Eclipse + Superchargers + Rivian = Chaos

[TollKeeper]

To make it worse, the nearby McDonald's (don't @ me, food snobs) was only open for drive-thru, so we were deprived of McNuggets!

No Nuggies!!!! Sue Them!! Burn Them to the GROUND!

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[EmPickle]

I charged up at the mountain we were viewing and then planned my charging stop as far south as I could. Didn't have to wait at all other than the hours and hours of traffic.
Never been so happy to be in an EV!

 

[Riviaenz]

I see the glow of EA behind the cabinets. Those were up and TSC was at 50%? I thought NACS reliability is unparalleled and why some states are requiring NEVI funded DCFC deployments to support NACS for its reliability.

I’ve wondered if having non Tesla at TSC would reveal that TSC aren’t as reliable as perceived. Perhaps the real benefit is their ubiquity and quantity per site.

 

[SANZC02]

I see the glow of EA behind the cabinets. Those were up and TSC was at 50%? I thought NACS reliability is unparalleled and why some states are requiring NEVI funded DCFC deployments to support NACS for its reliability.

I’ve wondered if having non Tesla at TSC would reveal that TSC aren’t as reliable as perceived. Perhaps the real benefit is their ubiquity and quantity per site.

For sure the quantity per site. You pull up to a 12 station location and 2 are not working or under delivering there are still 10 functioning.

From what I see having been using Superchargers for 8 years the big difference between Tesla and everyone else though is Tesla is very prompt, usually 24-48 hours, getting down stations back up. In the 1 year with my R1S the other players can have stations down for weeks.

 

[Jiji]

Luckily for our Rivian and an F-150, the adjacent CCS chargers were open for use.

If they had a CCS adapter they could use either.

Was this in Upstate NY? I didn’t know there was a site with both EA (or EvolveNY) and MagicDocks.

 

[Dark-Fx]

No issues for us but we camped, so didn't travel on eclipse day.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

On our way back from viewing the eclipse, we witnessed this scene:

There were 7-8 Telsas in line to charge, with another nearby with its emergency blinkers on. 4 of the 8 Superchargers (Magic Docks) were down.

Luckily for our Rivian and an F-150, the adjacent CCS chargers were open for use.

I guess 4 units joined the Rapture.

 

[not_a_car_guy]

We experienced an even more extreme situation returning from the eclipse. We were driving back from northern Vermont to MA, and the Rivian nav told us to stop at the EA in Lebanon. Since that was the only 3 "lightning bolt" charger on the route home, I suspected everybody's nav would be suggesting the same thing, so we also mapped out all the "two lightning bolt" chargers on the route and checked out one early in the route, in Berlin just south of Montpelier. Our thinking was that chargers would be busy so let's check each one and if there is one without a line we'd opportunistically use it.

There were 8 superchargers, 2 Level-2 chargers, and one Flo charger (1 CCS and 1 Chademo) at the site. I was really kicking myself for not ordering a 3rd party NACS adapter and was fearing the worst before that stop. But when we got to the Berlin chargers, there was a snaking line of more than 20-25 teslas waiting, many running on "fumes", and people waiting for more than 1.5 hours and still a few cars back in line. The line was moving super slow even with 8 chargers. I made a wrong turn and missed the entrance, and luckily the next entrance was on an embankment overlooking the chaos. I could see the line of Tesla's snaking back and forth twice like an airport security line. And I could see nobody seemingly waiting for the CCS charger off to the side. I found another entrance that wasn't blocked by the snaking Teslas, got to the Flo charger, and it turns out the guy that was charging would finish in 5 min and we got to use it immediately after that!

The best decision we made was to stay in central VT over the weekend to ski, and charge to 100% at available L2 chargers the night before we left to view the eclipse. Any battery degradation would be offset by less range anxiety on our first road trip with my wife in the electric truck, and was an investment in more fun road trips in the Rivian in the future. My wife was worried the charging situation the next day would be like "Armageddon". The media predicted post-eclipse traffic in VT to be similar to 20 NFL stadiums all empyting out at the same time. By charging to 100%, we gave ourselves many more options.

What I found out talking to Tesla owners waiting in line is that many people drove up that morning and planned to charge on the way to VT. However, everyone had the same idea so Tesla superchargers on the way to northern VT started getting 1hr lines, especially those closer to the path of the eclipse. It got to the point that if you waited in line to charge, then you'd arrive too late to witness the total eclipse, so many Tesla drivers did the calculus to leave and try to make it back to charge afterwards.

The lesson for me in the future is to charge when you can. I would opt for more frequent stops when possible, especially if expecting crowds later, to get stay as close to full (or 80%) as you can as you approach the busy areas since you never know when the lines will be so long that it ruins your trip. Of course charging to 100% is not efficient at fast chargers, but if you have access to a overnight chargers, definitely start at 100%.

BTW, I don't know what etiquette is supposed to be, but I would have expected cars to be moving at least about one every 3-4 minutes given there were 8 super chargers. But it was taking much longer than that. Maybe everyone was trying to charge past 80%, or dealing with poor charging curves close to 0%?

We got lucky and were able to charge because CCS was open. Family needed to use bathrooms and get food, so I ended up charging beyond what I needed, until the next person showed up and then I unplugged and moved to a parking spot.

If they make a Chademo adapter, that might be a good investment if you are worried about a true "Armaggedon" scenario ;-). Not sure I've ever seen anyone use one of those chargers before! I don't know if the Flo charger would have allowed someone to use the CCS and the Chademo at the same time, but if so, if you could use Chademo you would probably never have to wait.

Looking forward to the Rivian chargers in Lebanon and Brattleboro for future VT travels for ski trips! Now if we could also get one in Lincoln, NH .

 

[jplblue]

If they had a CCS adapter they could use either.

Was this in Upstate NY? I didn’t know there was a site with both EA (or EvolveNY) and MagicDocks.

It's true! One smart Tesla owner had a CCS adapter and joked that he could sell it for $1000.

The location is in Hancock, NY (EvolveNY/EA as you guessed).

 

[vandy1981]

Precisely why I keep one ICE vehicle. Had a completely fine eclipse travel experience without any range anxiety or worry about taking alternate routes.

Hopefully this won't be necessary for the 2044 eclipse.

 

[CrazyOne]

I see the glow of EA behind the cabinets. Those were up and TSC was at 50%? I thought NACS reliability is unparalleled and why some states are requiring NEVI funded DCFC deployments to support NACS for its reliability.

I’ve wondered if having non Tesla at TSC would reveal that TSC aren’t as reliable as perceived. Perhaps the real benefit is their ubiquity and quantity per site.

Pretty sure the plugs themselves are not the problem for reliability. NCAS requirement is either because it's the future standard or because politicians got paid off(if it was long time back)

 

[Hillbilly]

Yeah was thinking the same. If this was about an EA station then 90% of replies would be that EA is so unreliable and I can't wait until we have Tesla access.. My adapter can't get here fast enough... etc etc etc

Stuff breaks, events happen and infrastructure gets overloaded. Sounds like bad timing that both happened at the same time.

You ever gone cross country and only use EA stations? I have. It sucks. Rates are exorbitant and chargers are often down or speeds are throttled.

 

[jjswan33]

You ever gone cross country and only use EA stations? I have. It sucks. Rates are exorbitant and chargers are often down or speeds are throttled.

I have, multiple times. In fact I went Oregon to Northern Wisconsin and back in summer 2022 only using EA. The one exception being the RAN in Salida, it was one of the only stations at the time so I made a special detour. Things are considerably better today, people just need to stop complaining and get out there and enjoy their trucks

 

[SANZC02]

You ever gone cross country and only use EA stations? I have. It sucks. Rates are exorbitant and chargers are often down or speeds are throttled.

I did, 33 stations 5100 miles no issue.

 

[zefram47]

Did a round trip of 2000 miles to see the eclipse going from Denver to Mt. Vernon, IL. Over the course of the trip I hit a total of 17 chargers, including a free L2 charge at Six Flags. I only experienced one major issue, which of course was at the EA station in Colby, KS on the outbound trip. The same station was trouble-free on the return trip. The EA in Mt. Vernon had one stall that wouldn't detect it was plugged in, but we were able to call EA and have the reboot the stall and it came back. I charged the day before the eclipse with enough to get me back to Saint Louis so I wouldn't have to worry about it the day-of. Station was busy, but we all got in and out pretty quickly. I used chargers from ChargePoint, Rivian RAN, EV Connect, Electrify America, Volta, and EVgo. I got to use one of the flagship style EVgo/Pilot/FlyingJ stations with the overhang...it was nice, but apparently the EVgo plans don't work with the Ultium branded units? In any case, I had a flawless experience on the return trip with all chargers I hit and got to help educate some newer EV owners while charging, which is always fun. According to the ElectraFi data I got an average of 1.8 mi/kWh on the stock 20s. Outbound trip was as bad as 1.3 mi/kWh due to a nasty headwind and the 75 mph speed limits...return trip was much better.

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