This was in the local newspaper today ... scroll down toward the bottom of the article: “...In other business Thursday, commissioners unanimously approved a special land use permit to allow Meijer to construct a 10-unit Tesla Supercharging Station in its parking lot for hybrid electric vehicles.” Esky apartment plan tabled | News, Sports, Jobs - Daily Press Address: Meijer 505 N 26th St Escanaba, MI 49829
Woohoo! The last piece I need to make my annual fall trek to Maine via Canada (so I can avoid Chicago and Toronto).
Just the other day I was looking at the plausibly of a trip up past Houghton. Unfortunately Escanaba would add a fair amount of time. 10 stalls seems like overkill but better that than nothing.
At long last, my dreams of a "Northern Passage" will be possible. I, myself, enjoy avoiding Chicagoland traffic to visit my Michigan friends. The scenery is much better. Now, if Gaylord can be expedited, that would be great!
Note this was actually in the newspaper February 9th, so construction may be well underway! The superchargers were on the agenda of the February 26th Planning Commission meeting. Also of particular interest: I don't know what Swartz Creek (near Flint) and Hudsonville (near Grand Rapids) have to do with Escanaba, but if those were mentioned but not Gaylord there must be some action going on. Hudsonville is not on the Tesla Find Us page as "Coming Soon". On the Find Us page, the Sault St. Marie site is on the Ontario side of the border.
@emupilot ... thanks for that. The online edition of the paper auto-filled the present date you read it. On the USA side of Sault Ste. Marie there is a Meijer. Highly likely that’s the new location.
Again, even though the marker is in Ontario, it is likely just an approximate placeholder, and for Hudsonville, I think Tesla will be doing that a lot soon. In the last 2 weeks, we have found 2 new and unannounced Superchargers in the Greater Toronto Area
It's not just where the marker is, but it's labeled "Sault Ste. Marie, ON". It makes alot more sense for it to be in Ontario, since drivers in the U.S.going through Sault Ste Marie are probably going to Canada and Canadians shouldn't have to enter the U.S. to supercharge as they make their way along the Trans-Canada Highway.
emupilot, I see you are from California so you are probably not real familiar with Michigan. We travel to Sault Ste Marie Michigan often to watch the freighters go through the locks and visit the State parks in the area. We rarely go into Canada. As the last stop on I 75, a supercharger is really needed here in the U.S. It is over 110 miles from the yet to be completed Gaylord supercharger. That makes it at least 220 miles round trip from Gaylord and over 460 miles round trip from the Bay City supercharger. A supercharger in Michigan at the Soo is much needed.
There's also a new Meijer opening up in Marquette this month. Hopefully that one will get some Superchargers soon which would giver pretty good UP coverage.
Hmmm... maybe the "Coming Soon" supercharger in Mackinaw City would work for Sault Ste Marie destination traffic (at least from the south)? It's hard to imagine Tesla putting superchargers on both sides of the border in the near future.
So excited about this! The Quality Inn just popped up on plugshare last week with two destination chargers as well. I’m visiting Esky right now and I also believe 10 stalls is a but much but horray anyway!
My guess is they install them right here. I drove around the building and the other side is a creek, the back is wetlands, the front edge is paved right up to guardrails.
It makes a lot of sense to put them on both sides of the border. It wouldn't be worth your time (or hassle) to cross the border just to charge, if you didn't have to. Hudsonville has a new Meijer, so that's likely that location.
This morning, I checked with an Escanaba friend who said: "estimated breaking ground is May 23. 2018". That's all she knew.