Supercharger - Fort Stockton, Texas

[brkaus]

Venturing into the "had I known then what I know now" territory, we all should have crowd sourced a chademo charger like this one and donated it to a local business for install in Ft Stockton.

The specs are not super clear, but looks like that particular charger is listed as 450/750v 20a output. Not sure about the 750v??. Maybe why fust instead of fast

I think it would be slower than a 40a 240v AC charger.

Some sort of crowd sourcing would be interesting solution. Be nice to know how long it will really take for the supercharger to be installed. Lets assume $10k for 50kW charger, installation, teathered CHAdEmo adaptor. If it has a one year life, before it becomes useless due to SpC installation... And assume used once per day for that year... its $27/day plus electricity. Pulling another number out of nowhere... $5 for electricity... that makes it $32 charge to break even if there is any reality in the assumptions I made up. If less than an average of 1 charge per day, then much more.

If Tesla would put the RV park on the map as a destination charging location (cover the install & HPWC or two up to 80A) and allow the place to charge some reasonable fee to recover electric costs and their trouble... $5/hr or something easy. It would be a cheap short term solution.

 

[jbcarioca]

The specs are not super clear, but looks like that particular charger is listed as 450/750v 20a output. Not sure about the 750v??. Maybe why fust instead of fast

I think it would be slower than a 40a 240v AC charger.

Some sort of crowd sourcing would be interesting solution. Be nice to know how long it will really take for the supercharger to be installed. Lets assume $10k for 50kW charger, installation, teathered CHAdEmo adaptor. If it has a one year life, before it becomes useless due to SpC installation... And assume used once per day for that year... its $27/day plus electricity. Pulling another number out of nowhere... $5 for electricity... that makes it $32 charge to break even if there is any reality in the assumptions I made up. If less than an average of 1 charge per day, then much more.

If Tesla would put the RV park on the map as a destination charging location (cover the install & HPWC or two up to 80A) and allow the place to charge some reasonable fee to recover electric costs and their trouble... $5/hr or something easy. It would be a cheap short term solution.

I'm with you!

 

[thenaimis]

Just to clarify. That was westbound? What was the weather? Did you draft anyone?
My own calculations have been theoretical. While I’ve had some pretty good results, none of mine have been at such high speeds westbound, nor with S-P100D. I have had 234 miles from a S75 and 251 from a P85DL, both eastbound, both drafting. Thus your results are extremely interesting and impressive. There is the 1700 foot altitude loss, though, which might compensate completely for the other factors.

Until we get Fort Stockton such calculations must be part of daily life, I suppose.

West bound, Ozona to Van Horn. Weather was rainy off and on (a front moved from the south side of I-10 to the north over the course of the day). No drafting. Other than charging to 100% in Ozona, I didn't really do anything special to make the trip. The only time on that trip I got a reduce speed warning was from Van Horn to Midland. I did reduce speed and was surprised at the time that I could go 70mph (from Van Horn to Midland along I-20) and still get just under 300Wh/mi.

 

[MyJoule]

I actually suggested to the manager of the Hampton Inn back in 2014 that they contact Tesla about both Destination chargers and Superchargers -She seemed genuinely interested. I haven't been back there since, and because there are neither at this property, they must not have been successful. A Destination charger at this or any other hotel in Ft Stockton would be perfect for my overnight stop between Tucson and Houston.

 

[mckemie]

Not to derail the talk specifically of the I-10 corridor, but I'm looking at Spring Break plans. Thinking about Big Bend. Has anyone ventured that direction. Any advice as to availability of 30Amp-50Amp hookup availability in the National or State parks out that way? RV Parks with cabins available for an overnight?

Fort Stockton is about 100 miles. Marfa is roughly the same, but I'm coming from DFW so it is a bit further out of the way. Marfa does have one destination charger.

I made the trip to Big Bend from the Austin area a few months ago. I seem to have been the first EV of any sort to have visited the park. After Ozona, I charged at Iraan, then made it to Stillwell Store / RV Park just outside the park on the road from Marathon. I attempted to assess all area charging opportunities. There is a POSSIBILITY of charging at the RV park inside the park at Rio Grande Village. You can charge at an RV park just outside the park on the west side. None of the people at those three near park charging possibilities had ever heard of EV charging. After leaving the park, I charged at The Stable in Alpine, staying at the Holland Hotel. Through Van Horn, I went on to El Paso but while the SuperCharger there was still under construction. Other charging in El Paso was meager though there are a number of J1772s. I then went to Hueco Tanks State Park to charge while messing around in the park. I came into Van Horn from tne north. Leaving Van Horn, I intended to go again to Iraan. But, with a ~20 mph tail wind, I was able to easily make it to Ozona with 30+ miles remaining. All this in a 85 whose full range is now down to about 240 miles.

On reviewing Google+ posts, I see the above merges stops from TWO trips:
https://plus.google.com/+WillieMcKemie/posts/L2QoZtNA6mB
https://plus.google.com/+WillieMcKemie/posts/TLaqcW8nqjZ

You might look at other posts both before and after each of the two above.

[URL='https://plus.google.com/+WillieMcKemie/posts/L2QoZtNA6mB']

[/URL]

 

[TXjak]

I got the same form letter yesterday as those above.

Certainly puts the efficacy of that ancient permit in further doubt.

There are at least 2 truck stops in Ft. Stockton and who knows how many hotels and motels and fast food establishments.

Would prefer to see HPWCs at the lodging venues. SCs are much more suited to fast food and truck stop/travel plaza business models. The worst fit being malls.

Speaking of truck stops, am tempted to write Warren to see if he’d like to grease the wheels for an SC and a DQ at his newly-acquired Pilot/Flying J property.

After all, it would be the Right Thing to do.

Since the SC in Italy, TX is at a Love's Travel Stop, they could be looking at opening one at the Love's in Ft. Stockton.

 

[TaoJones]

Since the SC in Italy, TX is at a Love's Travel Stop, they could be looking at opening one at the Love's in Ft. Stockton.

Would have been great to have negotiated Fort Stockton *sometime earlier this year* along with Deming. Clearly it’s not a priority. But hey, they lit up Nebraska, Wyoming, and Magoc.

That 2nd Love’s location makes a ton of sense, especially as having SCs differentiates those truck stops immediately in the eyes of travelers who will stop and who will spend money.

As it stands now, Tesla is pretty much out of time to be able to claim a first/only/complete wx-free transcontinental I-10 route by the end of 2017.

It’s been a long 3 years.

Stranger things have happened, but with Thanksgiving 4 weeks away and Christmas/New Year’s 4 weeks after that, they could pull a permit tomorrow and it would still be a bureaucratic miracle.

Also, it’s not like getting anything of an EV-friendly nature is exactly easy in Texas, in which an official was quoted thusly: “We like things the way they are.” Which is code for “We like being paid by the new car dealer lobby.”

Tangentially, Love’s is also a great candidate as I believe they are more vertically integrated than their competition. In other words, they don’t have to worry about pressure from their fuel distributors for daring to be a tad more... daring.

Meanwhile, same as it ever was.

 

[my safeword is]

Also, it’s not like getting anything of an EV-friendly nature is exactly easy in Texas, in which an official was quoted thusly: “We like things the way they are.” Which is code for “We like being paid by the new car dealer lobby.”

Cool conspiracy theory.
But it doesn't hold water no matter how often it's repeated (and this one's been repeated --and debunked-- a lot).

There have been a half-dozen or more superchargers in Texas that have popped up suddenly (channelview, flatonia, childress, italy, ozona, texarkana, nacogdoches). Sites that take longer are in large towns with multiple permitting jurisdictions (Denton sat in permit status well over 400 days, not because BigAuto was resisting it, but because Denton city/county bureaucracy was slow. Austin is about as EV-friendly as any city on the country, and their supercharger is taking unusually long to permit and build-- again, not due to BigAuto).

The Texas Auto Dealer's assn. undoubtedly campaigns against EVs, but they don't have the power or reach into local permitting offices and local utilities that your theory implies. And if they were attempting to thwart Texas superchargers, they suck at it: Texas is the state with the most superchargers outside of California.

 

[TexasEV]

The Texas Auto Dealer's assn. undoubtedly campaigns against EVs, but they don't have the power or reach into local permitting offices and local utilities that your theory implies. And if they were attempting to thwart Texas superchargers, they suck at it: Texas is the state with the most superchargers outside of California.

You’re new here. I guess you hadn’t heard about the planned supercharger for Temple that wasn’t built due to political pressure. That’s why the Waco supercharger was built to connect Austin and Dallas, rather than having superchargers in Temple and Hillsboro as originally planned. You may also not be aware of how the auto dealer cartel blocked Tesla from building service center locations in Austin and San Antonio for a while.

 

[charliepmayer]

my safeword is: Thank you for your post, but your statement of "they don't have the power or reach into local permitting offices and local utilities" may be just a little bit idealistic. Nevertheless, thank you for your post. If you drive through Fort Stockton, please let us know if you see any construction.
Charlie

 

[nwdiver]

my safeword is: Thank you for your post, but your statement of "they don't have the power or reach into local permitting offices and local utilities" may be just a little bit idealistic. Nevertheless, thank you for your post. If you drive through Fort Stockton, please let us know if you see any construction.
Charlie

IIRC there was a community near Waco that held up a supercharger until Tesla gave up and picked a different city. Harder to do that with Ft Stockton...

 

[my safeword is]

I guess you hadn’t heard about the planned supercharger for Temple that wasn’t built due to political pressure.

Hadn't heard about it, or able to find anything on it (Link please?).

 

[arcus]

This thread mentioned this, but I can't find any confirmation otherwise: Texas Supercharger Locations

 

[SapphireX]

Can someone summarize what size battery and speed is required to make it from ozona to van horn and vice versa? I think someone stated that evtripplanner underestimated the energy, i.e. Energy required was more like you needed to go 70 instead of the posted 80. So can anyone tell me how many rated miles are required at 80 mph? 70 mph? Thanks much!

I made this trip for the first time in the early morning of Oct 19th with my MS100D.
I dropped by the Iraan Energy House for 42 minutes and added 9 kWh for safety
while enjoying a Breakfast Taco at the Stripes across the street. Going thru Iraan is
only 15 miles farther (233 vs. 238). I consumed a total of 81 kWh and winds were light
so I could have easily made it without the stop. The Iraan Charger is a free 100 Amp 1772
charger with a very long cord. The Tesla complained about the cord so I had to dial it down
to 52 Amps to keep it happy.

I was traveling from Austin to San Diego.
Here are the stats for this part of my trip:

 

[Graffi]

At that driving speed, 70MPH and 80MPH the use of 81 kWh is not bad. That is 238 miles driven and 294 rated miles. With my MS 75D it should be fairly easy to just keep the speed below 60 MPH or draft behind a semi at 65 MPH to make this trip. Start with 100% then Hypermile to the Interstate and up to speed. If I see that the remaining rated miles is not enough then just slow down. Even at 55 MPH it is amazing how many miles you can get on a charge.

 

[charliepmayer]

Everyone that drives through West Texas needs to be aware that charging opportunities are as much as 120 miles apart.
Please don't drive through this area on a skimpy charge level.

For example, there are no charging opportunities between Fort Stockton and Alpine (67 miles).
If there is a detour on this road caused by construction or an accident, you have to go back to Fort Stockton or back to Alpine.
If you don't have a contingency charge to handle this unexpected detour you are going to run out of range.

This is only one example of what happens out here - charging opportunities are far apart - look at the map!
Detours on I10 are also not uncommon. If you know you have to hypermile anyway, and then you run into an unexpected detour,
you will be in great jeopardy of running out of range.

The Fort Stockton supercharger is pretty much the key to really opening up the Big Bend area of Texas for us.

 

[Mirlen]

Trolling the dig site today for all states I can find, not sure if you folks out there located this, but this indicates Best Western as the location. Searched this thread for Best Western and didn't see it, saw the Mariott in first page, thought this might be helpful to you.. Maybe it's just a destination charger but it might be worth a drive-by by the locals...

 

[TexasEV]

It must be the supercharger— destination chargers wouldn’t show Tesla as the client. The destination is responsible for doing the installation, it’s just subsidized by Tesla.

 

[TaoJones]

Trolling the dig site today for all states I can find, not sure if you folks out there located this, but this indicates Best Western as the location. Searched this thread for Best Western and didn't see it, saw the Mariott in first page, thought this might be helpful to you.. Maybe it's just a destination charger but it might be worth a drive-by by the locals...

View attachment 258352

Woo hooooooooooo!

Nice find, Mirlen.

LA —> Key West over Christmas/New Years may just happen yet (without that insanely annoying right turn on the way back before Houston or, presently, any of that Midland silliness).

Worst case... Spring Break .

 

[Twiglett]

Woo hooooooooooo!

Nice find, Mirlen.

LA —> Key West over Christmas/New Years may just happen yet (without that insanely annoying right turn on the way back before Houston or, presently, any of that Midland silliness).

Worst case... Spring Break .

I wouldn't get too far ahead just yet. This just looks like the site survey before they do real plans.