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Ok, so maybe it took longer than many of us hoped, but holly cow this is exciting, absolutely a historic accomplishment. creating a high powered charging network is fraught with many many challenges! here's to a speedy implementation of the nationwide network, cheers to Tesla for being unstoppable!!!!
Tacket
Member
This is incredible - I'll be making a trip to Santa Barbara this winter in my 60 - can't wait to do it!
carrerascott
FUEL FTR
Can't wait till the east coast is Tesla-able. The only SC near me is the new one near Richmond (which I'm grateful for!) but looking forward to being able to travel for freeeeeeee!
JPP
Active Member
I'm going to drop by the SF stop on Thursday--nice that they are doing 101 up and not I-5, so that SF will be en-route (and a nice venue by the water).
Puyallup Bill
Member
Boy, not me. I was amazed how quickly it happened.:smile:
If the weather is decent, I think I'll make the Seattle bash.
Agreed, PB. They originally had said to expect to be able to travel the route by Thanksgiving. I didn't expect all of the stations to be in by then, though. I hope they can apply the same speed with the SC's heading eastward on I-90 (I want to get to Spokane next summer!). See you at the bash.
I'll be at the Springfield ribbon cutting but I won't be able to caravan up to Seattle unfortunately; we have multiple birthday parties this weekend and I'm being pressed into service.
I should add that I'm quite impressed with the speed of the rollout. I mean, the first one went in less than a year ago and now we can drive from Canada to Mexico using nothing but Superchargers. I was quite suspicious that they wouldn't be able to build the cross-country route before the end of the year but then they dropped Springfield, Grant's Pass, Shasta and Corning on us all at the same time. I imagine they'll start opening multiple stations at a time. I'm stupid-excited. :biggrin:
I should add that I'm quite impressed with the speed of the rollout. I mean, the first one went in less than a year ago and now we can drive from Canada to Mexico using nothing but Superchargers. I was quite suspicious that they wouldn't be able to build the cross-country route before the end of the year but then they dropped Springfield, Grant's Pass, Shasta and Corning on us all at the same time. I imagine they'll start opening multiple stations at a time. I'm stupid-excited. :biggrin:
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
Lyon, Buzzbuzz and I hope to see you in Springfield on Saturday. Then we'll be at the Seattle event on Sunday.
I've been driving up and down the coast in a Tesla for years, but that's only because I hate gas enough to be willing to drive in a cramped Roadster and spend hours at a time charging. Not many are willing to do that, and even I was getting a little tired of it. These Superchargers are fantastic. Much of the reason EVs have been slow to roll out is that everybody hopes somebody else will pay for DC chargers, which are really hard to monetize directly. But I love that not only is Tesla rolling out a lot of really fast ones, but they talked to owners first and put a lot of thought in to what is important. Not relying on POS payment was key. They are really setting the bar for everybody else. Thanks, Tesla! I hereby forgive all the little annoying things you do - the unprecedented things far outweigh them.
I've been driving up and down the coast in a Tesla for years, but that's only because I hate gas enough to be willing to drive in a cramped Roadster and spend hours at a time charging. Not many are willing to do that, and even I was getting a little tired of it. These Superchargers are fantastic. Much of the reason EVs have been slow to roll out is that everybody hopes somebody else will pay for DC chargers, which are really hard to monetize directly. But I love that not only is Tesla rolling out a lot of really fast ones, but they talked to owners first and put a lot of thought in to what is important. Not relying on POS payment was key. They are really setting the bar for everybody else. Thanks, Tesla! I hereby forgive all the little annoying things you do - the unprecedented things far outweigh them.
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
JPP
Active Member
I attended the Tesla event @ Chrissy Field in SF. The venue was excellent. Beautiful fall SF weather, on the water, with the view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Great choice by TM corporate, especially given the short time to plan. I arrived at 0830 (officially an 0900 start), and there was a small group of Tesla staff/employees set up at a table at a fenced off part of the parking lot. The only marking was a not to obvious Tesla flag planted along the main road at the water to show the small side road to take to the reserved area. There was a National Parks ranger/guard there with a movable barrier, and Model S arrived all morning and were guided into place in the designated parking area.
At the beginning, 1 team of drivers for the Supercharger trip was there, having driven up from San Diego, with 1 of the 2 grey P85s decked out with the graphics of the trip (the other was stuck in SF traffic and arrived at 0930). FWIW, they did charge @ Fremont before coming to SF. I did speak to one of the teams of drivers. Sounds like the event was thrown together by TM at the very last minute (thus the very short notice), based upon the completion of the west coast supercharger network, and that all plans, graphics, t-shirts, invites, press releases, etc were pulled together very fast.
As the morning progressed, more Tesla staff and many more owners arrived, with about 25 Model S from all over the Bay Area (including some corporate vehicles with MFG tags). Even with the 2-day notice, it was a really great turnout. Most colors and options (several Sig red), even one handsome brown with chromed 19” wheels (nice…retro). There were also 2 black S85 from a new local limo company marketing ‘green’ travel and wine country tours (lots of room in the S for golf bags and many cases of wine). Yes, commercial, but not offensive and in good taste (they even showed a mod to the frunk with a snap-in snap-out vinyl padded skirt/liner to protect the front bumper/nosecone when loading/unloading the frunk). They also added their own rear seat/floor center console for beverage holders (…essential in their business).
Photo from a low hill to the side of the peking area:
There was a table set up by TM with breakfast snacks (pastries, bagels, water, coffee), which went quickly. The press was there (several local news crews, photographers). There was lots of mingling and show and tell, and interaction with the Tesla staff. Interested passers by (dog walkers, bikers) also stopped by. The event was low key, casual & cordial. Jerome G was there in his personal Model S, and I got to chat with him at length (notes posted to appropriate sub-topics). He actually commented to me that he would have really liked to participate on the road trip, but did not have sufficient time.
Towards the end, of the event, Jerome spoke to the group (probably at least 100 people there) to thank all of the owners, supporters, and employees. He talked a bit about the efforts in rolling out superchargers in the US (as we know, the delays are not technical, but political & jurisdictional with different rules & regs, real estate issues, permitting, etc). He then introduced the head of the supercharger group (sorry...missed the name) who was there with about 6 of his group. He spoke briefly and emphasized the hard work and some of the challenges in getting superchargers rolled out. He did note that the superchargers are fully telemetered and monitored real time 24/7/365, and if any faults or problems pop up, they are immediately aware. He says that there has not been a lot of down time, and that even if a single charger is down, others in the cluster are up.
There was time for questions, and one question pertained to having some kind of notification about supercharger unavailability/down time available to S owners/drivers. Sounds like this is not likely to get to us owners anytime soon. The idea of SMS or push notifications when your S is done supercharging was brought up, and the appropriate team(s) are working on this (no ETA). Jerome was asked about how the superchargers are depicted on the MCU/nav screen, and how the distances to the chargers are usually shown ‘as the crow flies’ and not necessarily true driving distance. Jerome said that there is an upcoming major nav update with many new and improved features (he did not say much but clearly was very excited about it), and there will be a fix/enhancements to the supercharger mapping.
Photo of Jerome on the left, head of SC on the right:
In terms of supercharger priority, the installation of basic supercharger hardware/functionality is job 1 (as many as fast as possible), then improvements to power/kW, then site improvements as needed, and then, far down the line, solar canopies with on site battery storage. No plans/promises (when asked) about any change/upgrade to fix the issue of 2 cars sharing 1 supercharger and the impact on charge rate/time.
Jerome was asked about battery swapping, and he said that it was a different topic under development—clearly not a big priority or what he/TM wanted to showcase. Someone asked about installing a supercharger @ home (maybe not an owner…) and he was told that he need 480v 3 phase 120kW service to his home, so not too likely. Jerome did however mention that TM is apparently actively talking to high-end hotels, restaurants, etc about essentially giving them HPWC systems for free, if they will install them and pay for the power. TM clearly is looking at every angle to get more charging infrastructure in place for us owners. He was asked about supercharger placement within metropolitan areas, and that is not the plan or goal, Superchargers are to optimize long distance travel. The next big push is to get the east coast network up, and then they will do an east coast supercharger event as well (no time given).
After questions ended, t-shirts commemorating the event were handed out, and then the teams moved to their cars to depart for the run up north.
At the beginning, 1 team of drivers for the Supercharger trip was there, having driven up from San Diego, with 1 of the 2 grey P85s decked out with the graphics of the trip (the other was stuck in SF traffic and arrived at 0930). FWIW, they did charge @ Fremont before coming to SF. I did speak to one of the teams of drivers. Sounds like the event was thrown together by TM at the very last minute (thus the very short notice), based upon the completion of the west coast supercharger network, and that all plans, graphics, t-shirts, invites, press releases, etc were pulled together very fast.
As the morning progressed, more Tesla staff and many more owners arrived, with about 25 Model S from all over the Bay Area (including some corporate vehicles with MFG tags). Even with the 2-day notice, it was a really great turnout. Most colors and options (several Sig red), even one handsome brown with chromed 19” wheels (nice…retro). There were also 2 black S85 from a new local limo company marketing ‘green’ travel and wine country tours (lots of room in the S for golf bags and many cases of wine). Yes, commercial, but not offensive and in good taste (they even showed a mod to the frunk with a snap-in snap-out vinyl padded skirt/liner to protect the front bumper/nosecone when loading/unloading the frunk). They also added their own rear seat/floor center console for beverage holders (…essential in their business).
Photo from a low hill to the side of the peking area:
There was a table set up by TM with breakfast snacks (pastries, bagels, water, coffee), which went quickly. The press was there (several local news crews, photographers). There was lots of mingling and show and tell, and interaction with the Tesla staff. Interested passers by (dog walkers, bikers) also stopped by. The event was low key, casual & cordial. Jerome G was there in his personal Model S, and I got to chat with him at length (notes posted to appropriate sub-topics). He actually commented to me that he would have really liked to participate on the road trip, but did not have sufficient time.
Towards the end, of the event, Jerome spoke to the group (probably at least 100 people there) to thank all of the owners, supporters, and employees. He talked a bit about the efforts in rolling out superchargers in the US (as we know, the delays are not technical, but political & jurisdictional with different rules & regs, real estate issues, permitting, etc). He then introduced the head of the supercharger group (sorry...missed the name) who was there with about 6 of his group. He spoke briefly and emphasized the hard work and some of the challenges in getting superchargers rolled out. He did note that the superchargers are fully telemetered and monitored real time 24/7/365, and if any faults or problems pop up, they are immediately aware. He says that there has not been a lot of down time, and that even if a single charger is down, others in the cluster are up.
There was time for questions, and one question pertained to having some kind of notification about supercharger unavailability/down time available to S owners/drivers. Sounds like this is not likely to get to us owners anytime soon. The idea of SMS or push notifications when your S is done supercharging was brought up, and the appropriate team(s) are working on this (no ETA). Jerome was asked about how the superchargers are depicted on the MCU/nav screen, and how the distances to the chargers are usually shown ‘as the crow flies’ and not necessarily true driving distance. Jerome said that there is an upcoming major nav update with many new and improved features (he did not say much but clearly was very excited about it), and there will be a fix/enhancements to the supercharger mapping.
Photo of Jerome on the left, head of SC on the right:
In terms of supercharger priority, the installation of basic supercharger hardware/functionality is job 1 (as many as fast as possible), then improvements to power/kW, then site improvements as needed, and then, far down the line, solar canopies with on site battery storage. No plans/promises (when asked) about any change/upgrade to fix the issue of 2 cars sharing 1 supercharger and the impact on charge rate/time.
Jerome was asked about battery swapping, and he said that it was a different topic under development—clearly not a big priority or what he/TM wanted to showcase. Someone asked about installing a supercharger @ home (maybe not an owner…) and he was told that he need 480v 3 phase 120kW service to his home, so not too likely. Jerome did however mention that TM is apparently actively talking to high-end hotels, restaurants, etc about essentially giving them HPWC systems for free, if they will install them and pay for the power. TM clearly is looking at every angle to get more charging infrastructure in place for us owners. He was asked about supercharger placement within metropolitan areas, and that is not the plan or goal, Superchargers are to optimize long distance travel. The next big push is to get the east coast network up, and then they will do an east coast supercharger event as well (no time given).
After questions ended, t-shirts commemorating the event were handed out, and then the teams moved to their cars to depart for the run up north.
Puyallup Bill
Member
We had a great time at the Springfield ribbon cutting. Now they're on the road and headed to Woodburn.
At today's supercharger event in Seattle, I spoke briefly with Kevin Kassekert, Director of Supercharger Deployment and Energy Efficiency. He answered a few questions with information I thought would be of interest:
1. The Ellensburg supercharger is expected to be on line by the end of the year.
2. Construction will start on the Vacaville CA supercharger within the next few days.
3. TM has a program to encourage hotels to install charging stations. If a hotel agrees to purchase two HPWCs, TM will donate an additional two units for free.
While not particularly surprising, all of this was good news.
1. The Ellensburg supercharger is expected to be on line by the end of the year.
2. Construction will start on the Vacaville CA supercharger within the next few days.
3. TM has a program to encourage hotels to install charging stations. If a hotel agrees to purchase two HPWCs, TM will donate an additional two units for free.
While not particularly surprising, all of this was good news.
I thought that it was great that Governor Inslee came to the Supercharger event and recognized Tesla's achievements and made them honorary Washington State citizens for the day.
Better yet, the Governor mentioned how he was putting together a plan to support EV's. I was wondering why we were not a part of the eight state ZEV program. It sounds like he has a plan in mind.
@DouglasR - Sorry I missed you. I wish everyone had nym tags!
Better yet, the Governor mentioned how he was putting together a plan to support EV's. I was wondering why we were not a part of the eight state ZEV program. It sounds like he has a plan in mind.
@DouglasR - Sorry I missed you. I wish everyone had nym tags!
Maybe I'm confused by the various handles you use in the different forums, but I thought we talked (with ChadS). Unless you are the male member of that dynamic duo, in which case we didn't talk. :wink:
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