Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

How can we get a Supercharger in Palatka, FL (Putnam County)?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Hey everyone!

I want to know how we go about requesting a supercharger station in Putnam County, specifically, Palatka, FL. It's a little more than half way between Gainesville, FL and St. Augustine, and for me, it would be SUCH a wonderful thing to have.

I have a 2014 Model S 60 with 165 miles of range at 90%. I live near Gainesville, FL, and when I travel to visit my mother-in-law in Crescent City, FL (16 miles south of Palatka - the county seat), if I don't charge up completely before I leave home, the 80 mile trip will make a quick turn around challenging. I currently charge at her place using a NEMA 14-30 connector. However, at 15 miles of charge per hour, I have to stay connected for almost 5 hours to comfortably make it home. Not that visiting with my mother-in-law for 5 hours is a bad thing, but when my wife wants to do a quick turn around (to head back home for a dinner date with friends, this actually happened), the range anxiety on the way home is crushing.

I only had 8 miles of range when I got back to the Gainesville supercharger. I charged for 15 minutes and was able to make it to our dinner date (albeit about 45 minutes late).

So, if any of you know to whom I can write a letter to inquire how we could get maybe an 8 stall supercharger in Palatka, that would be amazing!

Thanks so much!

- James
 
Palatka would be a great spot for a supercharger, it's a crossroads in the middle of the state. Good luck with your quest. I have a house on the St Johns in San Mateo, just south of Palatka.

Have you considered charging in Ocala? It would add about a half hour to your trip but would give you the range you need. You may only need to make that detour on the way to Crescent City and be able to get back to Gville ok. Drive to Ocala, charge up, then it's about 130 miles from Ocala to Crescent City to Gainesville. I'd wait until the new charger is finished on W Silver Springs Blvd, closer to the interstate and 250kW rather than the existing one on FL 200 which has no amenities and 150kW, but either would work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAlbury825
Hopefully someone will build a Wawa (with Tesla Superchargers) in Palatka (Putnam County) and possibly one in Starke (Bradford County). Those would close up the EV desert in that part of Florida.

 
  • Like
Reactions: X Fan
Hopefully someone will build a Wawa (with Tesla Superchargers) in Palatka (Putnam County) and possibly one in Starke (Bradford County). Those would close up the EV desert in that part of Florida.

Hi there. I am new to this forum and found your post. I just picked up my MY last weekend. I live just south of Starke,FL and so I agree with your post that a supercharger in Starke would be great. Not gonna happen, though…..

Anyway, I have seen a few of your posts and they have been informative. Thank you for that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAlbury825
Hi there. I am new to this forum and found your post. I just picked up my MY last weekend. I live just south of Starke,FL and so I agree with your post that a supercharger in Starke would be great. Not gonna happen, though…..

Anyway, I have seen a few of your posts and they have been informative. Thank you for that.
Thank you for the compliment! I do what I can to help the Tesla Family.

Regarding rapid DC charging in Starke, don't be discouraged. 🙏 Perhaps the EV climate could change in Bradford County... one day. 😁 We're about to get a 24 station Supercharger in Gainesville (at Oaks Mall Plaza) and the 7 station Supercharger (at the Burger King on exit 390, I-75) is built and ready to go, we just need our 3rd transformer for them to make it active. I hope they do that soon. I'm tired of going to Butler Plaza. Too slow, often broken, always crowded, and that horrible Archer Road traffic. Yuck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: M3-Florida
Help might be on the way. Tesla is changing their Superchargers to be compatible with other brands of EVs (see Magic connector). Has qualified for $Billions of federal dollars to provide more enroute charging. Will result in thousand more Superchargers blanketing our Country. Latest Superchargers will have capacity to charge even faster, making stops quicker and also increasing capacity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAlbury825
Help might be on the way. Tesla is changing their Superchargers to be compatible with other brands of EVs (see Magic connector). Has qualified for $Billions of federal dollars to provide more enroute charging. Will result in thousand more Superchargers blanketing our Country. Latest Superchargers will have capacity to charge even faster, making stops quicker and also increasing capacity.
Amen! I heard that the FDOT had a master plan for that.

I also saw a State of Charge YouTube review recently of the new "Magic Dock". It basically switches from Tesla to CCS connector based on the app used.


If you're a 'Teslan', it just disconnects with our usual male charging interface. If you're a Ford, Kia, Rivian, Lucid, etc. once you connect via your app and 'unlock' the connector, it locks the Tesla connector to the CCS connector and when you remove it, the CCS connector is the male end of the cable that appears when it's removed from the Supercharger. It's quite ingenious. That way, our non-Tesla brothers/sisters don't have to buy a Tesla to CCS adapter. :) Retrofitting previous generation 250 kw Supercharger stations will be MUCH easier. Tesla simply has to swap out the old Tesla cable holder with the 'Magic Dock', install longer cables and update the firmware. Brilliant strategy, in my opinion.

In order to keep up with the eventual demand, Tesla will have to invest in their Supercharger network all over the country. This is a great move for Tesla, because they have the infrastructure in place. ChargePoint and the other Rapid DC Charging companies are still many years behind Tesla. So since Tesla's mission is to accelerate EV adoption, this is the next logical step. The challenge next will be to 1. educate the masses of non-Teslans on how our Superchargers work (which shouldn't be too tough), and 2. Tesla will need to make sure that they build more supercharger stations (to cope with our demand, and the added demand of non-Teslans). The good thing is that all new EVs can charge quickly (like the Model 3s and Model Ys.) 10-15 minutes at a supercharger and you're done. It's us 'early adopters' who have to wait 35-45 minutes (2014 Model S 60). In 5-10 years though, supercharger stations will be as ubiquitous as interstate truck stops and rest areas. I think California is a great example of our EV future here in Florida.
 
Last edited:
Hi there. I am new to this forum and found your post. I just picked up my MY last weekend. I live just south of Starke,FL and so I agree with your post that a supercharger in Starke would be great. Not gonna happen, though…..

Anyway, I have seen a few of your posts and they have been informative. Thank you for that.
Welcome to the Tesla family and forum. I'm in Middleburg and went to school at Bradford High. Still pass thru there and have family in Lawtey. Congrats on your new MY!
 
Hey everyone!

I want to know how we go about requesting a supercharger station in Putnam County, specifically, Palatka, FL. It's a little more than half way between Gainesville, FL and St. Augustine, and for me, it would be SUCH a wonderful thing to have.

I have a 2014 Model S 60 with 165 miles of range at 90%. I live near Gainesville, FL, and when I travel to visit my mother-in-law in Crescent City, FL (16 miles south of Palatka - the county seat), if I don't charge up completely before I leave home, the 80 mile trip will make a quick turn around challenging. I currently charge at her place using a NEMA 14-30 connector. However, at 15 miles of charge per hour, I have to stay connected for almost 5 hours to comfortably make it home. Not that visiting with my mother-in-law for 5 hours is a bad thing, but when my wife wants to do a quick turn around (to head back home for a dinner date with friends, this actually happened), the range anxiety on the way home is crushing.

I only had 8 miles of range when I got back to the Gainesville supercharger. I charged for 15 minutes and was able to make it to our dinner date (albeit about 45 minutes late).

So, if any of you know to whom I can write a letter to inquire how we could get maybe an 8 stall supercharger in Palatka, that would be amazing!

Thanks so much!

- James
Hi James,

I understand the range anxiety and I know US17 and US301 get traveled heavily, but I gather that Tesla wants to build out more on Interstates and areas with high density Tesla owners before getting into the smaller towns. I just don't think we are quite there yet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAlbury825
I think your best hope is if Wawa were to expand into that area.
WaWa has cleared land for construction in Palatka FL at the corner of SR19 & SR100/Reid St.

Google Maps shows the WaWa location:
3743 Reid St, Palatka, FL 32177

Maybe if enough people call WaWa Corporate office asking if Tesla Superchargers are planned ….
I see a good number of Teslas traveling SR19 & SR100 daily so that location would be used.

Do not forget the new largest Buccee’s exit planned and backed by the Governor on I75 south of SR326 with 28 Tesla Superchargers scheduled to finish 2025.
 
WaWa has cleared land for construction in Palatka FL at the corner of SR19 & SR100/Reid St.

Google Maps shows the WaWa location:
3743 Reid St, Palatka, FL 32177

Maybe if enough people call WaWa Corporate office asking if Tesla Superchargers are planned ….
I see a good number of Teslas traveling SR19 & SR100 daily so that location would be used.

Do not forget the new largest Buccee’s exit planned and backed by the Governor on I75 south of SR326 with 28 Tesla Superchargers scheduled to finish 2025.
This morning the City of Palatka, FL returned my call with answers about if Tesla Superchargers were in the plans for the new Wawa under construction in Palatka. They said the Superchargers were not listed on the plans or paperwork.
 
Hey everyone!

I want to know how we go about requesting a supercharger station in Putnam County, specifically, Palatka, FL. It's a little more than half way between Gainesville, FL and St. Augustine, and for me, it would be SUCH a wonderful thing to have.

I have a 2014 Model S 60 with 165 miles of range at 90%. I live near Gainesville, FL, and when I travel to visit my mother-in-law in Crescent City, FL (16 miles south of Palatka - the county seat), if I don't charge up completely before I leave home, the 80 mile trip will make a quick turn around challenging. I currently charge at her place using a NEMA 14-30 connector. However, at 15 miles of charge per hour, I have to stay connected for almost 5 hours to comfortably make it home. Not that visiting with my mother-in-law for 5 hours is a bad thing, but when my wife wants to do a quick turn around (to head back home for a dinner date with friends, this actually happened), the range anxiety on the way home is crushing.

I only had 8 miles of range when I got back to the Gainesville supercharger. I charged for 15 minutes and was able to make it to our dinner date (albeit about 45 minutes late).

So, if any of you know to whom I can write a letter to inquire how we could get maybe an 8 stall supercharger in Palatka, that would be amazing!

Thanks so much!

- James
Hi James, go to the Tesla.com site, log in and look up supercharging voting. There is a section for suggesting a location and you can also vote for some that are currently listed. You get 5 votes quarterly.