It knows where Teslas aren't driving, but it doesn't know where people would go if they could.
It also doesn't know the places Tesla-curious non-Tesla owners want to be able to go before they buy a Tesla.
And if there isn't a Supercharger in an area and Tesla owners aren't going there, they also don't have stats to give to those potential hosts to persuade them of potential custom. But if that location gets a lot of votes, they can point to the voting and say "When we asked Tesla owners what locations they want, N% of those who voted, voted for this location, so if you host a Supercharger you could have a significant amount of custom from people with more money than sense."
So, it combines a PR and engagement exercise with filling in some stats.
I disagree. They know where Tesla owners would go if they could, because they can get data on where gasoline powered cars are going. What they should do is start by saying, "Where do people go with gas cars that they don't go in Teslas?" In particular look at the ratio of miles driven by gasoline cars to EV miles. They can control for the number of Teslas that live a given distance from the area, something they know exactly.
They also know which cars own or have used the CCS or CdM adapters, and can control for that.
The only modification they might put on what they would learn from that data would be more romantic or subjective judgment about the route in tourist books. For example, at present, it's almost impossible for a Tesla to get to Alaska through BC, though a few have done it, and some new CCS stations are opening up. Prince George is as far as you can go on superchargers. But even so, they might decide that the Alaska and Cassier highways don't have the traffic to merit the effort. But they might do it for the romance, "Yes, your Tesla can take you on that bucket list trip up the Alaska highway you've dreamed about." That might have some value. Though the fact that the ratio of gasoline cars to Teslas on these highways is ridiculously high, and probably all but a handful of them have CCS/CdM adapters.
The other thing that should affect their decision is that they won the connector fight, and everybody will be switching to NACS. In many cases, a far faster and cheaper plan would be to just take steps to hasten the addition of NACS cords on those CCS stations which are far from the nearest SC. Kenab is a good example of that. Yes, the Kenab station is just 3 60kw stalls, not Tesla level, but by far the cheapest thing to do would be to just pay for the NACS upgrade to those stations. Chargepoint is offering NACS cable upgrades to their stations, but if Tesla paid for those today, they need not rush at fast at putting in an SC with more stalls and higher power rating. Though frankly, any operator of such a charging station is an idiot if they don't put in that upgrade, since 70% of the EVs are Teslas. The main reason they haven't all done this is most CCS stations were put in for subsidy or public policy reasons, not as for-profit businesses. The Kenab one is run by the city. That's why Tesla should start by paying. They could even "loan" the upgrade, saying that they will swap it back out or ask for money in 3 years, when they put in a station.
There are 3 goals to the SC network:
- Let Tesla owners take road trips with low hassle
- Let Tesla owners *feel* that they can take road trips (almost) anywhere they want to go
- (Added later) Let Tesla owners who don't have charging at home have a fast charging experience.
Not on the list, by the way, is make money, at least in the past. I mean it started as free to Tesla owners. It's debatable if #1 or #2 is more important.
Kenab is not without value, I just state that because there is CCS there, it's not as high a value as places where there is no SC or CCS. Anybody who does rural road trips in places like these is crazy not to get the CCS adapter now, though they will have less reason in a couple years when the CCS stations all put NACS on them. The main reason not to get it would be if you have the car that needs a board upgrade to use it. I have such a car, but I manually upgraded my board with the bundle-o-wires, because it's that useful.
Yes, not all poll winners are fill-ins, but many are. I don't think they should poll about those. They have perfect data on which of those they need to build already, they don't need to ask users. I think they ask just to make drivers feel good. The only real value of the poll would be to tell them stuff they don't know, about that romantic factor.