Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

WSJ article on wait times at Tesla Superchargers

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Their lead example is an extremely unique one. The one in Amsterdam is shared with a Model S taxi service. They have a lot of Taxis.

If that's their best non-holiday Supercharger example, the article is going to devolve into hit-piece territory pretty quick.
 
Tesla Owners Frustrated by Recharge Waits - WSJ

This is behind a paywall but, the title and the beginning of the article sounded negative. Anyone with access care to chime in? Thanks.

If you plug the title into Google and click the link, you can read the whole thing...

In any case, nothing interesting or new to anyone around here. Just a review of complaints about Schipol airport cabs hogging SCs, a quote from a frustrated SJC user and mention of Mr. Musk's comment regarding sending letters to SC-hogging locals during the investors meeting.

Nothing factually incorrect in there, just looks like another opportunity for the vested interests that be to pile on subtle FUD to the anti-EV rhetoric campaign.
 
Ugh. It actually IS factually incorrect since San Juan Capistrano USED to be overcrowded - before San Diego came on line a few weeks ago. And it misleads since SJC was the ONLY north American SC that has been overcrowded recently.

In other words, a hit piece. Or another junior writer on a deadline having to write something so he chose this one, facts be damned.
 
The owners in the story sound like the locals who use the SuperChargers every day in lieu of charging at home. I'm sure the one guy who has been "driving his brother’s Model S" doesn't have a home charger. I am rational though and understand that they are used for long range travel though.
 
Typical haters in the comments. Those who subscribe to WSJ, please add to comments explaining the daily home charging vs. long distance travel supercharging thing. I've responded to a few posts of people who think this wait is a daily occurrence for most Tesla owners.
 
I think the piece is quite misleading. Among other things, this is the second paragraph,

“It’s barely viable,” he said standing near a row of superchargers, which for Tesla owners are the equivalent of gas pumps to quickly recharge their battery-powered vehicles. “When I arrived there was just one spot left.”

There is no explanation of the role of home charging, which leaves the impression that on a ~weekly basis you're going to spend 30-40 minutes while plugged in at a SuperCharging, and that may be after waiting on line for someone else to do this first. Along this same theme, later in the article, the writer describes free use of the SuperChargers for life as part of Tesla's product where my understanding has always been free long distance travel via the SuperChargers for life.

If this were an isolated incident, I'd be more hesitant to call this a hit piece, but the WSJ (and other publications owned by Rupert Murdoch) has quite a track record of hit pieces on Tesla.
 
Just to add in my own statistics:

I've supercharged 52 times now... adding ~5800 rated miles of charge. In comparison, I've charged most of the rest of the time at home -- over 32k miles powered by the plug in my garage...

I've had to wait for a Supercharger spot only 2 times -- and the total wait time was less than 5 minutes combined. Both were on a certain Sunday in Jul 2014 when TMC connect ended and people were heading home or proceeding on their road trips...

I've had one other time where I saw other Teslas waiting while we were charging -- and it was during a group drive and we all expected to have to take turns.

Overall its a non-issue -- an example of extrapolating outlier data points...
 
Last edited:
Just to add in my own statistics:

I've supercharged 52 times now... adding ~5800 rated miles of charge. In comparison, I've charged most of the rest of the time at home -- over 32k miles powered by the plug in my garage...

I've had to wait for a Supercharger spot only 2 times -- and the total wait time was less than 5 minutes combined. Both were on a certain Sunday in Jul 2014 when TMC connect ended and people were heading home or proceeding on their road trips...

I've had one other time where I saw other Teslas waiting while we were charging -- and it was during a group drive and we all expected to have to take turns.

Overall its a non-issue -- an example of extrapolating outlier data points...

My sentiments exakatickley. Dam reporters.
 
Just to add in my own statistics:

I've supercharged 52 times now... adding ~5800 rated miles of charge. In comparison, I've charged most of the rest of the time at home -- over 32k miles powered by the plug in my garage...

I've had to wait for a Supercharger spot only 2 times -- and the total wait time was less than 5 minutes combined. Both were on a certain Sunday in Jul 2014 when TMC connect ended and people were heading home or proceeding on their road trips...

I've had one other time where I saw other Teslas waiting while we were charging -- and it was during a group drive and we all expected to have to take turns.

Overall its a non-issue -- an example of extrapolating outlier data points...

I completely agree.

I don't have an exact count of the number of times that I've Supercharged during the last 30 months that I've owned my Model S, but I would guess I've averaged 1 a month. I've never experienced a wait during my normal travels here in Florida and we have a high density of Model Ss.

As you mentioned the only exceptions are when our Tesla club periodically organizes club meetups nearby Superchargers. For instance, at Supercharger ribbon cutting ceremonies, or at meetups at nearby restaurants we may have a couple dozen of Model Ss. It's still never really a problem since while we are attending an event, which will be a duration of a several hours, we have ample time to swap cars that need a charge in and out of the Supercharger Station.

Larry
 
Looks like more of the same. Remember, newspaper writers have to write what will sell, and an article with the title "Tesla drivers find open supercharger spots 99% of the time!" would not attract as many readers. I don't like the slant of the article, but it does mention that Tesla is opening SC centers at a rate of "one new station a day" - so the author does make a slight attempt at balance.
 
I think the piece is quite misleading. Among other things, this is the second paragraph,

If this were an isolated incident, I'd be more hesitant to call this a hit piece, but the WSJ (and other publications owned by Rupert Murdoch) has quite a track record of hit pieces on Tesla.

The "hit" pieces look more and more desperate as time goes by. I doubt this will have any effect on sales, and it sure had no effect on TSLA, which was up over 6 points (+2.38%) on a day where Greece default fears dominated the financial news.
 
Looks like more of the same. Remember, newspaper writers have to write what will sell, and an article with the title "Tesla drivers find open supercharger spots 99% of the time!" would not attract as many readers. I don't like the slant of the article, but it does mention that Tesla is opening SC centers at a rate of "one new station a day" - so the author does make a slight attempt at balance.

Actually I think an accurate well researched article WOULD attract readers. I think in this case, it was a typical lazy hack writer. I don't think he was intentionally trying to write something 180 degrees from reality. He just picked up on Musk's comment, saw the 500+ thread post about it, did a search for crowded Superchargers, found the SJC thread, got a generic quote from Tesla (Tesla PR department dropped the ball here guys!!!), and voila, out pops a lazy, unresearched article. The writer is probably too stupid to realize what he wrote was garbage.
 
I had to wait 30 min for a Supercharger at Harris Ranch. I understand Tesla is adding 6 more Superchargers there and a battery swap station. I would not have bothered stopping there if there were adequate Superchargers on 99 because I would have avoided I-5.