Sad state of I-5

[spicy_taco]

Just came back from the holiday round-trip between Bay Area<->LA. We left on the 21st in the early morning so we would beat the crowds. Due to car being loaded with presents and the colder weather, I had to do 2 stops. Managed to pull up to two EA chargers along I-5 (Panoche Shell and Countryside Market near Bakersfield) without any wait or issues. All chargers were working and giving decent charge rate.

Drove back today in an attempt to beat the crowds again, but this time no luck. Today the range was much better and I only had to stop once at Kettleman City. That stop was...something else. Pulled up to the EA station that should have 10 chargers. The app was showing 2 down. There was a line of about 12 cars waiting wrapped around the block.... It turns out 1 additional charger was also not functioning. When I got about half way through the line an additional charger went offline. That's 4 out of 10 on a busy holiday weekend. Ended up waiting over an hour before I was able to charge, and that's with a few people giving up and leaving before they got to the chargers.

If only there was an alternate option...

Looked on the EA app: Harris Ranch also had at least 1 officially offline (and there are less chargers there in the first place), and several suspiciously "available"... Likewise Panoche Shell (which I wouldn't even make it to) had a few offline.

No new DC stations were built since the Kettleman City one went online last year. This is definitely the last time my wife will let us take the MME on this trip.

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[IgorKl]

Did you check EVRange at Kettleman City instead of staying in the line to EA?

overall the holiday travel on I-5 Is not pleasant if you ride during normal day hours.. hopefully, this would change when Superchargers open for all.

 

[david_quick]

Did you check EVRange at Kettleman City instead of staying in the line to EA?

overall the holiday travel on I-5 Is not pleasant if you ride during normal day hours.. hopefully, this would change when Superchargers open for all.

Not sure Superchargers will be a panacea. I was in Leavenworth WA last week and all of the Tesla chargers were full. See this at South Center Mall in Tukwilla Wa, and yesterday at Seattle Premium Outlets in Marysville WA, the EA chargers only had one car another MME.

All of these locations have about a dozen superchargers.

 

[david_quick]

I also wonder about hostility from the T crowd when they get to a SC and several spots are taken by non Teslas.

 

[Trigger]

I also wonder about hostility from the T crowd when they get to a SC and several spots are taken by non Teslas.

Just tell them Elon sent you!

 

[spicy_taco]

Did you check EVRange at Kettleman City instead of staying in the line to EA?

overall the holiday travel on I-5 Is not pleasant if you ride during normal day hours.. hopefully, this would change when Superchargers open for all.

No, I wasn't aware of the EVRange chargers. But it looks there are only 2 there anyway.

I was thinking the same thing about the Superchargers at first, and it may help in the immediate short term, but there needs to be a steady growth long term. Just looking at how many gas stations there are along that route., compounding for the fact that the turnaround time is orders of magnitude slower, we need a heck of a ton more chargers to increase the EV bandwidth.

 

[troublebot]

I also wonder about hostility from the T crowd when they get to a SC and several spots are taken by non Teslas.

I'll tell them to take it up with Tesla who made the decision, then give them directions to the nearest EA or EVgo station.

 

[IgorKl]

Not sure Superchargers will be a panacea. I was in Leavenworth WA last week and all of the Tesla chargers were full. See this at South Center Mall in Tukwilla Wa, and yesterday at Seattle Premium Outlets in Marysville WA, the EA chargers only had one car another MME.

All of these locations have about a dozen superchargers.

as usual California has own advantages.
between SF and LA we have multiple Superchargers. Harris Ranch has close to 100 Tesla Superchargers - it would be very helpful. almost every stop where we have 4-10 EA chargers Tesla has at least 3 times more and even during Christmas rush I saw 30-50% empty stalls there

 

[IgorKl]

No, I wasn't aware of the EVRange chargers. But it looks there are only 2 there anyway.

I was thinking the same thing about the Superchargers at first, and it may help in the immediate short term, but there needs to be a steady growth long term. Just looking at how many gas stations there are along that route., compounding for the fact that the turnaround time is orders of magnitude slower, we need a heck of a ton more chargers to increase the EV bandwidth.

we do not need so many charging points as Gas stations (at least right now). We need couple more like Harris Ranch Tesla SC points and we would be good for next 4-5 years. That should let either Tesla or someone else to build more stalls.

I used EVRange when traveled day before Chrismas Eve, more than 10 EV's were waiting for EA and I had 2 350KW EVrange chargers all for myself

 

[Fat Mach]

You have a gas car and drove your EV to LA? Your wife should divorce you!

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I also wonder about hostility from the T crowd when they get to a SC and several spots are taken by non Teslas.

Sadly, that won’t be hard to do as a Mach e can easily take up two spots as well atm.

 

[spicy_taco]

You have a gas car and drove your EV to LA? Your wife should divorce you!

Thankfully my other qualities make her stay .

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