Major Cities without Superchargers - Outliers

[BTA2222]

For some other examples, the location listed as 42 miles from Dallas is in Denton on I-35, the major north-south highway in the middle if the US, and is appropriatelty spaced with the ones to the north and south of it. No one would go from Dallas to Denton to charge unless they were heading north on I-35 anyway. The one listed for Houston is at the service center near the airport, which is about an hour's drive from where the bulk of Tesla ownership is in Houston (west side). San Antonio does not have a supercharger. Austin does not have a supercharger. BTA2222's logic is all wrong.

Nowhere in my post did it say these should be used by locals. The table posted simply compares facts - mileage from nearest supercharger to each of the largest metro areas (note the header - it doesn't say city). Like any good Texan you're doing a great job talking about your state. But this is just about 2 data points out of 34 being outliers.

 

[BTA2222]

I think most of the time you don't want the Superchargers located in the city center (or the downtown area) because the locations for hosting the superchargers will be extremely limited, since many major cities do not have free parking lots. Best to set them up on the periphery, within 15 miles of the city, preferably where there is food and a restroom so that travelers can rest.

It's my understanding that Tesla needs to negotiate with the owner of the land to put up the SCs, which is why they are commonly in the parking lots of other businesses.

Certainly get that - just drawing attention to how much further SCs are from two pretty major, progressive metro areas versus the 32 other large metro areas in the US.

 

[Chuq]

In case anyone has missed the news, a Minneapolis location has appeared - see Minnesota SuperCharger Future Location Discussion

 

[Ben W]

The lack of a Supercharger Station anywhere near Seattle is a nuisance for me. I want to make a day trip from Portland to visit friends in Kirkland and Issaquah next week and will likely need a couple of hours at a public L2 charge station to keep in my comfort zone for a round trip from/to the Centralia Supercharger Station.

I was surprised to learn from this thread that Seattle and Minneapolis and "special" that way...

FWIW, Tesla's Supercharger map indicates that both Seattle and Minneapolis are scheduled to get Superchargers sometime later this year. Scroll down to the map, and click the "2016" tab: Supercharger | Tesla Motors

 

[Ashkenaz]

I saw a supercharging station being built in Erie, PA.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I saw a supercharging station being built in Erie, PA.

Yes.

Erie, PA Supercharger Updates

Just needs the final testing and enabling.

 

[dgpcolorado]

FWIW, Tesla's Supercharger map indicates that both Seattle and Minneapolis are scheduled to get Superchargers sometime later this year. Scroll down to the map, and click the "2016" tab: Supercharger | Tesla Motors

Yes, I saw that. It should make things a lot easier the next time I make the trip to Kirkland WA.

 

[S'toon]

Still no plans to build superchargers in huge swaths of Canada. You can't travel coast to coast in Canada. Canada seems to be an afterthought to Tesla, treated with scarcely concealed contempt. Strange since Musk has Canadian citizenship via his mother.

 

[mikeash]

Canada has 1/9th the population of the US but covers an even greater distance coast to coast. The US currently has three coast to coast Supercharger routes, so if Canada got the same amount of effort you'd expect to see about one third of a route. Which, eyeballing the map on supercharge.info, is roughly what Canada has right now.

 

[grichard]

Most cities are located at the intersections of multiple interstate highways. So putting SCs near cities makes sense, even if the point of SCs is to facilitate long-distance travel.

 

[scot]

Baltimore and washinton dc's current state is a disgrace. I know some of you will disagree, but while we have a "supercharger" it is single temporary charger in a very tight and confusing parking space and is frequently full due to showroom cars. It also does not charge at full speed, so it is fairly useless if you need to really use a supercharger as a supercharger, vs just a somewhat quick charger. It is in an ideal location though, and the fact it wasn't resolved over a year ago with a REAL full 6+ bay supercharger boggles my mind.

What could/should have been superchargers in tysons is not, and the spaces are all now taken up by the store slow charging vehicles all day. You have to call ahead and see if they mind if you use a charger and they don't offer anything at the tesla service center. It would also be a near ideal location for people traveling through the corridor if montgomery mall just cant work.

Baltimore has nothing at all. Driving up to baltimore then back while visiting clients etc is an exercise in sweating out planning my drive very, very carefully. There are third party chargers, but we have evgo, chargepoint, ge and another one I cant remember so it isn't effective to subscribe to just one, though and I am close to cracking and buying a chademo charger when I thought I should be fine.

This area has a huge number of tesla vehicles.

 

[mikeash]

There's a new location under construction in Laurel, and the Montgomery Mall one will close at the end of June. Still not ideal (270 really should have a proper one) but it's some progress. It'll also help with your Baltimore trips, although at ~140 miles round trip that really doesn't seem like something you'd have to sweat as it is now.

 

[techmaven]

Baltimore and washinton dc's current state is a disgrace. I know some of you will disagree, but while we have a "supercharger" it is single temporary charger in a very tight and confusing parking space and is frequently full due to showroom cars. It also does not charge at full speed, so it is fairly useless if you need to really use a supercharger as a supercharger, vs just a somewhat quick charger. It is in an ideal location though, and the fact it wasn't resolved over a year ago with a REAL full 6+ bay supercharger boggles my mind.

What could/should have been superchargers in tysons is not, and the spaces are all now taken up by the store slow charging vehicles all day. You have to call ahead and see if they mind if you use a charger and they don't offer anything at the tesla service center. It would also be a near ideal location for people traveling through the corridor if montgomery mall just cant work.

Baltimore has nothing at all. Driving up to baltimore then back while visiting clients etc is an exercise in sweating out planning my drive very, very carefully. There are third party chargers, but we have evgo, chargepoint, ge and another one I cant remember so it isn't effective to subscribe to just one, though and I am close to cracking and buying a chademo charger when I thought I should be fine.

This area has a huge number of tesla vehicles.

The Montgomery Mall location isn't supposed to be there and it will be removed soon. For intra-city driving, we shouldn't be using Superchargers at all. We should not have any Superchargers at mall locations within the metro area. Instead, we need a lot of destination chargers... HPWC + J1772.

For DC - Baltimore travel, the Laurel Supercharger is coming online soon. Obviously Woodbridge covers travel south on I-95. I do think they need to add one for I-270, north of Gaithersburg. And something for heading west, maybe in the Centreville area, or Leesburg.

 

[rogbmw]

If you look at the map of the US - there is a huge hole without superchargers right in the middle. Unfortunately for us - that is where all of our family lives, and with frequent trips there, it precluded the purchase of a second Tesla at this time. I have charged at RV parks before.....not much fun, and not very fast.

 

[Zythryn]

If that is your logic, then why would Tesla have put Superchargers in the other 30 largest cities (34 minus NY & LA minus SEA & MSP)? Did they make a mistake?

Range from city center to the nearest SC and population in no way indicate Tesla "made a mistake".

First, since SCs are to facilitate long distance travel, you have to consider just where is it people are going to, that they need a SC location?
In the case of Minneapolis, you are traveling to northern Minnesota, North Dakota or Canada.
Just how popular do you think those destinations are?

Yes, some travel to there, but it is a lot less than many other travel routes.

Add to that, finding a site and getting permitting can run into issues. The future MN site is at a HyVee grocery store which has recently been built. Prior to that, who knows, perhaps Tesla couldn't get any bites?

All I am saying is you don't have the full information, and are even ignoring information you do have, or could estimate (travel patterns, number of Tesla owners, etc).
I think it more likely that you made a mistake than Tesla did

 

[RobertSeattle]

I'm very curious where the "2016" SuperCharger is supposed to be in the Seattle area? Any clues?

 

[hsglia]

Birmingham Alabama and Memphis TN are real outliers. These are important cities for me that I cant travel to with my Tesla

 

[RobertSeattle]

Birmingham Alabama and Memphis TN are real outliers. These are important cities for me that I cant travel to with my Tesla

If the "2016" tab of the SuperCharger map is to be believed hopefully this will soon be solved.
https://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/images/supercharger/maps/2016-northamerica.jpg