[Venomer]

Charging at a Tesla Supercharger feels like walking into the wrong bar. Fifteen Tesla owners are staring at you while you connect your car. But it works. And your (X)C40 stands out in a positive way between those Teslas IMHO.

The only time I couldn't charge at a Supercharger was because all the stalls were occupied by Teslas. So opening the Superchargers to non-Teslas is not the cause of stalls not being available.

The upside of Tesla locations is that they usually have 16 to 20 stalls or more. Other brands in my country usually only have 4.

And Superchargers in Europe have CCS connectors, so we don't need "magic".

 

[morphroc]

I don’t have an issue with cost, as long as it’s reliable

Same. I'm only ever using a DCFC when on a roadtrip, and I'm happy to pay any reasonable amount of money as long as the charger is available and functional when I arrive there, so I'm not stranded.

 

[MDMTahiti]

Can't happen fast enough for me.

Access to Tesla's hardware will be a tremendous benefit to EV road trippers in my part of the USA (eastern northwest, high desert, western plains. southwestern expanses, and the surrounding emptiness, Nebraska to Joshua Tree, Yakima to Las Vegas, Denver to Salt Lake, Boise to Seattle, &c). Even at Tesla's premium prices, reliable equipment and up to date status reports will make long journeys in EVs possible and enjoyable.

I've been reviewing dozens of yootoobs documenting EV road trips, looking for commentary about Tesla stations and comparing their usage levels to conventional pumps/stations. The big thing I've noticed is that route planning apps provide only marginally reliable crowd-based information on pump uptime. Many drivers arrive at a station to find few, if any, pumps online and those that are may be 50kW or have chademo plugs. Meanwhile, Tesla stations on many of these interstate corridors are described as "under-utilized" or "empty".

I understand that the Tesla stations only do stage 2 charging and not level 3 charging for CCS connected EVs - is this true??

 

[bogiesan]

I understand that the Tesla stations only do stage 2 charging and not level 3 charging for CCS connected EVs - is this true??

Watch the videos, please.

 

[BainbridgeIsland]

I understand that the Tesla stations only do stage 2 charging and not level 3 charging for CCS connected EVs - is this true??

Your understanding is incorrect. Watch the videos - you can see a non-Tesla vehicle doing DC charging at 146kW. That's level 3.

 

[EvSwimmers]

I successful charged my xc40 using a magic dock in red hook NY yesterday! I arrived with about 50% SOC, and I don't think the car preconditioned the battery since nav didn't consider it a charging destination. Charging started at 125kW, but dropped very quickly. No idea if that was because of the car, which does drop quite a bit after 50%.
Hopefully the nav will get updated to allow preconditioning, but even so having a reliable alternative to EA is very welcome!

 

[cinnamontoast]

I successful charged my xc40 using a magic dock in red hook NY yesterday! I arrived with about 50% SOC, and I don't think the car preconditioned the battery since nav didn't consider it a charging destination. Charging started at 125kW, but dropped very quickly. No idea if that was because of the car, which does drop quite a bit after 50%.
Hopefully the nav will get updated to allow preconditioning, but even so having a reliable alternative to EA is very welcome!
View attachment 6149

****, that cord looks like a perfect fit!

 

[EvSwimmers]

****, that cord looks like a perfect fit!

I had no trouble plugging in at all. In fact once I installed the app and added my cc info, the whole process went very smoothly.

 

[Venomer]

****, that cord looks like a perfect fit!

Yes, we are lucky that Volvo put the charging port on the rear left, like Tesla does.

 

[Luckycharms]

I successful charged my xc40 using a magic dock in red hook NY yesterday! I arrived with about 50% SOC, and I don't think the car preconditioned the battery since nav didn't consider it a charging destination. Charging started at 125kW, but dropped very quickly. No idea if that was because of the car, which does drop quite a bit after 50%.
Hopefully the nav will get updated to allow preconditioning, but even so having a reliable alternative to EA is very welcome!

That seems like it was just following the pre-planned charging curve. I believe you would get the same speeds had you plugged into an EA station at the same SoC

https://support.fastned.nl/hc/en-gb/articles/360015416118-Volvo

 

[bogiesan]

Apropos the Tesla charging system: Tesla drops out of California's offer to subsidize build-out because of payment station requirement:

Tesla walks away from public funding for Superchargers because of payment system integration

Tesla has decided to walk away from millions of dollars in public funding for Superchargers in California due to a...

electrek.co

 

[f1geek]

No CA $millions, but still Federal $billions (though we don’t know amount yet).

 

[Bushikatagi]

No CA $millions, but still Federal $billions (though we don’t know amount yet).

Tesla has to apply for that money in every state if they want it. If they meet all the NEVI criteria and are selected, they will get a grant for up to 80% of the costs to upgrade or build the stations. The $5 billion NEVI program money is specifically for designated corridors so a lot of Telsa stations wouldn't even be eligible anyway.

I think it's likely Telsa will apply in most states, but they are competing with every other charging network and really anyone that wants to front 20% of the cost to install a charging station.

 

[f1geek]

There was the announcement from the White House about the Tesla network opening up. I suspect Tesla is going to get a lot of money from the government. In that announcement, Tesla spoke of building thousands of new charging stalls, so I suspect many of those sites will be on the designated corridors. Tesla is the best at building new sites, so I do not believe it would pass up the opportunity to get 80% of the building cost reimbursed. NEVI funding does not require screens or credit card readers, I believe, so Tesla will qualify. Also, it is well known that Tesla Superchargers are the most reliable stations as well as cheapest to install (due to scaling), so should be a shoe-in for funding given any sort of competitive funding request.

 

[santellavision]

I successful charged my xc40 using a magic dock in red hook NY yesterday!

How was the price on the app?

 

[EvSwimmers]

How was the price on the app?

51 cents/kWh. I think you can pay 12.99 a month to get a lower rate, but I'm not sure what that rate is.

 

[bogiesan]

New story from Consumer Reports, might be paywalled: How Well Do Tesla Superchargers Work for Non-Tesla EVs? — Consumer Reports

Nutshell: a bit clunky and the few charger s equipped with Magic Docks are awkward due to short cables. Program is promising. No apparent attitude from Tesla owners but everyone is concerned about the cables, which obviously will be improved in future installations. About $0.50/kWh but speeds did not rise above 76kW.

 

[f1geek]

As usual, Consumer Reports sends petrol heads to test and report on EV charging, and finds “problems” without properly explaining. There was no mention of the SOC of the EQE pack, so it is very likely 76 kW was the best speed available given the pack SOC. Like the XC40, most EVs need to be at low pack SOC (~10-20%) to pull max amps, and thus highest power.
I live about 40 minutes from the Scotts Valley SC and hope to test it out soon, but I will be sure to arrive at about 10% SOC to test its capabilities.

 

[BikerBill]

51 cents/kWh. I think you can pay 12.99 a month to get a lower rate, but I'm not sure what that rate is.

I'm wondering what the pricing will be when someone like me with a Tesla and a Volvo XC40 used the same Supercharger within say minutes of charing 2 different brand cars. Will my Tesla pay less, well of course. Now we get into discrimination as its the same customer paying 2 prices. HA HA HA

 

[improvius]

I'm wondering what the pricing will be when someone like me with a Tesla and a Volvo XC40 used the same Supercharger within say minutes of charing 2 different brand cars. Will my Tesla pay less, well of course. Now we get into discrimination as its the same customer paying 2 prices. HA HA HA

I think your app should have pricing information.