How about those members near Knoxville do some sleuthing. The Chattanooga SC is about 200 miles from London KY and Knoxville splits that in half. The Knoxville location has been shown as "coming soon" for some time. Construction at Cincinnatti SC has begun. The missing link is Knoxville. No pun intended, see my screen name. Anyway from my old days in K-Town I am betting on a location between Papermill Road to the Lenoir City split because this handles both I-40 and I-75 both ways. Realistically it probably will be past West Town Mall because of space and traffic so my bet is Kingston Pike area between Lovell Rd and East. Ideas anyone? Permits? Drive by?
eventually I agree with you but Tesla is clearly building the I-75 corridor and not I-40 or I-81 at this time. Bad news for those of us wishing for I-65 but the way through KY is on I-75 at present.
how did you find it? Cool, I can drive over tommorow and grab photos if there is anything happening. Looks like it's at the Starbucks in the busiest part of the Turkey Creek subdivision. The downside is that is within sight of the Walmart. The upside for restaurants without crossing dangerous traffic is: Brixx Pizza Five Guys Burgers & Frys Chik-Fil-A McAlister's Deli You take your life into your own hands if you try to cross Parkside DR on foot to get to Connor's Steak House Olive Garden Salsaritas JimmyJohns Texas Roadhouse Within 2 mins drive there are a dozens of quality restaurants Within 5 mins drive there are hundreds of restaurants It's a pretty high density area for businesses with I-40/I-75 traffic + Kingston pike (which runs parallel to I-40 at that point).
Best SC site out there Superchargers I assumed you found it but it links to this thread. You and I were both on target congratulations.
I was hoping it would be a bit farther east, maybe closer to West Town Mall, but that's for selfish reasons as my in-laws are up in Jacksboro and anything is a detour. Great news and once Asheville is done will give me a supercharged path. I've done it twice and I'm tired of overnighting in Asheville.
OK, I found it. Looks like 8 stalls maybe? Icing shouldn't be much of an issue since it isn't in any one company's parking lot. It's basically shared overflow parking for 20 different businesses and its in the middle of hundreds of parking spaces. Google Maps There were more charging cabinets in one of the storage containers but I didn't want to disturb the workers. They were active, moving around constantly, didn't stay in one place long so I just let them work.
Thanks dhanson. Great pics. I know you will not be able to stay away so if you get to talk to the workers see if they know where they go next. I suspect either the Greenville SC or Asheville NC because both are gaps to fill. But I selfishly hope we get a SC in the Nashville area.
You know there is one planned for Nashville already right? Looks like one in Nashville in mid 2015 and a second Nashville location added in late 2015. Then the Memphis and on the way to Memphis superchargers in 2016.
Thanks for the pictures! This looks like it will be an 8-Stall site. The transformer picture is useful because it gives hints of where the new transformer for the Supercharger Site will go. That transformer is 25 kVA and single phase. The new transformer for the Supercharger Site will probably be 750 kVA or so and 3-phase. This is an important link to help complete the I-75 route from the Midwest to Florida!
For those that like scenic curvy drives - from the Knoxville supercharger head south through the Tail of the Dragon (TN 129) 58 miles away. Then head west through the Cherohala Skyway (NC 143, TN 165) ending at Tellico Plains for a 126 mile total trip. From there, you can head back to Knoxville for a total of 181 miles or onto Chattanooga for a total of 192 miles. There is also a HPWC at the end of the Tail of the Dragon (see plugshare, at Deals Gap) for a little energy boost to ensure a spirited drive. Restrooms, gift shop, food truck and a restaurant are next to the HPWC. Use search engines to find a bunch of information about this well known motorcycle and sports car drive.
Just to be clear the transformer pictured was diagonally across the intersection from the storage containers. I took the picture because the ground was disturbed. I'm thinking the transformer will be placed at the other end of the parking spaces where a divider juts out into the spaces in this pic they took out a plant that you can see in another pic sitting in an orange home depot bucket. I'm guessing that they'll put the new transformer on the dirty protrusion or eat a space or two and build the fence into the corner of that protrusion to add the transformer there. There isn't a transformer anywhere in the section of parking spaces they are going to use. The next nearest transformer also across the street to another lot is where ever they put it either there is already a channel under the road or they are going to have to cut through the road to pull cable to the new transformer location. There is nothing and I mean nothing heavy electrical in place in that part of the parking lot.
That transformer (150kVA) isn't even large enough for a four stall supercharger setup. They'll need a larger one installed elsewhere. For 4 cabinets/8 stalls it takes at least 500kVA IIRC.
Because the efficiency of the Tesla Chargers is about 90% for the AC to DC conversion, and the max DC output of a Supercharger Cabinet is 135 kW, the max AC input of a Supercharger Cabinet is 150 kW. 4 Supercharger Cabinets at maximum (8 cars drinking heartily!), need a maximum of 600 kW of AC in. Because the power factor of a Tesla Charger is very close to 1, that means a max draw of 600 kVA. The way most utilities rate and install transformers, 500 kVA could probably work for a 4 Supercharger Cabinet site, but every 4-cabinet site that I have seen, has had a 750 kVA or larger transformer.
Totally understand that. The 150kVA unit supplies power to an O'Charleys, the Starbucks has a 75 kVA unit. I already had the pics on the phone and wanted to make it clear how much pavement / traffic was between the existing infrastructure and the open parking spaces. I know they'll have to install new equipment. I don't know where they are going to pull the power from since the spaces are in the middle of a multifootball field size parking lot. OK, found the old version of Google maps so I could mark it up a little. So given the Supercharger location is going to be inside that large red rectangle and there are no power lines around that I see. What are they connecting to and where?
Right. For some reason I was thinking about the South Hill, VA site which is only 6-stalls/3 cabinets and has a 500kVA transformer. (My excuse is that I posted at 4AM... lol)