Hurricay Milton Evacuation

Gas stations are running out of gas but chargers aren't going to run out of electricity

some will, but not all

It’s a mixed blessing. Better pre storm perhaps but probably more difficult in the first few days afterwards, but probably hard to find gas too… so maybe no different there

Yeah, they're powered by magic. It's great electricity can't go out during a hurricane!

There was about a 5 minute wait yesterday at some of the stations in Tampa, but otherwise pretty good availability. Here in Orlando, I waited until after midnight to charge at a Winter Park SC that charges $0.22/kw from 12a - 4a to fully charge before the storm.

If gas stations don’t have electricity they’re still not going to be pumping gas, even if they have some left.

I’m about 60 miles north west of Orlando so I am not going anywhere. The excitement continues to build because this will be my first real hurricane in Florida. I figure I’ll probably lose my Dish network antenna off the roof. Hopefully the birdcage around my pool will stay intact.

What we've seen in past disasters is if things are messed up that nobody in town has power they're also too messed up to get gas in even if they can run the pumps on generators. More often what you see is parts of town have power and parts don't and you can work with that to charge up the car whereas the gas situation improves later.

Hoping you and your family stay safe and well OP.

Stay safe boss!

I mean… if the power is out then… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ both gas pumps and chargers are out

Glad to know I’m not the only one checking the map during the evacuations. I keep seeing articles about gas shortages and it’s good to see the superchargers are serving everyone well

But I take your point. It’s definitely nice to be clearing out of town and know you can just supercharge and not be in a 4 mile long wait for gas that isn’t there.

Not familiar with a power outage?

If it’s still a 3 by the time it reaches you, something will smash that cage on its way to Jacksonville.

60 miles north of Orlando? U might not even lose power hopefully

Clearly you don’t know the governor very well  :)     Wouldn’t be surprised if he had them shut down and claim it’s in the name of not discriminating against gas stations.

If my home survives Milton, it may be destroyed by the 100-foot, 90-year-old oak in my backyard. While that would be traumatic, I’m now seriously considering Tesla solar panels and a Powerwall for my current home and or future rebuild home.

I learned the hard way that even if a gas station is full, they need electricity to pump gas. So no electricity = no gas

I wish Tesla would have developed V2L capability. A tesla in a garage as emergency power backup would be great.

Never happened in our area before, but I do have a generator just in case

Florida DOT set up several temporary EV charging stations to help with the evacuation. So, the opposite, in fact.

If the power is out in the area, there's usually less going on: Work, school, etc. I'd much rather have an EV than a gas vehicle in a power outage, especially if it has V2L.

>Florida law requires newer gas stations to be able to run on generators:  >When the law applies: The law applies to gas stations that were built or substantially renovated after July 1, 2006.  >What the law requires: The law requires gas stations to have transfer switches and wiring to switch to an alternate power source in case of a power outage.  >Generator requirements: Corporations that own 10 or more gas stations in a single county must have at least one portable generator for every 10 stations.  I absolutely prefer owning an EV living in a hurricane-prone area, but a substantial number of gas stations are able to pump gas in power outages, here.

Wait for the salt water to touch the battery.

In my experience after major hurricanes, “difficult in the first few days afterwards” applies pretty much equally to finding gas. People are not only trying to top up their cars but also fill up gas cans for generators, so even when a station does have power or a generator and gets a new supply truck of fuel in, it’s gone fairly quickly. If you’re in a true no-power zone then getting a charge on your EV might be difficult, but if you stayed through the storm then you probably aren’t driving hundreds of miles during that time either.

Backup generators? You will run out of fuel eventually, but at that point, it is academic whether the pump work.

Having a transfer switch doesn’t mean they actually have a generator or fuel to pump. Both are often in short supply after a storm. In a full no-power area there will be a trickle of gas stations that both can pump and get fuel resupplies, but it can still be hard to get especially with everyone trying to fill up multiple gas cans for their own generators.

Are you considering a *hypothetical* rebuild in... Florida?

No one inland is evacuating as far as I know.

Where are you all evacuating to? Can you charge at said location? If you do, you’ll be in way better shape than if you drove an ICE instead. I can’t imagine gas stations have much availability out there these days.

Are many on the west coast evacuating? Storm is predicted to weaken significantly by then, people I know are staying.

Thats the east coast of Florida and shouldn't be impacted much compared to the west. I assume people are heading east or north of Tampa. That far east isn't gonna take a influx of people.

Cybertruck

Good luck getting any future home insurance if this is as destructive as it could be.

[deleted]

I mean they might if the power goes out

It's done really well too. Far simpler installation and faster transfer than Ford's system.

Gas stations also require power to pump the gas?

Kia/hyundai seem to be the ones that really make it work

Glad to hear you're havin' an easier time with the chargers! It's good to know EVs can handle a big rush. Keep an eye on the charger map and drive safe! 🌟

I haven't experienced it myself, but I imagine that if power or other infrastructure gets damaged, it will be easier to find a working power outlet than a gas station or portable gas truck.

What happens when power is lost for weeks in these areas?

Well, when Milton tears off Supercharger station roof it's all over for each one of them.

Absolutely.

Cybertruck

Their competition does it in far cheaper vehicles. It should be standard across the Tesla lineup.

They will gladly sell you a powerwall, and that's why you won't see it on anything but the truck.

The problem is that directly competes with the Tesla Powerwall, which I think is probably one of the biggest reasons they didn't do it. Now if you would have made it so it could supplement the Powerwall directly, then you would be onto something.

I would totally pay $4k to Tesla for a Powerwall that I'd could build a half-assed version of myself for $3k in parts I got on Amazon.

These last two hurricanes have been a gold mine of ICE FUD pictures.

Powerwall 3 costs like $13k with installation but I understand that's your point.

Last time I got a rough quote for one they wanted $19k installed. I still have 1:1 net metering on solar so I ended up buying a portable power station instead.

You can just say you live in The villages

I could…..

/r/boneappletea

They can lose power though right…

How much did it cost you?

They’re more concerned about selling you gas than giving you gas.

Is there a limit on panel size in FL? 16kw is bigger than any systems I know in Ga.

The thing is, if a company doesn't have the balls to compete against itself, someone else will! Kodak had digital cameras, but didn't want to compete against its film business. Tesla might not want to compete against its powerwalls but I promise you there are tons of companies that will, and one of them is bound to be successful eventually.

And what’s wrong with using a generator to sell gas?

And at some point fuel delivery driver pick their family over their job, too. Or no one wants to operate the store. It's a fragile supply chain. Meanwhile, the unmanned supercharger station just needs electricity.

The storage tank is pretty big and the power lines often go down in a storm.

I don't understand. Can you explain it like I'm 5?

Gas stations can run out of gas BEFORE the storm even hits! Superchargers just need electricity. The same electricity gas stations need. No people or supplies or a full tank on site. Basically, only one thing can disable a supercharger, lack of electricity. The same lack of electricity disables a gas station or lack of supply of fuel or lack of labor, or their credit card processor goes down.... all sorts of extra fragile added to the system for gas stations. Superchargers don't even need working internet, phone or cellular networks. They dispense electricity if they lose communicarions, then attempt to bill those accounts later, when communication comes back.

Nice to see he’s pro EV now . Hope it sticks

he doesnt like tesla

I do agree completely, it's actually a major draw for me to Kia/Hyundai's eGMP platform. However, you can still leverage a Tesla as backup power source. Connecting an inverter will allow you to turn the car's battery into a VERY large power source. Probably good for several days to a week if you're frugal. I installed a 1,000W inverter to my Model 3 and can power the fridge and other electronics during a power outage. It can also power my travel trailer camper.

I *REALLY* want to hear the roof thing explained.

Yes, although some of them will have backup generators in these scenarios they run out of gas because people fuel up their cars all at the same time, other people evacuate and burn a lot of gas etc etc so it all becomes moot. And the roads have to be in good condition to run gas trucks on them, and they can only resupply so fast. So power comes back before the gas comes back. I have relatives in New Orleans so between their experiences and just prior posts it's pretty clear what the pattern is at this point. And you can just pull the supercharger map up (assuming the cell service is back up) and even if you don't have power yet figure out what parts of town do.

I’m not holding my breath, and I was surprised to hear about these temp chargers, BUT it’s interesting because it’s the opposite of what one might expect.

Gas pumps run on electricity. So they have two points of failure: missing gas deliveries and missing power. Chargers only have one point of failure.

Check out the Munro Live video on the Cybertruck's PCS (what lets it export AC for V2L/V2H) [https://youtu.be/tTuQGKTKdKA?si=DLrYwUR2Y8NTTlMZ](https://youtu.be/tTuQGKTKdKA?si=DLrYwUR2Y8NTTlMZ) They show the Model 3 and Model Y versions next to it, from what I can tell, the new CT one is a drop in replacement part, lower cost, and more features. Very likely going to see them use that in newer vehicles too

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZWGLzT7gg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZWGLzT7gg) This guy did it with a leaf battery. Batteries are down to 1200USD in my country, no idea about the rest, the safety etc, but it's several times more storage than the puny first powerwalls at least. Seems like a fun project if you know what you're doing.

Generators exist.

Living in Louisiana and getting an EV, I had numerous friends and family ask “what are you going to do if you need to evacuate for a hurricane and your car runs out of battery sitting in traffic??”. I’m glad to see the superchargers are still available for those needing to get to safety.

It sounds like they don’t realize that EVs don’t use power when idle.

They can but gas stations won't work in that situation either

Same thing as gas stations losing power for weeks

Yeah, and gas stations don't work in that scenario either. My whole point is a gas station can completely run out of gas stores, which is a different issue than a power outage scenario, in which a SC is clearly not going to just run out of juice like a gas station would

Gotta watch those hurricays

And there’s those untold stories. Homes still have electricity until the storm actually hits. Constant flow of energy for the win.

Fair point

Yep. These companies should learn to get on the train before somebody else beats them to it. I have 2 Teslas right now but next vehicle I do want to have some type of V2L capability so I can use for emergencies. Because I am definitely not paying over $10k for powerwalls for a feature I might use once a year. The V2L is a perfect feature to utilize for emergencies when they do happen... and the rest of the time I use my EV as normal to drive around.

And how did you do that? Do you just simply tap into your Model 3's 12V (or 16V) battery? I used my typical 12V cigarette lighter inverter for up to 350W, but would like much more.

That's correct. I have tried two ways: 1) There is a "penthouse access" beneath the rear seats in the Model 3. It has a terminals for +/- battery connectors you can use to power an inverter. I had trouble finding an inverter that didn't have a large current inrush to the inverter which ends up tripping the Tesla's eFuse disabling that circuit. 2) Connecting directly to the 12V battery under the hood. This is the traditional application for vehicles but uses the 12V battery power versus #1 which uses the DC-DC onboard. This can be a problem for newer vehicles with the 16V Li-ion battery. Mine is an older model with the more standard 12v. Of the two, option 1 is preferred, I'm still experimenting with Inverters.

lmao - same thing could happen to a gas station

Tanker fuel delivery can be problematic due to disruptions during the hurricane and possibly after depending on road conditions. Less worried about keeping the gas station running vs running out of fuel/selling out

Tell them to follow the recommendations to mark their bodies with water resistant marker so their corpses can be identified.

There are plenty old Leafs laying around with more kWh for $6k. You could have a backup and a shed/chicken coop. 👍 Seriously though, it’s my hangup on house batteries, the price per kW is just not great.

Here from Europe.. be safe and good luck to you all in Florida

We should make some memes to send those Tesla haters cuz all I get are Tesla owners are gay memes and I’m so fed up with those memes.

Well, for starters: Usually regular stations don’t have generators.

What inverter did you find without a large inrush current?

I've tried 4 so far with no luck, but I have a new one coming in that is promising. A YouTuber claims it works perfectly for them, Renogy 1,000 updated version without USB ports and a single 120V US socket plug. In the meantime I'm using the 12v battery terminals for connection.

Powerwall is only available in the US i think. They sell their cars all over the world so that wouldn't make sense? A powerwall + a tesla would also always be better than just a powerwall.

And solar is always an option. Will charge slow for sure, but it's better than nothing.

Easier to store gas to fill a car though. Cost of batteries to recharge your car vs 2 5 gallon red jugs.

Bless this map

It's looking like a lot of supercharger locations around Tampa are down, but there is still quite a few up and running. Can the OP update the picture?

A law was passed in the state of Florida mandating that all gas stations have backup power generator sets installed. Any gas station built after July 1, 2006 must have generators installed that can power both the pumps and the cash registers.

I mean that's great but it's really moot if the tanks are dry.

What app is OP posting from? Really Curious please someone

What app is OP posting from? Really Curious please someone

The official Tesla app. Not sure if you need a car or not to see the map. I would think you do

It says Apple Maps though on bottom, i thought teslas use Google Maps data

In car it uses google, if someone is using the app on an iPhone it uses Apple Maps. Tesla overlays their data on both top of google (in car) and Apple (iPhone app)

Them opening the charging network to non-teslas is going to force them to have to compete on other fronts like V2L or V2H. Investors were not happy with their autonomous taxi event.

Any luck?