Pulled into the Berlin VT supercharger around 8pm to find about 30 cars waiting in line for the stalls. Decided to take a 3 or 4 hour nap to let things clear out but there were even more cars waiting just before midnight. Cars in line, cars parked in the hotel lot, who knows when that will clear out. Fortunately I had enough charge to drive under the speed limit to get to a supercharger at right angles to the direction I wanted to travel. Arrived with 2 miles on the gauge. Now charging on a less traveled route south to get home. Any one have any other first hand accounts of how that station is clearing out?
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
-
On today's TMC Podcast, we ask the question "What is the Tesla Cybercab?". Join us on YouTube live at 1PM and participate in the chat.
Berlin VT supercharger nightmare
- Thread starter JohnQ
- Start date
Tam
Well-Known Member
Was it because of the Eclipse traffic?
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
Tam
Well-Known Member
40 Tesla cars were waiting for Van Buren, AK Superchargers due to Eclipse traffic also:
www.5newsonline.com
It would be nice if Tesla could provide temporary portable Superchargers for the next Eclipse in 20 years.
Electric vehicles wait in long lines to recharge before leaving Van Buren after the solar eclipse
Around 40 electric vehicles waited in a long line at Casey's in Van Buren to recharge before heading out of town.
www.5newsonline.com
It would be nice if Tesla could provide temporary portable Superchargers for the next Eclipse in 20 years.
By then we should all be charging by driving on inductive charge equipped roads.
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
Or run on nuclear batteries...
Nuclear battery: Chinese firm aiming for mass market production : Corporate - World Nuclear News
Beijing Betavolt New Energy Technology Company Ltd claims to have developed a miniature atomic energy battery that can generate electricity stably and autonomously for 50 years without the need for charging or maintenance. It said the battery is currently in the pilot stage and will be put into...
What could possibly go wrong?Or run on nuclear batteries...
Nuclear battery: Chinese firm aiming for mass market production : Corporate - World Nuclear News
Beijing Betavolt New Energy Technology Company Ltd claims to have developed a miniature atomic energy battery that can generate electricity stably and autonomously for 50 years without the need for charging or maintenance. It said the battery is currently in the pilot stage and will be put into...www.world-nuclear-news.org
View attachment 1037217
RTPEV
Active Member
Not sure if this was serious or sarcastic, but hopefully you are aware that the power output of those nuclear batteries is miniscule. Their applications are not high power devices such as vehicles, but rather very low power devices where changing the battery is impractical (i.e. satellites and spacecraft)
Anyway, back to the topic at hand: EV charging during special events such as the eclipse:
The same thing happened during the last US eclipse in 2017, and it's not limited to EVs: gas stations and traffic in general experience unprecedented demand during these kinds of events. Hopefully the lesson was learned, but it's guaranteed to happen again whenever these kinds of events occur (fortunately they are very rare).
I traveled to northern NY to see the eclipse. My strategy was to make sure I arrived prior to the day of and left after the day of. And even then, I made sure that I was topped off beforehand so that I could get as far away from the path of totality before needing to charge. I recommended the same to my son who drove a gas car: fill up on the way up and don't count on being able to fill up right after the eclipse.
Perhaps this was a single day trip in the case of the OP, but even in that case I would have left early enough to charge up a few hours prior to the eclipse (even if I had to sit at an L2 charger for a few hours), anticipating long lines even then, so that after the eclipse I would not need to stop and charge until well away from the path (and just for purely traffic congestion reasons, I would probably not leave right away anyway).
I had restrictions in place re travel - catch a flight for business the next day. Should I have taken my wife's ICE? Probably.
I had driven to TN for the 2017 eclipse and there were charging backups but was limited to maybe 3 or 4 cars waiting in line. That year I just took a 2 hour nap and all the stations in front of me cleared out and there were no waits. With the growth in ownership since then the load on infrastructure is much higher (plus the additional population density and adoption of Teslas in the Northeast). The issue was having all those vehicles with no option to go anywhere else unless they could find an L2. Tough to do in rural VT when you might have 10-20 miles of range left in your tank. I was lucky that I had just enough to get off the beaten path and find another route. I'm just curious how long it took for all those cars to clear out.
I had driven to TN for the 2017 eclipse and there were charging backups but was limited to maybe 3 or 4 cars waiting in line. That year I just took a 2 hour nap and all the stations in front of me cleared out and there were no waits. With the growth in ownership since then the load on infrastructure is much higher (plus the additional population density and adoption of Teslas in the Northeast). The issue was having all those vehicles with no option to go anywhere else unless they could find an L2. Tough to do in rural VT when you might have 10-20 miles of range left in your tank. I was lucky that I had just enough to get off the beaten path and find another route. I'm just curious how long it took for all those cars to clear out.
RTPEV
Active Member
From what I heard (and keep in mind this is at best a third-hand anecdotal report), the Supercharger in St. Johnsbury, VT was even worse. Only 4 (out of 8) stalls were working, and the remaining 4 were suffering from overheating issues.
Austin TX and nearby places were worried about running out of gasoline. At least electricity is sourced from widespread areas, not just the tanks in the ground.
I don't know if there were actually any issues, I ensured I didn't have to use a Supercharger on Monday.
Van Buren, AR is a 6-stall V3 with large gaps south and west.40 Tesla cars were waiting for Van Buren, AK Superchargers due to Eclipse traffic also:
Electric vehicles wait in long lines to recharge before leaving Van Buren after the solar eclipse
Around 40 electric vehicles waited in a long line at Casey's in Van Buren to recharge before heading out of town.
It would be nice if Tesla could provide temporary portable Superchargers for the next Eclipse in 20 years.
Henryetta, OK (NEVI), and Alma, AR (NEVI) would have helped ease the load a bit,
swaltner
Active Member
Bummer, sorry about the travel delays. I saw huge traffic delays on Apple Maps on I-89 with everyone heading South out of totality while I was enjoying the evening with family in Waterbury.
Stayed put on Monday and then drove home the next day. No traffic encountered on Tuesday/Wednesday on the way home or Friday/Saturday on the way there for that matter. You said you didn't have the extra time due to work travels, so difficult to work around that. I had put in vacation time for this total eclipse including a couple extra travel days after the eclipse all the way back on August 22, 2017 (the day I returned to work from the last total eclipse). I didn't know where I was going to be to view it, but didn't want work to impact the travel plans.
This queuing after a major event is just like the massive lines at the Supercharger station in Oshkosh, WI in the evening right after the AirVenture airshow every year. Avoid that station in the hours right after the airshow lets out and you won't see a line. I always fill up the Tesla on the way to the airport instead of on the way home when leaving for the day.
Stayed put on Monday and then drove home the next day. No traffic encountered on Tuesday/Wednesday on the way home or Friday/Saturday on the way there for that matter. You said you didn't have the extra time due to work travels, so difficult to work around that. I had put in vacation time for this total eclipse including a couple extra travel days after the eclipse all the way back on August 22, 2017 (the day I returned to work from the last total eclipse). I didn't know where I was going to be to view it, but didn't want work to impact the travel plans.
This queuing after a major event is just like the massive lines at the Supercharger station in Oshkosh, WI in the evening right after the AirVenture airshow every year. Avoid that station in the hours right after the airshow lets out and you won't see a line. I always fill up the Tesla on the way to the airport instead of on the way home when leaving for the day.
eladts
Member
The demand exists because these events are rare. If we had a solar eclipse every other Tuesday nobody would bother to drive in order to view it.
Similar threads
