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Supercharger - Nashville / Brentwood, TN (SC)

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This looks perfect for us, going to be visiting Nashville just for a day in July, thinking of driving in from Elizabethtown. Question: earlier in this thread someone posted that Elizabethtown, KY is a stretch from this location, but google is telling me it's only 149 miles (up I65). Seem quite doable to me (with P85), unless I'm missing something?

I haven't driven that way (yet) but Louisville is getting to be a stretch from south Nashville. Elizabethtown is said to be on Tesla's Supercharger site list to link Nashville-Louisville.

149 miles? I do that couple of times per month in my 85. Today for instance.

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...and spoke to resident tesla advisor yesterday he is highly interested in hosting a opening party at the new site, looking forward to end of June.

Today is the 27th. What part of the end of June is he waiting for?
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1435533223.238978.jpg


Any day now!
 
This looks perfect for us, going to be visiting Nashville just for a day in July, thinking of driving in from Elizabethtown. Question: earlier in this thread someone posted that Elizabethtown, KY is a stretch from this location, but google is telling me it's only 149 miles (up I65). Seem quite doable to me (with P85), unless I'm missing something?

I think you may be referring to me. What I meant was that southern Nashville to Lexington at ~230 miles is (maybe) too long, unless there is a fast charger somewhere near Elizabethtown. I am making that trip in 1 month and haven't decided if I am taking my ICE or my Tesla. I'd obviously prefer the Tesla, but I am picking up and bringing home my wife and 2 small kids. We likely won't do well with a 4 hour stop at a campground. Can't make it at all without this charger, which is 215 Interstate miles from my house.
 
I'll be going by there today but just in case I charged enough to get back home if the Supercharger isn't online yet. I'd be happy to perform a test charge if needed. I agree those mini pre-curbs will assuage a lot of drivers anxiety of pulling in forward. Having worked in my early work years as a used car lot attendant I can attest to the preferability of backing into a tight / semi-tight parking space rather than backing out. Here is one of the better explanations I've come across on the internet. This was written by Ben Reimers who is a contributor to the Quora website. Here is the link to his actual Quora - The best answer to any question answer which appears somewhere down in the rest of the quora answers: Why do people back up into parking spaces? - Quora

It's much easier to reverse into a car space where room is limited than it is to drive straight in.

The reason for this is that the back wheels are fixed in direction in relation to the car. This effectively makes the pivot point of the car the middle of the rear axle. In turn, this means the rear wheels don't follow the same path as the front wheels, they will cut the corner. When space is limited, your turning circle may not be small enough to get into a tight space, forcing you to make a couple of gos to get in, straight.

main-qimg-21424ed7d8be9facef6137224e742dc6?convert_to_webp=true.jpg

See how the car is crossing the lines on either side? You rarely have the room in a parking lot to be able to manoeuvre your car to be driving directly into the space, you have to straighten up inside the space itself. Not easy to do with the pivot at the back of the car, often causing people to reverse half out of the spot just to be straight (holding up traffic again and confusing people into thinking you might be leaving, when you're not).

But if you reverse in, you are placing your pivot point in a position where you can more easily get into the car space perfectly the first time.

main-qimg-12bf2f4088187edf5f1ea50f1f3a4ec0?convert_to_webp=true.jpg

It also has the benefit of being able to drive straight out. This isn't just for convenience though, it's also a safety issue especially in a busy car park. You're more likely to see other traffic as well as pedestrians when you're directly facing them.

[Update]

Because some people were questioning the way the car in the first image crosses the line I have put together this quick animation that shows how the rear wheels move towards where the front ones are and "cut" the corner ... by up to half the width of the car! I used inverse-kinematics to get the motion so it's not just my interpretation of what will happen.

The following is based on an average sedan length of 5 metres and an average turning circle of 11.75 metres. The outer circle is the curb-to-curb turning circle, the inner circle is the width of the car and there to illustrate my point about how the rear of the car.

turningcircle - YouTube

main-qimg-ca7f553df481d4d17e07d38e04027c9e?convert_to_webp=true.gif






See how the car is positioned when it gets to the horizontal line: almost at a 45 degree angle. It takes another whole length to get straight again.
 
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I'll be going by there today but just in case I charged enough to get back home if the Supercharger isn't online yet. I'd be happy to perform a test charge if needed. I agree those mini pre-curbs will assuage a lot of drivers anxiety of pulling in forward. Having worked in my early work years as a used car lot attendant I can attest to the preferability of backing into a tight / semi-tight parking space rather than backing out. Here is one of the better explanations I've come across on the internet. This was written by Ben Reimers who is a contributor to the Quora website. Here is the link to his actual Quora - The best answer to any question answer which appears somewhere down in the rest of the quora answers: Why do people back up into parking spaces? - Quora

It's much easier to reverse into a car space where room is limited than it is to drive straight in.

The reason for this is that the back wheels are fixed in direction in relation to the car. This effectively makes the pivot point of the car the middle of the rear axle. In turn, this means the rear wheels don't follow the same path as the front wheels, they will cut the corner. When space is limited, your turning circle may not be small enough to get into a tight space, forcing you to make a couple of gos to get in, straight.

main-qimg-21424ed7d8be9facef6137224e742dc6?convert_to_webp=true.jpg

See how the car is crossing the lines on either side? You rarely have the room in a parking lot to be able to manoeuvre your car to be driving directly into the space, you have to straighten up inside the space itself. Not easy to do with the pivot at the back of the car, often causing people to reverse half out of the spot just to be straight (holding up traffic again and confusing people into thinking you might be leaving, when you're not).

But if you reverse in, you are placing your pivot point in a position where you can more easily get into the car space perfectly the first time.

main-qimg-12bf2f4088187edf5f1ea50f1f3a4ec0?convert_to_webp=true.jpg

It also has the benefit of being able to drive straight out. This isn't just for convenience though, it's also a safety issue especially in a busy car park. You're more likely to see other traffic as well as pedestrians when you're directly facing them.

[Update]

Because some people were questioning the way the car in the first image crosses the line I have put together this quick animation that shows how the rear wheels move towards where the front ones are and "cut" the corner ... by up to half the width of the car! I used inverse-kinematics to get the motion so it's not just my interpretation of what will happen.

The following is based on an average sedan length of 5 metres and an average turning circle of 11.75 metres. The outer circle is the curb-to-curb turning circle, the inner circle is the width of the car and there to illustrate my point about how the rear of the car.

turningcircle - YouTube

main-qimg-ca7f553df481d4d17e07d38e04027c9e?convert_to_webp=true.gif






See how the car is positioned when it gets to the horizontal line: almost at a 45 degree angle. It takes another whole length to get straight again.

Thank you very much for this concise explanation of why backing in is better than heading in. I do agree with you but find it difficult to use as most drivers, especially in crowded lots, do not have the patience to wait for you and I have heard of incidents where they will cut you off while you are positioning yourself and head into the slot that you are aiming at. It could be a cultural thing since there are some places where it is preferred by the majority and thus there is more patience and such cutting-off incidents are almost unheard of. My alternate method is to find back-to-back empty slots (without bumpers) then head into one in order to sprue the next so that I am heading out instead of backing out when I leave.
Ticobird, it looks like this subject is important enough to have its own thread as I have seen it come up in other threads.
BTW, you can look up "sprue" in urbandictionary.com if you want to confirm my usage of the word.
 
That is an interesting use of the word sprue. Actually I've never read the word before. Iunderstand you're hesitation to use the backing in technique especially when other drivers do not give you the space. Personally I only use it when necessary. At least now you know why it is the best and sometimes only technique to use in special circumstances.

I'm almost to Nashville. I hope the Supercharger is operational.
 
The Superchargers were not operational. The guy inside said they were ready but they were waiting for the final electric utility inspection. He did not know when the inspection would happen. Anyway here are a few pictures to give everyone a better idea how the Supercharger stalls are oriented. I need to remember to turn my phone 90 degrees for a landscape picture. These pictures make me look like a novice phone user who doesn't know any better. Well I guess I am.:smile:

20150630_133221.jpg



20150630_133302.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with portrait orientation for the first picture as it correlates well with the pedestal size and shape. I wonder if shifting left a little bit would have allowed a series view of all the pedestals through the opening. Sorry. Just being picky. :biggrin: Enough of off-topic musings already.
 
any update on this? Any reason why the Superchargers have not gone live yet? They seem to have been completed by June 30th but still not open? I bet there are an awful lot of people traveling this weekend who could benefit by this going live.
 
I was there yesterday. They said waiting for final electrical inspection. These are not quick these days due to the booming Nashville area economy. Everyone is building something right now. I took a look at the site. Everything clearly appears to be complete. Just need to throw the switch.
 
any update on this? Any reason why the Superchargers have not gone live yet? They seem to have been completed by June 30th but still not open? I bet there are an awful lot of people traveling this weekend who could benefit by this going live.

If you look at superchage.info there are 13 US sites under construction right now. The last that went live (in the US) was on June 26th. Its rare that a site doesn't go live during any given week. My guess is that electrical inspections are considered discretionary work and leading up to the July 4th festivities, which was recognized a day early by most businesses, little or no discretionary electrical inspection work got accomplished. Inspectors take vacations too.

For those travelling there are 3 CHAdeMO units at Nissan HQ within 5 miles of this site that are probably getting little to no use right now.