 |
| © CNET |
By Kyle Hyatt, Roadshow
If you're the kind of person that camps at busy Superchargers until your car is fully-juiced, then expect big changes.
If you've spent much time in a Tesla , you've probably found yourself at a Supercharger station, and that also means you've probably been stuck waiting for a charger to become available.
The problem is that many people try to charge their cars fully at a Supercharger, and that can take awhile. The Supercharger does most of its best work up until the vehicle battery reaches an 80% charge, and then things get a bit more fiddly.
To help alleviate some of the waits at busier Supercharger stations, it started limiting maximum charge to that magic 80 percent number, according to a report published on Friday by Electrek. This change will affect just 17% of all the Supercharger stations in the US, so if you live in someplace that's less densely populated, you shouldn't expect any changes.
If you live someplace like Southern California or the Bay Area, however, like old Zimmy says, the times they are a-changin'. Those changes could be good though, because Tesla estimates that by enforcing these limits, it should increase those stations' throughput by 34%, and that means way less time spent in your car waiting like a dork for a charger to open up.
What about if you're doing a road trip in your Tesla and you need more than an 80% charge to get to your next stop? Fear not -- the big T has you covered. If you're on a trip, the station will let you charge to the amount needed to hit your next charging stop. If your nav's final destination is the Supercharger station, though, you're out of luck, and the 80% cap still applies.
Tesla didn't immediately respond to Roadshow's request for comment.
