Crowded Superchargers in CA....

[Zarwin]

That is not true...... 1st in is primary. 2nd in to the pair suffers til the other ramps down.

+1 can confirm, was charging at about 110kw, second tesla plugged into my pair (there were no unpaired spots left) and the charge rate stayed at 110kw then tapered down as usual. If two cars pull into the same pair at the same time, the one that plugs in just after the other is getting a crap deal.

Edit: this was at a 120kw supercharger

 

[Saghost]

The app helps too. You get a message that your car is done.

On a sidenote, it would be very easy for tesla to parse the supercharging files and look for repeat offenders that leave their cars at the stall after charging is done. Tesla should consider sending owners a gentle email reminder to have some courtesy for other owners.

Maybe this is a spot where there's room for improvement. Perhaps using Tesla utilization data, they could set it up so that if all of the stalls are in use, the "your car is done" message has a higher level of notification (beep/vibrate) and includes a "and someone is waiting for the stall" piece. (Not sure if there's an existing way to know that there are cars waiting for certain.)
Walter

 

[liuping]

Hour? Yes. Hours? No... That place is tricky since there's really no other place to go but a full service restaurant. Some seats have a view of the SC slots, but not many

Why would you need a view of the SC slots?

I monitor the charging via the app and walk out and move the car when it done.

 

[tga]

It almost certainly is discrete steps - the Supercharger is made up of a stack of several standard Model S charger modules, and I would assume that each module can only be hooked up to one output at a time (different voltage on each car,) so it would presumably shift in 10-11kW increments.

This is just wild conjecture on my part, but I would expect they are switched in sets of three to keep the load on the 3 phases in balance.

 

[bxr140]

Why would you need a view of the SC slots

A view makes it easier to monitor capacity. If you're pushing an hour for a meal but there are three stalls open, you can take your time getting out of there. If you're pushing an hour and there's another car waiting, go move your effing car. Who cares whether you're 'done' or not, an hour supercharging is more than enough for virtually every situation.

 

[David99]

... and look for repeat offenders that leave their cars at the stall after charging is done. Tesla should consider sending owners a gentle email reminder to have some courtesy for other owners.

The majority of drivers don't know much about charging let alone Supercharging. They don't know how long it takes. Heck even Tesla doesn't know. That's why there is no estimate on how long your SC session will take (unlike on a L2 charger). The majority of drivers just plug in, they know it will take "a while" and they do something useful with their time. It's inconvenient enough having to stop and charge. Having to constantly check your phone to see how far your charge is while you are having dinner with your loved one is annoying and then having to run out and moving your car while the food on your plate gets cold is a major inconvenience. I totally understand that people don't want to do this. Frankly the time it takes to charge to get from SC to SC is just too long to sit in your car and wait, but also too short to actually go to a full service restaurant or do shopping or see a movie. The same is true for many public chargers. At Disneyland we usually spend 6-8 hours. Much more time than needed to charge my car. It takes about 18 min to go from the park back to the parking lot, another 5-15 min trying to find another spot in the busy parking lot, then another 18 min to get back to the park. No one does it, understandably.

 

[Saghost]

This is just wild conjecture on my part, but I would expect they are switched in sets of three to keep the load on the 3 phases in balance.

I'm thinking it doesn't really matter from the utility's standpoint. They want the three phases balanced, certainly, and the cabinet will have to try to address that as it activates/deactivates chargers when it isn't using all of them.

But I can't see that the utility will know or care if the SC cabinet has 11 charging one car and one charging the other, as long as they are all pulling the same AC current from the utility connection, which presumably would be the case if they are all providing the full output they can to the two cars.
Walter

- - - Updated - - -

Heck even Tesla doesn't know. That's why there is no estimate on how long your SC session will take (unlike on a L2 charger).

There are variables in the process beyond the current and target state of charge, but all of them should be known and measurable at the time the session starts. I can't believe that Tesla couldn't provide a time estimate immediately after plugging in - assuming they knew the level you intend to charge to (I'm not sure how often people set and use the target charge level bars at Superchargers?) and assuming it won't steal power for the next car to plug in (which I'm learning in this thread the older units sometimes may?)
Walter

 

[Burt Court]

It's only going to get worser and worser as there are more and more Tesla's. I like the fact that more Superchargers are coming on stream, hope it keeps up with the demand.
I'm appalled and dismayed however that you would ever be so rude to take a cell phone into a restaurant (or a hospital or friends home). Whats the world coming too?
old geezer

 

[Cottonwood]

This is just wild conjecture on my part, but I would expect they are switched in sets of three to keep the load on the 3 phases in balance.

There has been a lot of discussion on this. There is no need to keep the 3-phase service in perfect balance, other users do not; Superchargers will naturally be close unless they try to create imbalance.

It would be great if someone that is second to plug in, does a careful observation to see how the rising charging power steps up.

 

[WarrenInCA]

It's only going to get worser and worser as there are more and more Tesla's. I like the fact that more Superchargers are coming on stream, hope it keeps up with the demand.
I'm appalled and dismayed however that you would ever be so rude to take a cell phone into a restaurant (or a hospital or friends home). Whats the world coming too?
old geezer

For better or worse, the world is already there (like 5+ years ago)

 

[TexasEV]

I don't know about other places, but did my first longer trip and used a few superchargers. Tejon, Harris, and Gilroy. All 3 had over 50% spaces filled and two of them were 100% or more filled at some point I was charging. Did get to see a P85D, but also noticed that most of the people there charging had no understanding. One person couldn't disconnect the cable, because his car was locked. No one I spoke to understood that the chargers were paired. It's only going to get worse... At Harris, someone had to wait for a spot to open up. Unfortunately, there were at least 3 cars that were there before I got there and after I left. The one good news was that none of the spots were iced.

Just some observations.

Oh, the horrors! Someone had to wait for a spot to open up on the weekend after Christmas.

 

[napabill]

At Harris Ranch now. One open when I arrived. Two have since left and I'm up to 212 mph. On to Tejon, then Barstow.

I should mention the queuing process has been very orderly.

 

[bluenation]

this is why tesla should never stop building SpC's..

 

[Saghost]

this is why tesla should never stop building SpC's..

I'm pretty sure they're not planning to. Every car (except 60s without SpC) has a block of the purchase price set aside for the network - as they sell more cars, they get more cash to build SpC stalls with. It'll be interesting to see how they decide to balance expanding the network coverage, adding stalls to existing locations that are heavily used, and adding locations near the heavily used ones. There are advantages to each approach...
Walter

 

[arnolddeleon]

. . .

The one fun exception was at Truckee last week on my Gigafactory pilgrimage. I inadvertently started to pull into the paired spot of a car already charging. Before I even got my car parked, a young girl (about 12) bounded out of the other car and pointed out that I was about to slow down their charge. She was sitting reading alone in the car, while her Mom was shopping, and clearly keeping a sharp eye out-- kids these days! :wink:

I immediately apologized and moved to the adjacent slot. In the dark, I had trouble reading the labels.

I think I know who that "little girl" was assuming that was a gray Tesla. She was telling me about people not being aware of SC pairing and how someone pulled next them at Truckee while she was reading in the car. BTW she has her license (just recently) and has driven that Tesla. Her dad wanted her to take the Tesla for the driving test except it didn't have a front plate.

arnold

 

[mattreidy]

Maybe in the future, Tesla will need to monitor SC usage and when you leave your car plugged in for say beyond 15 minutes after charging is complete, they bill your credit card on file a penalty fee. Something significant enough that it would motivate most people to pay attention and move their car ASAP.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Maybe in the future, Tesla will need to monitor SC usage and when you leave your car plugged in for say beyond 15 minutes after charging is complete, they bill your credit card on file a penalty fee. Something significant enough that it would motivate most people to pay attention and move their car ASAP.

I'd go for that that, but only if Tesla could 100% insure that the Supercharger spots are *never* ICEd.

No way Tesla can charge OWNERS for taking a supercharger spot too long, and every other ICE driver can do it without consequences.

 

[Rheazombi]

Haha, good point. I wouldn't be able to handle the irony.

 

[aaron0k]

There is a new wave of MS owners out now. They don't troll owner forums or really care about pairing, etc. They bought the car for other reasons (status). I also wouldn't call them 'ignorant', they just want it to work... find a spot, plug in and move on. Expecting them to learn about paired stalls and amps is a lot of silly minutiae. TM could easily pop-up a window giving some basic info, however I expect they don't really want to... for other reasons (marketing).

SuperCharging is great concept to sell vehicles (removes range anxiety). However even die-hard Tesla superfans are starting to find it old and limiting; not practical for an expanding base (the type that wear A|X vs Tesla Logo jackets). I hope TM can focus more effort and resources on swap stations vs. superchargers; then we'll all be in a 'better place'.

 

[gaswalla]

went to San Juan Capistrano at 1030p on Monday: all stalls full.