Supercharger - Northwest - Kalispell

[outdoors]

There are nuances at most hotels about how they want to treat this. Many of them would be better worded "for patrons only", which does not necessarily mean overnight staying guests. Frequently they just don't want complete freeloaders. So if you call and check, they might consider you as a "patron" if you dine at their hotel restaurant while charging, and I think most hotels are fine with that arrangement of being a paying customer.

100% agree for Patrons. I just think when your dinner is over so is your charging. Not sure how much one is going to pick up on a 10kw over a dinner. Having dinner and than wandering back to your own hotel would be not so nice. Considering there is only one charger at the Red Lion.

Edit add:
Imagine I made a reservation at the Red Lion and some family decided to stay at the Wydham down the street and have a beer at the Red Lion to charge. Leave the car and call themselves a Patron. Bottom line without asking you are assuming.

 

[Rocky_H]

100% agree for Patrons. I just think when your dinner is over so is your charging. Not sure how much one is going to pick up on a 10kw over a dinner. Having dinner and than wandering back to your own hotel would be not so nice. Considering there is only one charger at the Red Lion.

Right--situation dependent. I had forgotten the particulars here that this person is planning to stay in Kalispell but not at this hotel, so that wouldn't be a good fit for overnight. I usually am thinking where I have to bridge some gap between Superchargers, so 2 hours to get 50 more rated miles is worth a long lunch.

So in this kind of case, I would look for some other option like a campground or RV park where you could pay to leave your car to charge overnight and then walk or taxi a mile or two back to where you are staying.

 

[KJD]

Really hard to tell. The search system is not good. The search is only good to limit it to commercial electrical, a date range, and a county. Even putting in 'Tesla' in the project name search field only pulls up the Superior SC. Nothing I put in the Name field pulls up anything Tesla. Basically I have to click on every commercial permit shown and check the names. So I do it every week, and only for Flathead County. You could try any county you want but you'd have to click on each one going back a long ways to convince yourself there isn't one previously issued.

Are you still checking Flathead county every week ?

 

[alphainfinity]

It would make a lot more sense if they put the new supercharger in N Kalispell where all of the new construction is occurring. Let’s hope for one right off the bypass!

Does anybody know if it will be a V3 supercharger?

 

[alphainfinity]

Time to start this thread. Word in the back channel is that Tesla has narrowed their site selection in Kalispell to one of two spots and is very close to pulling an electric permit. Issued electric permits are searchable online and I will check every week and post when it has been pulled and its exact location. I'll let Supercharge.info know when permit is pulled, too.
Distance to:
Missoula supercharger - 114 miles
Superior supercharger - 125 miles
Couer d'Alene via US 2 - 215 miles
" via I-15 - 207 miles (skipping Superior, which would add 26 miles round trip)
Fort MacLeod (AB) supercharger via US 2 then 89 north - 198 miles (which is then 118 miles to Calgary SC)
" via US 2, then Going to the Sun Road through Glacier Park (goes to 6500 ft. Beautiful, but slow) = 157 miles

Any updates? I was told that Tesla is targeting EOY 2019 for the new supercharger.

 

[Rocky_H]

Any updates? I was told that Tesla is targeting EOY 2019 for the new supercharger.

This is the thread for the updates, and you live there in Kalispell, so it's up to you to find it and post here about it if you see something. If you're a little new, I guess someone should explain how that "targeted for EOY 2019" actually works. Tesla has a map with locations they would like to build Superchargers. It's labeled for intending to be done in CURRENT_YEAR. They get about half of those done, and then they update the map and move all of the ones they didn't get done over to intending to be done in CURRENT_YEAR_+1.

That's how that has always worked, so take that supposed estimate with a pretty big spoonful of salt. It doesn't mean much, and there have been ones continue to move out from 2017, to 2018, to 2019, etc.

 

[alphainfinity]

I didn’t quote you or ask for your help Rocky. I was asking Rownolds who said he would check weekly to see if the permits had been pulled. We average 3.3 million visitors to Glacier park that transit through Kalispell each year. We are seeing a lot more Tesla’s of various flavors each year so my hope is that the supercharger build gets a little attention.

 

[scottf200]

I didn’t quote you or ask for your help Rocky. I was asking Rownolds who said he would check weekly to see if the permits had been pulled. We average 3.3 million visitors to Glacier park that transit through Kalispell each year. We are seeing a lot more Tesla’s of various flavors each year so my hope is that the supercharger build gets a little attention.

Have you voiced your opinion on that to supercharger (at) tesla.com ? I definitely have YOY for Great Falls and Shelby. Include some links to the visitor data as well. Oddly, it would seem like Tesla would have the travel and AC charging in northern MT to help in decision making. I possibly could have used one in Kalispell this summer but had other overnight charging lined up with family.

 

[alphainfinity]

I did, no response.

 

[Efsdvm]

There are nuances at most hotels about how they want to treat this. Many of them would be better worded "for patrons only", which does not necessarily mean overnight staying guests. Frequently they just don't want complete freeloaders. So if you call and check, they might consider you as a "patron" if you dine at their hotel restaurant while charging, and I think most hotels are fine with that arrangement of being a paying customer.

Thank you! We did exactly that at the Whitefish lodge and they had NO problem with charging while we had dinner.

 

[WadeMT]

It would make a lot more sense if they put the new supercharger in N Kalispell where all of the new construction is occurring. Let’s hope for one right off the bypass!

Does anybody know if it will be a V3 supercharger?

The current information from Tesla is that it will be a V3 charger installed by the end of 2019 across the tracks from Brannigans.

 

[scottf200]

The current information from Tesla is that it will be a V3 charger installed by the end of 2019 across the tracks from Brannigans.

 

[PLUS EV]

The current information from Tesla is that it will be a V3 charger installed by the end of 2019 across the tracks from Brannigans.

How exactly did you obtain this information and from whom?

 

[WadeMT]

How exactly did you obtain this information and from whom?

I don’t have the liberty to answer your question. There are many moving parts, so it is subject to change.
In this region, the Canadian route across the prairie currently has priority.

 

[KJD]

It's about time that Canada is getting some attention. It would also be great if some of us Tesla owners to the south of there could use I-15 to get to Canada.

 

[scottf200]

I don’t have the liberty to answer your question. There are many moving parts, so it is subject to change.
In this region, the Canadian route across the prairie currently has priority.

Hopefully they work on Shelby and Great Falls as well to get access to these new Canadian routes! I've pushed for those and emailed multiple times as they are 'coming soon' on maps but just move to the next year all the time. Thread: Supercharger - Great Falls, MT

 

[WadeMT]

It's about time that Canada is getting some attention. It would also be great if some of us Tesla owners to the south of there could use I-15 to get to Canada.

Kalispell can bridge between Missoula and Fort Macleod in a LR Tesla. It’s only a few more miles net deviating to US93, and debatably more scenic.

 

[scottf200]

Kalispell can bridge between Missoula and Fort Macleod in a LR Tesla. It’s only a few more miles net deviating to US93, and debatably more scenic.

Indeed (add 30-40% SOC) but it would depend on which side of the mountains you are coming from Western states or Eastern states route.

 

[alphainfinity]

Kalispell can bridge between Missoula and Fort Macleod in a LR Tesla. It’s only a few more miles net deviating to US93, and debatably more scenic.

The flathead valley also happens to be the gateway to Glacier National Park which attracts millions of visitors every year. Some may come through Browning/East Glacier and others may ingress via the border. I am willing to bet most transit via the West Glacier entrance to the park.

 

[PLUS EV]

Indeed (add 30-40% SOC) but it would depend on which side of the mountains you are coming from Western states or Eastern states route.

The road through the National Park also isn't open in winter. Therefore, they need to get superchargers along I-15 to really connect Montana to Canada.