Tonight, I drove up to the Belmont, CA, Superchargers, and there was a Ford Mustang Mach-E charging at the Supercharger station. I spoke with the driver, who mentioned they were testing it. He was on his way to also try charging at the EVgo stations, which are located adjacent to the Tesla Superchargers in the Laurelwood Shopping Center.
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Mustang Mach e GT charging at California Tesla supercharger
- Thread starter mrhits
- Start date
That's just a Mustang driver being a jackass. (surprised pikachu face)
RayK
Active Member
I wouldn't be that harsh. Due to the location of the Mustang's charge port and the length of the SC cable, there's no way that vehicle could use a single parking stall unless they could park on the opposite side of the chargers. Now if that Mach-E parked parallel across three stalls, then yes, I would agree with that assessment.
There needs to be a simple, short NACS extension cable that works with Superchargers. Something in the order of about 8-10 feet. That should allow non-Tesla vehicles to park in the correct stall for the associated SC equipment, regardless of where their charge ports are located. I know there's stuff around 20' but the ones I see are for 240VAC charging; i.e. Level 2 and not DC. Problem is that V3 SC cables are liquid cooled (AFAIK) so that would limit use to older, lower power stations.
But that's not the only problem. It's a Catch-22. The older V2 Superchargers don't speak CCS protocol, so even then, these Ford cars with adapters couldn't use them.
In the picture the mustang is only at about a 30 degree angle to its 'stall', meaning that plug is around 14% closer to the charge stand than if it were properly parked.
That said, even if its properly parked it'll be using the wrong stall and a Tesla will be blocked from using the usual stall. There's clearly not enough cable to get to the correct side of the mustang were the mustang parked in a 'usual' tesla spot for that charger.
RayK
Active Member
Therefore, no matter how the Mach-E parked to get charged, it would still take up two SC stations. Regardless of whether it was slightly diagonal or totally within the lines of a single stall.
So instead of "jackass", how about "buffoon"?
It's a problem we're going to see more and more as non-Tesla vehicles start using SCs. Without lengthening existing SC cables or having the EV manufacturers conform to Tesla's charge port location (or putting it on the right front, instead of the left rear) or changing the layout of new SC installations (putting the station near the B pillar as the car is properly parked in the stall - which might necessitate the lengthening of the stall to support vehicles where the charge port is in the middle front or rear), we're going to continue to see this happen.
There is not much more they can do at that site, although _maybe_ they could have parked a _little_ straighter to allow the possibility of a fellow CCSer to use the next stall. Unfortunately the site has equipment at the far end, so they can't park SC stall + non-SC.
V4 will solve this (although based on what I've seen of the cables at Rockland, ME it helps to have a good sense of the front of the vehicle so you're close enough). The sooner Tesla is able to shift to all stalls at new Superchargers being V4 the better..
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Yeah, between this and how newer Tesla owners avoid V2 stations like the plague, I'm goin to have them all to myself.
Supposedly, this product is that:
But only the 14-foot model, and the pull-down only shows the 20-foot model.
Not park diagonally across two spaces. As I covered later, even though that looks like its possible, it uses the next stall over instead of the usual Tesla spot meaning that even though the mustang would be in one spot, it would block two tesla spots.
tesla could manage this sharing transition:
1. ID a limited # of stalls for off-brand charging,
2. pay for the requisite longer cable for that off-brand stall
3. prominently display / different signage / different color for the stall with the longer off-brand cable
4. display, even more prominently, to not park across several stalls
4a. provide examples of ridicule and shame (such as the picture of the mustang mâché above)
1. ID a limited # of stalls for off-brand charging,
2. pay for the requisite longer cable for that off-brand stall
3. prominently display / different signage / different color for the stall with the longer off-brand cable
4. display, even more prominently, to not park across several stalls
4a. provide examples of ridicule and shame (such as the picture of the mustang mâché above)
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Yeah, but I’d guess none of this is ever going to happen.
As for 4a, as has been pointed out several times in this thread, it matters not one bit if that car is parked entirely between the lines. It will be blocking two charging spots.
Parking diagonally or not... two spots are essentially taken. Even with just parking straight-on and using the charger one spot over, the cord sometimes barely makes it. Parking diagonally helps.
There is a great video from Tom Moloughney showing this problem when he charged his Lightning at the first magic doc location. The cable barely reached the charge port. Since then, I understand that Tesla has removed bollards from some stations, but the cable is too short for anything that isn't a Tesla.
I applaud the industry for opening up the charging network as it will help push the acceptance of EVs forward significantly (my opinion). We almost always take our MYLR on trips due to the charging network, but I look forward to the day when we can take the Lightning as it is much more comfortable for a family of four.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
I wonder if all of these automakers standardizing on NACS are going to also standardize charge port location at the left rear (or I suppose right front would be generally the same…
It was kind of late for that when NACS was adopted.
Tesla may simply need to retrofit V3 dispensers with longer cables. Combine that with restriping the stalls to center the cable between the lines and they can keep the cable length to a minimum and accommodate all cars without losing capability.
Future SC sites should be designed accordingly.
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