Supercharger - College Station, TX - Texas Avenue South

[AndrewTX]

Learned many things in last couple of days.

First the stall closest to the Tesla Controller Cabinets is for "Disabled user vehicles' only.

Its only one stall, but instead of the red Tesla sign, there is a handicapped sign.. it looked so uniform like the others I missed it late at night and had to move mid-charge.

That stall also has an unusual hand grip or cable splice.. I'm not sure which.. and it seemed to restrict its charging rate to something less than 50 kW max. per hour.

Next

While my Tesla iPhone app updated and shows this as a legitimate destination, my Tesla has not.. my vehicle is not on WiFi often, but so far sending the site thru the app to the vehicle produces an endless loop that never completes a navigation solution.. and searching for it on the Vehicle screen does not show it as live or available. Coincidentally.. my last two charges aren't showing up as paid charging sessions.. they are zero.. so Brkaus maybe right in that it may be in some sort of Twilight Zone status as a soft opening and some kinks are still being worked out

But, I also don't have the latest software update.

I live in an apartment complex and extending WiFi into the parking lot is a complicated dance.. I dangle the WiFi router on my balcony and park close enough to the balcony to get a signal. I don't do that often.. but will do it this weekend.. perhaps that carries the Site updates. Most of the maps data comes over LTE.. so I had until now assumed the Supercharger site locations would get updated over the app or LTE.. it looks like that depends on the Tesla WiFi Software updates.. or the site is a 'soft open'

Next

I was confused about that College Station, Tx - Texas Avenue South, address as well.

I haven't seen anything new regarding the (1) old Texas and University proposed site (2) on campus Polo Rd site (3) Century Square site

In fact since the current HEB Fuel lot location has come online, those other three appear to have disappeared in the Tesla online information and leaks; I think they were "possible, hopeful, aspirational" sites that may have even progressed to a degree, but then fell thru.. my 'total guess' is that they will not materialize.

For all my griping about the flood curves and mud traps.. this was a rather quick and seamless install that co-partnered and shared the existing real estate allocated to an HEB Fuel lot. This location is one of six in the general area.. four other HEB Fuel Lot locations are much closer to major highways around four by-passes around town. This one is almost at the center of town.. not far from City Hall. - if this one works out.. and so far it has.. those other five HEB Fuel Lot locations may be more likely destinations.

And lastly, rather non-intuitively ..the farthest Supercharging stalls seem to ramp up to very high charge rates and charge the fastest. I didn't think there was a difference between the stalls.. you wouldn't think so to look at them. But even when there are no other cars.. the farthest from the cabinets charges the fastest.

And lastly last, I went out around the time the majority of the HEB Fuel lot shuts down for the night and turns off the overhead parking lot lights. These Tesla stalls have rear projection lighting so you can see them clearly in the dark glowing bright red. And the Superchargers are not turned out for the night they truly are 24/7 available.

So far.. perhaps not everyone has a software update that allows navigating to them, there seems a constant flow of users.. but its no where near congested or busy all the time.. there are usually some free slots open.. and they are 250 kW Superchargers.. so they are Super Super chargers.. not only are they slim and extremely easy to use compared to EvGo, EVConnect or Electrify America.. but they are also premium Superchargers even amongst Tesla's fleet of Supercharger locations.

And a thought; you can't Pre-condition the Battery yet since it doesn't show up as a Supercharger destination in the Vehicle; when it does, the effective charge rate for every vehicle will get yet another speed bump, since the battery will be preconditioned.. reducing charge times even further.

I was in CS last weekend and we had to go to this HEB a couple of times. Wasn't in my Model S so didn't charge but did drive by. You were correct about the awkwardness of getting in and out of this location, lol! But that's a minor grievance.

 

[Jmolloy3]

How's it working during this arctic snap?

 

[jwillis84]

Jan 31, 2023 here, we've had some cold snaps and rain.

This site is constantly buzzing with Teslas charging, most slots are occupied during most parts of the day. If your from out of town, you may have to wait for a short bit, but there are additional parking spaces both in the Fuel lot where the Superchargers are, and in the outside greater area HEB parking lot.

I'm not the only one who has noticed the further away from the Tesla Cabinets your charging space is, the faster your Supercharging sessions ramps. I don't know what's up with that.

The overhead light towers over the Fuel lot are turned out after 11 pm and the lot goes fairly dark. The Tesla Superchargers are still on however, but the lot empties out, either for safety or its just cold and dark at night, there are plenty of open spaces during that time. And the Tesla Insurance ding for driving after 10 pm kicks in, so several logical reasons why people may choose not to come out at night to Supercharge.

Being a local, I find I forget to set my navigation destination to the one and only Supercharger in town, and often arrive before I have a chance to remember and set it. But I regularly hit 100 kw/hr anyways.. so its usually 30 minutes or so. Just enough time to catchup on youtube videos or a news cast. The Tesla extended connectivity options makes waiting in your car a lot more tolerable, especially in the cold.. and its a sticky feature thats sure to make them a lot of money. I'd love free wifi, especially to get Tesla over air updates (since I live in an apt and getting wifi to my vehicle is difficult) while I wait.. but it is what it is for now.

One very cold below zero night a robbery of something occurred right in front of me.. I was totally unaware, and Police cars pulled up in front of me, they looked over at my car for a while and then walked over to ask if I had caught anything on video. I was clueless and we strolled through the captured footage, but I didn't have sentry mode on. I get the sense the Police are starting to clue into Teslas as potentially valuable tools in fighting crime. I tried to hand my USB drive to the officer, but he wasn't tech savy.. and I had to fumble with the camera footage viewer on the dash for a few minutes.. but it wasn't difficult. - This reminds me of what happened with the iPhone a few years ago.. where our entire world changed just about overnight.. people who are buying gas cars and shaking their heads at new technology are going to be caught far behind the curve in a couple years.

 

[jwillis84]

regarding the "Mud curbs" or "Flood curbs" .. however you want to think of them.. those are still Barracuda, or Alligators on your rims if you run into them, but they are on the far side of the lot from the actual Tesla Supercharger stalls.

As long as you enter from the "Tesla" side of the lot by the transformers, you can pretty much totally avoid them.

When I was new to the lot, I would try to use Texas Avenue to ingress and egress from the lot.. I don't do that anymore.. you almost cannot avoid curbing your rims or getting caught raking your underside across a flood curb.. there are no markers.. you just can't see that sharp concrete curb turn right under your wheels and the concrete grabs your tires and you end up in the Mud hole.

If you enter the HEB greater parking lot first from Holleman or the opposite side Park Ln .. and sidle up to the Tesla Transformer side of the lot before entering the Fuel lot.. your golden and won't hit the flood curbs .. stay "away" from the Car Wash side of the lot.. there be "dragons" there.

When you exit "always" turn Left, and exit by tipping your hat towards the Tesla Supercharger cabinet, there is a short"ish" green transformer there but it is set far enough back on the green space that it does not block your visibility. Its not placed right up on the corner of the Left or Right turn.. you can see traffic both ways.. just take your time and drive slowly.

 

[jwillis84]

The lot continues to be busy, its easy to see it was a very good choice putting a 250 Kw Supercharger location here.

In particular it acts like a show room for the gas / ice vehicle owners just a few feet away. They almost always have to end up staring at the front end of a row of various models of Teslas charging up. And they are rather close and showcased by a greenspace earth mound retaining wall just behind the Teslas.. its a kind of diorama.

Time will tell if they should have put in more stalls here or scattered more around the city.

I visit the Buccee's Tesla Superchargers frequently up and down I-45, but they are always many hundreds of feet from the Shopping plaza, and with bad weather most other cars never get close up to them, like they do here in the HEB Fuel Lot.

Tesla may not market to buyers much other than their website, but having a row of Teslas pull up, plug in and leave right in front of ICE vehicle owners definitely has a psychological effect. They know they are "for real" and not just some talking point; and can see for themselves how quiet, zippy and precise they are to navigate and back into a space.

I've never seen anyone Icing a charging stall, and it would be time wasting and very awkward for an ICE vehicle to do so anyway, so its a subtle inconvenience to even participate in that sort of behavior at this location. The Police also frequent this HEB Fuel lot location too.. so I think they would get a ticket.. some municipalities.. whether for deterrents or revenue seem to be issuing citations now. Signage is very clear that the stalls are for Elecric Vehicles only and idle fees would be levied. I would guess the ICE vehicle owners have no idea how those would be charged to them.. but could be an additional risk.

And it could be just my imagination.. since I go here more often now.. but.. I think there are more ICE vehicles stopping by to fuel up.. I wonder if reciprocally they are coming to see the Tesla "show".. ironically I was there last night and one of the new Teslas with the Matrix headlights was playing its light show. It looks rather gaudy in such a tight and confirned space.. but very eye catching as the dancing rainbow colored ants marched across the rims of the headlights and perimeter of the vehicle.

The HEB Fuel lot idea, seems like it was rather inspired.

It virtually turns the lot into a private little show room for Tesla and lets ICE and Electric vehicles interact up close and personal with no personel on site other than the Tesla owners themselves.. but they tend to just go shopping or visit one of the local Starbucks or Smoothie venues on the same corner.

There is still no way I can see for a Tesla with a trailer to pull in or navigate to one of the stalls.. unlike that Tesla that backed the trailer all the way through in Norway on the 'Out of Spec' YouTube channel, the back greenspace retaining wall prevents straddling the tesla trailer combo back across same level greenspace.. not that that is a great idea.. but.. if your greenspace is a frozen layer of ice encrusted Tundra.. eh.. not so bad.

Like I said we have six more HEB Fuel lots in the twin cities of Bryan and College Station, so lots of opportunities to replicate this experiment and create even more "mini" Tesla showrooms across the Brazos Valley.

 

[brkaus]

And people that put petro in their car can think “gosh I’m glad I can stop in, fill, and leave quickly.”

 

[ElectricIAC]

And people that put petro in their car can think “gosh I’m glad I can stop in, fill, and leave quickly.”

I can’t wait for a Costco co-locate.

All the ICE cars in queue watching Teslæ buzz in and out while they wait for their turn to fuel up.

 

[XHabjab]

I can’t wait for a Costco co-locate.

All the ICE cars in queue watching Teslæ buzz in and out while they wait for their turn to fuel up.

The one in Cedar Park (actually in BJ's parking lot) is next to Costco:

Supercharger - Cedar Park, Tx

Bring on the transformer!

teslamotorsclub.com

[And a +1 for the Tesla plural spelling.]

 

[electricglider]

The lot continues to be busy, its easy to see it was a very good choice putting a 250 Kw Supercharger location here.

Tesla has been putting 250 KW superchargers at all new installations for a while now. Had this supercharger in College Station been built a few years ago, then it would have been installed as a 150 KW site with shared stalls. So the long delays at this site ended up working out better in the end.

I've never seen anyone Icing a charging stall, and it would be time wasting and very awkward for an ICE vehicle to do so anyway, so its a subtle inconvenience to even participate in that sort of behavior at this location. The Police also frequent this HEB Fuel lot location too.. so I think they would get a ticket.. some municipalities.. whether for deterrents or revenue seem to be issuing citations now. Signage is very clear that the stalls are for Elecric Vehicles only and idle fees would be levied. I would guess the ICE vehicle owners have no idea how those would be charged to them.. but could be an additional risk.

ICEing rarely happens in general since the majority of people do pay attention to any parking signs (handicap, EV charging, expecting mothers, families, Take-out only, Veterns only, etc.). The only time it happens is when spots become really congested or you have a higher concentration of inconsiderate people. Also police are not going to do anything if ICEing occurs since this is private property. It is 100% up to HEB to enforce their private parking lot "rules" by hiring a towing company to tow offending vehicles. This is no different than all other private lots. The only way police can get involved if there are actual ordinances and rules on the city, state, or national level that prohibit parking in designated location like how Handicap spaces are done right now.

 

[Torch]

I've recently relocated to CS for work and until I relocate the family I'm renting a room from someone and charging at this Supercharger. The location is OK, though a bit congested, but the charging here is SLOW. Yesterday I plugged in with 1% SOC and my charging topped out at 85kw and slowed to 60 well before hitting 40% SOC. It was early in the morning (7ish) and I was the only person there. It was a bit cold and I only have about 10 minutes to precondition but still, that's slow. This is my normal experience, not an aberration.

Anybody else experience this issue?

 

[brkaus]

I've recently relocated to CS for work and until I relocate the family I'm renting a room from someone and charging at this Supercharger. The location is OK, though a bit congested, but the charging here is SLOW. Yesterday I plugged in with 1% SOC and my charging topped out at 85kw and slowed to 60 well before hitting 40% SOC. It was early in the morning (7ish) and I was the only person there. It was a bit cold and I only have about 10 minutes to precondition but still, that's slow. This is my normal experience, not an aberration.

Anybody else experience this issue?

Sunday night was in the low 30s? That’s a chilly battery. I’m not sure the car will precondition when the charge is that low.