If I leave my house in southern California with a full charge, Buttonwillow is a very reasonable drive. For me when heading north, I have always thought Tejon was a little soon to be stopping. Tejon is one of the original superchargers, in fact it is the first one we used on our first supercharger road trip. Harris Ranch was the bottle neck back then since it was only one stall in the gas station.
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Supercharger - Buttonwillow, CA (10 V2 stalls)
- Thread starter Tuan
- Start date
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- California Supercharging USA
For those driving down to the LA area, we'd hit Buttonwillow first. If I'm going for a weekend, that would be a good place to stop on Friday. I wouldn't need a charge yet if I eat at HR, and could wait until TR, but I wouldn't chance it, given the recent issues. I'd stop at BW and probably charge enough to give me enough capacity to get to the LA area and have enough for local driving, assuming I might not be staying right next to a SC. If I found a crowd, I might consider TR, but it might be a case of better safe than sorry. Or I might decide that I could use as much charge as possible so I'd have plenty for local driving, but wouldn't want to wait for anything close to 100%. It would be faster to charge to a lower amount, then arrive at TR and charge some more. But it would still come down to the likelihood of hitting a crowd. Stopping at both would mean spending fewer minutes charging overall and would be in the best interest of other drivers too. But it's too early to tell whether it would be risky to assume there would be a spot to charge, and being paired up could double the charge time. And there's no way of knowing if the car next to me just arrived or will be leaving in 5 minutes.
I don't think you can assume that the chargers will be used primarily by people from SoCal who are leaving for the weekend. Those are the ones who can afford to charge at home to 100% and not need to stop at any local chargers, and might be able to make it to HR with a minimal stop or no stop before it. For people going in the opposite direction, unless they are staying at a hotel with a destination charger and have no plans to leave the hotel for hours once they arrive, then you can expect they'd have a much greater need. If I lived in SoCal, I'd probably be able to leave HR at 100% after a full meal and perhaps make it to my garage and not need any of the other chargers, or get by with a minimal charge in between.
I realize there are folks in SoCal who would have no choice but to charge at a local SC after a day of commuting and before a long trip, but I would also expect that there are many who are visiting the area who won't have the luxury of starting their return trip with a full charge unless they charge at an area SC.
Looking forward to more photos showing construction progress at Buttonwillow.
I will be passing by there on Feb. 15th, a month from now. Don't expect it to be operational by then, but construction could be largely completed.
I will be passing by there on Feb. 15th, a month from now. Don't expect it to be operational by then, but construction could be largely completed.
Khatsalano
Member
Actually, for future trips, the real value of Buttonwilllow for me is the ability to SKIP Harris Ranch. 
The smell is just not ok and the burgers/steaks aren't that stellar.
- K
The smell is just not ok and the burgers/steaks aren't that stellar.- K
palmer_md
Member
Supercharger - Buttonwillow (under construction)
It still could be many weeks away from opening. Sometimes the final steps take the longest...
Thanks for the update! Real progress, but I wonder if the transformer is in place. I assume the Supercharger cabinets are installed in their enclosure. They were onsite when I was there in early January.
It still could be many weeks away from opening. Sometimes the final steps take the longest...
ddimit
Member
Tyl
Active Member
Tyl
Active Member
Geez! I rarely check my posts on other computer systems. I apologize for not re-rotating etc. prior to posting. Here ya go!
![image[1].jpeg](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/attachments/image-1-jpeg.109431/ "image[1].jpeg")
![image[2].jpeg](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/attachments/image-2-jpeg.109432/ "image[2].jpeg")
![image[3].jpeg](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/attachments/image-3-jpeg.109433/ "image[3].jpeg")
jimmy_d
Deep Learning Dork
I swung by this morning and saw a couple of PGE trucks doing some work. I chatted with one of the guys and he said that they would have the power hooked up by tomorrow and that the tesla hardware was already installed. Looks like it is coming together pretty quickly. The PGE guy also mentioned that they were getting this together quickly because Coalinga was going down temporarily for expansion. So later in the day I stopped at Coalinga (Harris Ranch) and sure enough there's a bunch of new chargers going in there. Looks like it will be going up to at least 12 bays.
I gotta believe that if Coalinga goes down it can't be for very long. Seems like a a day or two would be plenty to get the power hooked up. Taking out that charger makes the central valley run much tighter. Adding buttonwillow makes it possible to get to gilroy, but you don't get a lot of margin. And getting to Dublin is really pushing it.
I gotta believe that if Coalinga goes down it can't be for very long. Seems like a a day or two would be plenty to get the power hooked up. Taking out that charger makes the central valley run much tighter. Adding buttonwillow makes it possible to get to gilroy, but you don't get a lot of margin. And getting to Dublin is really pushing it.
ddimit
Member
Harris Ranch has had the 4 temp pods for awhile now. Was wondering when they planned to make it more permanent
AMPd
Well-Known Member
Hopefully the temp stalls are going to Tejon Ranch
Four additional bays would definitely help there
cpa
Active Member
Maybe Tesla will time the temporary shut-down of Harris Ranch and get Fresno open any day. While the drive from Ft. Tejon to Gilroy via Fresno is (guessing) 70 miles longer, at least there won't be any "range anxiety" in trying to negotiate Gilroy-Buttonwillow.
ddimit
Member
I often thought they should move the Chargers over by the battery swap building, I assume Tesla bought it or has a long term lease on it. Add a lounge and it would be like Seaside.
Plus the added view of that expensive unused Hydrogen refueling station!
Plus the added view of that expensive unused Hydrogen refueling station!
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