Matt Christian Posted August 25, 2019 Share Posted August 25, 2019 New product coming soon by Quick Charge. TESLA ELONG EXTENSION CABLE Expensive yes, but an extension can help with ICE'd up public chargers. I own a UMC-J1772 variant (not related to Quick Charge), which is also expensive but worth it to me. My long extension cord has come in handy a few times during travel. Particularly several Tesla destination (hotel) chargers and J-1772 public chargers which were all ICE'd up. Made the difference between no/zero opportunity and full charge. Unfortunately none of these extensions work with blocked/ICE'd Super Chargers. Too much DC power, heat, etc. Obviously most of these charging extension cables would not be necessary if more ICE drivers were observant, considerate and nice to EV owners. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Andrews Posted August 25, 2019 Share Posted August 25, 2019 Interesting product. Similar to the CHAdeMO adapter, doubt this would be useful often enough to bother, for most of my driving, especially looking a few years down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 Agreed - perhaps plan c.5 vs plan c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Christian Posted August 26, 2019 Author Share Posted August 26, 2019 IMHO, my extension cord will continue to come in handy until/unless more ICE drivers are not being ICE holes. That is, they either intentionally or absentmindedly block all EVSE/charging parking stalls. My extension cable is the 24+ foot, 80 Amp crazy thick/heavy version so it's a hassle to carry and lug around. However it's also allowed me to charge several times, got me out of tight spots, so the extra cost has been worth it to me. Maybe I'm weird/unusual. The pictures I posted above were from a SD hotel which has four EVSEs which are almost worthless to most EV drivers, due to multiple reasons. The front desk won't take anyone's license plate information, doesn't know who parks where, allows parking wherever and whenever, does not tow or ticket, will not help EV owners with blocked charging, total free for all. They don't even tow/ticket for handicap spot violations! Hotel management quote: "Tesla installed 'em years ago but we almost never see anyone charging EVs there." Well duh, of course since you let ICE vehicles park and block them in all day, every day so no one can charge! Needless to say, I will not ever stay there until/unless there's a dramatic change in the hotel management's mindset and practices. Take my business elsewhere. Fingers crossed that once the USA/NA reaches Norway level EV saturation levels, that there will be enough knowledge and consideration to avoid these unfortunate ICE'd situations. Sadly there will always be jerks and idiots... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Hanke Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 3 hours ago, Matt Christian said: Hotel management quote: "Tesla installed 'em years ago but we almost never see anyone charging EVs there." Well duh, of course since you let ICE vehicles park and block them in all day, every day so no one can charge! Needless to say, I will not ever stay there until/unless there's a dramatic change in the hotel management's mindset and practices. Take my business elsewhere. We need to continue to make sure that having chargers isn't a hassle for the hosts. Roughly 99% of cars/customers are ICE. When you do business with a host make sure to let them know you selected them because of their charger. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Christian Posted August 26, 2019 Author Share Posted August 26, 2019 Jay, In my specific hotel case, yes I told them multiple times that I chose to stay there because of their multiple EVSEs/chargers. I even called ahead but the staff refused to put a cone in any charger parking spots. "First come, first serve." and "We don't reserve parking spots." Part of the blame/problem was whichever electrical contractor firm installed all four EVSEs nearby the front doors, plus the hotel had inadequate/poor signage and zero parking enforcement. There were many other parking spots elsewhere in the lot, the hotel/electricians/Tesla should have selected a far corner for chargers. Poor site selection. I realize that EV owners in USA are still in the vast small "rounding error", but supposedly the numbers are projected to grow over next X years. How long until NA is at Norway levels is anyone's guess. Some of these large chain hotels are not helping themselves attract current and future EV owners by their poorly configured charger setups. I'd prefer to spend my accommodation cash at places which actively make an effort. I realize that may be asking a lot for underpaid and overworked hotel staff to care about the 1% of EV owners. Perhaps the other argument is to never rely on any hotel destination chargers to be available/open. Just assume that they'll be 100% ICE'd. Which makes another argument for bringing and using crazy extension cables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 27 minutes ago, Matt Christian said: Perhaps the other argument is to never rely on any hotel destination chargers to be available/open. Just assume that they'll be 100% ICE'd. Which makes another argument for bringing and using crazy extension cables. Then just never travel. #worksforme 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Hanke Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Matt Christian said: Part of the blame/problem was whichever electrical contractor firm installed all four EVSEs nearby the front doors, plus the hotel had inadequate/poor signage and zero parking enforcement. There were many other parking spots elsewhere in the lot, the hotel/electricians/Tesla should have selected a far corner for chargers. Poor site selection. Very few people have an idea about placement. Even Tesla has struggled in some locations (Sioux Falls SC) about placement in a parking lot. Bringing electrical out to the edge is also very expensive. I'd suspect that when many of the spots are placed the cost to install is the #1 consideration. As a possible solution, reaching out to properties in locations where there are holes and offering assistance getting the property through the process might be helpful. Also, maybe a graphic on a public wiki showing placement in various parking lots with some discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of the placement are. Pretty much every new hotel in the last 6 months has level 2 chargers. We're definitely moving in the right direction. I worked a front desk at a motel for a couple of years in my youth. Parking was always a headache even before Tesla... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Andrews Posted August 30, 2019 Share Posted August 30, 2019 On 8/26/2019 at 3:29 PM, Jay Hanke said: Pretty much every new hotel in the last 6 months has level 2 chargers. We're definitely moving in the right direction. [citation needed] I'm really curious how you know this? Is this just in MN or nationally or globally? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Hanke Posted August 31, 2019 Share Posted August 31, 2019 I travel a lot in the Midwest so it's only my own experience. I'm in a hotel in a random spot once a week. I'm heavy on Hilton so it could be a Hilton thing. I'm able to find l2 charging for maybe 75% of stays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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