Supercharger - Fort Stockton, Texas

[TaoJones]

Meanwhile Tesla is years late providing the first and only transcontinental route that doesn’t require snow tires or chains year-round. That being I-10 end to end.

This may come as a surprise to the apologists, but when a company makes a promise, the reasonable expectation is that they will keep that promise.

Never minding that basic communication and transparency would eliminate the vast majority of any phone calls that might, repeat might, otherwise occur.

The last SC in the chain? In or around Fort Stockton.

Fortunately, easier solutions exist in both directions. See Balmorhea as an example.

Calls of dubious legitimacy aside, emails to the Fort Stockton Chamber of Commerce and to various County officials in an effort to amplify the benefit of Tesla owners’ business *and* to illuminate the source(s) of the bottleneck(s) are entirely fair game.

I don’t really care who’s in the way. The failure to have I-10 open in past years has cost me a lot of time and money. The continued delay is less impactful (see dogleg left to Midland), but time is still money. If there’s a concerted effort to delay progress at my expense, then I have exactly zero problem reciprocating that impact.

And with that, I’m done debating the issue here. My next communications will be to the Chamber and to the County, among others, and I would encourage youse to do the same. Apologists included.

Or you could just count upon driving slowly westbound and hope you calculate correctly under whatever wx conditions you encounter.

 

[LCR1]

Meanwhile Tesla is years late providing the first and only transcontinental route that doesn’t require snow tires or chains year-round. That being I-10 end to end.

This may come as a surprise to the apologists, but when a company makes a promise, the reasonable expectation is that they will keep that promise.

Never minding that basic communication and transparency would eliminate the vast majority of any phone calls that might, repeat might, otherwise occur.

The last SC in the chain? In or around Fort Stockton.

Fortunately, easier solutions exist in both directions. See Balmorhea as an example.

Calls of dubious legitimacy aside, emails to the Fort Stockton Chamber of Commerce and to various County officials in an effort to amplify the benefit of Tesla owners’ business *and* to illuminate the source(s) of the bottleneck(s) are entirely fair game.

I don’t really care who’s in the way. The failure to have I-10 open in past years has cost me a lot of time and money. The continued delay is less impactful (see dogleg left to Midland), but time is still money. If there’s a concerted effort to delay progress at my expense, then I have exactly zero problem reciprocating that impact.

And with that, I’m done debating the issue here. My next communications will be to the Chamber and to the County, among others, and I would encourage youse to do the same. Apologists included.

Or you could just count upon driving slowly westbound and hope you calculate correctly under whatever wx conditions you encounter.

You should head over to the Semi thread, those mega chargers will be up and running in no time on solar and battery by the time the semi is ready to go. It's tesla and they can do anything and everything

 

[Twiglett]

I think @charliepmayer point is making is this.
If Tesla posted all the updates for ongoing SC construction in one place, there would be no need to phone planning departments or hotel staff etc.

I agree with that idea for most of the SCs that go smoothly. Where it works less effectively is when there are local political issues are there are here.
It would be nice to find a middle ground where information flows, but teslafans are not known to be a patient group
The complete lack of news for any site is most frustrating.

 

[LCR1]

Here you go, Teslas plans for all superchargers in one place

Find Us | Tesla

 

[dhanson865]

Here you go, Teslas plans for all superchargers in one place

Find Us | Tesla

They used to have different info at Supercharger | Tesla but now both locations seem to show the same data.

 

[TMC Bubba]

Here you go, Teslas plans for all superchargers in one place

Find Us | Tesla

Has anyone done a count of how many sites are labeled “Target opening by end of 2017”? Elon’s commitment was to double the SC network by 2017 EOY. Tesla’s web site says they now have 1043 SC stations and 7496 Superchargers. That means they’ve exceeded the 7000 SC commitment but are going to be short of the 1200 station commitment. (Those are worldwide numbers, I don’t have the US numbers). In any case, I see a lot of sites labeled 2017 that will roll over on New Years Day.

 

[LCR1]

I'm not sure why people think that Tesla will get anything done by their schedule.

 

[TexasEV]

They used to have different info at Supercharger | Tesla but now both locations seem to show the same data.

I wouldn’t call a map of Tesla’s planned superchargers “data”. Ever since the first planned supercharger map was published in 2013, they’ve always been more aspirational than informational. That’s why I gave the above post with the “find us” link a funny rating rather than the informative rating you gave it. I would say you must be new around here, but your join date predates mine.

 

[mckemie]

When I took delivery of my car, in April 2013, I had zero confidence that SuperChargers would ever reach Texas. Was I surprised when San Marcos materialized! Even though it was of no use to me since it was only 30 miles distant. Then came Waco! Columbus! Corsicana! Huntsville! All us early owners were thrilled. We could go anywhere in the central to eastern part of the state. And it just kept getting better and better. From my perspective, the Ft Stockton hangup is very minor. Tesla has done such a terrific job with the SuperCharger network, I would not complain even if developments were much slower than they are.

 

[jdo]

I dated the girl who answered the phones where a super charger got put in.

That's a pretty aggressive approach, but I guess it's less annoying than calling every day.

 

[GWord]

That's a pretty aggressive approach, but I guess it's less annoying than calling every day.

We can shut the thread down now. You win.

 

[dhanson865]

I wouldn’t call a map of Tesla’s planned superchargers “data”. Ever since the first planned supercharger map was published in 2013, they’ve always been more aspirational than informational. That’s why I gave the above post with the “find us” link a funny rating rather than the informative rating you gave it. I would say you must be new around here, but your join date predates mine.

There used to be a time when the Supercharger page at Tesla had a now, 6 months from now, next year style view slider. Sure it wasn't perfect but it gave us more visibility into their plans than the current single view does.

Like the 3 blind men examining an elephant and reporting 3 different characteristics, we used to be able to peer into the tesla supercharger expansion plan with multiple views. Now with only one view left we a short a blind man or two.

 

[Alphacrux]

Ok. Reached van horn from ozona. Started with 316 rm. temps dropped from 40 degrees to about 33 degrees during the drive. no measurable wind. Started at 60 mph but quickly dropped speed to about 55 mph and kept it there for most of the segment. At 55 mph, projected end state of charge was about 15 to 16%, but did drop below 10% on hills. At 55 mph, could keep energy usage at about 335 wh per mile. 2 passengers and a dog plus cargo. I-10 Ozona to fort Stockton traffic was much heavier than I remembered with cars and trucks easily pushing 85 mph or higher. About 25 miles out from destination, was projecting over 55 miles of range left, so pushed speed up to 75. Got to van horn supercharger with about 45 miles range left. Travel was in a p100d with 21 inch rims. Looks like one fellow model s is here (red 100d), but not charging at the moment.

Next time I will try a slightly higher speed, but it is certainly no fun during 55 or 60 mph on an 80 mph road, and in my opinion, slightly dangerous at night.

Tesla, please give us a fort Stockton supercharger!

 

[Electroman]

It is the low temps IMO was the real killer for you. Also did you try drafting a big rig?

 

[Alphacrux]

It is the low temps IMO was the real killer for you. Also did you try drafting a big rig?

Yes. Definitely low temps were a killer. Did not try drafting a big rig. Wife was driving and the rigs looked like they were doing 85 or above.

 

[BerTX]

Ok. Reached van horn from ozona. Started with 316 rm. temps dropped from 40 degrees to about 33 degrees during the drive. no measurable wind. Started at 60 mph but quickly dropped speed to about 55 mph and kept it there for most of the segment. At 55 mph, projected end state of charge was about 15 to 16%, but did drop below 10% on hills. At 55 mph, could keep energy usage at about 335 wh per mile. 2 passengers and a dog plus cargo. I-10 Ozona to fort Stockton traffic was much heavier than I remembered with cars and trucks easily pushing 85 mph or higher. About 25 miles out from destination, was projecting over 55 miles of range left, so pushed speed up to 75. Got to van horn supercharger with about 45 miles range left. Travel was in a p100d with 21 inch rims. Looks like one fellow model s is here (red 100d), but not charging at the moment.

Next time I will try a slightly higher speed, but it is certainly no fun during 55 or 60 mph on an 80 mph road, and in my opinion, slightly dangerous at night.

Tesla, please give us a fort Stockton supercharger!

Thanks for the information.

Probably more traffic this time of year as trucks avoid snowy routes.

 

[Graffi]

Would be interesting what the Wh/mile would be driving at 85 mph in the open, then what it is drafting a semi.

 

[BerTX]

Would be interesting what the Wh/mile would be driving at 85 mph in the open, then what it is drafting a semi.

That would be interesting. I personally have not noticed any trucks going that fast, I suspect the corporate trucks are speed monitored and get in trouble for exceeding the speed limit. I think some companies have their own maximum speed limit they allow drivers to go, since so many on that stretch of I-10 are going 70 or 75.

Not saying this is the case, but sometimes when you are driving 55 in an 80, everybody looks like they are going 100.

 

[purplewalt]

Would be interesting what the Wh/mile would be driving at 85 mph in the open, then what it is drafting a semi.

It depends on so many factors.

Speed of the truck, headwinds, side winds and tailwinds, ascending//descending terrain, temperature, clear,rain or snow, amount of overall traffic, etc.
How close you might decide to draft behind another vehicle are all contributing factors.

I have tailed some trucks, SUVs even Mini-Coopers and my rated mileage has greatly improved from what I could have accomplished driving solo.

Watching the electric Semi video and the rated mileage estimates for the trio of trucks gives you a better understanding that it is effective to overcome wind drag resistance.
Heck, Nascar drivers, even Tour de France and Olympic bicycle teams use the technique: "drafting" saves energy for the second and third members of the team.

 

[thenaimis]

Would be interesting what the Wh/mile would be driving at 85 mph in the open, then what it is drafting a semi.

There was an episode of mythbusters that addressed drafting, and while they were using ICE vehicles at the time, the summary that I remember was basically that you have to get dangerously close to have a significant effect.