Still amazes me that Tesla has yet to put up a Supercharger west of Memphis in Arkansas or in Blytheville or Forest City. Yes selfish on our part but, traveling from Chicago to visit my sister in Little Rock and soon my niece in Dallas is a pain since you need to drive 26 miles out of your way to the Memphis charger then 26 miles back to continue on to Little Rock.
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Amazes me no Supercharger on east side of Arkansas
- Thread starter thx1139
- Start date
mikes_fsd
Banned
I think the issue is with the state, not Tesla.
Arkansas was a desert for a very long time and still to this day only has 3 charging locations within its borders.
For that amount of detour you might be better off to borrow/rent/buy a CHAdeMO adapter and head to one of those existing places along your route. There's one in Forrest City (AR) and one in Hayti (MO).
There's also the potential of hitting up a Destination charger and staying for lunch/dinner to get a reasonable amount of charge to bridge the gap. I would definitely call ahead and make sure those are working and available before relying on them.
Lesmeister Guesthouse, Lindsey's Resort, Red Wolf Convention Center ... You'd probably need a two hour or more charge at any of those to make it to Little Rock, though.
Have you checked PlugShare for intermediate charging options?
But, yes, Arkansas desperately needs more Superchargers. Forrest City, North Little Rock, Jonesboro, Conway, Russellville, Fort Smith, Arkadelphia, Pine Bluff, Harrison (HA HA!), all of these need big power DC chargers.
And Tesla needs to make a damn CCS adapter.
There's also the potential of hitting up a Destination charger and staying for lunch/dinner to get a reasonable amount of charge to bridge the gap. I would definitely call ahead and make sure those are working and available before relying on them.
Lesmeister Guesthouse, Lindsey's Resort, Red Wolf Convention Center ... You'd probably need a two hour or more charge at any of those to make it to Little Rock, though.
Have you checked PlugShare for intermediate charging options?
But, yes, Arkansas desperately needs more Superchargers. Forrest City, North Little Rock, Jonesboro, Conway, Russellville, Fort Smith, Arkadelphia, Pine Bluff, Harrison (HA HA!), all of these need big power DC chargers.
And Tesla needs to make a damn CCS adapter.
snellenr
Member
Yup - it used to be that anyone who was selling electric power (including chargers) was regulated as a public utility. Tesla didn't want to have to deal with the side-effects of that (probably for good reason). The law was amended in early 2017 to remove EV chargers from that requirement - no idea why it's been so slow to expand since then.
Link to that part of the discussion in the Little Rock thread: Supercharger - Little Rock, AR
In states where they are not allowed to operate selling by the kWh they just charge by the minute instead. Tennessee is such a state.
Unless Tesla have specifically stated why they have not built more locations in Arkansas, I think it's because there are so few Tesla in Arkansas, and so few Teslas needing to drive through Arkansas. It's just raw math.
If the 'public utility' thing was actually the issue, there would already be a bunch more built. The one in Little Rock opened more than 3 years ago and they've only built two more since then.
Furthermore, they've only got four more planned for the state and they're apparently in no hurry on any of it because there's no evidence of permits either.
There just isn't enough demand in Arkansas.
Unless Tesla have specifically stated why they have not built more locations in Arkansas, I think it's because there are so few Tesla in Arkansas, and so few Teslas needing to drive through Arkansas. It's just raw math.
If the 'public utility' thing was actually the issue, there would already be a bunch more built. The one in Little Rock opened more than 3 years ago and they've only built two more since then.
Furthermore, they've only got four more planned for the state and they're apparently in no hurry on any of it because there's no evidence of permits either.
There just isn't enough demand in Arkansas.
Attachments
I should have quoted redbrick's comment when I replied. They said, "gah, if I had to detour 5 miles...and wait more than 10-15min at a station....the tesla would stay at home....not even a question." which would dramatically limit the number of useful Supercharger locations.
Sorry for the confusion.
Have you made any decisions on how to make the route? There are quite a few hotels along the way that do destination charging, either Tesla or J1772. For me PlugShare has been a pretty good resource for that. We've stayed at probably 10 different hotels with EV charging so far and only owned the car four months.
My Model S stays at home most of the time for just that reason. It’s last Supercharging road trip was May 2019. I have free lifetime Supercharging.
Detour off I-65 for Bowling Green and Louisville add a lot of time to a long day. 500 miles in the ICE is 540 in the Tesla. Then to add insult to injury Tesla has cut my Supercharge charging rate approximately in half. Hour and 20 minutes in Bowling Green to make Huntsville. The new SC in Nashville was not yet open and it wouldn’t show Brentwood as an option. What was once 3 stops of 30 minutes (going north starting with a fuller charge from home) is now a sum total of 3 hours.
While Birmingham’s SC is practically under the interstate access is proof why government should not be in charge of anything important. Lived in Birmingham in the 1970s. Never has there not been road construction around the civic center. They block roads, change direction, perpetually. And then puts the SC in a paid parking lot?
On a bright note my amazing F-150 got an honest 25 Miles divided by gallons with calculator. Just over 1000 miles. 40 wonderful gallons of gasoline burned because a Tesla was inadequate. Twice since May 2019.
I don't know what is the issue ... But I was told by a very well informed person over a year ago that the Forrest City Supercharger was imminent, that the parts were actually in the vicinity awaiting permits. And then it wasn't built. Clear deduction is that they couldn't get the permit.
Dont think it is a demand thing. After all this is for people doing cross country driving. For some reason they put 3 SC in the north west corner of the state all within 80 miles of each other My sister in Little Rock and my niece in Dallas are both very interested in Tesla's, but since nearly all family are in Illinois/Chicago it is a huge hassle to go from Little Rock to Sikeston, MO. An hour of driving out of the way and then charging enough to reclaim the mileage and then enough to get to Sikeston. Just seems like such a huge hole.
Came here to say the same thing, but I thought it was still showing Forrest City. If they took the time to move the location it would seem possible that they are really about to make it happen. For people traveling I40, in the right conditions, this might allow travelers to skip Little Rock as it is about 30 minutes out of the way.
Ozark to Brinkley is about 185 miles so that would be better than Forrest City. But don't bank on this map being accurate in any regard - time or location. It's been notoriously inaccurate the past six years.
Sorry, just seeing this. I am also dumb-founded. As someone new to Tesla (ordered Feb 2020) I made the decision to buy based on the Tesla website saying Blytheville was coming 2020. We live a few states away and have family near there. Without it, I have to charge enough in Memphis to get there and back to Memphis. Not to mention the Memphis SC Is way out of my way. Had I known the website wasn’t accurate, I wouldn’t have bought. In my mind that is a deceptive practice although I know I will get pounced on by the Tesla faithful. So we don’t take the Tesla. If it’s just “raw math”, maybe it’s wrong. Maybe people don’t drive through there because there is no Supercharger. Not because it’s not needed.
Anyone who jumps your case over this simply isn't paying attention or is new to the game and hasn't experienced "the whole truth". Tesla has been making claims about Supercharger locations and opening dates since the beginning. They're not all wrong, but they're pretty far from all right. I'm pretty happy with the locations that are available and what's promised, but there's an average several months to several years delay in deployment. I didn't buy a Tesla until there were multiple Supercharger locations in the state - specifically enough to get me OUT of the state
But to answer the "raw math" issue, even if there are a couple dozen people trying to drive through Blytheville in a month, it doesn't warrant a quarter million dollar build of a Supercharger location when Tesla are operating with finite money and there are places where a couple dozen people are trying to drive through an underserved area in a single day.
That said! If you're going to a family member's house in Arkansas theoretically you should be able to plug in there, right? Even at 120v 15A (closer to 1.5kW) you'd be able to put around 80 miles of range back in the car in a day. There's also all the crazy options for combining two different legs of 15A, or using a 30A or 50A drier outlet, or whatever, to get a quicker charge.
Also, if you're coming in from the east on I-40 you might be able to juice up at Jackson and skip Memphis altogether. It's a little further gap, but if you're charging at your destination it could end up saving you quite a bit of driving.
Anyone who jumps your case over this simply isn't paying attention or is new to the game and hasn't experienced "the whole truth". Tesla has been making claims about Supercharger locations and opening dates since the beginning. They're not all wrong, but they're pretty far from all right. I'm pretty happy with the locations that are available and what's promised, but there's an average several months to several years delay in deployment. I didn't buy a Tesla until there were multiple Supercharger locations in the state - specifically enough to get me OUT of the state
But to answer the "raw math" issue, even if there are a couple dozen people trying to drive through Blytheville in a month, it doesn't warrant a quarter million dollar build of a Supercharger location when Tesla are operating with finite money and there are places where a couple dozen people are trying to drive through an underserved area in a single day.
That said! If you're going to a family member's house in Arkansas theoretically you should be able to plug in there, right? Even at 120v 15A (closer to 1.5kW) you'd be able to put around 80 miles of range back in the car in a day. There's also all the crazy options for combining two different legs of 15A, or using a 30A or 50A drier outlet, or whatever, to get a quicker charge.
Also, if you're coming in from the east on I-40 you might be able to juice up at Jackson and skip Memphis altogether. It's a little further gap, but if you're charging at your destination it could end up saving you quite a bit of driving.
Still pretty difficult if you are coming from say Chicago, St. Louis, etc. Sikeston to Brinkley is 219 miles. So you need to charge in to 100% in many Tesla's. With our 2015 85D I dont think i would risk it and would need to divert to Memphis that is like a 25 mile diversion each way. So there is the extra time in Sikeston, extra time driving to Memphis. Charging in Memphis, and remember 50 miles of range is simply needed for the diversion so the charging time is longer and then extra time driving back to I40/I55. Having a SC in Blythesville makes the Sikeston charge short, the Blythesville charge short and then short charge in Brinkley. Figure 15 minutes each location. That is shorter then the drive to Memphis and back.
Missile Toad
MSLR Wht/Blk/19 | OD 6/10/21 | RN11512
I've made many trips from Houston to Chicago. I don't think I've ever had to use Memphis. Mostly I travel from Little Rock SuC and get a 50-60 minute charge in Pocahontas, AR or Jonesboro, AR, where there are some destination chargers. That went fine, until one 50ºF night, I drove my S70D up from the Jonesboro WC to Sikeston SuC, and the car shut-down while on the off-ramp next to Sikeston.
Lucky for me, a Good Samaritan and a police officer helped me push the car about 300 yards to successfully charge. Good times
I don't often shut down. But. When I do. I make sure the police push my car to a charger.
Lucky for me, a Good Samaritan and a police officer helped me push the car about 300 yards to successfully charge. Good times
I don't often shut down. But. When I do. I make sure the police push my car to a charger.
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