At some of Tesla’s busiest Supercharger locations, the new plan is to limit charging to 80%. This news comes right after Tesla acquired Maxwell Technologies. Let’s take a closer look at why the company now limits charging and what this means for the average electric vehicle driver.
Current Charing Situation
To charge a Tesla battery up to 80%, it takes about thirty minutes. If the driver prefers to get a full charge, it takes a full hour. That’s another thirty minutes to achieve the last 20%. Because many Tesla drivers don’t want to wait an hour for their battery, it’s natural for them to leave once it hits 80%.
Still, at some busy locations, drivers wanted a full charge cause congestion. Often, Tesla owners face longer waits before they even begin the 80% charge time.
To resolve the situation, Tesla proposed the idea to limit charging time at the busy locations and limit the customer’s battery to 80%.
Tesla Limits Charging
The plan is to impose an 80% limit on 17% of Supercharger stations nationwide. Less than 10% of these are so busy that they will need to have the limits imposed consistently, while the rest will only have restrictions during the peak hours.
If a supercharger only permits 80%, there will be a notification to the driver before beginning.
Of course, this works in conjunction with the On-Route Battery Warmup and V2 Supercharger upgrades. All of these work together to maximize efficiency at the charging stations. Still, there’s an exception to most rules and this one has a loophole. If a Tesla car is in the middle of a long trip and requires 100% to complete the journey, then the navigation software will override the limits and provide a full charge.
With that said, most vehicles won’t need the full amount of juice, so owners don’t have much room to complain. In fact, they should be grateful they won’t have to wait as long for their turn at the Supercharger. What are your thoughts regarding the new change? Think it will cause more range anxiety or will it go over smoothly?
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