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North Dakota Superchargers (location speculation, discussion)

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West Fargo or Moorhead, maybe. I think that they'll try to get it as close to the I-29/94 intersection as possible.
That is usually the case, but there are several off the beaten path too. the Lincoln NE is a couple of miles off the interstate. I would guess it be showing up sooner or later. I have had luck finding several construction sites by looking in areas that fit the basic profile of a supercharger site: restaurants, lodging and/ or shopping near major roads. That how I found Grand Island and Gothenburg sites. With Fargo though, possible sites are numerous, as you have 2 major interstates and a relatively large metro area to scout. If I had to chose an ideal area it would be near Space Alien restaurant area, just west of the I-29 and I-94 intersection. But nobody asks for my opinion. But I am sure there are many potential spots. It will show up...
 
I was just sent a 'snip-it' of a news story on Inforum showing a gathering of Electric vehicles in Fargo. Not sure when it aired, but hopefully it will lead to some greater awareness about the future of transportation. Thanks to the guy from Dickinson for making the grueling trip to help raise awareness. It took several days to do it without the luxury of Superchargers. Hopefully between Charge Point and Tesla that trip of 290 miles be reduced to less than 5 hours.
 
The new Find Us map shows the intended locations of the North Dakota superchargers:
Fargo
Jamestown
Bismarck
Dickinson
Grand Forks

It also shows connections to the rest of the supercharger network on I-94 through Alexandria MN to the east and Glendive, Miles City, and Bighorn MT to the east. Note however that none claim any particular year in which they will be completed, whereas on some parts of the map it says specifically that they intend to open the stations in 2017.
 
I was just sent a 'snip-it' of a news story on Inforum showing a gathering of Electric vehicles in Fargo. Not sure when it aired, but hopefully it will lead to some greater awareness about the future of transportation. Thanks to the guy from Dickinson for making the grueling trip to help raise awareness. It took several days to do it without the luxury of Superchargers. Hopefully between Charge Point and Tesla that trip of 290 miles be reduced to less than 5 hours.
You are welcome haha(5am I left!). It was 1.2h hour of charging in New Salem to come into Fargo running on fumes... I mean rogue electrons :)

The event went well, the coverage was good, but the quotes were misquoted and they didn't use any of full explanations of how this worked. Thanks to the 3 leafs that were there too (local people). I used the Clearwater Supercharger and the one in MSP. Then to come home I took the looooong way on i-90 so I could make it in one day. 6am - 10:15pm for that trip.

Here's my ugly mug: Electric car charging stations could come soon to the state of...
 
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Should we be concerned with Tesla's updated supercharger map?
A lot of the future locations out West say "target opening by end of 2017", whereas the North Dakota
locations just say "target opening date to be determined".
Some people on the official Tesla forums were speculating that Tesla is putting an emphasis
on relieving the overcrowding first before focusing on bringing new locations online.

I hope that's not the case.
 
I will offer a second take on the statement, "target opening date to be determined."

In the past, Tesla has tried to install Superchargers over a long stretch of highway over the shortest period of time. It is possible that the Supercharger team wants to identify the specific locations, obtain permits, and arrange for the construction crews to be able to complete the I94 stretch east of Billings and through North Dakota.

I posit that many of the overcrowded locations already had deals in place for possible expansion, so there is no need to identify new sites in those places. Moreover, with the skyrocketing popularity of Tesla, I would submit that there are new locations who want Superchargers on site, so negotiation is a breeze with the property owners. These situations make it easier for Tesla to get the ball rolling sooner.

However, I think that Tesla wants to streamline the I94 build out. It is certainly plausible that they already have a few locations selected with lease agreements agreed-to in principle, if not already signed. But they might be experiencing hiccups in a few others, and they do not know when all the locations will have agreements in place.

It does not make much sense to me to build Superchargers in Jamestown and Bismarck, for example, if they are going to be isolated from the rest of the country until the rest of the highway route has been determined.
 
I will offer a second take on the statement, "target opening date to be determined."

In the past, Tesla has tried to install Superchargers over a long stretch of highway over the shortest period of time. It is possible that the Supercharger team wants to identify the specific locations, obtain permits, and arrange for the construction crews to be able to complete the I94 stretch east of Billings and through North Dakota.

I posit that many of the overcrowded locations already had deals in place for possible expansion, so there is no need to identify new sites in those places. Moreover, with the skyrocketing popularity of Tesla, I would submit that there are new locations who want Superchargers on site, so negotiation is a breeze with the property owners. These situations make it easier for Tesla to get the ball rolling sooner.

However, I think that Tesla wants to streamline the I94 build out. It is certainly plausible that they already have a few locations selected with lease agreements agreed-to in principle, if not already signed. But they might be experiencing hiccups in a few others, and they do not know when all the locations will have agreements in place.

It does not make much sense to me to build Superchargers in Jamestown and Bismarck, for example, if they are going to be isolated from the rest of the country until the rest of the highway route has been determined.
I do agree that they maybe trying to build all in a single period of time, just as they did in NE. But in places as ND and other Northern states and provinces where cold weather is an issue about 6 months a year, the lack of infrastructure will directly correlate with lack of sales or vice versa. ND will never be the EV hotspot as the west coast is, but when the model 3 rolls out, there will be a fairly decent number of people that would consider it as a viable option if there are superchargers avail.
 
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I didn't think of this before but it will be the link to Winnipeg which boasts a population of nearly 800,00 for the metro area, eclipsing the whole population of ND, and definitely has some Model S/X owners already. I would hope some of them would be bugging Tesla a bit to move on the ND superchargers too!
 
I didn't think of this before but it will be the link to Winnipeg which boasts a population of nearly 800,00 for the metro area, eclipsing the whole population of ND, and definitely has some Model S/X owners already. I would hope some of them would be bugging Tesla a bit to move on the ND superchargers too!

Yes, there are a lot of cars with Manitoba plates passing through and around Fargo especially in the summer. Here's to hoping we see some SCs soon.
 
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I also see the Tesla map says target opening by end of 2017 on many locations, but none of the i-94 locations say this. I might just have to accept the one lie from when buying the car is superchargers on i-94 for 2015/2016 and now maybe even 2017. Dangit! It might be a race between Tesla and the VW money (CLEAN group proposal) to even put up fast charging in ND.
 
I do agree that they maybe trying to build all in a single period of time, just as they did in NE. But in places as ND and other Northern states and provinces where cold weather is an issue about 6 months a year, the lack of infrastructure will directly correlate with lack of sales or vice versa. ND will never be the EV hotspot as the west coast is, but when the model 3 rolls out, there will be a fairly decent number of people that would consider it as a viable option if there are superchargers avail.

However, in those low-density states, I suspect that a much smaller proportion of monied buyers would be living in apartments with no access to charging, so disconnected Superchargers would not have as much value there.

I agree with cpa in the sense that having the complete link agreed has much greater value than isolated Superchargers, but I think that Tesla might be OK adding connected nodes at the ends of the links even if the whole link isn't completed. But, with so much left to do, I don't think they'd prioritize such sites.
 
I'm surprised they aren't in more of a hurry to at least put one in Fargo and maybe Grand Forks just so they can say they have superchargers in all of the 48 states (Little Rock should be opening soon). They could link Winnipeg to the supercharger network by completing these sites as well.
 
I'm surprised they aren't in more of a hurry to at least put one in Fargo and maybe Grand Forks just so they can say they have superchargers in all of the 48 states (Little Rock should be opening soon). They could link Winnipeg to the supercharger network by completing these sites as well.

If I had to bet, I would bet that the I29 route north into Winnepeg would be prioritized over the I94 route to connect Montana with Minnesota.

(For you North Dakotans: Is it not true that more of the population and wealth is more concentrated along the eastern half of the state as opposed to the I94 corridor and the US2/52 corridors--perhaps with Bismarck as the lone exception?)
 
If I had to bet, I would bet that the I29 route north into Winnepeg would be prioritized over the I94 route to connect Montana with Minnesota.

(For you North Dakotans: Is it not true that more of the population and wealth is more concentrated along the eastern half of the state as opposed to the I94 corridor and the US2/52 corridors--perhaps with Bismarck as the lone exception?)
according to a report i recently read, the wealth is actually located in the western and central portions. This is mainly due to the coal, oil and agricultural industries. But your statement maybe true because the population density is substantially greater in the east. I had looked at household incomes and the top 8 were in the west or central regions. But many of the counties had less than 7500 people in them. A lot of rich landowners (farmers and ranchers) whom are also receiving oil royalty checks.
 
If I had to bet, I would bet that the I29 route north into Winnepeg would be prioritized over the I94 route to connect Montana with Minnesota.

(For you North Dakotans: Is it not true that more of the population and wealth is more concentrated along the eastern half of the state as opposed to the I94 corridor and the US2/52 corridors--perhaps with Bismarck as the lone exception?)
Population, yes. Wealth, that's tricky. I'm on the western edge of the state and the percentage of millionaires is probably higher but the average wage is exaggerated due to oil jobs from the past few years that have since largely gone bust, though recovering slowly as oil hovers around $50. And sadly these industries tend to have employees who aren't into anything with the words progressive or alternative attached to them. (Heck they tried to pass a 2 year moratorium on adding wind power in the state in our last legislative session!) And the model 3 removes the wealth part as the major factor as the value conscientious consumer will strongly considering a M3, especially for long term ownership and even for travel.

My point on this is geared more toward those of us who bought a MS earlier on were shown the map with dates that have been pushed back 3 years and that's a little rough when there is zero infrastructure for EVs as well. I'm not denying Tesla will do what is best for them, but then don't put the dots on the map is all :)
 
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according to a report i recently read, the wealth is actually located in the western and central portions. This is mainly due to the coal, oil and agricultural industries. But your statement maybe true because the population density is substantially greater in the east. I had looked at household incomes and the top 8 were in the west or central regions. But many of the counties had less than 7500 people in them. A lot of rich landowners (farmers and ranchers) whom are also receiving oil royalty checks.

You are correct, the wealth from the oil boom is in the Western part of the ND. However, I don't see a lot of that wealth converting into a lot of potential Tesla owners. The Western part of ND is very oil friendly. For now the I-29 corridor makes a lot more sense from a practicability standpoint versus I-94. Higher population, connection to Winnipeg, and a few less truck loving souls. Sorry, lightfoot3b.
 
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You are correct, the wealth from the oil boom is in the Western part of the ND. However, I don't see a lot of that wealth converting into a lot of potential Tesla owners. The Western part of ND is very oil friendly. For now the I-29 corridor makes a lot more sense from a practicability standpoint versus I-94. Higher population, connection to Winnipeg, and a few less truck loving souls. Sorry, lightfoot3b.
Oh I get it. My reply largely agreed, but the point of the superchargers was distance travel (how they used to bill it). TR national park is in Medora on the very western edge of the state and attracts around 600,000 visitors a year so for travel and use for sustainable transport it's tough to drive a Tesla to a national park unattainable by a Tesla vehicle on the supercharger network. Side note, I've seen a few brave souls plan around this and utilize a campground over a weekend to be able to make it where ever they were going next and I'd be curious where they charged next since the closest charger would be 238 miles to Rapid City SD (my house to Rapid is 221) and second closest to Billings MT at 280 miles (I'm 318 from Billings).

I also know people and have had calls from strangers who would own a Model S but without i-94 supercharging they won't even consider it as they can't even drive to the most common destinations (Dickinson - Bismarck : Bismarck/Jamestown - Fargo : Minot - Bismarck). Our round trips here for a literal 1 day trip are >200 miles (my house to downtown Bismarck is 99miles away(Mother's day trip there I had to go with my parents as the P85 couldn't have done the 230 mile day at reasonable speeds and climate control), so summer at sub interstate speeds I can do it, winter (even in an 85) no chance without 240v charging or zero other driving and 120v for battery maintenance). So I'd suggest their annual ND sales is well under half of what it would be if there were superchargers, though that is probably what they sell in Cali every other day.
 
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When the Superchargers come to North Dakota, I shall be headed to Cooperstown to see the Reagan Minuteman Missile Site. I did some calculations two years ago when I was in Minneapolis, but it was just too much time charging. Cooperstown has a city park with 50A plugs, but the site is several miles out of town.

It would have been easy to get a near full charge at Cooperstown, and then stay overnight in Aberdeen SD at the hotel with 30A charging.