I was surprised to see, now that Fords, and soon other cars, can use superchargers, that Tesla officially blesses cars parking in such a way as to occupy two supercharger stalls -- or even three! -- due to the short cords. They even show it in a graphic. (They warn them not to park diagonally, though.) It's the last item in the FAQ at https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharging-other-evs#cable
I am surprised because there are some solutions they could have done (and perhaps will do) to reduce the effect of this. They know what sort of car you have, and where the port is. They know what stalls are in use, and what cars are navigating to the supercharger. They know if it's full and if there's a line and how long the line is.
This is even more important for the non-Teslas at the stations to use their assigned stall. As noted, any stall other than the one assigned to them would not activate so they would learn.
V4 stalls will have longer cords so it will be less trouble there, but allocation still makes sense.
I am surprised because there are some solutions they could have done (and perhaps will do) to reduce the effect of this. They know what sort of car you have, and where the port is. They know what stalls are in use, and what cars are navigating to the supercharger. They know if it's full and if there's a line and how long the line is.
- If the station is full, cars that need to take more than one stall should be made to wait. Failing that, they should be limited in their charge to just enough to get to the next station (CCS or Tesla) on their route. Idle fees should be doubled if taking two stalls.
- If a station fills up while such a car is charging, ie. two drivers are waiting that could use the two stalls, the driver taking two stalls should be signaled on their app and told to move their car and wait until there are again two free stalls.
- For cars with the port on the other side (front left, or rear right) they should be directed only to stalls on the right side of a charger bank and grouped there, while cars with the Tesla configuration would be directed to the left side. If done properly, no stalls are wasted.
This is even more important for the non-Teslas at the stations to use their assigned stall. As noted, any stall other than the one assigned to them would not activate so they would learn.
V4 stalls will have longer cords so it will be less trouble there, but allocation still makes sense.
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