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Supercharger - Lone Pine, CA (LIVE 28 Jan 2015, multiple expansions, 16 V3 stalls)

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I wonder what the hold up is on getting the remaining 4 new stalls open. Any thoughts?
I would hope the supercharger technicians have been dispatched to fix other broken superchargers like Cabazon where there are lots of reports of broken plugs. I am currently very happy with the state of Lone Pine, no lines, so yes, definitely want the station fully operational but I'm ok with them prioritizing other site repairs in the meantime.
 
I would hope the supercharger technicians have been dispatched to fix other broken superchargers like Cabazon where there are lots of reports of broken plugs. I am currently very happy with the state of Lone Pine, no lines, so yes, definitely want the station fully operational but I'm ok with them prioritizing other site repairs in the meantime.
I totally agree, though I am just curious. Apparently, Rancho Cucamonga is in dire straits too. In fact, as far as I am concerned, they can go ahead and move the temp stalls elsewhere now, even with the 4 other stalls not yet operational. Maybe they are waiting until after MLK to move them, though with the Ikon pass blackouts, fewer season pass holders head up that weekend anyway. Or, they have enough of these temp stalls to go around that they don't care.
 
I wonder what the hold up is on getting the remaining 4 new stalls open. Any thoughts?
Has anyone seen/confirmed if the equipment cabinet for the second set of 4 v3 stalls is on site yet? There seems to be an obvious shortage of v3 charging equipment at this point, I wonder if they decided +4 was “good enough” for now and routed the second cabinet to somewhere it was needed more critically.

As I recall San Luis Obispo has 4 new v3s waiting to come online too...
 
Anyone make it from LA to Lone Pine without stopping? I have a MX LR raven, but it says I’ll barely make it to Lone Pine from 100%
Mammoth is my most frequent trip. With my S90D I drove there 17x and made it to Lone Pine without an interim charge 10 of them. Caveats:
1) We live in Glendale, some miles closer than most places in the LA Basin.
2) Most of these trips are in spring, April - July when it's 70+F in the Owens Valley. None of the drives were below 50F.
3) When the S90D was new I generally set TACC at 80mph, dropping it to 75 for the hill climbs. By spring 2019 I had to keep it at 75 most of the trip.

It's 204 miles from my house to Lone Pine. In the first 2 springs I'd use 270-273 rated miles getting to Lone Pine. By late 2018 my 100% rated range was only 272 so I'd use 260-264 rated miles making it to Lone Pine. If I approached the Inyokern turnoff with less than say 105 rated miles, I'd bail and charge there. It does not make sense to stop at Mojave vs. Inyokern because you'll get more into the taper charging in Mojave to make Lone Pine than charging in Inyokern so total travel time to Lone Pine will be more, even though the Inyokern charger is 4 miles detour from Hwy 14.

With the new Raven in December I let it rip. I set TACC at 80mph most of the time and at 85 from Inyokern to Olancha. It was 50F and moderately windy so I used 335 rated miles. On a more typical spring trip my guess is I'll use 300-310 rated miles in the Raven S. And the Lone Pine charge stop will be 20 minutes instead of 45 in the S90D.

Mammoth after final ski day to Mojave was also a stretch in the S90D but should be no issue with the Raven S.

From many LA Basin locations, getting to Lone Pine with TACC at a flow-of-traffic 75-80mph range should be doable in a 3LR or Raven X. I'd caveat the X because it's probably more speed sensitive than the S or 3. Figure out in advance what's comfortable in remaining rated range getting from Inyokern to Lone Pine (I'd recommend 115 miles as a first test) then make a charge stop if you're under that target (or slow down some for the hills if you're close) and keep going otherwise.
 
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It does not make sense to stop at Mojave vs. Inyokern because you'll get more into the taper charging in Mojave to make Lone Pine than charging in Inyokern so total travel time to Lone Pine will be more, even though the Inyokern charger is 4 miles detour from Hwy 14.

If you just need enough to get to the V3 charger in Lone Pine, a 4 mile detour is significant.

I have made 3 stops at Mojave on my way to Lone Pine that were each less than 10 minutes each. Being able to exit the highway and be charging in under a minute is more valuable than maximizing the charge curve when you're making such a short stop.

According to Google Maps, the detour to Inyokern costs 8 minutes (12 minutes - 4 minutes). Based on a non-spectacular charge tracked with Teslafi, I was able to add >12 kWh in a similar amount of time at the Mojave Supercharger. I'm not considering the time it takes to park and plug the car in because it applies in both situations.

Would I have charged faster in this case if I had continued on to Inyokern? Potentially. Would charging faster in Inyokern have helped me get to Lone Pine in any less time? No.

A stop at Inyokern does still make sense if you try to push on all the way to Lone Pine with no stops and realize you aren't going to make it as you mentioned. If you know you aren't going to make it prior to passing Mojave, a quick stop while passing through will likely get you there in the least amount of time.

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Both excellent posts! Thank you.

@Tony8489: Yes, coming from Glendale makes a huge difference. My energy usage just going over the Sepulveda pass is significant. That, and I am on a 75D. I so wish I had a Raven, but I have 2 more years on my lease. Blah! The thought of driving up to Mammoth with just a 20 minute stop in LP makes me drool. Charging on my 75D adds a full hour, not including the mandatory charge in Mammoth once I arrive.

@Cameron A: I agree completely. It makes no sense taking the detour from the 14 to Inyokern, where yes, the charge may be faster, but adds 8 minutes to the journey, which can easily be more than made up for by charging at Mojave. The caveats you both mentioned are correct: Inyokern makes a lot of sense if you are trying to hit LP on a single charge and don't think you can make it. The other thing to consider is congestion at the chargers themselves. Mojave was an effen disaster over the winter holiday, and even Inyokern has been known to have a wait. We just have to keep a close eye on the Nav.
 
Back when I got the S90D I looked at the map around Inyokern and crudely those roads looked like a triangle 4 miles on each side. So 2 sides of the triangle instead of 1 is 4 miles = 4 minutes. For the S90D I calculated that getting to Lone Pine with a 25 rated mile cushion would take 15 minutes of charging in Inyokern vs. 20 in Mojave. The exact Google Maps Cameron posted shows a mileage difference of 5.9 miles. I'm not buying that's 8 minutes, but I'll admit it's at least an offset to my 5 minute estimate of charging time difference.

There are also speed assumptions in these calculations, the Inyokern - Lone Pine stretch is where you can drive the fastest, and as noted in my first post we drive fast. I estimated that I would need 182 rated miles (including the cushion) leaving Mojave to get to Lone Pine. In my Raven 182 miles is barely 50% so the charge rate is high, though of course that's irrelevant as the Raven doesn't need any stop before Lone Pine. Conversely for a S75D 182 miles is 70% so that's definitely tapering to some degree. I calculated 32 minutes of charging in Inyokern vs. 42 in Mojave for a S70D, which I was considering when ordering my first Tesla in fall 2015.

Those calculated charge times getting to Mammoth were a big part of convincing me to go for the S90D. The required 200+ rated miles leaving Lone Pine also pushes smaller batteries deeper into the taper resulting in a longer charge stop. In 2015 I estimated 21 minutes more in Lone Pine for the S70D vs. S90D.

Being retired nearly all of our Mammoth trips earlier than Memorial Day weekend are midweek. But our last trip we drove home on a Friday after skiing and I decided we better have dinner and charge in Inyokern at 6PM vs. Mojave at 7PM.
 
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WARNING

All of the previous stations have been removed. (Photo is of prior site.)

And, the four plastic-wrapped stations remain uncommissioned.

Only four available stations. Not good for a holiday weekend!
:eek:. I'm glad I've sworn never to go to Mammoth on MLK weekend again!
I wonder why they removed the old ones? Maybe V2 superchargers break down too often for such a remote location.
 
WARNING

All of the previous stations have been removed. (Photo is of prior site.)

And, the four plastic-wrapped stations remain uncommissioned.

Only four available stations. Not good for a holiday weekend!
WTF??? When I arrived at LP over the winter holiday, most of the 10 spots were taken. Why do this now, and not wait until next week, or at least until the site was fully operational? Heck, the fact that they had 6 stalls there for well over a year should be a clue that they were needed. 4 stalls this weekend is just plain stupid.
Bad form Tesla.
 
I bet the whole site is being upgraded to V3.

The St. George Utah site used to be 4 stalls. They brought in 4 temp stalls and set them up at the far end. Then the 4 existing stalls were ripped out and expanded to 8 new stalls.


That’s what I suspect may happen. The way they’ve paved/patched, it looks like there may be four V3 stalls added, with hardware in the original wooden enclosure.

Even so, this could have waited until after the holiday weekend and after the plastic wrap came off the other four new units.