Tesla charging subscription with Gravity experience?

[Rogue]

A counter example. I tried three times to initiate a charge with the EA app for the Air. All three times the car overrode the selection with its own payment. In the past, it send to be a coin toss. I've tried initiating before plugging in and plugging in first with neither being reliable of using the membership first.

Have since disabled plug and charge by removing a payment method to ensure we get the discounted rates from a membership pass. I know we aren't in a Gravity, but the code should be the same for both models.

 

[hmp10]

We charged at two EAs yesterday (with subscription) through the EA app. Was flawless to kick off the charge, but the first station was only getting like 75kW. So we moved and got 175kW on a “shared 350kW” charger. Second EA was fine tho, and got about 320kW or so.

Today we charged at a Rivian Adventure charger; pulled >300kW deeeep into the pack.

Very impressed with Gravity’s charging overall.

Other than some transitory glitches with both Superchargers and EA chargers after the 3.3.20 update, our Gravities' charging behavior has been exemplary.

However, the situation with DCFC infrastructure is not keeping pace with Lucid's progress, especially outside the west coast region -- and presenting some issues even there. Everyday Chris just yesterday posted his experience:

We were talking about a driving trip to Natchez, Mississippi to tour some of the antebellum architecture. When I checked for charging options, I found there are only three NACS-partner Superchargers in the entire state and only two EA chargers. I also checked PlugShare for other brands of chargers and found zilch. And the closest of any L3 charger to Natchez is about 100 miles. Getting to that charger also means taking a longer route to Natchez, as you have to travel well south and west of Natchez and then cut back northeast. That means that getting to Natchez, touring the area, and getting back to a charger would put us at the very limits of the Gravity's range. And if there were any hitches with getting the chargers to work, we'd be screwed.

There is a B&B in Natchez with one Level 2 Tesla plug and a Holiday Inn Express with 6 Tesla destination chargers. But my experience with such charging options has been uneven. A B&B will sometimes let you reserve the charger, but you're out of luck if that one spot is taken. Holiday Inn does not let you reserve a charging spot, and I have found that once other cars plug in they usually stay plugged in overnight (as we would need to do).

We made a Christmas visit to Savannah a couple of years ago in our Air. The only non-Tesla DCFC in the region was in a dense suburban area well outside downtown Savannah in a direction we had no need to go otherwise. So we reserved a room at a B&B that had a single Tesla Level 2 plug. They would not reserve the plug but assured me that it was almost never used except by the B&B owner who parked his Tesla elsewhere when guests needed the plug. When we arrived there was another EV plugged in, and every time we got back to the B&B that car had plugged in beforehand. So we had to leave the city to get to Pooler, GA where we spent over 70 minutes at an EA station just trying to initiate a charge in driving sleet. (I reported that experience at the time on this forum.)

So, even with the Gravity's advanced charging capabilities, EV touring of much of the U.S. is still a challenge -- with a current administration doing everything it can to slow progress even further.

 

[borski]

A counter example. I tried three times to initiate a charge with the EA app for the Air. All three times the car overrode the selection with its own payment. In the past, it send to be a coin toss. I've tried initiating before plugging in and plugging in first with neither being reliable of using the membership first.

Have since disabled plug and charge by removing a payment method to ensure we get the discounted rates from a membership pass. I know we aren't in a Gravity, but the code should be the same for both models.

Haven't tried it with my Air, but at least in the Gravity if I initiate it in the EA app, wait until the charger screen changes from the 'just plug either cable in' to the 'please plug in' it has been activated. Then I plug in, no problem.

 

[RandomDesign]

However, the situation with DCFC infrastructure is not keeping pace with Lucid's progress, especially outside the west coast region -- and presenting some issues even there. Everyday Chris just yesterday posted his experience:

I hate his Gravity videos honestly. As someone who's had an EV for a while and has had a Gravity for a bit he seems completely clueless how anything works or is very disingenuous in his videos. He purposely chose two low rated chargers (his mid tier one was also low rated, not at all mid) and one of the busiest Superchargers in Los Angeles as his "best" charger. Of course he was going to be power limited there!

I don't really understand the point of his video other than to make the Gravity look bad and like it can't fast charge anywhere. I'll admit my charging has been limited thus far but the two 325 kW capable Superchargers I've used both were able to charge and maintain a pretty high rate for the battery % I was at when starting.

 

[bryway]

I'm seeing about $0.20 per kwh discount for Tesla Membership. At about $14/month (including taxes in CA), the break-even point is about 65kwh, which is just under one 50% charge added. So, it's kind of a no-brainer if you're road tripping at all, too bad about losing plug-and-charge though.

Exactly. I’m still on a long holiday road trip (San Francisco to Palm Springs / Palm Springs to Las Vegas / Las Vegas to Los Angeles / Los Angeles back to Palm Springs / Palm Springs to San Francisco). Started Supercharger membership to get discounts on the full road trip, recouped the monthly $9.99 subscription price on that first leg of the trip and plan to cancel the minute I’m back home in San Francisco.

Charging has been flawless, albeit a little less convenient than true plug and charge (having to launch the Tesla app, enter charging post number, then initiating the session). The savings is worth the minor inconvenience

 

[bryway]

I hate his Gravity videos honestly. As someone who's had an EV for a while and has had a Gravity for a bit he seems completely clueless how anything works or is very disingenuous in his videos. He purposely chose two low rated chargers (his mid tier one was also low rated, not at all mid) and one of the busiest Superchargers in Los Angeles as his "best" charger. Of course he was going to be power limited there!

I don't really understand the point of his video other than to make the Gravity look bad and like it can't fast charge anywhere. I'll admit my charging has been limited thus far but the two 325 kW capable Superchargers I've used both were able to charge and maintain a pretty high rate for the battery % I was at when starting.

Totally! He does reluctantly say the Gravity charges faster than any Tesla at any 250kW+ capable supercharger, but bafflingly brings the Cybertruck into the conversation as a competitor basically twisting himself into a pretzel to make the max 250kW cap on Tesla’s (non-Cybertruck) cars feel adequate by trashing the 400kW capable Gravity’s inability to achieve higher than 220kW on the lame infrastructure of his choosing.

 

[dbsb3233]

and plan to cancel the minute I’m back home in San Francisco.

You don't need to wait to do that. Once you activate the membership discount (for either Tesla or EA Pass+), it locks you in for the next 30 days. If that's all you want, it's easier to go right back in and cancel a minute later. You'll be active for 30 days and it'll won't autorenew. It's great because you don't have to worry about forgetting to do it later.

 

[jered]

We're an hour from wrapping up ~1600 miles from MA to FL and I signed up for a Tesla subscription before leaving. Zero problems using the Tesla app for 8 different stops, and one ill-fated stop at an evGO site. I know you west-coasters have it good with non-Tesla sites, but here they usually have 4 stalls across 2 units. One of the units was frozen, taking out 2 stalls. Once I could get into one of the open "350kW" stalls I only could pull 125kW due to power-sharing. It also just... stopped charging halfway through and needed to be reset. Just never a good experience -- I keep getting tempted by the fast charging rates, but every Tesla site I get a sold 220kW for as long as I need.

About $220 total in charging fees. Averaging 2.6-2.7 mi/kWh in our DE with 21/22 wheels. (My husband likes to only drive in Sprint mode, so the 2.6 is when he's driving...)

Minimal software bugs on 3.3.20. The whole "charging" app got stuck showing stale data which was fixed with a reboot.

 

[hmp10]

I hate his Gravity videos honestly. As someone who's had an EV for a while and has had a Gravity for a bit he seems completely clueless how anything works or is very disingenuous in his videos. He purposely chose two low rated chargers (his mid tier one was also low rated, not at all mid) and one of the busiest Superchargers in Los Angeles as his "best" charger. Of course he was going to be power limited there!

I don't really understand the point of his video other than to make the Gravity look bad and like it can't fast charge anywhere. I'll admit my charging has been limited thus far but the two 325 kW capable Superchargers I've used both were able to charge and maintain a pretty high rate for the battery % I was at when starting.

He was clear that the Gravity is capable of the charging speeds Lucid claims. But, frankly, his charging experiences pretty much mirror mine over the past ten years People who don't live on the west coast where DC fast chargers are everywhere and seem to be better maintained than elsewhere are constantly confronted with malfunctions, slow charging speeds, long lines, and difficulties finding charge sites in many areas.

And I don't really see anything wrong with his choice of the Tesla diner for his test. Although Tesla chargers are very reliable, it has been seldom, if ever, that I have found one that delivered the full power for which the station was rated even with the car's SoC could take it. The fact is that most Tesla stations you visit these days are full or almost so, and you will not get full power.

He was not trying to show what charging is like in ideal conditions. We get enough of that from Kyle Conner and Tom Moloughney. He was showing what charging is like for many EV owners. The Gravity absolutely makes the best of a troubled situation with charging infrastructure. But it cannot and does not improve that infrastructure, and people should not be sold a bill of goods that it does.

 

[dbsb3233]

He was clear that the Gravity is capable of the charging speeds Lucid claims. But, frankly, his charging experiences pretty much mirror mine over the past ten years People who don't live on the west coast where DC fast chargers are everywhere and seem to be better maintained than elsewhere are constantly confronted with malfunctions, slow charging speeds, long lines, and difficulties finding charge sites in many areas.

And I don't really see anything wrong with his choice of the Tesla diner for his test. Although Tesla chargers are very reliable, it has been seldom, if ever, that I have found one that delivered the full power for which the station was rated even with the car's SoC could take it. The fact is that most Tesla stations you visit these days are full or almost so, and you will not get full power.

He was not trying to show what charging is like in ideal conditions. We get enough of that from Kyle Conner and Tom Moloughney. He was showing what charging is like for many EV owners. The Gravity absolutely makes the best of a troubled situation with charging infrastructure. But it cannot and does not improve that infrastructure, and people should not be sold a bill of goods that it does.

This is the other value (beyond the obvious) of super long range... you get to pick and choose the best chargers along the route rather than being stuck settling for some crappy ones because that's what happens to exist right where you need it. With 100 extra miles to play with, you have more options.

For instance, on our every-other-month Denver-Vegas drive, I couldn't safely make it to the Ionna station 280 miles from home in Fruita CO in our Mach-E, and probably not in our Macan either (maybe barely in the summer). We always needed to bail out at the EA station in Grand Junction which is rarely delivering full power. Then we might be able to make it the 272 miles to the Beaver UT Ionna, then all the way to Vegas in just 2 stops (like gas). As a general rule, Ionna has been far more dependable, and can deliver the full 400kW the Gravity can handle.

Even if those weren't spaced perfectly where they are, we'd feel better in the Gravity stopping at the *best* stations rather than just the needed locations because the long range allows us to make up time on the next leg. More flexibility.

 

[RandomDesign]

He was clear that the Gravity is capable of the charging speeds Lucid claims. But, frankly, his charging experiences pretty much mirror mine over the past ten years People who don't live on the west coast where DC fast chargers are everywhere and seem to be better maintained than elsewhere are constantly confronted with malfunctions, slow charging speeds, long lines, and difficulties finding charge sites in many areas.

And I don't really see anything wrong with his choice of the Tesla diner for his test. Although Tesla chargers are very reliable, it has been seldom, if ever, that I have found one that delivered the full power for which the station was rated. The fact is that most Tesla stations you visit these days are full or almost so, and you will not get full power.

He was not trying to show what charging is like in ideal conditions. We get enough of that from Kyle Conner and Tom Moloughney. He was showing what charging is like for many EV owners. The Gravity absolutely makes the best of a troubled situation with charging infrastructure. But it cannot and does not improve that infrastructure, and people should not be sold a bill of goods that it does.

The thing is, he does live on the west coast. I've road tripped quite a bit in EVs and am very aware of the state of chargers out there (the span between Las Cruxes, NM and Tuscon, AZ being the scariest area I've been through, I pulled into to Tuscon's first Supercharger at 2% and 4% charge on a few trips through there because every other charger on the route was down during those trips), I also spend a fair bit of time up and around Anaheim and Irvine, CA where he lives and know he has way more chargers around there to choose from that would have been far more representative of the capabilities of the Gravity in real world use even with his three levels of ratings test.

His low tier is a bad 50kW charger in Anaheim. His "mid" tier one has tons of complaints about the chargers not working or only charging slow even though they say they're 350kW capable. Even the review of that charger he chose to show on screen was a 1 star saying exactly the same thing. I'm not sure what his other qualifications were for it to be the mid tier one.

And then we get to his "best" charger. And of course he chose the most popular and busiest Tesla Supercharger in all of Los Angeles right, the Tesla Diner. Yes, he was going to be limited by the charger. It only gets good reviews from people who enjoyed the experience and the food, the charging there is the same as any other very crowded V3.5 Supercharger. It's not a good charging site, it's a meme.

 

[borski]

Exactly. I’m still on a long holiday road trip (San Francisco to Palm Springs / Palm Springs to Las Vegas / Las Vegas to Los Angeles / Los Angeles back to Palm Springs / Palm Springs to San Francisco). Started Supercharger membership to get discounts on the full road trip, recouped the monthly $9.99 subscription price on that first leg of the trip and plan to cancel the minute I’m back home in San Francisco.

Charging has been flawless, albeit a little less convenient than true plug and charge (having to launch the Tesla app, enter charging post number, then initiating the session). The savings is worth the minor inconvenience

Same. Used EA and Rivian last two days too. Had to switch EA cables once, but otherwise flawless.

 

[borski]

This is the other value (beyond the obvious) of super long range... you get to pick and choose the best chargers along the route rather than being stuck settling for some crappy ones because that's what happens to exist right where you need it. With 100 extra miles to play with, you have more options.

Yes! We did this exactly on this road trip. Sometimes it was unavoidable, even here, because of long stretches, but in general there were plenty of options and we could get to all of them easily.

 

[bryway]

You don't need to wait to do that. Once you activate the membership discount (for either Tesla or EA Pass+), it locks you in for the next 30 days. If that's all you want, it's easier to go right back in and cancel a minute later. You'll be active for 30 days and it'll won't autorenew. It's great because you don't have to worry about forgetting to do it later.

Just canceled it! Thanks for thinking that through for me My trip spans late Dec-Early Jan, so I must have literally thought ‘monthly’ vs ‘every 30 days’! Appreciate the steer

 

[bryway]

The thing is, he does live on the west coast. I've road tripped quite a bit in EVs and am very aware of the state of chargers out there (the span between Las Cruxes, NM and Tuscon, AZ being the scariest area I've been through, I pulled into to Tuscon's first Supercharger at 2% and 4% charge on a few trips through there because every other charger on the route was down during those trips), I also spend a fair bit of time up and around Anaheim and Irvine, CA where he lives and know he has way more chargers around there to choose from that would have been far more representative of the capabilities of the Gravity in real world use even with his three levels of ratings test.

His low tier is a bad 50kW charger in Anaheim. His "mid" tier one has tons of complaints about the chargers not working or only charging slow even though they say they're 350kW capable. Even the review of that charger he chose to show on screen was a 1 star saying exactly the same thing. I'm not sure what his other qualifications were for it to be the mid tier one.

And then we get to his "best" charger. And of course he chose the most popular and busiest Tesla Supercharger in all of Los Angeles right, the Tesla Diner. Yes, he was going to be limited by the charger. It only gets good reviews from people who enjoyed the experience and the food, the charging there is the same as any other very crowded V3.5 Supercharger. It's not a good charging site, it's a meme.

Bingo. This is an example of a creator / influencer whose original following was cultivated by him being a Tesla booster. Nothing wrong with that. I enjoy his content now that he’s branching out and doing other types of reviews, but it’s clear to me he backed into the outcome he wanted for this video (to appease the majority of his subscribers?), bucking reality, and my own lived experience as someone who charges frequently in SoCal.

 

[jim w]

Has anyone used the Tesla charging subscription with their Gravity yet? I know that I'll need to disable plug & charge and use the Tesla app to initiate charging, just seeing what other people's experiences were and if there were any other things to be aware of.

I'm planning some longer roadtrips in the Gravity where I'll mostly be using Superchargers and the discounted rate per kWh will really add up. It seems like charging rates are about $.15-$.17 cheaper per kWh with the subscription at the stops I'll be making (1800 mi each way).

Using the Tesla app saves you money, Rather than Just plugging in and using lucid app.
You do save about 30% from my experience

 

[RandomDesign]

Using the Tesla app saves you money, Rather than Just plugging in and using lucid app.
You do save about 30% from my experience

Yeah, we've used it a lot since I originally posted this. For me in SoCal it's generally about a $0.20 discount per kWh. We've have a couple more roadtrips coming up so it'll come in handy for sure.

 

[allenmhc]

Yeah, we've used it a lot since I originally posted this. For me in SoCal it's generally about a $0.20 discount per kWh. We've have a couple more roadtrips coming up so it'll come in handy for sure.

The few times I was comparing non-Tesla membership to the membership, the difference was substantial during off-peak hours, which is when I like to charge sometimes to prep for the next day. It'd be $0.70/kWh with plug-and-play, $0.64/kWh at peak hours but $0.35 during non-peak.