Solar Eclipse Traffic Made Tesla Supercharging Almost Impossible in Some Places
Waits of over an hour were reported at some Supercharger locations.
Tesla's growing Supercharger infrastructure has proven to work well for the EV automaker—but as Monday's solar eclipse proved, it may not be large enough just yet. Whereas many of these charging stations can host four or six vehicles without issue, that still wasn't enough for the herd of Teslas that traveled across America to view the phenomenon. Superchargers around the United States were so full that lines of 5-15 cars formed waiting for a spot at many stations, creating a major block that resulted in lengthy wait times in some places.
While traffic during major events and holidays increase, so does the flow that runs through America's relatively limited EV charging stations. However, this looks to be the worst case yet, with many people reporting excruciatingly long stints between open plugs.
This Supercharger location in Mount Shasta, California, for example, had a six-car deep line on Monday. The wait for this particular line was over an hour. And the video below that shows an even longer line of Teslas waiting to top off their electron tanks.
According to Electrek, Tesla's brand-specific infrastructure has grown to 900 charging stations in the United States, with 6,000 stalls available. While that's a significant increase from this time last year, there's no doubt that the count must continue to go up—especially once the high-volume Model 3 arrives in full swing this fall.
Larger stations including up to 40 stalls are coming to America and Europe later this year, which is expected to help ease the rising tides of traffic in EV heavy environments. Here's hoping Tesla has enough Superchargers installed to keep this from being a problem when the next total eclipse hits the U.S....in 2024.