have multiple hours of delay. Owner could have wandered away shopping, sleeping, or whatever and you have no way to charge until he or she returns.

Tesla needs to have a reservation and alert system. The network knows which car is charging and Tesla can reach the owner by phone or SMS to get them to move if someone else needs the bay. I think owners need to agree to be reachable in exchange for the free fuel. To make sure you're reachable, maybe you need to reply to an SMS every 20 minutes of supercharge to keep the juice flowing and see if you now need to share the charge bay with another owner who may urgently need a charge.

It's going to happen - the bay(s) are full and an owner with very little power left will need the spot and the other owners are off shopping or on a hike or whatever. We have to find a way to avoid monopolization of the Superchargers. As it is, even with pretty few S drivers in California, as you see in the pictures, at both Harris (1bay) and Tejon ( 2 bays operational), had another driver pulled in, there'd have been no way to charge, and no way to reach me if I had walked to a restaurant or gone to a movie.

Owners could put their phone numbers on their dash, but some may not be comfortable doing that. Better that Tesla knows how to reach them if needed while their car is supercharging.

[TonyWilliams]

There's a constant "hum" from the motor itself above 65 or 70mph coming from the back of the car that I only started noticing on long highway stretches. Becomes quite annoying/tiring. I think it could use more sound deadening around the motor itself. (problem familiar to us roadster owners)

The Rav4 shares the same noise issue, however the noise is right at my feet (with the motor in the front).

[tdiggity]

And there's a new anxiety that's very real: Supercharger availability anxiety. If the station is in use, you might have multiple hours of delay. Owner could have wandered away shopping, sleeping, or whatever and you have no way to charge until he or she returns.

Tesla needs to have a reservation and alert system. The network knows which car is charging and Tesla can reach the owner by phone or SMS to get them to move if someone else needs the bay. I think owners need to agree to be reachable in exchange for the free fuel. To make sure you're reachable, maybe you need to reply to an SMS every 20 minutes of supercharge to keep the juice flowing and see if you now need to share the charge bay with another owner who may urgently need a charge.

It's going to happen - the bay(s) are full and an owner with very little power left will need the spot and the other owners are off shopping or on a hike or whatever. We have to find a way to avoid monopolization of the Superchargers. As it is, even with pretty few S drivers in California, as you see in the pictures, at both Harris (1bay) and Tejon ( 2 bays operational), had another driver pulled in, there'd have been no way to charge, and no way to reach me if I had walked to a restaurant or gone to a movie.

Owners could put their phone numbers on their dash, but some may not be comfortable doing that. Better that Tesla knows how to reach them if needed while their car is supercharging.

This is very true. Imagine next year...holidays are going to get crowded. In the other thread in charging infrastructure, people think drivers will be nice and it'll all work out. But in reality there are going to be people waiting 1+ hours at each supercharger.

[Trnsl8r]

...

Owners could put their phone numbers on their dash, but some may not be comfortable doing that. Better that Tesla knows how to reach them if needed while their car is supercharging.

That, or they could put a button on the supercharger itself that is active when the charge cable is deployed. If someone else comes up and needs the charger, they can press the button to send an SMS alert to the currently charging owner to let them know someone else is waiting. For bonus points it could look at how long you have been there to allow at least 30 min or something, "please move your car within the next xx minutes".

- - - Updated - - -

Josh, great write-up. Question to you and others who have been using RV parks: What kind of plug can they usually provide? 14-50, J1772, other?

[radinator]

Josh, Thanks for posting this info. Along with MikeW's thread from Thanksgiving weekend, I have had a lot of my questions answered as I will be making the NorCal-SoCal-NorCal journey later this month:

MikeW's thread - 900 mile Supercharger road trip

Agreed that a reservation and/or notification system are needed, especially in the case of Harris Ranch with only one SuperCharger spot. I've been very curious to see where they are going to put up a Harris Ranch SuperCharger station setup like they have at Tejon Ranch. Also glad to hear it didn't really add a lot of time to the drive if the SuperCharger spots are open. I am willing to trade the extra time for not having to spend $60-75 on gas each way. Really looking forward to witnessing and taking advantage of the future growth of the SuperCharger network across the country.

[stephenpace]

I think owners need to agree to be reachable in exchange for the free fuel.

I'd agree to that. Perhaps the Tesla smartphone apps could have a role to play there as well via in-app notifications. Not a requirement (since some people don't have smartphones), but one of the options.

[Kevin Sharpe]

Afraid I didn't keep accurate records, sorry.

np... many thanks for the information