I-40 through Arkansas?

[BridgeMojo]

My wife and I are traveling from California to Memphis this March, and the current routing sends us off I-40 down to Dallas to pick up superchargers.

Right now Little Rock is the only stop between Oklahoma City and Memphis on I-40, but there are planned deployments in Henryetta, Fort Smith, Clarksville, and Forrest City.

Anyone here have any knowledge of the progress of those stops?

Is it worth using a Chargepoint instead? (Not sure where I'll find that yet.)

 

[kavyboy]

That's one of the larger supercharger deserts for a heavily trafficked area. It took ages to even get the Little Rock supercharger, so I wouldn't expect anything new in March this year, or probably even 2020. We'll see.
Check out plugshare.com for other charging options.

 

[mociaf9]

My wife and I are traveling from California to Memphis this March, and the current routing sends us off I-40 down to Dallas to pick up superchargers.

Right now Little Rock is the only stop between Oklahoma City and Memphis on I-40, but there are planned deployments in Henryetta, Fort Smith, Clarksville, and Forrest City.

Anyone here have any knowledge of the progress of those stops?

Is it worth using a Chargepoint instead? (Not sure where I'll find that yet.)

Don't count on any superchargers being ready along that route for your given timeline. If you're wanting to keep to I-40 without detouring, your best bet is to plan your trip such that you have an overnight somewhere in the supercharger gap between Oklahoma City and Little Rock. And then also pick lodgings that have charging available. As kavyboy said, your best friend for this will be Plugshare.com, just be sure to adjust the filters to show the charging options that will work for your car. Which model/range Tesla are you driving? Depending on the timing and your driveable range, it might be worth it to slightly detour north to the superchargers outside of Tulsa, OK, then swing back down to I-40. That could let you reach an overnight a bit further east if you don't find anything reachable directly from OKC or what you do find isn't enough to get all the way to Little Rock. Be sure to call and check with any location to ensure that the chargers are still in working order and any status changes on pricing, use, availability, reservation requirements, etc.

EDIT: It looks like there's a Super 8 motel in Russelville, AR which has some Tesla HPWC (free for guests, $10 otherwise). That's about 215 miles driving from the Tulsa (Catoosa) superchargers. Another option looks like an RV park near Ft. Smith (Overland RV Park) that is within easy walking distance of hotel/motels and restaurants

 

[BridgeMojo]

Great suggestions, thank you! I'll have fun planning that day of travel when it arrives.

 

[Rocky_H]

If you're wanting to keep to I-40 without detouring, your best bet is to plan your trip such that you have an overnight somewhere in the supercharger gap between Oklahoma City and Little Rock. And then also pick lodgings that have charging available. As kavyboy said, your best friend for this will be Plugshare.com, just be sure to adjust the filters to show the charging options that will work for your car.

That's probably the easiest thing. If a gap like this is in the middle of a single day drive, then it is a pain to figure out what to do about it, but on this, since you're going to have a few overnights anyway, it's pretty easy to just set an overnight in the middle of that gap, and then plan backward from that stop a little to figure out that day's drive that will lead up to that point.

 

[BridgeMojo]

BTW I'm traveling in a Model S 100D, with very little range anxiety.

 

[thx1139]

It is even worse if coming from the north (Chicago) to Little Rock. We have to drive about 25 miles out of the way to get to the Memphis SC then charge up (needing 50 miles extra simply because of the route) then head back 25 miles to get back to west side of Memphis. Someday a SC will be in Forest City or Blytheville so we can skip Memphis.

 

[Rocky_H]

It seems this is one of the Big Three Supercharger gaps left in the U.S.:
North Dakota
I-40
The Bermuda Triangle at the intersection of Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

It seems this is one of the Big Three Supercharger gaps left in the U.S.:
North Dakota
I-40
The Bermuda Triangle at the intersection of Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada

The biggest problem for I-40 is lack of a Supercharger station near Ft. Smith, AK. Just that one addition would open up the whole I-40 corridor, even though Tesla have 4 future stations penciled-in for that general area.

Don't forget the need for Clayton, NM and Lubbock, TX.

 

[TennisRat]

Had my 100D serviced at my home yesterday (excellent service and tech). The Tesla tech will soon cover all of Arkansas and he is also concerned about I-40 West charging (new service vehicle, X), but has no info about when chargers will be built. These Arkansas locations have been on future map for years - my major disappointment with Tesla. BridgeMojo, the Southern route from Cal via Texas has lots of charging availabilities.

 

[BridgeMojo]

Got that TennisRat! I've had fun trying out different trip planning apps and playing with routes and stops.

My draft of the trip at the moment goes:

• Los Angeles - Flagstaff 453 miles
• Flagstaff - Albuquerque 323 miles
• Albuquerque - Denton, TX 611 miles
• Denton - Memphis 497 miles

We might break up the long day into two parts for more time to enjoy the spring drive, but it also might be the best stretch to do little but cruise, enjoy the tunes and reading.

The overnight stops all have good interesting overnights with destination chargers.

Jane and I are spending a week at the North American Bridge Championships in Memphis, then meandering home via New Orleans and I-10. It'll be a fun road trip: I grew up in Memphis, and she lived for a while in Denton and New Orleans.

 

[PLUS EV]

It is even worse if coming from the north (Chicago) to Little Rock. We have to drive about 25 miles out of the way to get to the Memphis SC then charge up (needing 50 miles extra simply because of the route) then head back 25 miles to get back to west side of Memphis. Someday a SC will be in Forest City or Blytheville so we can skip Memphis.

That is inconvenient, but it is in no way worse than trying to drive from OKC to Little Rock.

 

[PLUS EV]

Got that TennisRat! I've had fun trying out different trip planning apps and playing with routes and stops.

My draft of the trip at the moment goes:

• Los Angeles - Flagstaff 453 miles
• Flagstaff - Albuquerque 323 miles
• Albuquerque - Denton, TX 611 miles
• Denton - Memphis 497 miles

We might break up the long day into two parts for more time to enjoy the spring drive, but it also might be the best stretch to do little but cruise, enjoy the tunes and reading.

The overnight stops all have good interesting overnights with destination chargers.

Jane and I are spending a week at the North American Bridge Championships in Memphis, then meandering home via New Orleans and I-10. It'll be a fun road trip: I grew up in Memphis, and she lived for a while in Denton and New Orleans.

Well if you are going through Denton, you have nothing to worry about. Denton to Memphis is an easy drive with superchargers covering the whole route.

 

[BridgeMojo]

@thx1139 I see your point about the Memphis supercharger -- it's about as far out of the way as it could be. It's right across from my old high school MUS almost in Germantown. (That'll be a fun visit in March.)

West Memphis wouldn't be an awful location, if you can keep it from flooding.

 

[K3Man]

Well if you are going through Denton, you have nothing to worry about. Denton to Memphis is an easy drive with superchargers covering the whole route.

That's the route we're planning on taking this Spring. The "plan" for that segment of the trip will be:

• Albuquerque to
• Amarillo to
• Denton to
• Little Rock to
  
• Memphis

 

[Sethsla]

Little Rock to Oklahoma City via Tulsa: I recently returned westbound from an 8,000 mile cross country trip in my 2013 85S. My return featured part of this run so I thank you for the prior discussion and guidance.

Regarding this leg: I started the day in Memphis, charged in Little Rock, charged again at the Super 8 in Russelville, AR for about 1+1/4 hours (they charge $10 for their 60 Amp destination charger use) and made it safely to Tulsa for the night. Thus I was able to maximize the Route 66/ I-40 leg which I greatly prefer to the southern route back home to southern Cal. I love to detour to see the kitsch that is Route 66. For instance, check this iconic art deco former Conoco service station in Shamrock, TX. Guess what? It's now a Tesla charging station around back HTH

 

[DurandalAI]

Tesla really needs to get the Clarksville, AR location open TODAY, since yesterday isn't an option. Grrr.

 

[Ryefry]

It's crazy that New Mexico has 9 Superchargers at 2 million people vs. 1 Supercharger in Arkansas with 3 million people. Ft. Smith needs to get built ASAP!

 

[PLUS EV]

It's crazy that New Mexico has 9 Superchargers at 2 million people vs. 1 Supercharger in Arkansas with 3 million people. Ft. Smith needs to get built ASAP!

NM is a lot bigger than AR.

 

[mociaf9]

It's crazy that New Mexico has 9 Superchargers at 2 million people vs. 1 Supercharger in Arkansas with 3 million people. Ft. Smith needs to get built ASAP!

NM is a lot bigger than AR.

Besides just square miles,

1. In EVs sold per 1000 people, NM is almost exactly 3x more than AR (using 2017 numbers, source). 0.85 vs. 0.28. So pure population comparison isn't that helpful. NM already has twice as many EVs in total numbers even though they have 1/3 fewer people. Keeping other things the same, if NM had the same population as AR, they'd have almost 4x as many EVs.
   
2. More importantly, NM is also right in between Colorado and Arizona, which are in the top 10 for both US states with the highest EV market share (% EV of total car market) and in terms of absolute numbers of EVs sold per year. And the main routes between SoCal and TX pass through NM. So just thinking about the size of EV populations that would be wanting to travel in and through the two states, you can see that AR is at a severe disadvantage.