This is a story of bad advice, misinformation, and how that led to one very unhappy Tesla owner.
As I arrived at the Ann Arbor Michigan supercharger, my main thoughts were about the white cones. “Was the supercharger down?” I thought to myself. It quickly became clear this location has an ICEing problem and the cones help dissuade that behavior, so I promptly slotted myself in next to a beautiful blue Model S.
It was immediately obvious something was wrong with the Tesla beside me. The lady (I’ll call her Sally) was on the phone frantically speaking with someone because she couldn’t get the charging cable to release.
I walked over to see if I could help. I noticed the Kentucky license plates, but we were in Michigan so I was confused. How could someone from Kentucky have made it all the way to the Michigan and yet be having seemingly catastrophic problems with normal charging processes?
Tesla charging ports are green when they’re charging, blue when they’re not charging but locked, and light blue when ready to accept or release the charge cable. Like almost every electric vehicle, Teslas will not release the charge cable from the port unless the car is unlocked, primarly to prevent theft of the cable or having someone unplug your car before you have the charge you need.
I made a quick video of how it works, which you can see below
Sally’s car was locked so, of course the cable would not release. Simple, I thought. Not quite. She began fumbling with the key and muttering how much she hates her Tesla. Hearing someone say they hate their Tesla is not something I have ever heard, so I obviously wanted to pull that thread to see what was going on.
Sally and her husband live in Kentucky and make regular trips up to Michigan. They wanted an electric vehicle and knew the Tesla was the only option given their need to travel between those two locations. Turns out they didn’t do much more research than that. When they went to the showroom to talk to a Tesla rep, they were ready to buy a 100D and told the rep about their need to go between the two states. For some unknown reason, the rep felt it was his obligation to talk them out of the 100D and into a 75D. He told them the extra battery didn’t make that much difference in how far they can go. What?!!! Argh!
On top of that, the rep or other friends told her the car would charge in 20 minutes. Either they did not give her the caveats or she was not listening. Nor did anyone tell her that you shouldn’t sit there and charge to 100% each time either.
I now understood why she was so frustrated with the car. I spent 20 minutes giving her some tips and tricks on how to make the trips most efficiently, provided some insight into charging strategies, and information on why batteries charge the way they do. Hopefully, this will help her become more comfortable with the car and possibly even change her attitude towards it.
I remain flabbergasted as to why a rep would talk a customer out of a larger battery pack when they were ready to buy that larger size. It makes absolutely no sense, especially given the stated need to travel long distances. Whoever this Tesla rep was did a great disservice to Tesla’s stated goal of “accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”
Lessons
- As EVs go mainstream, customers not be as informed when they walk in the showroom. As such, sales reps will be ever-more important to ensuring these mainstream customers receive accurate and clear information that helps them have a positive transition to EVs.
- Electric vehicles are different animals from fossil-fuel Cars. We’ve learned the quirks of gasoline cars over a hundred years. So much so that those quirks have effectively become second nature and common knowledge to most people. We must continue outreach and education efforts to make sure new owners have the best information available to them on how to use their car.
- Get the biggest battery you can afford.
- Make sure people have the tools (e.g., PlugShare) and know the terms to help them transition to life with an EV.
- What lessons would you add to this list?
Resources to Help with the Education
The following are some previous posts to help provide insight on some of these issues
- Tools for EV Road Tripping
- About EV Range: KiloWatt Hours instead of Gallons and MPG
- The Reality of Charging on the Road
- How Fast does a Tesla Supercharger Charge?
How to follow along on my Big West Coast Road Trip
Twitter: http://twitter.com/doyendon
My medium posts: medium.com/@donb
Shared folder with all of my Recap Videos
