Plateau in number of Superchargers?

[pbleic]

I found Superchargers and clicked on the "chart" tab. If you check this out, you will see what looks like a disappointing plateau in the number of Superchargers coming online. It looks like there was a big push just before the big cross-country trip, and now very little. I hope it is just the winter and not a delay in the promised "coming soon" and 2014 Superchargers. I am beginning to see delays as a pretty standard part of the Tesla story. But, I bought the car on the basis of having more access to Superchargers for northern New England.

 

[Todd Burch]

No matter how you look at it, Tesla's building them WAY faster than they originally said they would. I don't foresee a plateau for awhile--that may just be coincidental, weather related, etc. they will need to continue to ramp up rapidly as Model X and the Model E begin production.

Overall, I'd expect stations to continue to come online fairly quickly for the next few years.

 

[Lerxt]

I have see video taken recently where a Elon said the reason was the winter weather. They will fire up again in the Spring.

 

[techmaven]

I suspect they are changing the design and so new parts have to be sourced. Plus, they are now working through some of the ones that have proven to be difficult for one reason or another. Further, I think some of that crew needed some rest from the break neck speed they were doing from November through January, and it makes sense to pause and evaluate. All conjecture, but it seems to line up.

 

[stevezzzz]

If you watch the promo video linked on this Black & Veatch web page you will find that Tesla has big plans for the Supercharger network in 2014, bigger even than 2013.

Powering The Charge For Electric Cars | Black & Veatch

 

[100thMonkey]

it's entirely possible that the big push we saw was years in the making and that now it looks quite but it's merely that the focus has shifted to preparing for the next big install push. locating, contracting, permitting, these are much more time consuming than the actual installs. from the time that ground is broken to a site being operational is only a small fraction of the overall process. I suspect it will look like very little is happening for periods of months and then all of a sudden, a whole bunch of sites will go in.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

As far as I can tell from Tesla's supercharger map, there are a ton more superchargers planned through 2015. That's all that matters.

 

[Ssssly]

They will fire up again in the Spring.

I see what you did there.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Maybe they've paused while they wait for completion of the next generation of supercharger hardware (135kW)?

 

[pbleic]

Any more superchargers recently?

 

[Mario Kadastik]

I think they might also be pushing SC hardware creation torward EU which should see a major push of network buildout before summer vacations periods start that always cause huge traffic jams throughout EU (some countries even synchronize that school holidays would not be on the same weeks between countries to make traffic easier).

 

[Lerxt]

4 Superchargers came online in March in the US. Why do we see these threads? It's easy enough to look this up, there is no slowdown, the curve is steady. Looking at the map at Tesla.com, New England will have its planned chargers by end 2014. That's 8 months away...

 

[MassX1317]

4 Superchargers came online in March in the US. Why do we see these threads? It's easy enough to look this up, there is no slowdown, the curve is steady. Looking at the map at Tesla.com, New England will have its planned chargers by end 2014. That's 8 months away...

I was told yesterday that the Cape Cod supercharger should be here before the summer but that time frame is not set in stone.

 

[ThosEM]

There is definitely a slow down, as you can see at the link posted by the OP. I wouldn't call it a plateau yet, and it is likely influenced by the bad winter weather this year, but it is definitely a lull in the rate of completion.

Moreover, New England does seem to be falling behind what is posted on the map at Tesla.com, while NJ/NY/CT are being overbuilt with redundant SCs. The category called "coming soon" is slipping out somewhat, and we might have hoped for "soon" to be prior to the midyear vacation season.

The *single* SC planned for Sturbridge, MA or near there, is absolutely critical. Without that, folks headed for Boston and all points north will be redirected to Rhode Island first at considerable detour cost, except perhaps on springlike days if they want to see how close they can cut it.

 

[pbleic]

Yes, I am the OP. And, I might add that the Hookset SC is absolutely the gateway to New England. Based on my correspondence with them, there is no way this is going in anytime soon. My delivery is tomorrow, and I am very concerned about the slowdown.

 

[pbleic]

I am loving my new Tesla, but disheartened that there is little activity anywhere in New England viz. superchargers. With Europe and China gearing up, I am afraid they won't have the bandwith to produce and deploy all they have promised. As far as I can tell, they tend to run 6-12 months late on almost everything. Very limiting for the New England market.

 

[Blaze]

Slow down or change of plans. I have seen the Oxnard location not get started and the San Juan Capistrano has been near completion forever. I know SCE and Building Departments are challenging, but when you really want something to happen, it gets done. It appears we will just wait and see what priority Tesla makes for the next SC to get pushed forward.

 

[TomServo]

Question, at SC stations with multiple spots is the charging rate the same if all the spots are charging as it is if only one car was charging?

 

[stevezzzz]

There are two charging pedestals per Supercharger cabinet, and the pedestals are labeled (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc.). The two pedestals share the output of the SpC (in the USA that's either 120kW or 135 kW, at least so far), with the first car to plug in getting priority. As the first car's charge rate ramps down, the second car's rate increases. In practice, it's pretty efficient and doesn't slow you down much, even if you're the second car to plug in.