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Supercharger - Bakersfield, CA (I-5 / Stockdale Hwy, 10 V2 stalls)

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Driving down I-5 today, emergency stop to use the restroom at Jack in the Box. Looked across the way at the Shell station and saw supercharger under construction. Sorry, no photos, saw it as I was turning back to the highway. Perhaps if someone else is driving by, they can confirm the details and get some photos.

Looked to be about 6 stalls, located in the Shell gas station parking lot.

GPS: 35.354634, -119.331715
 
Nice find! That location, on Stockdale Hwy at the I5, is just a few miles south of the Buttonwillow Supercharger. Tesla is really beefing up the Supercharger options on the I5 in the Central Valley.

If anyone is thinking about complaining that there are other areas within a few hundred miles that have a greater need for a Supercharger, I don't disagree, but please keep in mind that Tesla does not have total control over where they can site new Superchargers or when they can start construction. They build them where they think they will be useful (and think very long term) and where the opportunity presents itself. It can be easier to find sites in low density areas than in high density areas like the greater LA region.

The irony of EV chargers being placed at a gas station did not pass unnoticed, but it is not the first time Tesla has done that. The Superior MT Supercharger is at a gas station.
 
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Extremely odd to be putting a second SC location in just ~2 miles from the one already there.

Not complaining . . . just odd.
Not that odd when you think ahead to all the Model 3s that will be on the road a few years from now. This area is an important stop for charging before you reach the Grapevine and the long, range-draining climb over the mountains, or after you've already expended that energy headed north out of L.A..
 
Not that odd when you think ahead to all the Model 3s that will be on the road a few years from now. This area is an important stop for charging before you reach the Grapevine and the long, range-draining climb over the mountains, or after you've already expended that energy headed north out of L.A..

What I find a but odd is that there are only 6 stalls being installed. Which is a pretty low number of stalls. Maybe Tesla thought the two locations close together meant that there would be enough stalls between the two locations

Edit: Looked at the permits linked above and it looks like they're installing 10 stalls instead of 6 as previously reported.
Install (10) charging posts, (5) supercharger cabinets, (1) qed switchgear inside fenced enclosure; (1) transformer, (1) stationary storage unit at new supercharging station at ex auto service center.
 
This is great news for me because I visit Bakersfield occasionally coming from the Inland Empire. I'll be using this SuperCharger once or twice during my visit while I stay.

Only saves 5 minutes from the button willow station but should also help with congestion.
 
Here are the Kern County permit links for the electrical and enclosure work - there isn't really much there that isn't at the link posted by ItsNotAboutTheMoney, although they will show when inspections have been done. If they are adding a supercharger here, we should be watching I-5 exits farther north as well, such as Lost Hills, Kettleman City, Santa Nella, and Westley.
 
Extremely odd to be putting a second SC location in just ~2 miles from the one already there.

Not complaining . . . just odd.

I-5 in California is probably the first highway which will undergo a paradigm transition from "I will stop to supercharge because I can" (regardless of immediate need) to "I'm running low on juice, so I'll stop to supercharge at the next exit with services" like we are used to with ICE vehicles.
 
I'm normally one to whinge when extra SCs are added on an already well supplied route. But I don't begrudge this one! Isn't Tejon Ranch the one that had a waiting queue 10+ cars long last Christmas? Yes, this area certainly needs it!

It could well be on a separate electrical feeder than Buttonwillow etc. which could be part of the decision between a second site vs. expanding Buttonwillow.
 
Extremely odd to be putting a second SC location in just ~2 miles from the one already there.
Not odd, think long term, as @thecloud noted.
with several Superchargers this close together, it becomes more important than ever to have something built into the Nav,
Agreed! At the very least, when the nav selects Superchargers for a route, during the route it should regularly be re-evaluating it's Supercharger stops based on the current state of use and notify the driver if a different Supercharger stop is indicated or if a charging stop is going to take longer than anticipated because of usage.

I am confident that such a nav update is coming. I just don't know when it is coming.
 
bkp_duke said:
Extremely odd to be putting a second SC location in just ~2 miles from the one already there.

Not complaining . . . just odd.
I think so. Logically the new charger should be on the 99 in or just north of Bakersfield. There must be issues where they can get the land and/or the power, and for what price.
 
It's the new trend. Its the same kind of dupicated SCs as on I-80 and SR50 out of Sacramento east to Reno & Tahoe.

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Close, independent locations provide functional redundancy not possible from a larger single SC location. They're starting to make your journey single fault tolerant.
 
with several Superchargers this close together, it becomes more important than ever to have something built into the Nav, to allow 'load balancing' of who uses which chargers. It would be painful to stop at one, go several miles to the next, if the first is busy, then try another etc.

Strangely, I was told the nav software already did this by the sales rep that sold me my car. Now that I own the car, I've never seen this in action and don't believe it's a current capability. Hopefully with 8.0 it'll become a reality. Even if it's only basic information that would allow an informed decision to let the driver manually load balance by making a decision which SC to stop at while enroute...
 
The California terminology for this is a "double-double". At least, I think I heard that somewhere...
Double-double animal style!

Back on topic, it's important to have redundancy in exceptionally busy areas to spread out the load. It will take longer for 12 people to charge at 6 stalls, than for 12 people to charge at 12 stalls.
 
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Non-local here so please tell me to STFU if I have no idea what I'm talking about - I notice supercharge.info (ping @BlueShift) refers to this as Bakersfield. Shouldn't it be Buttonwillow-2 if anything? I guess we won't know until it goes into service on the official Tesla site.
If you zoom in on the map, you'll see that the closest incorporated area is Bakersfield, not Buttonwillow. Stockdale Highway actually runs directly into downtown Bakersfield. What matters is what the building permit says, and referring to the link that @ItsNotAboutTheMoney posted, it definitely seems to be Bakersfield.
 
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Non-local here so please tell me to STFU if I have no idea what I'm talking about - I notice supercharge.info (ping @BlueShift) refers to this as Bakersfield. Shouldn't it be Buttonwillow-2 if anything? I guess we won't know until it goes into service on the official Tesla site.
If you open Google Maps to the coordinate given in the first post and click on the Chevron gas station next door, you will see that the postal address is in fact Bakersfield. Eventually there will probably be another Supercharger site closer to the center of Bakersfield just off Highway 99.
 
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