HookBill
Member
Both Teslarati and Tesla sites show Buttonwillow as open. Appears to have opened the same day as Fresno. A strategic move to compensate for the temp shutdown of Harris Ranch perhaps?
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Supercharger - Buttonwillow, CA (10 V2 stalls)
- Thread starter Tuan
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- California Supercharging USA
Is this record speed? I mean, the first photo we have of construction was 12/28. Confirmed no construction on 12/21 by ecarfan. That's a one month turn-up including the utility.
I think that Mountain View was faster: from May 25 to Jun 9.
In the end, Superchargers can be built as fast as you can pour concrete given a large enough installation team. Nothing complicated, just some careful wiring work is required.
You'll probably not see me at Harris Ranch again now that Fresno just went live today. In fact, anyone traveling north along 5 to Stockton or north will now use Fresno instead as it's a 3 lane freeway rather than 2 (like 5) and it's shorter trip distance wise. Having to hit Harris for all of those destinations North was never optimal. The Fresno charger will be very busy shortly.
Ulmo
Active Member
Today I overheard the Fresno Supercharger construction worker talking to the shopping center security guard, mentioning the idea is to put a Supercharger every 50 miles. I already posted this in the Fresno SC thread. Like there, I have to state, I do not know the derivation of his remark (or its accuracy). But it makes me wonder what a landscape with a Supercharger every 50 miles would look like from the point of view of a Tesla driver.
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Is this the derivation of the "every 50 miles" remark I mentioned above?
Ulmo
Active Member
Not only that, but I was playing with EV Trip Planner and looking at the map, and realized LA -> Sacramento can use the Buttonwillow AND Fresno SC's that just opened today, and skip both Tejon & Harris completely! EVTripPlanner wants me to use Kimberlina Road to get back to CA-99, but CA-5 -> CA-41 -> CA-99 looks pretty good too to my eyes.
It seems to me today marks the beginning of the end of range anxiety for long distance urban California Tesla trips. With the better in-car planning, online planning, and much better Supercharger penetration, it seems like it is getting much less likely you'll find pre-planned routes with edge cases where you have to worry a lot or be disproportionately inconvenienced. It's getting to a point where you can go into a Supercharger, top up if it's convenient, or if there's some sort of line or something, just skip it and go on to the next.
There's still work to be done, of course: online information on expected availability of each Supercharger (with prediction of charge rate based on how long each car has to get to their target point) along with appropriate route planning (perhaps a hive mind reservation system for charging so cars don't bunch up in one SC by accident); figuring out the whole Model 3 mess (which is an enjoyable opportunity for good engineers/scientists/mathematicians/programmers/economists/etc.); etc.. But since the buildout of SC's is tied to sales, this should sort of naturally evolve without undue hubub, with a few little exceptions (like what to do with all those locals using free charging).
The next time things get this order of magnitude easier seems like when the cars can go autonomously charge themselves and/or destination charging becomes a reality for a large proportion of drivers' cars.
ddimit
Member
Same here, Coming from Sac 5 was never my ideal route, 99 is way better, more to see, more lanes. Less hills. You don't realize until you pay attention between Harris ranch and the Gilroy turn off there are a lot of ups downs.
AMPd
Well-Known Member
Interesting, I've always hated the 99, still do. Too many towns, too many exists/entrances onto the highway creating slow downs
ddimit
Member
When did you drive it last? I used to think the same thing and drove 5 for years. 99 is mostly 3 Lanes and better roadbed. I got tired of getting stuck behind the semi conga lines on I5.
Decades ago the 99 was all two lanes, but now there are extensive stretches where it is 3 lanes. In that aspect it is better than the 5.
It's great to see the Supercharger network growing in the Central Valley. What a change from just a year ago!
It's great to see the Supercharger network growing in the Central Valley. What a change from just a year ago!
cpa
Active Member
I obviously travel 99 frequently. The freeway has been widened to three lanes for much of the route between Bakersfield and the SR120 junction in Manteca. The four-lane divided highway from the Madera-Merced county line into Merced has been upgraded to a limited access freeway with three lanes now in each direction. However, the freeway through Merced is still two lanes with a reduced speed due to the continuing construction work on some bridges. I can make it from Fresno to Modesto in under 90 minutes, and I do not drive faster than the speed limit.
I have found that the biggest obstacle to smooth driving on 99 is when ag is at full bore. Then you are getting all the short-haul trucks carrying tomatoes, grapes, citrus, onions and almonds, among others.
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Decades ago, there were still three traffic signals on 99 between Livingston and Keyes. And about one-third of the mileage between Fresno and Stockton was the old divided highway with cross traffic.
I have found that the biggest obstacle to smooth driving on 99 is when ag is at full bore. Then you are getting all the short-haul trucks carrying tomatoes, grapes, citrus, onions and almonds, among others.
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Decades ago, there were still three traffic signals on 99 between Livingston and Keyes. And about one-third of the mileage between Fresno and Stockton was the old divided highway with cross traffic.
Just a third? Felt like more when I was a kid and used to go between Fresno and Stockton quite regularly, but maybe that was the "are we there yet?" factor.
But I agree with you that 99 through the Central Valley has changed quite a lot, generally for the better. I was pleasantly surprised when I started using 99 instead of 5 a few years back.
Now if only the nav database was current with respect to the freeway realignment (around Merced I think)...it gets really confused and tries to route me back to the divided highway that doesn't exist anymore. I obviously won't get lost because of it but the nav's confusion just nags at my inner OCD. :smile:
Supercharger - Buttonwillow (went LIVE 01-29-2015)
But how about we get this thread back on topic...who will be the first to post photos of their car charging at Buttonwillow?
Also, post about whether using Buttonwillow allows you to skip Tejon?
I had that happen as well a week ago coming from Yosemite back to the Bay Area.
But how about we get this thread back on topic...who will be the first to post photos of their car charging at Buttonwillow?
Also, post about whether using Buttonwillow allows you to skip Tejon?
Has anybody stopped there to dine? There doesn't seem to be much choice for food, but what's interesting is the Taste of India. It got consistently terrible reviews through last December, and almost perfect reviews on Yelp since January, with notes saying it's under new management.
I'm OK with Indian food and OK with steak. Neither is something I want to eat day in and day out, and the problem I've had up to now is that HR was unavoidable. It's not that I dislike their food, but eating a full meal there on the way "there" and having to stop on the way "back" can be a bit much when there's no other choice. Now with Buttonwillow live, and with Burbank being on the I5 route and not requiring any deviation, that makes it possible to avoid HR and TR. It's now theoretically possible to make it from Fremont/Silicon Valley to SoCal with a single stop in Buttonwillow, passing through Gilroy, HR, and TR without stopping but having the option just in case a bit more charge is needed.
But with HR, the advantage was that by the time I was finished eating, I was up to about 99.x% charged. If I go to Buttonwillow, I don't want to sit around while charging, so it will come down to what I can do while there.
I'm assuming that Denny's and Quiznos will be like any other in the chain and a restaurant review wouldn't be needed, but if there's anything noteworthy about anything else at Buttonwillow, that would be helpful too.
I'm OK with Indian food and OK with steak. Neither is something I want to eat day in and day out, and the problem I've had up to now is that HR was unavoidable. It's not that I dislike their food, but eating a full meal there on the way "there" and having to stop on the way "back" can be a bit much when there's no other choice. Now with Buttonwillow live, and with Burbank being on the I5 route and not requiring any deviation, that makes it possible to avoid HR and TR. It's now theoretically possible to make it from Fremont/Silicon Valley to SoCal with a single stop in Buttonwillow, passing through Gilroy, HR, and TR without stopping but having the option just in case a bit more charge is needed.
But with HR, the advantage was that by the time I was finished eating, I was up to about 99.x% charged. If I go to Buttonwillow, I don't want to sit around while charging, so it will come down to what I can do while there.
I'm assuming that Denny's and Quiznos will be like any other in the chain and a restaurant review wouldn't be needed, but if there's anything noteworthy about anything else at Buttonwillow, that would be helpful too.
Supercharger - Buttonwillow (went LIVE 01-29-2015)
The area where the new Buttonwillow charger is located is very small and there are not many food choices, but about an average number for a Supercharger location. Taste of India is not fabulous Indian food, but it's okay. Other choices in that area are similarly mediocre. But then I don't like to eat at Harris Ranch. Personal preference.
There are a limited number of locations in the Central Valley along I5 where a Supercharger could be located. I'm very pleased to have a new Supercharger! Food choices are a low priority.
The area where the new Buttonwillow charger is located is very small and there are not many food choices, but about an average number for a Supercharger location. Taste of India is not fabulous Indian food, but it's okay. Other choices in that area are similarly mediocre. But then I don't like to eat at Harris Ranch. Personal preference.
There are a limited number of locations in the Central Valley along I5 where a Supercharger could be located. I'm very pleased to have a new Supercharger! Food choices are a low priority.
AMPd
Well-Known Member
For me, I want to be able to make a trip as fast as I could in an ICE. If I'm planning to stop to eat anyway, then I don't lose any time in a Tesla. In fact I save a few minutes not stopping for gas. If I have to stop somewhere to charge and I don't eat there, and I stop to eat somewhere else, my trip time gets extended by the charging time.
Each person has different priorities, and there's nothing wrong with that, but having good places to eat doesn't hurt people who have no plans to eat or don't care about food. I realize Tesla has limited control over that, but in areas where there's little else, I would hope it would be profitable enough to open more restaurants. In a place like HR, if they get only one extra customer an hour and the rest charge and don't eat there, then that could add up to almost $300,000 a year even if they get only eight customers a day with an average bill of $100. In areas where land is cheap, and this would apply for most of the US more than it would for California, a supercharger stop near an area with a few good restaurants could be quite lucrative for the restaurants.
I would hope that Tesla could use their data to show businesses how many people stop to charge in a given area, how long their average stop is, and with a few in person visits, could even tell what percentage don't remain in their cars. In areas where there's nothing else around, it's a good bet that the people are shopping or dining or spending money.
It's also not a matter of whether a person likes HR. Few people want to eat there on every trip in both directions. It's not enough to have enough chargers on the route. It will be important in the long run to have enough places to stop that no particular charger is a requirement and that it's always possible to have a choice of which area to stop to eat. It's far easier to push EV adoption when people realize that they will have minimal impact and few compromises by doing so.
I've been driving the 5 from Berkeley to LA & back every month for work for years. I just want to get there and have breakfast on the way while charging. It looks like it's 30 minutes longer to go the 99 even though it's only 22 miles more and has the extra lane. Is this a speed limit issue? Of course my blood pressure might be lower if I had 3 lanes and didn't have to sit behind so many trucks passing trucks, not to mention the slow drivers in the fast lane. This map shows trip from Tejon Supercharger to Dublin Supercharger.
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