sperkin
Active Member
When I showed up this morning there were 12 empty spots and when I left there were 7 cars waiting.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Supercharger - Kettleman City, CA (LIVE 15 Nov 2017, 24 V2 + 16 V3 stalls, lounge)
- Thread starter smilepak
- Start date
I have stopped at the Kettleman City Supercharger 4 times now. Two round trips from SW Washington State to Palm Springs, CA on the 2017 & 2018 pre-Christmas weekends. It was never inserted into my route. I had to enter it manually to get there.
It’s more of an attraction.
Tesla Supercharger Usage Increase!
It’s more of an attraction.
Tesla Supercharger Usage Increase!
No, it really doesn't. Well, they could buy/lease another adjacent lot, but the existing property is maxed out. In case you didn't know, it was previously a Burger King restaurant.
They’re out of space for additional stalls but they might have access to a larger electrical feed from the grid, which could allow them to upgrade the rest of the Superchargers to V3. That would increase throughput during busy travel days.
Chuq
Active Member
They don't even need to rely on a larger grid feed. Upgrading all stalls to V3 would still result in faster charging for many, since it would shift the bottleneck from each pair of stalls to the entire site.
Elon did talk about adding an on-site Restaurant to a Supercharging site so I'm wondering if Kettleman will be it.
The V3 chargers can certainly increase throughput during busy travel days, but it's not going to eliminate waiting. So the goal should be to make the waiting more convenient.
So if it was me I'd do three things.
Convert V2 chargers to V3.
Add a Restaurant nearby if possible.
Add a free valet service for peak travel days
Yes, but if the entire site is full, it’s probably at the limit of the grid transformer.
If Kettleman is served by a 3 MW transformer, its average charge rate is ~75 kW per vehicle. If they bump it up to 5 MW, the average charge rate increases to ~125 kW per vehicle.
Historically, 8 stall Superchargers have been fed by 500 kVA transformers. New 8 stall V3 sites are being fed by 1,000 kVA transformers.
Moderator note: multiple posts moved to Holiday travel congestion at Superchargers; possible solutions, complaints, comments, discussion
This thread is specifically about the Kettleman City Supercharger. Please try to stay on topic. Thank you.
This thread is specifically about the Kettleman City Supercharger. Please try to stay on topic. Thank you.
mblakele
FSD Beta (99)
sperkin
Active Member
After I was done the place was packed with 7 cars lining up. They had to send someone out from the coffee shop inside to manage the cars.
The gas stations across the street were full and difficult for cars to move so I walked across to McDonalds.
I didn’t have to wait at any charging stations from LA to SF or SF back to LA. I really didn’t want people to know but early birds get the worms. I left at 8am to travel.
Last edited:
@BlueShift supercharge.info needs to update this supercharger information to 250kw enabled. Right now it still shows as 150kw.
Chuq
Active Member
Good point. There isn't really a way of showing some stalls as 150, some as 250, so I've put it as 250 for now.
Stopped by Kettleman City last night during my road trip from SoCal. Arrived with about 50 miles of range and hit 230kw for a split second before it tapered down to 200. Guess you need to really live life on the edge in order to see that 250!
I was excited to stop by today on a roadtrip down to palm springs from the bay area. Along the route I was checking how many chargers were in use, it was between 3-5 in use at any given time from about 08:00-10:00 PST. I thought for SURE they would be all the 250kW chargers but when I got there not a SINGLE "these can provide 250kW" chargers were in use. Odd, and there were a few P100/P85 charging. Maybe people dont KNOW yet and don't really see the signs
Anyway, plugged in at about 8% SOC and within 2 minutes was at 246kW and charging at 1045mph. SWEET! We did our usual walk down to the Starbucks across the street and back, rest room and to the car. Overall 20 minutes from start to finish and the car added 230 MILES! Heaven, this is how it should work. It had indeed tapered down to 450mph once it got to about 50% SOC, but still it was loading. Our plan was just to go to Tejon Ranch and charge there for another 10 min (should be 150kW, but most were only giving 72kW) and then on to our destination.
I love these 250kWh chargers, they really are a game changer.
Anyway, plugged in at about 8% SOC and within 2 minutes was at 246kW and charging at 1045mph. SWEET! We did our usual walk down to the Starbucks across the street and back, rest room and to the car. Overall 20 minutes from start to finish and the car added 230 MILES! Heaven, this is how it should work. It had indeed tapered down to 450mph once it got to about 50% SOC, but still it was loading. Our plan was just to go to Tejon Ranch and charge there for another 10 min (should be 150kW, but most were only giving 72kW) and then on to our destination.
I love these 250kWh chargers, they really are a game changer.
Similar threads
