Supercharger - Birmingham, AL

[WMAC]

If you are going north or south on I65 between Mobile and Nashville, you have a 307 mile stretch without a supercharger. Needing to detour through Atlanta adds approximately 150 miles to that trip. What is needed for I65 travel is a supercharger somewhere near Cullman, Alabama.

There's a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Cullman about 125 miles from the Brentwood SC. That would make sense for N/S on 65 since they signed an agreement to put SCs at their locations.

There's another in Anniston for E/W to ATL. They could put one at the Rover Chase RT as well.

 

[ldgrmnmc]

In the south, it looks like superchargers on I-10 seem to be placed about 100-140 miles apart. With that distance, coming north from the Greenville, Alabama supercharger, that would put you right into downtown Birmingham.

 

[N4HHE]

Does Nissan own the charger or pay for the electricity?

They get some sort of incentive but not enough to cover costs.

 

[N4HHE]

Cullman would would be a "minimum effort just good enough to get by, today" solution. Birmingham is a must for 4 directions. I need Birmingham to reach both Greenville and Meridian Superchargers. Cullman is marginal to either and leaves those coming from Atlanta out. Nashville-Birmingham is about the same 180 miles others claim is acceptable from Cullman to Greenville or Meridian.

Huntsville-Decatur would be the next step to cut the 180 miles just as Bowling Green KY did for the path between Nashville and Louisville.

 

[JediNinjaLady]

I took a test drive in Brentwood a couple of weeks ago. I was assured there will be a SC in Decatur "soon." I would like to see one at the rest area north of B'ham, south of 565.

 

[pnungesser]

The only thing going for Decatur would be those headed east/west on I-565 and AL-20.


Unless you like BBQ!

 

[WayneMa]

A little bird told me that Birmingham Tesla Supercharger will be installed within a few months.

 

[doubleohwhat]

Did the little bird mention any other Alabama locations?

 

[CSFTN]

In continuation of my habit of WAGging the future Birmingham location, how about: Google Maps

That'd I-65 about 5 miles north of Birmingham, looks like a safe neighborhood, with the requisite Panera, Zaxby's, several other food spots, grocery store, Wal-Mart etc and a nice parking strip away from any stores just happens to be

 

[N4HHE]

A little bird told me that Birmingham Tesla Supercharger will be installed within a few months.

We've heard that before.

 

[emupilot]

I've been searching permits here. I searched by entering case number ELE2016-020, -021, -022 etc. through the most recent -037. Each search brings up a list of 100 electrical permits and then I search for charg and tesla within the sets of results. I haven't found anything going back to an permit application date of May 22nd or so, but there might be a better way to search. Maybe the permit hasn't been applied for or it will be in a neighboring city.

 

[theslimshadyist]

A little bird told me that Birmingham Tesla Supercharger will be installed within a few months.

Source? They still don't have a permit yet so I find this to be a stretch.

 

[doubleohwhat]

I have a feeling that even if they have the site chosen, they won't actually start getting permits and prepping for construction until after the end of September. They really seem keen on having good numbers for Q3.

 

[ChrisC]

Someone relayed the following Tesla reply to an Atlanta owners' group:

"Thank you for your email. There are a number of scenarios that can affect the timeline for a new site, so we cannot make guarantees about opening dates, but we are working hard to open as many sites as quickly as we can. We are happy to share that we have chosen a location near downtown Birmingham and we are approaching the construction phase of the project. We understand the need for more Superchargers and we are excited to announce new sites on our website. We appreciate your patience, enthusiasm and support in Tesla and our Supercharger technology."

Gentlemen, start your permit search engines.

 

[theslimshadyist]

Finally, great news!

 

[ElectricTundra]

'near downtown Birmingham'... That's good but personally I need to be able to get to Birmingham (from Nashville). I've got numerous good charging options once there.

 

[doubleohwhat]

Yep, a Birmingham supercharger will be nice but one between Birmingham and Nashville would have been much better

 

[DiamondDave]

This is great news! Travelling to Tuscaloosa from the NE was quite a challenge. We had to range charge at the Chattanooga airport (not much to do there), then I had to drive 5 mph under the speed limit across Alabama. We arrived in Tuscaloosa with 28 RM. Going back home was a similar challenge.

Once there, a supercharger in Birmingham would have made life MUCH easier. Charging infrastructure is very sparse in northern AL and I ended up spending hours at the RV Park several nights. If not for those nice people it would have been even more hours at a charger at the U of AL parking deck. Even spending all day at the McWane Science Center only gave me enough juice to offset the trip - no net gain.

One 45-minute supercharging session on the way to Tuscaloosa would have mitigated all of that!

I know a Chademo adapter would have helped but I couldn't bring myself to spend $500+ on something that I would hopefully only use on one trip.

 

[N4HHE]

I back ordered the chademo for about a year before it shipped. Makes round trip from Huntsville to Birmingham worry free thanks to Benton Nissan in Hoover. Lynn Layton in Decatur could do same for Nashville-Birmingham.

 

[doubleohwhat]

Has anyone come across a location or a permit yet? I'm very curious where the "near downtown" location is going to be.