Tesla Supercharging

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

Touchdown! Greaser!
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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
In Kent’s recent Tesla thread, part of the discussion included curiosity and questions about Supercharging: rate, time, cost.

Today was my day to be the duty pilot for my doctor flying job. Normally it’s pick him up at TKI and take him to SLR, early early in morning. But due to the adverse weather hitting the area, I said no to flying him and offered to drive the doc to SLR in my Model 3. He accepted and off we went.

After dropping him at his airport car, I went to the Sulphur Springs supercharger. Arrived a shade under 50% state of charge.

First photo is about 6-8 minutes after starting to charge when I thought about taking a photo to share with you. The second getting near the 80% limit I had set.

Total time about 20-23 minutes. Total cost to go from 47% SoC to 82%: $6.53.

When I plug in, the system is told my my VIN, which is tied to my Tesla account, which has my credit card on file.

For me, I am greatly enjoying Tesla ownership. Couldn’t be happier with the car or owner experience.

Zaphod is a 2019 Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor AWD Performance

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I haven't Supercharged yet. I have 1,000 free SuC miles but most of them will probably expire before I use them. Need to find a trip to take so that I can use more of them.

Charging at home has worked great. I had a NEMA 14-50 receptacle installed in the garage and use the included mobile connector to charge. That charges at 32A, on a 50A circuit, and can easily top-off my "tank" overnight. At just over 10¢ per kWh, from my local electric company, the cost for energy is about a quarter of what I was paying for gasoline.

The most fun so far is watching people's reaction when I let them try driving it.

Model 3 1280.jpg
 
I drove from Denver to Dallas a few months ago and found that Texas Supercharger rates were very low compared to Colorado and New Mexico, in fact about half. There was even one Supercharger (Amarillo) that was free for some reason. I guess it's been that way for some time. I read that Corsicana may be the same, but haven't been down that far.

I did charge near Denver recently (forgot to plug in at home) and paid $12.35 for about the same amount charging. I think I added about 150 miles in about 25 minutes.
 
Yesterday we drove our 2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range from near Melbourne, FL to near Blue Ridge, GA - just over 600 miles. Superchargers everywhere in this part of the world. Pretty cost efficient as well!

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As an aside, had our first Supercharger hiccup at Lake City, FL. 92° and 20% charge and the charge rate was abysmally slow, at less than 250 mph. Another Tesla driver at another stall said his charge rate was very slow as well. We gave up after about 15 minutes and easily had enough to get to Valdosta, where the charge rate started at its typical 800 to 1000+ mph. First time we’ve had that problem over several long road trips.

We’ve still never had to wait at a Supercharger, but it can happen. A couple of times only 2 stations were available. Hopefully the network will continue to grow to keep up with increasing demand - so far so good.
 
FastEddieB said:
Yesterday we drove our 2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range from near Melbourne, FL to near Blue Ridge, GA - just over 600 miles. Superchargers everywhere in this part of the world. Pretty cost efficient as well!

52077520824_1822e9557f.jpg



As an aside, had our first Supercharger hiccup at Lake City, FL. 92° and 20% charge and the charge rate was abysmally slow, at less than 250 mph. Another Tesla driver at another stall said his charge rate was very slow as well. We gave up after about 15 minutes and easily had enough to get to Valdosta, where the charge rate started at its typical 800 to 1000+ mph. First time we’ve had that problem over several long road trips.

We’ve still never had to wait at a Supercharger, but it can happen. A couple of times only 2 stations were available. Hopefully the network will continue to grow to keep up with increasing demand - so far so good.
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How long did it take for each charge? Also, I typically hear charging rates go by kwh, not by mph, no?
 
A new Tesla supercharging station recently opened in my town. The locals are upset that gubbermint spent their tax dollars on that garbage when they ain't but 1 or 2 Tesla's in the whole county. (eye roll)
 
Rich Holt said:
A new Tesla supercharging station recently opened in my town. The locals are upset that gubbermint spent their tax dollars on that garbage when they ain't but 1 or 2 Tesla's in the whole county. (eye roll)
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Aren’t Superchargers installed and maintained at Tesla’s expense?

As a sad aside, apparently some miscreants are going around and cutting off Tesla Supercharger and Destination Charger cables, either out of spite or for the copper contained therein.
 
FastEddieB said:
Aren’t Superchargers installed and maintained at Tesla’s expense?

As a sad aside, apparently some miscreants are going around and cutting off Tesla Supercharger and Destination Charger cables, either out of spite or for the copper contained therein.
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Yes, they are. There were just too many misconceptions for me to even start breathing sense into the situation. Smile and nod boys, smile and nod.
 
eman1200 said:
Also, I typically hear charging rates go by kwh, not by mph, no?
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kW, not kWh.

kW is equivalent to how many gallons are being pumped each minute.

kWh is the number of gallons you received during the fill-up.

MPH will depend on the efficiency of your car and the current kW being delivered. A Tesla M3 RWD (very efficient) charging at 200kW will add more miles per hour of charging (mph) than a Hummer EV (much less efficient) also charging at 200kW. Since you're only driving one car at a time, looking at your charging rate as mph is easier to apply to real-world driving than is 200kW.

However you quantify it, the charging rate will vary during DC fast charging. It will vary based on the temperature of the battery, temperature of the charging equipment, and the state-of-charge of the battery. It will start out very fast, when your battery has a low state-of-charge, and will ramp down as the SoC increases. The trick to minimizing charging time on a road trip is in planning your charging stops at the highest capacity chargers and to keep your battery in the SoC range where it charges the fastest. i.e. Your trip will take less time if you keep the battery in the 5% to 60% range than it will if you charge to 90%, or higher, each time you charge.
 
Well done Mr Beeblebrox!
 
When do you have to change the Batteries? Is it measured by hours used?
 
Scott@KTYR said:
When do you have to change the Batteries? Is it measured by hours used?
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The batteries should outlast the car before they wear out. The design life of the current batteries are 300,000 to 500,000 miles. The 4680 batteries are expected to last twice as long.

There aren't a large number of very high mileage cars yet but, so far, the rate of early failures has been very low and most of them have occurred within the warranty period which, for my car, is 8yrs/120,000mi.
 
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