Supercharger - Hamilton ON

[ecodrive]

The published location(s) given for the Hamilton SC would bear some comment and correction.

1. The map indicator on the SC's website page at tesla.com (Hamilton, ON | Tesla Canada) is in a totally wrong part of town altogether.

2. The supercharge.info marker is very close, other than that it's on the wrong side of the road. In the snippet below, I've added the red area to indicate the actual SC lot (as currently fenced off for construction) and the black line to show the line of the 20 stalls.

 

[wayner]

However, I think that this location aligns well with the new mandate that Tesla unveiled for the SC program a couple months ago, in that it’s more for people who live in Hamilton who don’t have access to charging at home or work. For that purpose, it’s a great location as people can kill time in the mall while their cars charge.

Sure, you can kill time in the mall but I would think that most folks living on the mountain are going to have charging at home since the density is lower. To me it still would have made more sense to have this closer to downtown where folks are likely to be living in apartments or condos without access to charging.

 

[wayner]

1. The map indicator on the SC's website page at tesla.com (Hamilton, ON | Tesla Canada) is in a totally wrong part of town altogether.

Until a Supercharger opens Tesla generally just puts a placeholder on the map that is usually on the city name. You will also notice that the Etobicoke pin is not at Sherway Gardens where the Etobicoke SC is going and every other SC under construction is exactly the same thing.

 

[Drone Flyer]

Too bad it isn’t on Nicola Tesla Blvd! Lol!

 

[vandacca]

Sure, you can kill time in the mall but I would think that most folks living on the mountain are going to have charging at home since the density is lower. To me it still would have made more sense to have this closer to downtown where folks are likely to be living in apartments or condos without access to charging.

I agree. However, Tesla is at the whim of landowners and finding both a location downtown and a receptive landowner is probably really hard. Maybe if Tesla's reputation improves and SuperCharger locations becomes highly sought after, it'll get easier.

 

[Avronp]

where is the city transformer or power poles to supply power to the site ?

 

[sakimano]

Hamilton is a good location but I am not sure that Limeridge Mall is a good location. IMHO Mapleview Mall (which is technically Burlington) or even Hamilton somewhere near the 403 & Main St would be better locations. This is out of the way and you wouldn't be passing by this area unless you were going from Brantford to Niagara and taking the Linc. The sites that I mentioned would be better for travelers going from Toronto to Brantford who won't pass an SC other than Sherway (assuming that they are taking the QEW).

I'd prefer it closer to 403 personally if taking the 403 towards London or something.

Its definitely a weird location to build it, being so close to Grimsby and so not on a major highway (the linc isn't something you travel much unless you're heading to a Hamilton location...but nobody is hitting it up from Toronto heading west to London and beyond etc.

Guess they're positioning it for the future for the thousands of future tesla owners in Hamilton proper.

P. S. Good call on the Cadillac Fairview connection.

 

[sakimano]

To be honest I am a bit annoyed with the location. I live in Scarberia but I grew up in Ancaster and my mom now lives in Stoney Creek and I visit her frequently. It isn't normally an issue to get there and back in my P85D but if the SC was on the way I might use it occasionally in the winter. Currently there aren't any SCs along the way and if I need a charge I would have had to drive an extra 10km each way to go to Grimsby.

I guess I could no go up the Red Hill and Linc to get to this SC but it is a bit out of the way to go from T.O to Stoney Creek through that route.

From Scarborough to Stoney Creek you are going rightr past Sherway mall and its 20 supercharger stalls. Who needs mapleview? Besides Mapleview is a pain to get to from the westbound qew.

 

[wayner]

From Scarborough to Stoney Creek you are going rightr past Sherway mall and its 20 supercharger stalls. Who needs mapleview? Besides Mapleview is a pain to get to from the westbound qew.

That is the most direct route but often not the fastest. It usually makes sense for me to go up to the 401. From there I have lots of options to get to the 403/QEW/407 intersection - DVP/QEW, 401/427/QEW, 401/403/QEW, 401/403/407, 401/404/407. I will often take the 407 as the 401 or QEW are almost always bogged down, even with HOV/HOT lanes. It is much less stressful getting on the 407 and engaging AP.

 

[ecodrive]

Here are some updated photos from this evening. The long trough for the 20 stalls is now neatly cut out and lined with a bit of gravel:
- Photo 1 looks northward from the south end.
- Photo 4 (left edge) looks back southward from the north end, which begins right at the mall's large "CF Lime Ridge" main entrance sign (seen in Thursday's photo above).

The 20 charger bases are at various stages of completion:
- the first few stalls at the south end have wooden moulds looking ready for pouring concrete (Photo 2);
- the next few stalls have just a base installed so far (Photo 2 & 3); and
- the northernmost spots still show just their conduit pipes (Photo 3).

 

[ecodrive]

New photos from mid-PM today.

All 20 pedestals now have their concrete bases done.
Earth was being back-filled around them.

The transformer pad at the north end (although covered in orange tarp in this pic) has obviously advanced.
The wood posts of its future enclosure are in place.
The concrete floor will apparently be going in tomorrow.

In answer to post #46 above, I see no obvious city transformer nearby.
Might a dedicated new one be planned for the same pad area, or otherwise around it?

 

[11thIndian]

Drove by this morning and the first couple of charger stands were unboxed and being set up.

Last weekend I stopped by the site and ran into a Tesla owner- who told me that some of the other larger supercharger sites have also included a few Level2 charging stations. I'd love to see this here, there are relatively few in the Hamilton area.

 

[MarcoRP]

 

[wayner]

Last weekend I stopped by the site and ran into a Tesla owner- who told me that some of the other larger supercharger sites have also included a few Level2 charging stations. I'd love to see this here, there are relatively few in the Hamilton area.

I don't think that is really true - as there may be L2 charging at the same malls but they don't have anything to do with Tesla and I don't think the L2 and L3 chargers are necessarily adjacent to the Tesla SuperChargers..

Back in April Cadillac Fairview announced that they would be putting in L2 and L3 EV chargers at several sites. The first few of these chargers opened in October. It just so happens that some of these same locations are now receiving SuperChargers, including Lime Ridge Mall, as well as Sherway, Rideau Centre, Markville, and Carrefour Laval. There is also speculation, maybe just from me, that some of the unidentifed 2017 Tesla SuperChargers like the North York and Toronto locations will be at other malls on this list like Toronto Eaton Center, Shops at Don Mills or Fairview Mall.

 

[MarcoRP]

Shops at Don Mills got some Flo chargers recently

 

[ecodrive]

All 20 charging stalls are now up in their red-and white! A nice looking team line-up!

Five of the 10 transformers are into their final locations on the pad at the north end. At the moment, you can see those 5 at the back of the (magnified) photo, forming just that single-file group.

PS: Regrets I couldn't get past this 1st scout photo. But my iPhone (and my fingers) just got way too cold to work, it's suddenly bloody COLD out here at -10C. But LOL, at least the Tesla battery/system is way more robust than THAT and just keeps on working...

 

[ecodrive]

Photo 1: All 10 transformers are now installed in a 2 x 5 layout.

Photo 2: It's the 2nd-to-last Saturday afternoon before Xmas, and the mall's parking lot is appropriately stuffed to the edges. I couldn't help seeing a great ironic contrast between that and the fenced-off construction zone looking like a temporary oasis with its undisturbed snow cover (or LOL maybe even like a DMZ guarded over by a Great Big Green Earthmover) -- the calm before an inevitable storm of getting totally ICE'ed over the instant the fence is taken down! So: may Hamilton bring on its counter blizzard of Model 3's real soon - hohoho! ...

 

[MarcoRP]

Maybe we should keep those barriers even when it opens! Leaving a teensy opening or a rolling fence door.

 

[ecodrive]

Maybe we should keep those barriers even when it opens! Leaving a teensy opening or a rolling fence door.

LOL, yes! anything to keep out the gassy F150's and SUV's etc... Or maybe Elon can even cook us up a metal detector that will "Open Sesame" only when it detects an induction motor wanting in....

 

[ecodrive]

The Great Big Green Beast is still on site, and "my bad" earlier because it's no earthmover but a heavy-duty forklift. Tonight it seems poised to add a waiting cube of grey equipment onto the transformer pad.

Photo 1: Another such "smaller" grey cube plus 3 "taller" grey enclosures are already installed behind the 10 white transformers. I realise I don't actually know what this grey equipment is or even if it includes any step-down transformers.

Photo 2: Looking back at it from the other side (the taller grey enclosures in the distance are a dark red from the traffic lights), a connection is roughed in and developing from there towards what looks like a rectangular hollow concrete enclosure or foundation at the other side of the construction zone. Is a dedicated city power transformer to be installed here perhaps?

Photo 3: Curb reconstruction has started along the 20 charging stalls.