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

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They should expand Tejon Ranch supercharger instead, kind of a waste of money and resources for this location.
Well that's a moot point, but I see the rationale in having more, distributed SC stations instead of fewer larger ones, especially after each car can see realtime SC status.

One of the situations when this specific location may be more critical is when the grapevine is closed. Southbound traffic can back up and could keep people from getting to Tejon.
 
Well that's a moot point, but I see the rationale in having more, distributed SC stations instead of fewer larger ones, especially after each car can see realtime SC status.

One of the situations when this specific location may be more critical is when the grapevine is closed. Southbound traffic can back up and could keep people from getting to Tejon.
There are two 10-stalls superchargers (20 stalls total) that is literally just five mins apart. Not much different than 20 stalls in one single location. Obviously, smaller supercharger spread out everywhere is great, but it is definitely not the case here.
 
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There are two 10-stalls superchargers (20 stalls total) that is literally just five mins apart. Not much different than 20 stalls in one single location. Obviously, smaller supercharger spread out everywhere is great, but it is definitely not the case here.
As I stated upthread, "Close, independent locations provide functional redundancy not possible from a larger single SC location." This is exactly what they've already done for Sac-Reno and Sac-Tahoe.
 
They should expand Tejon Ranch supercharger instead, kind of a waste of money and resources for this location.
Absolutely not a "waste". The I5 corridor is heavily traveled and the number of Teslas using that freeway will increase dramatically every year for the foreseeable future. More Superchargers is better. There are many more in the works at locations only known to Tesla employees. You are going to see a lot more locations come to life over the next year.
 
As I stated upthread, "Close, independent locations provide functional redundancy not possible from a larger single SC location."
Very true. In addition, at any single location the local electrical infrastructure may not be able to support more chargers, and the parking lot owner may not be willing to lease more spaces to Tesla. So Tesla has no choice but to build separate nearby Superchargers when they want to expand the number of stalls.
 
Close, independent locations provide functional redundancy not possible from a larger single SC location. They're starting to make your journey single fault tolerant.
Obviously, smaller supercharger spread out everywhere is great, but it is definitely not the case here.
There's a balance between close locations and plugs per location.

As already stated, it's likely that different physical locations also get you some redundancy in terms of the electrical feed. Putting 20 plugs in one single location may not be easily done without significantly upgrading the local grid, but putting two 10-plug locations in a few miles apart may not be an issue.

At the same time, if you want the best guarantee that you'll arrive at a location and be able to find a spot open without having to search, your best bet is to put all the plugs in one spot.

Spreading locations out all over the place isn't necessarily ideal, because if you're stuck for 30-45 minutes charging, you'd obviously rather stop at a place where you can do something else while you wait and not all locations have something to do.
 
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Spreading locations out all over the place isn't necessarily ideal, because if you're stuck for 30-45 minutes charging, you'd obviously rather stop at a place where you can do something else while you wait and not all locations have something to do.

I actually find that argument to be supportive of spreading out chargers. If the current location doesn't have anything interesting to me, perhaps the new location will.
 
There's a balance between close locations and plugs per location.
It's a network capacity vs network reliability problem. They don't want a single large SC station shut down by one harmful event, yet distributed Superchargers have to be close enough such that travel between the locations is easy and within typical battery margins. For this new Supercharger, the Buttonwillow location is 5 miles away, so the pain or risk in backtracking or extending that extra distance is reasonable. Yet they're independent enough to meaningfully reduce the probability of both simultaneously not being available.

The Buttonwillow and Bakersfield-Stockdale Hwy Supercharger pair is functionally equivalent (near each other and similarly sized) but independent. This provides graceful degradation of the network's capability for this intermediate stop between cities.
 
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The Buttonwillow and Bakersfield-Stockdale Hwy Supercharger pair is functionally equivalent (near each other and similarly sized) but independent. This provides graceful degradation of the network's capability for this intermediate stop between cities.
Nicely stated. I think over the next few years we are going to see many more Supercharger locations near each other on heavily traveled routes, providing Tesla owners with greater long distance charging reliability.
 
Going back to a previous idea I posted on another thread, a perfect example of such pairing would be at Tejon Ranch. A paired site would be at the shopping center on the opposite side of the I5 from the existing SC location. The existing site could serve primarily the southbound traffic and a new site would serve primarily the northbound traffic. This would help ease the existing site where space is limited while also being sensitive to traffic flow on a heavily Tesla traveled interstate.
 
There are specific advantages to this particular pairing. People coming south on I-5 and either continuing south or turning east on 58 to Bakersfield will first stop at Buttonwillow, and only if that's full will they proceed to Stockdale Hwy, from which they can still continue south or turn east and drive direct to Bakersfield on a slightly slower road. Those heading north up I-5 and turning onto 99 will stop at Tejon Ranch, and those heading north up 5 will first stop at Stockdale, and only go to Buttonwillow if Stockdale is full. As a way to increase capacity and de-conflict traffic it's just about ideal, even without real-time monitoring of availability.

They'll still need a 'real' Bakersfield SC, along with the obvious other points along 99 (at least Visalia/Tulare and Merced plus Yuba City/Marysville, Chico and maybe Oroville) and a few more on 5 to boost capacity and convenience, including Lost Hills, Kettleman City, Santa Nella and something to shorten the 170 mile leg between Manteca and Corning, whether Williams, Dunnigan or the western Sacramento area.
 
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There are specific advantages to this particular pairing. People coming south on I-5 and either continuing south or turning east on 58 to Bakersfield will first stop at Buttonwillow, and only if that's full will they proceed to Stockdale Hwy, from which they can still continue south or turn east and drive direct to Bakersfield on a slightly slower road. Those heading north up I-5 and turning onto 99 will stop at Tejon Ranch, and those heading north up 5 will first stop at Stockdale, and only go to Buttonwillow if Stockdale is full. As a way to increase capacity and de-conflict traffic it's just about ideal, even without real-time monitoring of availability.

They'll still need a 'real' Bakersfield SC, along with the obvious other points along 99 (at least Visalia/Tulare and Merced plus Yuba City/Marysville, Chico and maybe Oroville) and a few more on 5 to boost capacity and convenience, including Lost Hills, Kettleman City, Santa Nella and something to shorten the 170 mile leg between Manteca and Corning, whether Williams, Dunnigan or the western Sacramento area.
I hear you loud and clear. I have driven these routes several times and there is no doubt several of those sites you mentioned will be needed to balance the future travel load.
 
Could someone using Bakerfield please check the size of the battery? How many battery cabinets. Thanks.
I am unclear on what you are asking. As of now I have not seen anyone post evidence that there are storage batteries associated with this Supercharger site. And if there were I am not confident that one would be able to tell the battery storage capacity just by looking at them, though maybe if they were obviously Powerpacks one could count the number and multiple by 100kWh to get a total capacity.