Tesla owners are once again facing jam-packed Supercharger stations in California as the number of electric cars by the automaker rapidly increases within the tech-oriented US state.
Before moving the HQ to Austin, Texas — California was home to Tesla and with the Fremont factory still operating at its full capacity, this is the state with the densest population of Tesla vehicles.
Tesla’s Fremont plant is currently the only location where the automaker produces its higher-end Model S and Model X electric vehicles. So the population of these luxury segment vehicles with larger battery packs taking more time to charge is also comparably higher than in other North American states.
Prominent Tesla Community influencer Brian Jenkins who is the owner of multiple Tesla vehicles for several years now was on a road trip to California recently.
On his way back home to North Carolina, he wanted to Supercharge his Tesla Model Y — only to find frustrating wait times at congested Supercharger at most of the locations he went to in California.
He shared his frustration on this issue in the following short video that he recorded a over capacity Tesla Supercharger probably located somewhere near a mall in Los Angeles.
In this video’s discussion thread on Twitter, multiple Tesla owners from California endorsed this peak-hour-rush and the increasing wait time situation at Tesla Superchargers is becoming more rampant across the state.
It’s not that California does not have a large number of Superchargers stations, it seems that Tesla is not able to keep up its charging network expansion with the increasing number of Tesla vehicles here.
Not to forget that Tesla has the densest and most widely available electric vehicle charging network in the world at this time, so much that 2 Teslas were able to reach Mount Everest Base Camp in China last month.
Tesla has faced a similar situation in the past as Tesla Model 3 production ramped up and Superchargers started getting choked. But the automaker was able to cope with the predicament by adding Supercharger and destination charger locations across California.
But now Tesla is facing historical demand for its EVs, perhaps the charging network expansion has to be accelerated even more — at least in regions such as California where the Tesla population is spreading at an overwhelming pace.
Slow charging older V2 Supercharger stalls with 150 kW max charge rate is also a reason for increasing wait times at the stations. V2 replacement with the 250 kW V3 stalls and technology has been slower than expected in the last few years.
However, the results of comparing V2 vs. V3 Supercharging speeds show that V3 is not very useful when it comes to charging over ~60%. V3 Supercharging (DC fast charging) is most effective and faster when used for 20% to 50% or 60%, tests show.
Let’s go over some of the replies that this concern got from Supercharger users from California on Twitter.
This rush might have been one of the Superchargers closer to the Tesla Takeover California meetup of the Community. But being one of the guests and speakers at this event Brian must have known this fact before posting this video on Twitter.
Related: Tesla Supercharging costs in California are on the constant rise
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3 replies on “The growing number of Tesla cars in California is adding to Supercharger wait times”
Tejon Outlets is the location of that SC. Always busy both in and out of LA
Who cares
I am the unfortunate owner of a 2020 Model S Performance. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find available superchargers in the Los Angeles area. I have had to wait over thirty minutes twice for a slot to charge and then the chargers were super slow. So frustrating, you spend a lot of money for very poor quality car and you cannot get it charged when you need to. This has all the signs of failure. Tesla are failing badly. It’s only a matter of time.