ItsNotAboutTheMoney
Well-Known Member
Yes, but on the other hand, again, the 2019 Thanksgiving queues were largely a special case of a combination of weather and, at the time, a weakness on US-101. There hasn't been any major news of queues since then without there also being other specific problems. And there are more Teslas than other EVs and Tesla owners trust the network so are more likely to use it.2020 was blown due to COVID. No vaccines for the general public by Dec 2020 and the COVID situation was bad in So Cal. I remember it and passed on doing a road trip to So Cal in Dec 2020 because of no vax for me yet and many places would be closed.
The below are examples of some mitigations that Tesla did to avoid long lines in busy travel corridors by spreading out usage:
- Nov 2021Tesla is giving away free charging so Superchargers don't get slammed during the Thanksgiving travel rush
Tesla wants to avoid long, frustrating lines at its Superchargers by letting owners charge up for free overnight and in the early morning.www.businessinsider.com
- Dec 2021Tesla rewarding timely holiday travelers with free supercharging
Holiday travelers get free Tesla charging in some areas.www.theverge.com
- July 2022Tesla offers free Supercharging to encourage off-peak charging during travels for holidays
Tesla is offering free Supercharging during off-peak hours at select locations during the 4th of July weekend to help with...electrek.co
- Nov 2022Tesla launches free Thanksgiving Supercharger rates for off-peak hours
Tesla is offering free Supercharging in select U.S. locations as Thanksgiving nears. Owners are encouraged to charge during off-peak hours.www.teslarati.com
As I said, others can do something similar, but that only goes so far.
Update: As for "Supercharger network doesn't magically solve things, but it will make a _huge_ difference, because (1) it works", sure it works great with Teslas. But, I really do wonder once it opens up more and they have to talk CCS to a huge # of vehicles that are moving targets (with new models and updates to them coming out) if it'll be just another case of "grass is greener on the other side".
There are numerous reports of "Magic Dock" being hit or miss like these:
EA (for instance) has an elaborate test lab, part of which is to test compatibility with vehicles:
Electrify America Talks Charging Network Problems, Has Solutions
We sit down with Electrify America's CEO Giovanni Palazzo and COO Brendan Jones to discuss the network's problems, and how they plan to correct them.insideevs.com
Someone is going to have to do similar hard work.
Tesla has opened up a lot of Superchargers in a lot of countries around the world and have a lot of different makes and models using the Superchargers. People in Europe have relied on the Supercharger capacity to avoid charging queues during busy travel periods. There have been some issues of incompatibility, but it's not been a major problem at all. This isn't a new thing to Tesla.
In fact, it would make sense that manufacturers themselves will also want to test their cars against the best network in North America, as well as other major networks, to ensure compatibility. I don't see this as a significant problem at all. To be honest, I think there are some people who are hoping it will be a problem and they'll be disappointed.
For what it's worth, I've charged my Kona at a Supercharger with Magic Dock (same site, same stall twice). The first time it worked first time, the second time it took 2 attempts. I've had some problems initiating charges on CCS chargers as well, so could just be me or my car.
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