Supercharger - Mountain View, CA (12 V2 stalls)

[Bet TSLA]

I seriously doubt google will let you park your car in a level II spot all day long. Most companies, even the ones that have a lot of chargers, have rotating time slots. Good for a Nissan Leaf but I doubt there are spots at Google where you can just leave your MS all day long to charge.

I don't know. I don't work there. But, if I had to guess, I'd guess that of course they expect people to park all day (or night) while they charge. Do you really think that a company that provides free food (and other goodies) to its employees so that they don't have to take time away from work will want them to waste time moving their cars around? I'm not sure why you're making foolish predictions about a situation you know little about, never mind defending them. We'll clearly know more about the dynamics once several weeks or months have passed.

This charger will be the closest one to me, much closer than the factory. However I can't see myself using it very often. Coming home from Tahoe I likely need to charge somewhere, but passing by Mountain View won't be as convenient as detouring a couple of miles to the factory. Perhaps if I'm coming home from going up north over the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm not all that sure who it will prove useful to, but I'm sure that will become clear to Tesla as it tracks users. One thing that is clear is that they are experimenting with different models of supercharger usage around the world, some clearly meant for long distance travel and some meant for dense urban areas. These early days are really all experimentation, looking for patterns of usage before the Model 3 is born.

 

[bxr140]

Also, if it wasn't said earlier (could have been...) there's definitely a fan or pump in the base of the pedestal that stops whirring when you unplug.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

More urban superchargers like this one will definitely help out-of-towners a lot. I know the pain of having to dogleg through Hawthorne multiple times to accommodate all my driving in the LA area on a trip there.

As for Google, friends who work there and drive EVs didn't mention any time restrictions on charging from the employee-only ChargePoint stations there. It'd be EV etiquette, of course, to move the car when done charging.

 

[hbouw]

We have plenty of level II chargers at my work too but if I had a access to tesla supercharger within a short walking distance of my office, I'd pick it first.

But I'm sure you'd be nice enough not to leave your car parked there all day?

 

[Bugeater]

My contractor is very interested in a Tesla. He says he drives as much as 200+ miles a day just around San Jose to Palo Alto. The Mountain View SC would be perfect for him.

 

[stevezzzz]

Elon is incorrect about the part in bold. Supercharging was listed as a feature before the Model S started shipping. From archive.org:

Model S Options and Pricing | Tesla Motors

As I recall, Tesla did not unveil the existence of the Supercharger network until late September 2012. I remember, because that was the same week I took delivery of my Sig S, and the announcement was a really big deal.

 

[Tyl]

I'm a forty year former resident of Mountain View CA. The I. T. folks that work near the Mountain View supercharger have hundreds of level 2's in and around their work. Yes, Hundreds!! So many so that there are empty charger stalls at their work locations on many days. ....and I believe that they are FREE for the employees of the particular companies that have them. ... and yes, GOOGLE by far has the most level 2's, but it also has the most buildings/parking lots.

The drivers that work in the area have been locally charging at work for years already and surely DO NOT HAVE THE NEED OR DESIRE TO SUPERCHARGE. They have been managing their EV energy needs for such a long time that this supercharging site is a novelty for them at best!

 

[markb1]

As I recall, Tesla did not unveil the existence of the Supercharger network until late September 2012. I remember, because that was the same week I took delivery of my Sig S, and the announcement was a really big deal.

True, the supercharger network wasn't announced until late in 2012, after Model S started shipping. Before that, we knew superchargers would exist, though. There was even one being used for charging the cars at the first Get Amped event in Fremont. We just didn't know the details. So for Elon to say Tesla didn't tell us there were such things as superchargers is untrue.

 

[ken830]

Yeah. We all knew that the Model S would support DC charging, but until the September 2013 announcement, we had no idea that they had already built six locations and that the price was free for the life of the car! That was the big deal! I scheduled a test drive and put in my order that coming weekend.

 

[topoisomerase]

checking out the new SC on the way to work. Nice and quiet at 6AM!

 

[wk057]

Request: next time someone goes to this location please take a photo of the writing on the cable.

 

[smartypnz]

Announcement of SC's was definitely late 2012. That was the tipping point in our decision and we bit the bullet in Dec 2012 (delivery Apr 2013). Our thinking was that the commute my wife makes to San Jose would be augmented by the SC in Gilroy (halfway on the commute) every couple of days. But reality became that we rarely use the SC (home charging was much cheaper than we thought - around $3.50 to fully charge). So SC's are used only on long trips and occasionally when her commute requires a distance greater than a full charge will carry her.

Point is - I agree that for most, local charging at an SC will be a short-lived novelty and only a convenience to those that have no other charging option.

 

[doug]

Announcement of SC's was definitely late 2012.

You guys have short memories, but the forum remembers all. We first saw the then new Model S TSL02 connector at the Beta event at the Factory, October of 2011. This is where Tesla first announced they'd be building a DC fast charging network.
Tesla DC charging network

The reappropriated term "supercharger" dropped about a couple weeks later in a NYT article.
Hpc 2.0 - Page 3
Tesla DC charging network - Page 9

Of course at the Model S premiere, back in March of 2009, it was announced that the Model S would have DC fast charging, battery swaps, battery pack rentals, and optional dual motors.

 

[Cottonwood]

Elon is incorrect about the part in bold. Supercharging was listed as a feature before the Model S started shipping. From archive.org:

Model S Options and Pricing | Tesla Motors

As I recall, Tesla did not unveil the existence of the Supercharger network until late September 2012. I remember, because that was the same week I took delivery of my Sig S, and the announcement was a really big deal.

I took delivery of my Model S in September 2012 as well. Here is the video of the announcement event on Sept 24, 2012. I still remember how excited I was that Superchargers were happening and I certainly remember taking delivery of my Model S without knowing about the existence of Superchargers.

 

[markb1]

So Elon was doubly wrong. The big supercharger announcement was in 2012, not 2013, and superchargers were known to the public (though in less detail) before the cars started shipping.

Though I'm not sure why people keep posting about the big 2012 media event. No one in this thread is disputing that it happened in September 2012.

 

[hans]

You guys have short memories, but the forum remembers all. We first saw the then new Model S TSL02 connector at the Beta event at the Factory, October of 2011. This is where Tesla first announced they'd be building a DC fast charging network.
Tesla DC charging network

The reappropriated term "supercharger" dropped about a couple weeks later in a NYT article.
Hpc 2.0 - Page 3
Tesla DC charging network - Page 9

Of course at the Model S premiere, back in March of 2009, it was announced that the Model S would have DC fast charging, battery swaps, battery pack rentals, and optional dual motors.

The forum also remembers being promised a retractable sunscreen for the pano roof, lighted visors, 40 KWh batteries, a SDK for third parties to develop apps for the car, and a whole bunch of other things that never happened so people rightly take all the pre-production talk with a large dose of skepticism.

 

[chickensevil]

Elon is incorrect about the part in bold. Supercharging was listed as a feature before the Model S started shipping. From archive.org:

Model S Options and Pricing | Tesla Motors

There must be something wrong with the way that was archived because down the page it also says:

Cars equipped with a 60 or 85 kWh battery can take advantage of Tesla's growing network of Supercharger stations

Why would it say that on 31 May of 2012 if there wasn't even 1 supercharger out there yet. The very first Superchargers came online publically along with the announcement of the existence of the feature on Nov 5th, 2012, which would have been well after the first deliveries of the car, never mind it having been advertised as a feature when people put there deposits down years earlier.

Why Archive.org is wrong, I couldn't tell you... but that is essentially the page as it existed at some point after Nov 5, 2012

 

[Cottonwood]

So Elon was doubly wrong. The big supercharger announcement was in 2012, not 2013, and superchargers were known to the public (though in less detail) before the cars started shipping.

Though I'm not sure why people keep posting about the big 2012 media event. No one in this thread is disputing that it happened in September 2012.

Model S Cars did start shipping before the Supercharger Event in September 2012!

My car was delivered to me a couple of weeks before the Supercharger event in Sept 2012, and many people had production deliveries weeks before that. Some people may have known about Superchargers before that event, but I was a regular here on TMC then, and I knew nothing of Superchargers before my delivery. Can you provide a link to some chatter on TMC about Superchargers before Model S's were shipping?

 

[markb1]

There must be something wrong with the way that was archived because down the page it also says:



Why would it say that on 31 May of 2012 if there wasn't even 1 supercharger out there yet. The very first Superchargers came online publically along with the announcement of the existence of the feature on Nov 5th, 2012, which would have been well after the first deliveries of the car, never mind it having been advertised as a feature when people put there deposits down years earlier.

Why Archive.org is wrong, I couldn't tell you... but that is essentially the page as it existed at some point after Nov 5, 2012

Archive.org is not wrong. That's how the page was. Here's another capture from January 2012:

Model S Options and Pricing | Tesla Motors

The language on the page is about their plans at that time. Telsa announced the feature before the cars shipped, not later than January 2012. Then they had a big media event in September, a couple of months after the first cars shipped, to announce the details, including the availability of the first public superchargers.

I'm not sure what happened on November 5th, but it wasn't the supercharger announcement.

- - - Updated - - -

Model S Cars did start shipping before the Supercharger Event in September 2012!

I agree 100%. I think everyone does! (Except Elon, who says the event happened in 2013!)

My car was delivered to me a couple of weeks before the Supercharger event in Sept 2012, and many people had production deliveries weeks before that. Some people may have known about Superchargers before that event, but I was a regular here on TMC then, and I knew nothing of Superchargers before my delivery. Can you provide a link to some chatter on TMC about Superchargers before Model S's were shipping?

I think Doug provided some links above. Here's another one:

Tesla Supercharger network

(Note the first post was edited after the September event. But the thread was started in May 2012.)

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry guys. I didn't mean to derail the thread, here. I just thought it was interesting that Elon's memory was wrong, which was the whole point of my first post on this subject!

 

[smartypnz]

I stand corrected - the SC's (or concept) may have been released earlier, but the big todo was that they were to be free - I believe that was when I first heard about them in late 2012.