Supercharger - Augusta ME

[KenC]

The Maine turnpike site states there are Tesla and Chargepoint units at the West Gardiner service plaza.

Apparently, Chargepoint CCS/CHAdeMO is going in there very soon as part of the VW settlement. I am not sure why they say Tesla as well. Perhaps it's the result of a copy and paste from one of the Kennebunk plazas where Superchargers and Chargepoint coexist.

Maine Turnpike Authority - West Gardiner Service Plaza

That's where it should have gone in the first place, as the Service Plaza was conveniently placed at the intersection of Interstate-95 and the Maine Turnpike. The service plaza is new. Everyone I know thought the Superchargers were going there, only to find them up by Dicks, one Winter day.

My Model 3 was home delivered to that Service Plaza because the semi driver could not make it down my little dirt road, so he told me to meet him there. Turns out, my car had zero SOC, and the driver thought he could charge it there! D'oh! We had to reload and drive it over to the mall with the Superchargers. That location is terrible. Not near any food, other than Red Robin. Way up a windy road. When there's a concert at the Civic Center, the exit ramp to get to the mall can be backed up. Just not a smart location.

Would be wonderful for them to correct their mistake now, but unlikely.

 

[KenC]

Some pad work today at the Gardiner rest area. Workers admit they are not the most informed but had not heard anything about Tesla at this site. View attachment 458500

LOL, that's the exact spot I'd pass every day for a couple years, and point to it, and say, "that's where the new Tesla supercharger is going!"

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

That's where it should have gone in the first place, as the Service Plaza was conveniently placed at the intersection of Interstate-95 and the Maine Turnpike. The service plaza is new. Everyone I know thought the Superchargers were going there, only to find them up by Dicks, one Winter day.

My Model 3 was home delivered to that Service Plaza because the semi driver could not make it down my little dirt road, so he told me to meet him there. Turns out, my car had zero SOC, and the driver thought he could charge it there! D'oh! We had to reload and drive it over to the mall with the Superchargers. That location is terrible. Not near any food, other than Red Robin. Way up a windy road. When there's a concert at the Civic Center, the exit ramp to get to the mall can be backed up. Just not a smart location.

Would be wonderful for them to correct their mistake now, but unlikely.

In the event (ho ho) of a long back-up, unless low, I'd suggest getting there via Exit 113- ME-3, ME-104, Townsend Road and then past B&N and the movie theater.

https://www.augustamarketplace.com/pdfs/directorymap.pdf

Opposite Red Robin is Ruby Tuesday.
Also, there's sidewalk and crosswalks from the Supercharger which means that you can walk to Longhorn, Chipotle and Elevation Burger. If you are physically OK to handle walking up and down more steps, there are more options, including a hibachi/sushi restaurant (Kume), Subway and Panera.

Fast chargers don't just provide the ability to travel, they also help provide back-up in the case of inability to charge at home, whether due to living in a dwelling without charging ability, because of an outage or because of an EVSE failure. Fast chargers near population centers better cover all use cases, where a service plaza away from a population center (as in the case of the Gardiner plaza), which is away from a population center handles travel only.

If Tesla wanted to add an additional Supercharger at the plaza, that would be great, but if they are only willing to put one Supercharger in the area, I think an Augusta location is a much better choice.

My problem with the Marketplace Mall location is that:
1) it's at the top of a hill, which is bad for people coming with a low state of charge.
2) the mall road is (theoretically at least) only 15mph, which means that it's a slow drive up and down.

I think that the Augusta Hannaford on Whitten Road near I-95 Exit 109, or the Iriving in the other direction on Civic Center Drive would be both be more practical locations for charging.

 

[KenC]

In the event (ho ho) of a long back-up, unless low, I'd suggest getting there via Exit 113- ME-3, ME-104, Townsend Road and then past B&N and the movie theater.

https://www.augustamarketplace.com/pdfs/directorymap.pdf

Opposite Red Robin is Ruby Tuesday.
Also, there's sidewalk and crosswalks from the Supercharger which means that you can walk to Longhorn, Chipotle and Elevation Burger. If you are physically OK to handle walking up and down more steps, there are more options, including a hibachi/sushi restaurant (Kume), Subway and Panera.

Fast chargers don't just provide the ability to travel, they also help provide back-up in the case of inability to charge at home, whether due to living in a dwelling without charging ability, because of an outage or because of an EVSE failure. Fast chargers near population centers better cover all use cases, where a service plaza away from a population center (as in the case of the Gardiner plaza), which is away from a population center handles travel only.

If Tesla wanted to add an additional Supercharger at the plaza, that would be great, but if they are only willing to put one Supercharger in the area, I think an Augusta location is a much better choice.

My problem with the Marketplace Mall location is that:
1) it's at the top of a hill, which is bad for people coming with a low state of charge.
2) the mall road is (theoretically at least) only 15mph, which means that it's a slow drive up and down.

I think that the Augusta Hannaford on Whitten Road near I-95 Exit 109, or the Iriving in the other direction on Civic Center Drive would be both be more practical locations for charging.

Thanks for all the info.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Thanks for all the info.<disabled plate>

If you have mobility problems that limit distance the speed and distance you can go from the car then it'd be Rob Robin or Ruby Tuesday.

Although a much busier lot, it would have been much better all round had the Supercharger been in the area with Longhorns and others (it's an old image, they built a new building there).

Google Maps

Then there'd be 3 choices for those with limited mobility, and 4 or 5 for those who can handle slopes and stairs.

As an aside, the other locations are _theoretically_ wheelchair accessible from the Supercharger. I say theoretically because of the hills and distnace. Around the same time as or not long after the Supercharger was built (and maybe even as a result), the mall did work on the sidewalks in that area. So from the Supercharger, there is a sidewalk, and a crossing with drops and then you can go down the sidewalk to a cut-through.
Google Maps

Unfortunately the cut through doesn't have an immediate drop so following that route with a wheelchair one can't easily cut through the parking lot. Instead the sidewalk heads up to Home Depot away from the side with the food (and in front of Home Depot of course there's no sidewalk.)

Other than that the sidewalk continues round the corner and along the road, but then you can't easily get back up to the food, with it being a steep slope up with no sidewalk.

Google Maps

 

[Gwgan]

Gardiner is done
Barry Woods on Twitter
“ 62.5kW for the DC chargers and 6.6kW for the Level 2“

 

[mcot222]

Isn’t it pretty useless to put L2 chargers at rest areas... unless it is for the employees...

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Isn’t it pretty useless to put L2 chargers at rest areas... unless it is for the employees...

If priced reasonably, it's OK for people resting or waiting.

 

[jlv1]

If priced reasonably, it's OK for people resting or waiting.

Over the weekend I stopped at the Kennebunk NB SuC and saw the same setup there. The L2 seemed to cost *more* than the L3!

And the L2 is pretty useless at a rest area, unless you are resting overnight. An hour of charging on the L2 will add a negligible amount of range to nearly any BEV.

Maybe these are intended for those plug-ins with only J1772 ports and negligible range in the first place, such as PiP, Prius Prime, or the Pacifica Hybrid minivan.

 

[tga]

The L2's are there because it's a requirement of ME's RFP for disbursement of VW Appendix D settlement funds (or so I was told by someone involved with the project).

 

[RiverBrick]

And the L2 is pretty useless at a rest area, unless you are resting overnight. An hour of charging on the L2 will add a negligible amount of range to nearly any BEV.

L2 is useful for topping off once the quick charge power has significantly tapered. Many cars with small batteries experience significant charge rate tapering while at the same time needing to charge to nearly 100%. Better for them to switch to L2 than occupy the CCS/CHAdeMO for hours.

 

[shonline]

Were folks having trouble finding it? I’ve never seen a sign like this before.

 

[eladts]

Maybe these are intended for those plug-ins with only J1772 ports and negligible range in the first place, such as PiP, Prius Prime, or the Pacifica Hybrid minivan.

The high price of electricity all but guarantees PHEV drivers won't use these station, as just using gas would be cheaper. Drivers of EV capable of DC charging won't use these stations either. This leaves us with BEV with only AC charging, like the Ford Focus Electric, as the target audience.

 

[Gwgan]

Were folks having trouble finding it? I’ve never seen a sign like this before.

Probably. Half a mile of winding mall roads to the top of four tiers and when you finally arrive in the right parking lot the pedestals are behind the fenced in power cabinets.

 

[shonline]

Probably. Half a mile of winding mall roads to the top of four tiers and when you finally arrive in the right parking lot the pedestals are behind the fenced in power cabinets.

Yes agreed. That makes sense. Assume it is fairly new signage? But that was the first big charger in Maine for me and I certainly knew where to find it! Especially when knowing I had to Chademo at the Nissan in Bangor. We’ve come a long way baby!!

 

[Gwgan]

Maine’s first Supercharger may be getting an upgrade. Tesla was allotted some federal funds by the state

$6M funding boost will bring EV chargers to 12 sites in Maine

The locations range from Brunswick to Houlton, and the new chargers are planned to be in operation next year.

www.mainebiz.biz

 

[Tdreamer]

Thanks for posting. Probably a little early to acknowledge the sites as permitted, but definitely worth keeping an eye on!