New Supercharger locations in 2017, WA

[Araman0]

^^ That's a good analogy PLUS EV.

I have a counter argument. The Seattle area has a higher-than-average number of people living in apartments or in otherwise difficult positions to reliably charge their Teslas at home (including me).

I'd much rather have more distributed supercharger sites with fewer chargers at each site. I'm able to keep my car charged mostly using private electrical sources, but there sure are times when traveling to different parts of the region (frequently Puyallup, Tacoma, Kitsap County, etc) where my life would be made significantly easier if even a single supercharger existed there or en route.

To be sure I'm not advocating that apartment dwellers exclusively use superchargers. But when the car can't reliably leave the home with 80-90% charge every single time, the urban superchargers become more important if only to top off on an occasional errand across town.

 

[Kuhz]

It’s much cheaper to have more stalls in less locations than many locations with fewer stalls.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Let's say you're having an emergency and you really, really need to use the bathroom. Would you rather be at a strip mall where 4 business have single stall bathrooms or at a mall where there is one bathroom with many stalls?

That's really funny and fairly appropriate since on my roadtrips I've started stopping BEFORE most superchargers just to use the restroom, so two stops instead of one for each SC.
This more closely describes the single Aeroviroment DCQC units spaced around the state. I agree, that's not the best solution, but it does give the impression of a larger (area wise) system for EV charging. In either case you described, if more than four people at any time need to use the services, a line will form. Tesla has correctly added multiple stalls at all locations, while trying to adjust stall number for expected usage. Don't get me wrong, as a traveler I most certainly prefer properly-spaced 20-stall superchargers over multiple 8-stall units (and especially those completely inadequate 5-stall ones in Ellensburg and The Dalles). However, I think that the need for more stalls will need to be solved using both approaches (20+ locations plus three distributed 8 stall locations). While I don't typically travel to Seattle proper, when I do I rarely see parking lots that could accept 20+ Tesla-specific parking. Even most small stores/malls would have trouble dedicating 8 stalls. I randomly typed in "Malls near Seattle" into google maps and found 20-25 locations. If the larger malls could support/dedicate 20 parking stalls to Tesla, whose owners typically have higher salaries or net worth, why don't we see all malls covered with SCs? Heck, I don't know, it could be electrical constraints, lack of Teslas in the area, or perhaps the mall owners cannot or will not dedicate those parking spots. Hmmm, just a bunch of rambling on my part.

 

[PLUS EV]

So would you rather be first in line at a 4-stall bathroom or first in line at a single stall bathroom?

 

[Rocky_H]

Huh. This is an interesting discussion of the "more with less" or "less with more". In thinking about this some, I think I would say that the contexts matter as far as which would be better. When it's around a big city area, where you can put them around multiple locations, it might be better having 4 or 5 smaller locations with fewer stalls that are spread around the city in 10 to 20 mile distances. But if it's the focused one spot along the route, like Ellensburg, Baker City, Boise, or Twin Falls, those types of locations do need to have a lot of stalls, because people won't have choices there, so location isn't even a thing--it's just about getting a spot.

Oh, and the thing about Aerovironment with only one spot bit me on a trip. I was going to be charging at Redmond Oregon before heading across eastern Oregon to Boise, but the Redmond CHAdeMO was out of order and still wouldn't work after a reboot. I had to backtrack to Sisters, making it a longer section to try to stretch that drive.

 

[im.thatoneguy]

So would you rather be first in line at a 4-stall bathroom or first in line at a single stall bathroom?

This metaphor is flawed.

"Imagine you have to pee. Would you rather have 1 bathroom with 100 stalls an hour away or go to a starbucks 1 block away with a single stall?"

I would prefer to run 1 block down to the small Starbucks bathroom than to drive 100 miles regardless if there are 1,000 stalls waiting for me at this Bathroom Nirvana.

 

[PLUS EV]

This metaphor is flawed.

"Imagine you have to pee. Would you rather have 1 bathroom with 100 stalls an hour away or go to a starbucks 1 block away with a single stall?"

I would prefer to run 1 block down to the small Starbucks bathroom than to drive 100 miles regardless if there are 1,000 stalls waiting for me at this Bathroom Nirvana.

So how is it a flawed metaphor then?

 

[ReddyLeaf]

RE: Possible Cle Elum Site
Ellensburg Supercharger

 

[iwannam3]

RE: Possible Cle Elum Site
Ellensburg Supercharger

That is possibly the weirdest name for a city.

 

[PhilBa]

I think Humptulips, WA beats it by a long shot.

 

[wdolson]

Puyallup, WA (pronounced pew-all-up), Sequim, WA (pronounced Squim) and Sekiu, WA (pronounced CQ) are pretty odd too.

Washington is full of odd place names.

 

[N3RVOUS]

Walla Walla FTW.

I configured today, wahoo! Home delivery in Spokane, Oct-Dec. My wife's family lives in Spokane so I've been checking on the status of the Okanogan Supercharger -- "Target opening in 2018." Hopefully comes soon, but I feel a bit better about it now that I got the LR instead of waiting for SR.

 

[PhilBa]

Walla Walla FTW.

I configured today, wahoo! Home delivery in Spokane, Oct-Dec. My wife's family lives in Spokane so I've been checking on the status of the Okanogan Supercharger -- "Target opening in 2018." Hopefully comes soon, but I feel a bit better about it now that I got the LR instead of waiting for SR.

Congrats. You will love it.

All the grey supercharger locations in the Northwest on the Tesla supercharger map are listed as "target opening in 2018", last year they were listed as "target opening in 2017". Interestingly, several of the superchargers that were actually built in the last 12 months were never even on the map. So, I suggest you don't put a lot of faith in the tesla map.

 

[PLUS EV]

Congrats. You will love it.

All the grey supercharger locations in the Northwest on the Tesla supercharger map are listed as "target opening in 2018", last year they were listed as "target opening in 2017".

The year before they were listed as "target opening in 2016." And the year before that it was "target opening in 2015," etc.

 

[im.thatoneguy]

So how is it a flawed metaphor then?

Because I would rather go to the large bathroom with lots of stalls that I know exactly where it is and know I'll get a stall right away in the mall as opposed to take my chances with a (probably equadistant) strip mall business restroom of dubious availability and quality.

But that doesn't serve as a proxy for my charging habits. While I would rather go an extra 60 seconds to a large central bathroom vs 10 seconds to a local business bathroom... I would much rather drive 10 minutes round trip to a small local super charger than 80 minutes to Lynwood and back from downtown Seattle (or maybe even 6 hours if traffic is apocalyptic).

It also doesn't account for charger needs like the further from a bathroom you travel the more you have to go again. You could lose 10% of your charge traveling a long distance to a big supercharger vs a small supercharger nearby. There is no equivalent real world pee analogy that can stand in for that.

Hence flawed metaphor since the metaphor doesn't serve as a useful proxy, if anything it's an anti-metaphor.

 

[PhilBa]

The year before they were listed as "target opening in 2016." And the year before that it was "target opening in 2015," etc.

I was just trying to break it to him gently!

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Today I drove through Tacoma and noticed the huge casino and parking garage right along I-5. It looks like construction is still in progress, though I did have my eyes glued to the road. It occurred to me that Tesla has some experience adding superchargers to casino parking lots (Pendleton and Arlington). If anyone locally can scout out the area in a few months, it might help the community.

 

[Kuhz]

Today I drove through Tacoma and noticed the huge casino and parking garage right along I-5. It looks like construction is still in progress, though I did have my eyes glued to the road. It occurred to me that Tesla has some experience adding superchargers to casino parking lots (Pendleton and Arlington). If anyone locally can scout out the area in a few months, it might help the community.

Good point. That construction site is HUGE. Guess that’s to match the never ending road projects

 

[ChrisH]

Ugh they totally should just add a supercharger there.

 

[PLUS EV]

While I'm generally bullish on casino superchargers (24/7 restrooms and food and usually large parking lots with plenty of empty space), adding one at Emerald Queen would be questionable. It is the worst of the worst in terms of degenerate casino clientele and that is really saying something. Also the management and security there have always left something to be desired.

Finding a location that is both close to I-5 and safe 24/7 in Tacoma will be challenging.