Tesla chargers and everyone else

[bigsky]

I worked off and on for years near Forks, in Neah Bay and La Push WA, and now live in Washington's southwest corner about a mile from the ocean.

In November, near the coast, please be ready for anything. That close to the ocean, the weather anywhere from mid-October to late March can bring not only heavy rain but strong wind. Some years November is our windiest month. "Within about six miles of the coast, the rain falls horizontally."

When in the Forks area, do not miss the one-hour trip to Neah Bay. This is the northwestern corner of the continental USA. It has two of the most beautiful hiking trails I know (Cape Flattery Trail and Shi Shi Beach Trail). The Makah Museum and Cultural Center may be the best-equipped Native American museum outside the Smithsonian. For extra enjoyment and learning, consider asking the Museum to recommend a tribal member for a personal tour -- so many stories!

Very best wishes! Enjoy your visit, @bigsky!

Thank you so very much!
This is extremely useful to know!
Much appreciated.

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[VSG]

Tesla still prioritizes high demand locations for Tesla only. Nothing wrong with that. They open under-utilized stations for all EVs.

No, that's not it. Fact is, we don't really know why Tesla chooses to open some and not others (other than the obvious - V1/V2 will not be opened). You are just guessing. And although it sounds like a reasonable guess (and there are other guesses that also sound reasonable), none of these guesses stands up to closer scrutiny.

For example, I have a new supercharger near me which just opened about 6 months ago. (It took Tesla 3 years to build it from the time they first broke ground, by the way ...) It is a brand-new V3 station and rarely used - I drive by it frequently and rarely see a car there. But it's not open to non-Teslas. There goes your theory about "high demand" and other theories about "old equipment that needs to be updated before they open it".

I personally choose locations to charge based on location and price. With the current charging infrastructure, you can't be too picky about brand. But in practice, in this part of the country, Tesla is mostly duplicating locations that other brands are also using (or vice versa, I don't care how you want to phrase it), so it comes down to price and availability. And Tesla doesn't always fare well in terms of price, but they do have a lot more chargers per location.

All of my road trips over the past two years were possible using CCS/J1772 chargers only (obviously - I made it back). Most of those trips still CANNOT be done using only the open Tesla chargers, because of the large dead zones where there are only closed V1/V2 and closed V3 Tesla chargers. But having Tesla chargers as a choice along some parts of those routes will give me options for (perhaps) a cheaper charger or a fall-back location if my first choice has problems.

 

[VSG]

Hey, switching subjects, you mentioned Forks, Olympic Peninsula. May I ask, would you know, okay to tour that area in, say November weatherwise, rain notwithstanding?

@Dave Cundiff said it well.
If you accept there will be rain, then any break you get from that will be glorious. I like visiting in fall because you'll have the place to yourself - campsites and/or other places to stay are easy to find, trailheads have ample parking, there are no crowds anywhere. Stock up on Gore-Tex - as they say there is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

 

[bigsky]

@Dave Cundiff said it well.
If you accept there will be rain, then any break you get from that will be glorious. I like visiting in fall because you'll have the place to yourself - campsites and/or other places to stay are easy to find, trailheads have ample parking, there are no crowds anywhere. Stock up on Gore-Tex - as they say there is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

Will definitely keep that in mind. And start checking weather stations in that area. The only drawback kind of is my Rivian will have to stay home. Still in the shop getting repainted to fix corrosion on rear door and 30 days rest once painting is finished to reapply PPF and ceramic coating. Not a good idea to take it on a very long trip with the rear door and quater panel "exposed." So that means my Model Y gets to go.
I really appreciate your advice about that area. Finding lodging, and with my two dogs in tow might mean that I have to flexible on dates. Most everything booked solid through Oct. and Nov. already (La Push). If going to the coast, had better stay right on the coast.
Again, thank you. That museum looks great!

 

[HaveBlue]

No, that's not it. Fact is, we don't really know why Tesla chooses to open some and not others (other than the obvious - V1/V2 will not be opened). You are just guessing. And although it sounds like a reasonable guess (and there are other guesses that also sound reasonable), none of these guesses stands up to closer scrutiny.

For example, I have a new supercharger near me which just opened about 6 months ago. (It took Tesla 3 years to build it from the time they first broke ground, by the way ...) It is a brand-new V3 station and rarely used - I drive by it frequently and rarely see a car there. But it's not open to non-Teslas. There goes your theory about "high demand" and other theories about "old equipment that needs to be updated before they open it".

I personally choose locations to charge based on location and price. With the current charging infrastructure, you can't be too picky about brand. But in practice, in this part of the country, Tesla is mostly duplicating locations that other brands are also using (or vice versa, I don't care how you want to phrase it), so it comes down to price and availability. And Tesla doesn't always fare well in terms of price, but they do have a lot more chargers per location.

All of my road trips over the past two years were possible using CCS/J1772 chargers only (obviously - I made it back). Most of those trips still CANNOT be done using only the open Tesla chargers, because of the large dead zones where there are only closed V1/V2 and closed V3 Tesla chargers. But having Tesla chargers as a choice along some parts of those routes will give me options for (perhaps) a cheaper charger or a fall-back location if my first choice has problems.

Maybe you should read Tesla's statements about analyzing congestion before telling other people they are wrong.
https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/supercharging-other-evs#future-sites

 

[emoore]

Maybe you should read Tesla's statements about analyzing congestion before telling other people they are wrong.
https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/supercharging-other-evs#future-sites

Doesn't mean that it's actually what happens. I know of a few seldom used V3 stations that aren't opened up so I think the congestion statement is just a CYA for stations they don't want to open up for some reason.

 

[EVtowing]

As a Tesla owner who hopes to become a Rivian owner in 2025 this discussion has been very helpful. But one aspect of charging an R1T/R1S at a Supercharger has not been discussed (I searched the forum but can’t find it even though it’s probably here somewhere); is there an issue with the V3 Supercharger cable not being able to reach the charge port when parking a Rivian head-in at a Supercharger stall? It seems to me that it won’t reach and you have to park in the “wrong” stall to make it work, but then you end up using two stalls in most cases (V4 cables are longer and apparently can reach?) and really annoying other EV owners at a busy Supercharger location. Thanks in advance.

 

[EVtowing]

I decided to ask ChatGPT 4.0 this question:
———————————————————————-
Is Tesla going to provide a Supercharger extension cable so that Rivian owners using a Supercharger do not take up two spaces?
———————————————————————-

And this is the answer it provided:

———————————————————————-
Tesla is indeed working on an extension cable solution to address the issue of non-Tesla vehicles, like Rivian’s R1T and R1S, needing to park across two spaces at Supercharger stations. The primary reason for this issue is that Tesla Superchargers were originally designed with the assumption that all vehicles would have the charging port located on the rear driver’s side, which isn’t the case for many other EVs.

Tesla’s new V4 Superchargers come with longer cables that can better accommodate these varying port locations. However, most of the Supercharger network still consists of V3 stations, where the cable length can be limiting. To help alleviate this, Tesla is developing a NACS (North American Charging Standard) extension cable. This will allow Rivian owners (and other non-Tesla EV users) to charge their vehicles without taking up multiple spaces. Although this extension cable is in the works, it hasn’t been released yet, and it’s unclear when it will be available for purchase .

In the meantime, Tesla encourages EV drivers using its Supercharger network to park carefully and be mindful of blocking other spaces, particularly at older Supercharger stations.
———————————————————————-

I ran a Google search using the same question and it did not find a source to support what ChatGPT stated about a Tesla Supercharger extension cable. I ran another search for “tesla supercharger extension cable” and found this March 8 2024 Electrek article Tesla is working on NACS extension cable to fix Supercharging issues with different port locations

Tesla has confirmed on its Supercharger support site that it is working on a NACS-to-NACS extension cable:

We are working on an NACS to NACS extension cable, which will be available for purchase in the future.

It’s not clear when the new solution will be available.

I read Electrek regularly and missed that story. So that is good news. But it is now almost 7 months later and the extension cable is not available. Perhaps Elon’s stupid decision to fire the entire Supercharger team several months ago (and then have to rehire some of them) has something to do with that.

 

[emoore]

I decided to ask ChatGPT 4.0 this question:
———————————————————————-
Is Tesla going to provide a Supercharger extension cable so that Rivian owners using a Supercharger do not take up two spaces?
———————————————————————-

And this is the answer it provided:

———————————————————————-
Tesla is indeed working on an extension cable solution to address the issue of non-Tesla vehicles, like Rivian’s R1T and R1S, needing to park across two spaces at Supercharger stations. The primary reason for this issue is that Tesla Superchargers were originally designed with the assumption that all vehicles would have the charging port located on the rear driver’s side, which isn’t the case for many other EVs.

Tesla’s new V4 Superchargers come with longer cables that can better accommodate these varying port locations. However, most of the Supercharger network still consists of V3 stations, where the cable length can be limiting. To help alleviate this, Tesla is developing a NACS (North American Charging Standard) extension cable. This will allow Rivian owners (and other non-Tesla EV users) to charge their vehicles without taking up multiple spaces. Although this extension cable is in the works, it hasn’t been released yet, and it’s unclear when it will be available for purchase .

In the meantime, Tesla encourages EV drivers using its Supercharger network to park carefully and be mindful of blocking other spaces, particularly at older Supercharger stations.
———————————————————————-

I ran a Google search using the same question and it did not find a source to support what ChatGPT stated about a Tesla Supercharger extension cable. I ran another search for “tesla supercharger extension cable” and found this March 8 2024 Electrek article Tesla is working on NACS extension cable to fix Supercharging issues with different port locations

I read Electrek regularly and missed that story. So that is good news. But it is now almost 7 months later and the extension cable is not available. Perhaps Elon’s stupid decision to fire the entire Supercharger team several months ago (and then have to rehire some of them) has something to do with that.

Doubt we will ever get an extension cable. Way too much heat and will impact charging speed.

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