Queues stretching for hours show what it's really like owning a Tesla at Christmas
- Thread starter chaparral
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4 years and 50k miles of Tesla ownership - Never ever once queue at supercharger.
Also there are a large number of "non" telsa fast chargers within 10 miles of Tebay that were empty most of the day. However people just don't use common sense at times, and just follow the "cars" software to the Superchargers.
However - if your going to drive during the holidays, and potentially one of the busiest days of the year on the roads, you have to accept the potential situation will involve queueing at one of the busiest Motorway services in UK.
Also there are a large number of "non" telsa fast chargers within 10 miles of Tebay that were empty most of the day. However people just don't use common sense at times, and just follow the "cars" software to the Superchargers.
However - if your going to drive during the holidays, and potentially one of the busiest days of the year on the roads, you have to accept the potential situation will involve queueing at one of the busiest Motorway services in UK.
Saying these kind of things (it hasn't happened to me, all they need to do is x) is all well and good but you need to consider that you're not representative of a typical car owner.
The majority of those going from ICE to EV aren't going to be tech savvy people who post on a computer forum. Therefore they're going to follow the usual traits of simply following their sat nav to the nearest refueling station, not installing a 3rd party app that has mapped out all the fast chargers.
If it were common sense, people would be doing it instinctively.
It doesn't help that in common with a few services on the M6 the Tesla Superchargers at Teabay are only on the southbound services, there's currently none on the northbound and as its relatively easy to access the southbound from northbound the entire Tesla driving population can end up routed there.
The Tesla navigation seems to only automatically route to superchargers but they have recently added lots more 3rd party chargers to the map so you can at least manually navigate to others.
I went a trip this week down to Sheffield from Ayrshire, was a 15min or so queue at the Scotch Corner supercharger, the high power Gridserve chargers at my next stop were mostly broken (6 chargers, 2 out of order, 1 stuck only accepting RFID cards instead of contactless bank cards and the other 3 in use). The 50KW one was working but only actually giving 25KW or so. Other than that no issues with charging.
One other thing nobody pointed out with the full up superchargers, unless its the newest 250KW ones they power share so if the place is full it'll actually take everyone even longer to charge and free up a spot....
Fun car the Model 3 but I really miss just filling up with diesel and being able to go 400miles in any direction without having to worry about where I'm going to charge. Also miss having adaptive cruise control that doesn't have a nervous breakdown in heavy rain cause the cameras can't see well enough when overtaking an HGV and therefore jumps on the brakes because "autopilot speed limited due to poor visiblity".
The Tesla navigation seems to only automatically route to superchargers but they have recently added lots more 3rd party chargers to the map so you can at least manually navigate to others.
I went a trip this week down to Sheffield from Ayrshire, was a 15min or so queue at the Scotch Corner supercharger, the high power Gridserve chargers at my next stop were mostly broken (6 chargers, 2 out of order, 1 stuck only accepting RFID cards instead of contactless bank cards and the other 3 in use). The 50KW one was working but only actually giving 25KW or so. Other than that no issues with charging.
One other thing nobody pointed out with the full up superchargers, unless its the newest 250KW ones they power share so if the place is full it'll actually take everyone even longer to charge and free up a spot....
Fun car the Model 3 but I really miss just filling up with diesel and being able to go 400miles in any direction without having to worry about where I'm going to charge. Also miss having adaptive cruise control that doesn't have a nervous breakdown in heavy rain cause the cameras can't see well enough when overtaking an HGV and therefore jumps on the brakes because "autopilot speed limited due to poor visiblity".
Thank you. It’s refreshing to hear that from an EV owner.
Soldato
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See my experience is the range is similar to my previous cars, performance cars tend to not get much more than 250 miles
.
So the more I read about this the more I think that Tesla owners are just too stupid to do a wee bit of planning.
Or is this a case of they all went for long family trips and the nav brought them to the same charging station at similar times?
Or is this a case of they all went for long family trips and the nav brought them to the same charging station at similar times?
Caporegime
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I think it's probably they're used to not having to needing to plan as the software is usually reliable but got tripped up by an usual activity peak.
Associate
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I noticed this whilst travelling to see people over Christmas. Every motorway services I stopped at, all the Tesla chargers were occupied with at least 2 people waiting.
This was the case on the 28th too which I don't think is one of the peak christmas travel days- m40 Warwick services had about 5 cars waiting.
This was the case on the 28th too which I don't think is one of the peak christmas travel days- m40 Warwick services had about 5 cars waiting.
Associate
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My observations recently - queues much less/non existant at the non Tesla chargers at motorway services (possibly due to cost?)
So like I said, a combination of poor planning and poor software.
Any EV owner with even a smidgen if wit knows you always have a plan B for long range trips.
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Given it was Tebay, I'd wager three things are at play here:
1. As it's one of the best service stations in the UK, people will plan their route around a stop at Tebay, stopping earlier or later than they usually would.
2. The sparse number of Superchargers to the North of Manchester. Tebay only has 8, and that's meant to cater for both northbound and southbound traffic. The next closest to Tebay is Gretna to the North and Charnock Richard to the South.
3. Drivers depending too much on Tesla route planning and the Tesla Supercharger Network. Us non-Tesla peasants are used to planning for this sort of eventuality
Probably not a bad thing that this happened though. The area to the North of Manchester and Leeds needs improving. It's stories like this which will fuel improvements. Installing a second bank of Superchargers at Tebay North would help greatly.
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Given it was Tebay, I'd wager three things are at play here:
1. As it's one of the best service stations in the UK, people will plan their route around a stop at Tebay, stopping earlier or later than they usually would.
2. The sparse number of Superchargers to the North of Manchester. Tebay only has 8, and that's meant to cater for both northbound and southbound traffic. The next closest to Tebay is Gretna to the North and Charnock Richard to the South.
3. Drivers depending too much on Tesla route planning and the Tesla Supercharger Network. Us non-Tesla peasants are used to planning for this sort of eventuality
Probably not a bad thing that this happened though. The area to the North of Manchester and Leeds needs improving. It's stories like this which will fuel improvements. Installing a second bank of Superchargers at Tebay North would help greatly.
Exactly what I was about to suggest.
It's Tebay and it's a busy time of year. Next they'll be reporting that there were queues for the toilets too. Definitely an aspect of poor planning involved if you didn't see that coming.
Soldato
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Guess you don’t thank the other views as they don’t fit your preconceptions and narrative…
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Soldato
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So like I said, a combination of poor planning and poor software.
Any EV owner with even a smidgen if wit knows you always have a plan B for long range trips.
For Christmas a lot of Tesla drivers were given this gift of wit through the experience they had
It’s just like these journalists who did the same on EV car reviews, went in cold and wrote all about it.Similar issues/queue in Norway & California come Summer holidays , from some of the Bjorn videos, Diego reports.
... thought they had charging strategy which also had a time based component to deter folks topping up the final, slow, 20%, to 100%,
albeit people often dawdling at the pumps, buying stuff, in the shop, in UK.
... thought they had charging strategy which also had a time based component to deter folks topping up the final, slow, 20%, to 100%,
albeit people often dawdling at the pumps, buying stuff, in the shop, in UK.
For Christmas a lot of Tesla drivers were given this gift of wit through the experience they had
Going in cold or opening up hot about the compromises is still taking the reader on a journey to learn about it.
I'm surprised there aren't more occasions like this to be honest, considering the lack of infrastructure investment by this government. Leaving it to private companies won't cut it.
But speaking of resilience, we've had 100 years to perfect our petrol and diesel supply chain and that still grinds to a halt over some internet rumours on a semi regular basis.
But speaking of resilience, we've had 100 years to perfect our petrol and diesel supply chain and that still grinds to a halt over some internet rumours on a semi regular basis.
Soldato
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Yeah as long as it doesn’t become gospel like the Harry Metcalfe or Shmee ones I’m cool.
Soldato
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This would be every petrol station if every car was an ev - because they cant do an ev fillup as quickly as a fossil fillup.
Also, ridic how much media attention this got just because its tesla.
Also, ridic how much media attention this got just because its tesla.