Charging Locations

[wrf2e]

We just completed 2 round trips from Dallas to Nashville last month. Charging went great each time, I just have one suggestion. I love that the chargers are located near shopping and attractions, but that isn't very convenient when driving at night. We ended up having to make extra stops several times for bathroom/coffee breaks. One of the locations was at a Holiday Inn, so we were covered there, but the rest were either at restaurants or shopping areas.

Should Tesla focus on locating chargers near 24 hour facilities, or do you think they should continue choosing locations with daytime attractions?

 

[Uncle Paul]

Tesla uses Superchargers for travelers. Destination chargers are used for people spending the night.

 

[wrf2e]

Tesla uses Superchargers for travelers. Destination chargers are used for people spending the night.

Yeah, maybe I wasn't clear. We were using superchargers, just traveling through the night, not spending the night. For example, we rolled up to the Little Rock supercharger at midnight, and had a 40 min charging session. It was located in the parking lot of an outlet mall, with nothing open within a safe walking distance. We had to sit there and charge for 40 minutes and then drive to a gas station to use the restroom and get some coffee.

 

[SSedan]

Local real estate dictates a lot. Two closest to me are at a Festival Foods which is a 24hour grocery and a Meijer which is again 24hour groceries and more.

 

[user212_nr]

We just completed 2 round trips from Dallas to Nashville last month. Charging went great each time, I just have one suggestion. I love that the chargers are located near shopping and attractions, but that isn't very convenient when driving at night. We ended up having to make extra stops several times for bathroom/coffee breaks. One of the locations was at a Holiday Inn, so we were covered there, but the rest were either at restaurants or shopping areas.

Should Tesla focus on locating chargers near 24 hour facilities, or do you think they should continue choosing locations with daytime attractions?

Definitely Tesla isn't the one that should be providing the high-speed charging network - just like you don't get gas from GM. So they're going to do the bare-minimum that they need to do to keep the cars selling, and not focus too much on personal comfort.

Go forward 10 years and you will probably see something more like you'd expect.

 

[wrf2e]

Definitely Tesla isn't the one that should be providing the high-speed charging network - just like you don't get gas from GM. So they're going to do the bare-minimum that they need to do to keep the cars selling, and not focus too much on personal comfort.

Go forward 10 years and you will probably see something more like you'd expect.

I agree. Tesla had to setup a charging network to propel mass acceptance, and I do expect 3rd party chargers to crop up and take the baton.

 

[Rocky_H]

Definitely Tesla isn't the one that should be providing the high-speed charging network - just like you don't get gas from GM. So they're going to do the bare-minimum that they need to do to keep the cars selling, and not focus too much on personal comfort.

That's harsh. In a lot of areas, they just have to pick one or the other--24 hour gas station or daytime amenities. It's a bit of choosing which has the larger customer base. There tend to be more people using them during daytime hours, so you satisfy more customers with that kind of site selection. If you choose to be a night traveler, oh well, you have a bit less convenience.

 

[user212_nr]

That's harsh. In a lot of areas, they just have to pick one or the other--24 hour gas station or daytime amenities. It's a bit of choosing which has the larger customer base. There tend to be more people using them during daytime hours, so you satisfy more customers with that kind of site selection. If you choose to be a night traveler, oh well, you have a bit less convenience.

My impression is that the superchargers are placed in locations which satisfy a few qualities:
a) evenly spaced out along highways
b) easy access from highways

These two restrictions narrow greatly the number of locations that are possible supercharger sites. I would assume that electrical capacity and other costs are also big factors, along with who is willing to offer them what deal.

Ironically, by selling electricity approximately at-cost at the supercharger stations, they make it not economical for others to build stations. Will you go to the supercharger station at 17 cents per kWh, or will you go to the for-pay station with a lounge for 30-50 cents per kWh? So I guess in that sense they really need to figure out where they are going with this whole supercharger thing, if they are really planning to keep this going forever subsidized by the car sales.