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Bloomberg seems to have it in for Tesla so I take their reporting on this with a grain of salt. They can easily choose to have a bad experience if they so desi

by natch 8y ago

Bloomberg seems to have it in for Tesla so I take their reporting on this with a grain of salt. They can easily choose to have a bad experience if they so desire by going to slow stations and avoiding superchargers. Or by using superchargers incorrectly such as by trying to fully top off at every charge, a typical newbie mistake, or choosing shared stations when non-shared ones are open (this guy was in a rental... possibly a newbie). Also the supercharger network is continuing to be built out rapidly so anything they say here will be outdated in a matter of months if not weeks.

jve 8y ago
Well you are biased too, arent you :) Ofcourse things are improving, but he just said the current situation with electric cars on roadtrips. And what he said is you currently have to plan more and yeah, you get more trouble as a newbie. Everyone is a newbie until they are not. Disclaimer: I would like to have an electric car.
- Sharlin 8y ago
  The author's a she, btw.
- nicoboo 8y ago
  If she would have followed the beta-trip planning navigation on-board, then I'm sure she would have made it with ease. I already made that trip a few times and it's simple with a Tesla.
- greglindahl 8y ago
  So all those hundreds of thousands of new Tesla owners are having this same bad experience, hate the brand, and tell everyone that? Oh, wait, Tesla has extremely high ratings from owners. If you'd like to have an electric car, you owe it to yourself to gather information from more than a single Bloomberg reporter.
  - mcguire 8y ago
    You're the only one who mentioned "hate the brand", and the experience wasn't that bad. (Although she did skip one of her destinations.)
    - greglindahl 8y ago
      You appear to have missed my point: different people evaluate "the situation with cars on roadtrips" differently, and this Bloomberg reporter is one data point. The person I replied to appears to be over-interpreting one data point, and brand loyalty points to a different average opinion. If you're attempting to make the point that this one data point isn't even that bad, that's a fine point to make, but it's confusing how that relates to this sub-thread.
ergothus 8y ago
> trying to fully top off at every charge, a typical newbie mistake A quick Google didn't give me anything clear here - why is that a mistake?
- HALtheWise 8y ago
  My numbers may not be perfectly accurate, but the sentiment is. Tesla cars at supercharger stations charge to roughly 80% charge in 30 minutes, then take another 30 minutes to finish topping off to 100%. For that reason, they are typically placed at intervals of about half a battery range, so that you don't need a full charge to reach the next station with plenty of charge to spare. Typically, a well planned long road trip will involve rapidly charging the car from 20% to 70%, then driving 100-200 miles until another supercharger, where you repeat the process. In this way, you need to charge for much less time than if you tried to charge from 50% to 100%
  - wlll 8y ago
    Are there enough superchargers in Europe (inc. UK) fo this to be feasible? What do you do if (as seemed to happen to the author) a supercharger station is out of action and you are on 20% battery with the next station half a charge away?
    - HALtheWise 8y ago
      abetterrouteplanner.com finds a round-trip route for her journey that requires 2.5 total hours of charging, while never dipping below 10% charge or above 61% (subject to assumptions about what exact model vehicle she had). The screen in the Tesla will show you in real-time which stations are open, and even how many spots are free, although I don't know how well they indicate future closures. Tesla's navigation interface will also do automatic routing through superchargers, but I personally like the web interface better.
      - izacus 8y ago
        Everyone seems to link these route planners while ignoring that the article author actually used the one in Tesla and had issues with nonfunctional or closed superchargers. Why didn't you read the text? :(
wlll 8y ago
> supercharger network is continuing to be built out rapidly I'm pretty sure this has been the case for a while now, years perhaps, and yet the author seemed to have problems none the less. You say the reporting should be taken "with a grain of salt", but what did they do to make their lives harder than they could have been? > Or by using superchargers incorrectly such as by trying to fully top off at every charge I have a petrol car that I fill up completely whenever I am at a petrol station, why should someone not do this for an electric car? > or choosing shared stations when non-shared ones are open What does this mean? I read the article but couldn't see anything that to me sounded like it matched this statement, but that's likely just my lack of experience. I get that you might have more experience than me, or the author, but you've not really explained how this was the authors fault, and how the experience could have been made better. If I buy a Tesla then try to drive from the North of England to Seville, am I going to have the same issues the author had? What knowledge do you posses that would allow me to do the journey more easily than they did?
- nicoboo 8y ago
  In the Tesla, you have the time required till your next step on a long trip. So, you don't charge until you're fully loaded at 100% but if you're following the instructions, you'll get at your next stop with around 20% left for best charging conditions. You even get the info on your mobile as a notification so you can know you can go back on the road. I really mean it's a pleasure to drive.
  - wlll 8y ago
    What do you do when you get to the supercharger/other brand station and it's not working and you're at 20%?
    - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
      What do you do when you get to a petrol station and it's not working? I've had to use my breakdown assistance for this very reason.
izacus 8y ago
> ... as by trying to fully top off at every charge, a typical newbie mistake, ... Hmm, in what way? Throwing my usual home trip (~980km) from Switzerland into Tesla charger route calculator shows me that I'd have to stop twice and coast to each charger at less than 12% of battery left. Those are also only chargers on the route, what's the alternative here? Do a 1300km trip and stop three times?
- natch 8y ago
  There are usually more superchargers than the route planner shows you. That’s just one possible plan. Cancel the route temporarily (for others reading, it’s two taps to get it back) and just look at all the superchargers and you’ll see ones that were not shown in the route planner.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- smileysteve 8y ago
  slow charging overnight at a hotel or 1 of your meal location; which would be part of your trip planning any way; because biology is going to make you stop more than twice.
  - driverdan 8y ago
    You're assuming the place they stop has an outlet available and they give them permission to use it. Besides, a regular outlet will charge it very slowly. A 30 min food stop charging on 220V/12A is only 2.6kWh. Since the author said it had a 215 mi range I'll assume it had the smallest 75kWh pack. That's only a 3.4% charge (7.3 miles)! In the US it would be about half that since we have 120V outlets.
    - glogla 8y ago
      Most of Europe use 230V and typical socket is 16A, so it's a bit more.

by natch 8y ago

jve 8y ago

Well you are biased too, arent you :) Ofcourse things are improving, but he just said the current situation with electric cars on roadtrips. And what he said is you currently have to plan more and yeah, you get more trouble as a newbie. Everyone is a newbie until they are not. Disclaimer: I would like to have an electric car.

Sharlin 8y ago
The author's a she, btw.
nicoboo 8y ago
If she would have followed the beta-trip planning navigation on-board, then I'm sure she would have made it with ease. I already made that trip a few times and it's simple with a Tesla.
greglindahl 8y ago
So all those hundreds of thousands of new Tesla owners are having this same bad experience, hate the brand, and tell everyone that? Oh, wait, Tesla has extremely high ratings from owners. If you'd like to have an electric car, you owe it to yourself to gather information from more than a single Bloomberg reporter.
- mcguire 8y ago
  You're the only one who mentioned "hate the brand", and the experience wasn't that bad. (Although she did skip one of her destinations.)
  - greglindahl 8y ago
    You appear to have missed my point: different people evaluate "the situation with cars on roadtrips" differently, and this Bloomberg reporter is one data point. The person I replied to appears to be over-interpreting one data point, and brand loyalty points to a different average opinion. If you're attempting to make the point that this one data point isn't even that bad, that's a fine point to make, but it's confusing how that relates to this sub-thread.

ergothus 8y ago

> trying to fully top off at every charge, a typical newbie mistake A quick Google didn't give me anything clear here - why is that a mistake?

HALtheWise 8y ago
My numbers may not be perfectly accurate, but the sentiment is. Tesla cars at supercharger stations charge to roughly 80% charge in 30 minutes, then take another 30 minutes to finish topping off to 100%. For that reason, they are typically placed at intervals of about half a battery range, so that you don't need a full charge to reach the next station with plenty of charge to spare. Typically, a well planned long road trip will involve rapidly charging the car from 20% to 70%, then driving 100-200 miles until another supercharger, where you repeat the process. In this way, you need to charge for much less time than if you tried to charge from 50% to 100%
- wlll 8y ago
  Are there enough superchargers in Europe (inc. UK) fo this to be feasible? What do you do if (as seemed to happen to the author) a supercharger station is out of action and you are on 20% battery with the next station half a charge away?
  - HALtheWise 8y ago
    abetterrouteplanner.com finds a round-trip route for her journey that requires 2.5 total hours of charging, while never dipping below 10% charge or above 61% (subject to assumptions about what exact model vehicle she had). The screen in the Tesla will show you in real-time which stations are open, and even how many spots are free, although I don't know how well they indicate future closures. Tesla's navigation interface will also do automatic routing through superchargers, but I personally like the web interface better.
    - izacus 8y ago
      Everyone seems to link these route planners while ignoring that the article author actually used the one in Tesla and had issues with nonfunctional or closed superchargers. Why didn't you read the text? :(

wlll 8y ago

> supercharger network is continuing to be built out rapidly I'm pretty sure this has been the case for a while now, years perhaps, and yet the author seemed to have problems none the less. You say the reporting should be taken "with a grain of salt", but what did they do to make their lives harder than they could have been? > Or by using superchargers incorrectly such as by trying to fully top off at every charge I have a petrol car that I fill up completely whenever I am at a petrol station, why should someone not do this for an electric car? > or choosing shared stations when non-shared ones are open What does this mean? I read the article but couldn't see anything that to me sounded like it matched this statement, but that's likely just my lack of experience. I get that you might have more experience than me, or the author, but you've not really explained how this was the authors fault, and how the experience could have been made better. If I buy a Tesla then try to drive from the North of England to Seville, am I going to have the same issues the author had? What knowledge do you posses that would allow me to do the journey more easily than they did?

nicoboo 8y ago
In the Tesla, you have the time required till your next step on a long trip. So, you don't charge until you're fully loaded at 100% but if you're following the instructions, you'll get at your next stop with around 20% left for best charging conditions. You even get the info on your mobile as a notification so you can know you can go back on the road. I really mean it's a pleasure to drive.
- wlll 8y ago
  What do you do when you get to the supercharger/other brand station and it's not working and you're at 20%?
  - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
    What do you do when you get to a petrol station and it's not working? I've had to use my breakdown assistance for this very reason.

izacus 8y ago

> ... as by trying to fully top off at every charge, a typical newbie mistake, ... Hmm, in what way? Throwing my usual home trip (~980km) from Switzerland into Tesla charger route calculator shows me that I'd have to stop twice and coast to each charger at less than 12% of battery left. Those are also only chargers on the route, what's the alternative here? Do a 1300km trip and stop three times?

natch 8y ago
There are usually more superchargers than the route planner shows you. That’s just one possible plan. Cancel the route temporarily (for others reading, it’s two taps to get it back) and just look at all the superchargers and you’ll see ones that were not shown in the route planner.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
smileysteve 8y ago
slow charging overnight at a hotel or 1 of your meal location; which would be part of your trip planning any way; because biology is going to make you stop more than twice.
- driverdan 8y ago
  You're assuming the place they stop has an outlet available and they give them permission to use it. Besides, a regular outlet will charge it very slowly. A 30 min food stop charging on 220V/12A is only 2.6kWh. Since the author said it had a 215 mi range I'll assume it had the smallest 75kWh pack. That's only a 3.4% charge (7.3 miles)! In the US it would be about half that since we have 120V outlets.
  - glogla 8y ago
    Most of Europe use 230V and typical socket is 16A, so it's a bit more.