Tesla owners in Australia now have to override an 80% battery charge limit at busy Supercharger locations

Tesla Australia has limited the use of its busiest Supercharger locations in a rather ingenious way by only allowing drivers to pump their battery full of electrons until an 80% level is reached. Modern Li-ion batteries can charge very quickly to that level, but from 80%-100% the charging speeds slow down to a trickle. That precaution is in order to avoid battery chemistry degradation or, worse, thermal runaway.

That is why instead of waiting for the Tesla driver before them to spend their sweet time at the Supercharger getting their battery to full, at peak locations in the Australian network their cars default to an 80% battery level with the proper warning by Tesla. Here's a list of the Supercharger locations in Australia where the charging limitation has been spotted:

• Broadway in Sydney
• Pacific Fair at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast
• Knockrow in the Northern Rivers region of NSW

Despite that the wait times for a new Tesla have now spanned all the way to 2023 in Australia, Elon Musk's brand is still the most popular EV maker there, accounting for 60% of electric vehicles on Australian roads. The Australian Supercharger network is thus quickly becoming heavily congested at the most popular locations and one solution that Tesla found was to simply limit the time spent by each diver at the most heavily trafficked charging stations.

Tesla owners in Australia began getting the charge limitation warnings en masse just recently, and have been sharing it on social media every since. Some leaving on longer road trips balked at the limitation, while others addressed it with understanding; moreover, it turns out that the charging restriction can still be overridden should the driver choose to do so.

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