Supercharger - Burlington, WA

[deonb]

When I first started looking at the Model S, I was told this was a real car. Not a battery with wheels that needs to be baby'd with every mile being a hypermile. Was that sales pitch incorrect?

I'll see your 384 and raise you a 397.

Maybe I should also allow my grandmother to drive every now and again...

 

[Puyallup Bill]

Gotta love it!

The LEAF reports miles per kWh, and folks on those forums brag when the miles per kWh is high.
Here, bragging rights seem to go to those who get the fewest miles per kWh.

Since my wife and I have both, we just drive them within their limitations. Life is good.

 

[TurboFroggy]

Wow Tesla is on the ball. Not only got their site updated in a single day, but there are now official locations in the Supercharger tab on the places in my Maps in the Tesla as well. That is some agility there. Nissan is lucky to get new charging station into the Leaf in 3-4 months after it opens.

 

[purplewalt]

Why not plan to do that with a few EV friends in June 2014? I know a few who will be taking that very drive, 1500 miles from Mexico to Canada, BC2BC-2014.

Looking at the Super Charger Map (by anticipated dates), I would need to be able to get to Colorado first.
Texas starts out an island, then grows (from 2 to 6), then FINALLY gets to touch other states.
Then the rest of it is easy...

June 2014 trip might be just right around the corner.
Love the Great Northwest, especially compared to typical Texas Summer heat in July and August.

 

[Saxena]

Stopped by the Burlington Supercharger this evening and saw that 2 of the stations were cordoned off with yellow caution tape. Not operational for some reason?

Picked up about 60 miles of charge in about 25 minutes. No one else around. Peak charging rate was about 165 MPH when starting at about 50% SOC, which slowed down to about 135 MPH as I got closer to full. Perfectly situated just off I-5, I will definitely be back in the future.

Yes, right before we left there at the grand opening, we discovered that our car was no longer charging. The Tesla guys were still there so they called it in. We were at charger #2. We also tried #3 and it wasn't working.

 

[MBCMDR]

All stations working now, only one of the stations #3 believe giving a fan warning that they fix next..

 

[brianman]

Happenstance...

Dropped off my car yesterday for the 12,500 service. As I was arriving, one of the technicians (I didn't catch the title) working on the Superchargers just rolled out. I didn't get a chance to see him, but he was up here (Bellevue) from California.

 

[MBCMDR]

That was Cliff fairly new Tesla Employee that will handle the SuperCharger Stations at least the West coast what informed.

 

[goneskiian]

Was his name Cliff? Well I was a bit off. I thought it was Jeff or Jared! Ha!

I think I met him in Burlington on the 11th on my way back from Anacortes. He was very nice and went into some detail regarding the monitoring of the usage.

Although, I thought the guy I met had been with Tesla for a bit and had actually helped to engineer the the superchargers before they started sending him out in the field.

 

[deonb]

Happenstance...

Dropped off my car yesterday for the 12,500 service. As I was arriving, one of the technicians (I didn't catch the title) working on the Superchargers just rolled out. I didn't get a chance to see him, but he was up here (Bellevue) from California.

Wonder if it's the same guy I ran into (name was Hank). He flew in from Palo Alto Friday and picked up a loaner from Bellevue to drive to Burlington. He's on the SuperCharger engineering team, and apparently the only one who handles the physical rollouts.

Had a nice long chat with him. Two cool things:

1) 120kW will go live in California at the end of the month, and in WA in about 90 days. The change from 90kW to 120kW and taper down change from 150 miles to 200 miles go into effect at the same time.
2) He also thinks battery swapping is more about marketing. When 120kW chargers come around he can't see any people using battery swapping. Then again, he's on the charger team and not the battery swapping team. Friendly internal rivalry?


I'm still amazed how crazy fast this charger is even at 90.

I pulled into Burlington with a 30 mile range, walked over to Shell to go to the bathroom and bought a bottle of wine, and when I arrived back at the car it had 107 miles on it - enough for me to get home. Could have left at that point... of course I ran into Hank at that moment, so when I finally pulled out after the conversation I had 180 miles range . Overall 150 miles added in 32 minutes.

 

[brianman]

I'm still amazed how crazy fast this charger is even at 90.

I pulled into Burlington with a 30 mile range, walked over to Shell to go to the bathroom and bought a bottle of wine, and when I arrived back at the car it had 107 miles on it - enough for me to get home. Could have left at that point... of course I ran into Hank at that moment, so when I finally pulled out after the conversation I had 180 miles range . Overall 150 miles added in 32 minutes.

Tagline for Superchargers:
Get home in time to enjoy some of that bottle of wine before bed.

 

[MBCMDR]

Tagline for Superchargers:
Get home in time to enjoy some of that bottle of wine before bed.

Hank was cool to chat with, as had a long chat too,, the Superchargers are at 90kWh they will all be 120kWh in the very near future..

 

[Vger]

Just curious: for those who have gone there to charge SINCE the official opening, has anyone been there with another car or two yet? Any comment on how utilization is trending?

 

[132]

Was the sole ms there this morning from 8:30 - 9:00

 

[MBCMDR]

Three cars at the same time, Hank said yesterday while doing the repair think was five cars plus he gave 3 test drives.. I did charge twice yesterday as did 340 miles yesterday total and Hank was there in morning and later evening.

 

[dirkhh]

So far math says you won't be likely to run into a lot of others. Gilroy and Hawthorn may be the exception because of the high density of Teslas in Silicon Valley and LA - but up here in the Pacific NorthWest we have maybe 6-700 Teslas on the streets. A good share of them aren't qualified to use the Superchargers (40kWh plus non-upgraded 60kWh). How many of the others are on I5 north of Seattle at any time? Once you have 3-4000 Teslas (as there are in the Bay Area) the math changes...

 

[deonb]

Just curious: for those who have gone there to charge SINCE the official opening, has anyone been there with another car or two yet? Any comment on how utilization is trending?

Was there at noon yesterday (Saturday). Started alone and charged for an hour (I did a charge up to 255 miles since I was driving up to North Vancouver and back). In that time 1 other MS pulled in and left.

On the way back at 9:15p Hank had the only other car.

 

[v12 to 12v]

Just curious: for those who have gone there to charge SINCE the official opening, has anyone been there with another car or two yet? Any comment on how utilization is trending?

I would bet that Tesla is monitoring usage very closely so that they can hone their deployment strategy. I'd also make a bet that they track non-Supercharger charging patterns. With the recent nav system update that created tags displaying the charging locations that you used, its obvious that this data was getting compiled all along.

I was at the Centralia Supercharger yesterday before noon and there was one other MS there. I was back again around 10pm and didn't see anyone else. By the looks of the Centralia thread I just missed quite a few people there.

 

[ThortsMD]

Just curious: for those who have gone there to charge SINCE the official opening, has anyone been there with another car or two yet? Any comment on how utilization is trending?

There were 4 of us while I visited the first time. I moved to 3 different stations, and it made no difference in transfer rate. It all depended on state of charge. On my way up to the mountains, I had 170 range miles and charged at 50KWh and on the way home (at 60 range miles to begin with) I charged at 77 KWh.

It was nice to chat it up with SuperCoug while charging. He was kind enough to show my his Verizon 4G MiFi. Might be a good option depending on what's offered when we have to start ponying up for our connectivity.

I would also add that the nearby gas station actually has lots of food (including hot fresh food) and drink options.

 

[ZBB]

Looks like Burlington will be the first SC I'll get to visit. Unfortunately, my S will be parked at home in AZ, so it won't be for a charging stop since we'll be in a rental. We're driving from Saltspring Island BC to Spokane on Aug 1 -- so will make a short detour after we get off the ferry in Annacortes...