I'm amazed there are so many people using this location. Are you really not able to charge at home? Even using a 15A outlet could put in 30+ miles per night, which could dramatically space out your visits to the Supercharger. Not to mention the personal time you won't be sitting in a parking garage waiting on others to finish charging.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Supercharger - Aiea, HI (6 stalls)
- Thread starter TerranApart
- Start date
-
- Tags
- Hawaii supercharger
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Yes, no charging at home. Don't be amazed, they are desperate to charge. Many of our owners live in high rise condos in downtown area. Many of those in building don't have extra power. Who would have thought we would need electric welder capable outlets at every other parking space, 25+ years ago when many of these buildings were going up. And even though there may be some parking stalls with 120 outlets, its very hit and miss if its "your" assigned parking space.
That location is just about as "central Oahu the island" has it could be. People that live on the west end of the island but work downtown, drive past it twice a day. However, people that live in town./near town must drive away from home - town toward central Oahu for a charge, to turn around and drive back home.
Please don't think that, the majority of folks would drive and sit 30+ minutes at our lone supercharger if they could charge at home? Ah, uh-huh, they would not.
fstop11
Member
Yep, the convenience of charging at home almost guarantees I'll never visit the supercharger. But I understand how lucky we are, and we know several others who don't have that option.
What's really sad is seeing them dump money into the bottomless pit known as HART instead of installing more EV charging infrastructure. The demand is obviously out there, and not just for Teslas. Wait until the Hummers and Ford Lightnings start arriving.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Thanks for asking that. When we just volunteer that info it sounds more like we are whining or entitled than not. What did people do before we got our first & small supercharger (compared to most cities). Tesla owners that could not charge at home would attempt to charge in the wild, at publicly available chargers, along with the Fords, Small cars, Kia's VW's, and Leafs with everything else that uses a J1772.
If you are on this forum, you know Tesla's have better than average range that most EVs these days, still. And when we gather for a club meet, we usually hear the stories ranging from simply unknown people unplugging the charge cable to vandalism of the car. Its not uncommon for minor conformations with non-Tesla owners, heck even non-EV owners yelling, screaming or proclaiming "you don't need to charge, - its a Tesla". I guess, it does not occur to these other people that a Tesla needs a charge too. And lucky for them, maybe - maybe not as often as a Leaf, but just as authorized, allowed to charge as anyone else, whether its a free charge or paid for.
Those Tesla owners that are/often used a Level 2 publicly available charger would more likely rather drive 10-15 miles one way to the supercharger and charge (even with a wait) than sit at a public Level 2 charger for 2-3 hours to get a charge. There's less risk to both person and car when avoiding the public charger for the reasons already mentioned. AND finally, for every Tesla that goes to the supercharger that's one less EV trying to charge at the public charger and making way for the non-Tesla to charge at the public charger. So, anyone going to the supercharger is doing both themselves a favor and the non-Tesla-EV-Owner.
There's more than 8,000 closer to 9,000 Teslas in the state of Hawaii. We estimate than 75-80% are on Oahu, that's about 7,000 Tesla's on Oahu. The number using public or the Tesla supercharger are probably 40-50%. Still amazed?
BTW, I like the first few hundred Teslas on the island, charge at home. We stay away from public chargers to allow everyone else to use them. When we go to the Supercharger, to hang out, talk up the club, talk Tesla, and charge for a few minutes, we usually get out of the way when anyone pulls up and is waiting. No big deal to do that, its helping family.
I've said many times on this forum and others that I wouldn't own an EV if I couldn't charge at home. For me that's one of the biggest selling points for EVs. Even if I had a guaranteed 250kW supercharger with free charging between home and work I still would charge the vehicle at home. I'm willing to pay quite a lot for the convenience (don't tell the power company).
But apparently many people do use Superchargers as their primary car charging source. I don't think even Tesla anticipated that. Clearly, they have many sites that have significant queueing year-round.
And yes, I'm amazed that so many people are willing to sit charging their vehicle, or waiting for the opportunity to charge their vehicle, rather than make something happen at home. Why did they buy an EV in the first place? I don't understand that line of thought.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Maybe for the good of the planet? Secondary, likely, because we have been paying $4xx+ a gallon for gas fore-v-e-r, and "juice" is less than half the cost to travel the same distance? Hasn't gasoline been $2 a gallon or barrel in Arkansas for years until recently? Does it really matter, should we be interested in explaining to someone 4,000 miles away why people here bought an EV? Maybe, maybe not. Jest pokin' the bear, a bit. Please don't get upset by my comments.
Well maybe some people are willing to inconvenience themselves to reduce the amount of money being sent to crappy regimes around the world or the amount of pollution being sent into the atmosphere?
I was lucky to have workplace charging. It allowed me to dump ICE cars 4 years before I was able to install a charger at home.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Wow, do I so very much agree with your statement there. HART/Rail is a stupid racket. Remember when this effort started? Cost was around $4 Billion. And offset by $ 1.5 Billion of that coming from Feds. Then its cost grew and they threw more money at it. More money so they would not lose the $ 1.5 Billion of Fed money. Then it grew again and again, and threw more money. And now after an estimated $ 11.x Billion in cost, they NOW decide to change the plan and shorten the route to trim $ 1.5 Billion or so. to $ 9.x Billion now. Wait, hmmm, doesn't that $ 1.5 Billion trimmed sound familiar? So, they and extra $ 6 Billion over the original plan - more than twice its cost, so they would not lose the Fed's share of $ 1.5 Billion. Brilliant Math if you ask our HART Board, Our Former Mayors, and Mayoral candidates, and City Council. In reflection, I am sure they were concerned one of these days we were going to start spending some serious money, eh?
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
I understand what you are asking. I am not currently there, sitting in area. But it is usually busy. The past four times that I have been during daylight and as late as 8-9 pm, all 6 stalls are full. People are very good about leaving as soon as they have completed their charge. And there is often 1-2 cars waiting to charge.
Are they *still* working on light rail on Oahu? I remember it being a topic when I was in high school in the early 1980s.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Yes Sir. $ 10.x Billion spent. I would say invested, but not sure its an investment, vice just money given to the building industry.
Didn't they discover something about the rails being set to the wrong width for the cars or something like that?Rail guideway built from Kapolei to Airport and moving to Dillingham. I've seen the trains running for tests a bunch of times. Maybe someday in the next decade, we'll finally be able to ride it.
They did. There was an issue with track width as well as a separate issue with the train wheels being incorrectly sized for certain parts of the double-cross-over switches in the tracks.
Both track issues were fixed in April; I've heard that the manufacturer is probably going to re-manufacture new wheels for the trains as a long-term fix.
Supposedly they will finally start trial running for the Kapolei to Aloha Stadium section sometime this summer and open to the public around the end of the year...remains to be seen.
Maybe HART and Tesla should have a competition: see if the rail gets finished first or Tesla gets superchargers on all islands first.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Rail this decade on Oahu. Superchargers on all the islands. This is the funniest thread on TMC.
Tesla built the first supercharger in Hawai‘i in the wrong spot. The first two supercharger sites should have been in Kailua-Kona and Hilo. Hawai‘i island is the only island that is big enough to really need a supercharger.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Well, you are allowed to have and share your opionion. And we Oahu owners are not opposed to B.I., getting 3-5 or even more. And we have voiced that to the Tesla Supercharger Team. But they 3,000-4,000 Tesla owners living in high rises that can't charge at home would likely stand in line to disagree with you.
From our voluntary count of Teslas seen in the wild since July 2021, on the B.I. there's less than 100. To be exact for what's been seen and posted the count is 53. Surely there is more than that, be we won't know exactly.
I did see a few Teslas on the Big Island when I was there in January. People in high rises don't need superchargers, they need L2 charging in those garages.
Similar threads
