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Photos showed Tesla Supercharger stations faced long lines during holiday travel, revealing a big hurdle for EV makers
Photos showed Tesla Supercharger stations faced long lines during holiday travel, revealing a big hurdle for EV makers
Mary MeisenzahlDec 5, 2019, 23:57 IST
As electric vehicles become more common, access to charging stations can increasingly result in long lines.
Tesla owners posted videos and photos of long lines and broken chargers at Tesla Supercharger stations on social media around Thanksgiving.
These complaints indicate that Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers will have to build more charging stations, and convince customers that they're reliably available before the cars really take hold.
Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel times of the year, and some Tesla and other electric vehicle owners faced extra inconveniences when it came time to charge their vehicles.
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Tesla owners can typically do most of their charging at home, but at certain points demand spikes, according to Karl Brauer of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. One of those times is around holiday travel when road trips are more common and people would need to stop to recharge.
Like other electric vehicle companies, Tesla is expanding its charging network, although apparently not fast enough to prevent long waits over the holiday.
Here are some of the complaints that popped up on social media over Thanksgiving.
Most posts centered around the lines in Kettleman City, California, although this driver noted that there were lines at chargers throughout the state.
@Tesla biggest supercharger at Kettleman city, Ca, around 40 chargers but the line is 30 min. Long. Almost every supercharger from LA to SFO is backlogged. Tesla super charging network has not kept up. Spent more time charging than driving. No more long trips on Tesla. pic.twitter.com/hTQKNgikaC
Not only were lines long, but many chargers were not functional over the holiday.
Update on the Tesla supercharger at the Madonna Inn. The mobile supercharger was there but did not appear to be charging any vehicles. There were about 20 cars waiting to charge. $tsla$tslaqpic.twitter.com/FCMoTEAIuu
Thanksgiving is one of the biggest travel days of the year, and many Tesla owners were not happy that the company didn't prepare for extra users.
Ran into same at Buellton and SLO SCs which are "edge" chargers due to the long distance between next stops. Not the worst, but the software could certainly do a better job warning about expected charging delays. pic.twitter.com/79BMuM0okC
