Hi all,
First, this is not a complaint post, though I suppose it could be one if I was in a worse mood. This is mostly just a report on our experience driving up California in our Kia EV6 on Saturday 11/26. We decided to leave on Saturday to return home from our family Thanksgiving trip, hoping to avoid the worst of the Sunday end-of-holiday traffic.
The traffic itself wasn’t too bad, relatively, as our total driving time by the time we got home was about 7 hours. Longer than on non-holidays by a good 90 minutes, but not awful. What completely f’ed up our return was the dearth of charging stations–and ones that functioned–along Highway 5.
Now, we knew what we were getting into. We’ve taken the EV6 on many long road trips across the state , and have waited in line on occasion–but usually just one or two cars deep. This was on a whole other magnitude of horrible. We had dutifully route-planned via ABRP and the Electrify America app (we wanted to stick to EA mostly because we’re still getting free charges from the car purchase but also because our experience is that EA has been the most reliable). We knew we only had to charge once to make it home, and we knew that Kettleman City was our best bet because the EA there has 10 chargers, and according to the app 9 were operational at the time we were checking.
Welp, when we arrived there only 7 were functioning. And the line was out of control. We were about 20 cars deep, and the only positive thing to say about that is that by the time we eventually left the line was more like 40 cars deep (and I wish I was exaggerating) --so in that sense we were “lucky.” For awhile the scene was chaos, as cars didn’t know where to line up–so at one point there were two separate lines until it was decided, strictly by all the people waiting, as there was no “official” there to monitor the scene, that one line had to dissolve and all those people had to get in the other line. So that sucked, as we were in the line that was forced to merge, and we lost multiple places in line after already waiting about 45 minutes.
By the time it was our turn to charge, we had waited 3 hours in line. We charged up to 80, which didn’t take too long, but when all was said and done our usual 5.5 hour drive had turned into a 10.5 hour drive. Left L.A at noon, arrived home at 10:30 pm. Woof.
Some observations:
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People were cool, courteous, and helpful. There was a general sense of camaraderie, as we were all equally fucked. Once the chaos of the two lines was solved, people behaved. About every 5 minutes some new car would drive up and try to immediately pull into the lot, somehow not noticing the endless line of cars waiting, but there was obviously a lot of diligence to shoo them to the back of the line, as no one was going to let anyone cut given how long everyone had to wait.
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Leaving earlier in the morning would have helped. We couldn’t get on the road until noon because my wife was teaching, so we were right in the middle of the heaviest daytime traffic. I’m sure the situation would have been different if we had left at the crack of dawn. So that was on us.
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There was no consensus on how much everyone could charge. Some people went to 80, some people sat there to 100. No one was policing it, and, at least while we were there, there were no confrontations or arguments. Since everyone had to wait so long, and since no one would want to go through that again, it was understandable that people would want to go to 100. In our case, we knew we could make it back home just charging to 80, so our charge only took 20 minutes. But there were plenty of cars who had been sitting at the chargers a long time before our turn, and were still there when we left. Yay for the EV6’s fast charging and range.
4) Three stations down on a holiday weekend was ridiculous. These chargers should have all been functional, of all weekends of the year. And if it were up to me, there’d be an employee (even a temp) on hand to manage the line on such a weekend.
5) The nearby Tesla charging area made us all wish we had Teslas. No denying it–the Tesla owners had it made compared to us. Plenty of chargers, no wait, a nice lounge area to wait. There was just no comparison. I hate Musk and for that reason alone don’t want one (though we rented one in France this summer and enjoyed it), but man, give him all the credit for establishing a workable infrastructure that actually makes these long drives feasible.
6) Still love the EV6, still not sorry we are an electric-only household. Yeah, it sucked. But big picture, I still wouldn’t go back to ICE. The car is still tons of fun to drive, and this is the first time since buying the car in May 2022 that we’ve had this experience. And on the plus side, we were able to listen to 12 episodes of a podcast lol, and the friendliness of everyone waiting–a we’re all in this hell together feeling–helped keep our mood in check.
Good luck to everyone making this drive today. Plan on being patient. Or buy a Tesla.
Thanks OP. We recently made a similar trip and it wasn’t as bad but we frequently ran into full charging stations in and around LA. The problem is twofold - EA didn’t build enough stalls, and too many people with free charging are hogging the stations. As another reply said, all gas stations really need to start including chargers to ease the burden.
Yesterday (Saturday) soon after noon I stopped at the chargers a bit off I-5 in Bakersfield on Enos Ln. Long line of cars waiting for the Electrify America chargers. Tesla chargers almost fully utilized, but no wait. And, get this, Tesla was in the process of setting up two mobile charging units in the neighboring parking lot, anticipating a higher flow of cars later. Massive truck bed battery packs with ~6 superchargers on the side.
That type of deployable infrastructure to deal with localized higher demand is pretty awesome. The rest of the infrastructure has a long way to go. Until you can or are willing to buy a vehicle compatible with the Tesla charging network, plan on staying near home.
Tesla’s charging network is a big part of their brand identity. They’ve worked really hard to create a “it just works” kind of a system, akin to Apple, and spend a lot of money on expanding and maintaining their network.
EA has EVGO simply do not give af beyond haphazardly opening new locations.
This is the main reason we own two Teslas and will never consider another EV for many years at least.
The Tesla tells you when there are a lot of other cars navigating to the supercharger you have set in the nav, when you’re HALF AN HOUR AWAY! And it prompts you to navigate to a different supercharger to avoid lines. It’s really quite spectacular.
And all of that planning will probably be fucked up when other brand of cars will simply drop by to charge.
Perhaps but i think Tesla engineers will be able to figure out a way to solve that problem
I hope so for those already using busy Superchargers. Personally, those that I’m using aren’t that busy, if at all. Often, even in the middle of the day, I’m alone charging. It happened twice two weekends ago at two different eight stalls V3 Superchargers. I was the only one charging for the whole 15 minutes we were there. If it does become s shit show though, I’ll route to V2 Superchargers (still lots of them on my routes) which won’t be opened to other vehicles (lacking CCS protocol) until things calm down.
- Like the other commenter mentioned, sales of non-Teslas before the 2025 model year are less than all Teslas on the road today.
- I would bet money that part of the deal for supercharger access in 2025 is that the other brands will be required to notify Tesla when their cars are navigating to the supercharger (and may optionally show status to the driver).
Keep in mind that Tesla is already 60%-ish of EVs in North America, so the increase from “other brands” will be lower than Tesla’s own growth during last year.
If they just keep up with the network expansion, it simply won’t matter. The only beef I have is with the cars that take up two spots to charge because of port location.
If people behave like adults and don’t mind moving their car (as long as they are inside of course and not eating or shopping somewhere), the best case scenario is only one bay is left empty, no matter the numbers of stalls there. By stacking from the end towards the middle with the right side port cars on one side and the left side car on the other, would leave just an empty bay somewhere in the middle. But, I doubt it will be that easy, hence why I might limit myself to V2 at first, as long as it’s less than 50% busy there.
Yeah, I don’t know how they’ll manage, but completely full superchargers are somewhat rare in my experience unless you’re in a highly urban area.
Don’t you wish you had a Tesla? Over 300 Super Tesla chargers within 100 miles of Kettlemen City/ Harris Ranch
I was certainly jealous of that, for sure. But no, I don’t wish I had a Tesla. Totally love my EV6. Drove a Tesla all summer in France and it was fine but nothing about it (again, aside from the public chargers) was superior to our EV6, IMHO.
As long as you are happy that’s all that matters. I have a Rivian and have had to wait over an hour for to get a charge.
See item #5 in their comment
Thanks for sharing your experience - it only takes one bad experience to really change people’s minds.
Will you be purchasing a DC CCS1 to NACS adapter when they become available?
Or because you would still be giving money to Musk via superchargers do you consider that off limits?
I’ll buy the adapter, almost for sure, if it means I can use the Tesla network, yes. And it’s not like I’m a rabid anti-Musk guy–we did drive a Tesla all summer. I think the guy is a lunatic and a*hole, but I’m not gonna deny myself access to those chargers, given the shitty alternatives. I can only imagine how annoyed the Tesla drivers are gonna be once we start clogging up those stations too lol.
I live in LA and family is in the bay. I’ve done that drive a lot in a bolt and I feel like I’m traversing the Oregon trail. It’s never fun especially in a bolt and all I could say is leaving matters so much. I’d never leave after like 5am with my slow charging bolt, if it ever gets to later than that just need to leave the next day
Hey all, just wanted to echo the sentiments of OP here w.r.t Tesla vs EA. I was also travelling back home from Thanksgiving with family on the I5. However, I was in a Tesla so I fortunately only had to watch how the 5 or so EA chargers (one non-functioning) got completely swamped by 20 or so cars at Harris Ranch. Meanwhile, the 30 or so Tesla Superchargers had no line (though it was quite packed) and people moved in and out with relative ease.
Look, I’ve hated Elon musk since well before 2020 so let me say it brings me no pleasure to say just how much better the Tesla charging experience is. Funnily enough, I experienced my first Tesla super-charger failure this holiday trip. However, it was super easy to switch the the dozen or so empty chargers next to me on the way down from the Bay (Casa de Fruita).
I’ve already told my parents that they definitely shouldn’t consider any EV besides Tesla here in the US. It’s just not worth the risk being stranded somewhere on the highway
Not everyone does cross country cannonballs and I do feel like things will get better especially with NACS opening up for non-Tesla. Tesla had their long lines in the past and I was there to witness, so it wasn’t always this rosy.
When will they have a queue/waitlist system in the app?
I hate Musk and for that reason alone don’t want one
I totally get it. Most Tesla owners hate Musk too. But the legacy automaker CEOs are ALSO racist sociopaths trying to dismantle democracy, AND are slow walking EVs to destroy the biosphere just for good measure.
I will never mean “the lesser evil” as a compliment, but I feel like a cold reflection of the situation does point to a lesser (and mouthier) evil existing.
But like Musk, the legacy automaker CEOs are ALSO racist sociopaths trying to dismantle democracy
If they are, they aren’t openly displaying it like Elon. A decent company would have removed him a long time ago, or at least banned him from using social media.
If everyone running major corporations is equally awful, then we’re all screwed and we might as well “roll coal” to our inevitable doom. Or if we have any hope of a better future, we need to hold openly awful people accountable for their actions.
If they are, they aren’t openly displaying it like Elon.
I agree with you 100%. They aren’t mouthy about their evil works, but Elon is. But actions offend me more than words, so that’s how I balance it.
If everyone running major corporations is equally awful, then we’re all screwed and we might as well “roll coal” to our inevitable doom.
This is how those CEOs want you to feel. We will NOT exit our current global problems through benevolent CEOs. We have to vote for a government that will do the work of regulating what needs to be regulated. That’s the option. I don’t see another.
We have to vote for a government that will do the work of regulating what needs to be regulated.
And to any extent we have that, enforcement should include those who are most open about their awfulness. If we can’t reign in those people, we have a problem.
Yeah I hear you. It’s a completely fair point and I have no delusions about the saintliness of the other automakers. It’s the mouthiness you mention that gets to me.
But hey, if there weren’t other options, and we hadn’t gotten such a good deal on the EV6 (MSRP plus rebate plus tax credit) I might have swallowed my loathing and bought a Tesla. But we did have a good option. And we knew what we were getting into, too, regarding the charging infrastructure. But my wife and I just decided to go for it anyway, and with a home charger, 99 percent of our day-to-day driving experience all year is totally fine. It’s these once or twice a year cross-California road trips that burn.
if there’s one thing i’ve realized, popular things are popular because they work and are good. and because they are popular support is good. tesla is one of those things. it’s popular because they make good cars, have good infrastructure support. i could care less what elon posts on X. what he says doesn’t affect my experience of the car and the driving experience.
Here’s a plugshare report from the EV Range location in Kettleman City a couple hours ago (3pm-ish pacific time):
Life saver. There was a 15 + car line at the other station, with 4 chargers broken. This was available and I didn’t have to wait!
People do the strangest things for $15 of free electricity.
People wait in line at Costco for half an hour to save $3 on a tank of gas. I don’t get it.
People do weird things in general. This weekend I stopped at a 65 station V3 that was about half full to charge….the smaller V2 station a few blocks away had a line. Like WTF people, you can see on your screen in the damn car there’s 20 open V3 spots walking distance from you, why are you waiting in line?
I’d like to gently point out that you don’t need to like Elon to drive a Tesla. Disappointing when fellow EV drivers don’t understand this, as there’s enough of that assumption from the EV haters in the general public.
How many CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies can most people even name? And how many of those do people think are universally awesome folks? My guess is few but maybe that’s just me.
I don’t really like the dude but I sure as heck love my car.
It’s not that I don’t understand it. It’s that I don’t want to give him my money if I don’t have to. And that’s my right, yeah? I am sure the CEO of Hyundai/Kia is no saint, but on the other hand I don’t have to listen to their racist comments and general asshhattery on a constant basis. It’s great that you love your car. I love mine too. There’s room for more than one brand of EV. And as I mentioned in other posts, I was fine renting a Tesla in France this summer, so I’m not a zealot about it. I just have my preferences.
I did not suggest that you should buy a Tesla. My point was - and perhaps I should have been clearer about this, and for that I apologize - Elon is a nut job CEO of a publicly traded company. Tesla helped make him rich off a product that paved the way for the EV industry, which in my personal opinion is a massive step forward. Unfortunately Elon is the company’s mouthpiece. He says whackadoodle inflammatory and hurtful crap (insert tired old analogy of fellow jerknugget Henry Ford here) and I wish he had the EQ to keep his dang trap shut. My comment was simply to reinforce that not all Tesla drivers like Elon - a widely held myth even if present company is excluded from that. People should continue to buy what they want.
This is why charge rate is actually important for mass adoption. Every manufacturer should continue to push the envelope.
Yes, if every place had a charger it’s not that big of a deal, but attacking the “problems” of EVs on all fronts is obviously better.
Tell this story to someone on the fence and they would fear EVs. “You can’t drive on travel days.”
If it makes you feel any better, Tesla is about to roll out a charger update that would add extra fees for going over 80% at congested stalls. So that’s something
Had a similar experience in Bedford PA yesterday. It’s kind of an island on the Turnpike and we rolled up with very little range left to go anywhere else. Waited an hour to plug in, then only got 75kw. Was #5 in line when I started, there were ten cars waiting when I finished. Don’t know what the lesson is but I guess driving home Saturday vs Sunday didn’t avoid much.
Ironically I drove home from LA today and didn’t even have to wait in line at the charger in Camarillo. Guess everyone had the same idea as you.