Supercharger - Tehachapi, CA (permit, 40 stalls)

[FreqFlier]

Sure, but why 40 stalls? This isn't on a major route from anywhere to anywhere, is it? Are the superchargers in Mojave heavily used? Certainly not when I've been through there.

<whisper> If you build it, they will come... </whisper>

 

[MY2021f]

Sure, but why 40 stalls? This isn't on a major route from anywhere to anywhere, is it? Are the superchargers in Mojave heavily used? Certainly not when I've been through there.

Are you joking?

 

[Bet TSLA]

Are you joking?

Nope. Not local. Drive through that area occasionally. First charged in Mojave back in 2015 when there was only the original site, and it seemed pretty creepy late at night. Yeah, I see I posted to that thread waiting for it to finish construction ( #47 ).

Anyway, I've seen lots of people post their imaginings about how this Tehachapi site might get busy, but nobody has been saying that nearby sites ever have gotten very busy. And it takes some serious traffic to fill up a 40-stall site.

Las Vegas? Really? Lots of people all at once? Nobody lives in Las Vegas, so it's not as though there's a big crowd going there for the holidays. Maybe I've missed it. Can somebody point me to posts complaining about big crowds at any nearby chargers, because I still don't see the logic.

Not that more and bigger superchargers are bad thing...

 

[PLUS EV]

Nope. Not local. Drive through that area occasionally. First charged in Mojave back in 2015 when there was only the original site, and it seemed pretty creepy late at night. Yeah, I see I posted to that thread waiting for it to finish construction ( #47 ).

Anyway, I've seen lots of people post their imaginings about how this Tehachapi site might get busy, but nobody has been saying that nearby sites ever have gotten very busy. And it takes some serious traffic to fill up a 40-stall site.

Las Vegas? Really? Lots of people all at once? Nobody lives in Las Vegas, so it's not as though there's a big crowd going there for the holidays. Maybe I've missed it. Can somebody point me to posts complaining about big crowds at any nearby chargers, because I still don't see the logic.

Not that more and bigger superchargers are bad thing...

Everyone goes to Vegas on Friday and drives back to CA on Sunday. Basically every weekend is a holiday weekend on these routes. Not sure how you could miss that.

 

[Bet TSLA]

Everyone goes to Vegas on Friday and drives back to CA on Sunday. Basically every weekend is a holiday weekend on these routes. Not sure how you could miss that.

Easy to miss. I never go to Las Vegas. Well, I remember driving my daughter there once for a soccer tournament, and there was one other time that wasn't just passing through on the way to or from Utah parks. So please point me to the complaining posts about inadequate supercharging along the route. I thought all the complaints were about the LA/Las Vegas corridor.

People coming from LA (i.e. almost all of them) wouldn't ever go through Tehachapi, would they? And traffic from NorCal would be generally light because people would mostly fly (I imagine), since spending that much time driving would be a real waste for just a weekend. So that leaves, what? The population of Bakersfield? Still seems unlikely to me that Tehachapi will be heavily used.

I had assumed that most of the Mojave usage was for Mammoth. Is it actually for Las Vegas?

 

[ratsbew]

I live in Tehachapi so I'll never use this, but I find it strange to put such a big station at the top of a mountain pass. Once you've made it to the summit, you can coast down in either direction and only use maybe 1% battery. Anyone charging over 90% is going to have trouble with regen going down the mountain.

It makes more sense to expand the station at Mojave (which they are doing), and to put a station on the west side of the pass...maybe at the Murray Farm exit.

 

[MY2021f]

I live in Tehachapi so I'll never use this, but I find it strange to put such a big station at the top of a mountain pass. Once you've made it to the summit, you can coast down in either direction and only use maybe 1% battery. Anyone charging over 90% is going to have trouble with regen going down the mountain.

It makes more sense to expand the station at Mojave (which they are doing), and to put a station on the west side of the pass...maybe at the Murray Farm exit.

I'd rather have these 40 at Buttonwillow or inside Bakersfield, but I'll take em.

 

[Johnny Vector]

I live in Tehachapi so I'll never use this, but I find it strange to put such a big station at the top of a mountain pass. Once you've made it to the summit, you can coast down in either direction and only use maybe 1% battery. Anyone charging over 90% is going to have trouble with regen going down the mountain.

So don't charge over 90%. Which you never want to do unless you absolutely have to anyway, since it takes forever. Charging at the top of a hill sounds like an advantage to me. You start at a low state of charge and you can stop earlier. Makes for a faster charge (20%-70% is faster than 30-80).

 

[Doug Martoccia]

Great location! I looked up 2021 DOT traffic volumes and the peak traffic on the 58 through Tehachapi is a bit higher than the traffic volume up the 395 towards Bishop, so 40 stalls seems appropriate. This location also avoids a detour through Mojave!

 

[Misterbee]

As others have pointed out, the CSS magic dock is coming. It is in Tesla’s best interest to install as many chargers in as many locations as possible. If they put 40 SCs in Tehachapi, will the competition even bother? Seems like a great way to lock up a market.

 

[pb2000]

If they put 40 SCs in Tehachapi, will the competition even bother? Seems like a great way to lock up a market.

Except, for the existing 2 stall site and two more 4 stall sites more awaiting activation? Looks like nothing higher than 62kW, but competition none the less.

 

[Johnny Vector]

Except, for the existing 2 stall site and two more 4 stall sites more awaiting activation? Looks like nothing higher than 62kW, but competition none the less.

I would respectfully submit that a 62 kW charger doesn't really count as competition with v3 or v4 Superchargers. Unless you're road tripping in a Bolt (and if you are, all my respect and godspeed!), it's slowing you down absurdly.

It's kind of shocking how many CCS chargers (even new ones going in now!) are 90 kW or less. Really hoping the SC network is mostly switched to Magic Docks (or Tesla starts selling an adapter I can carry around) before I switch to a Buzz California. Or I guess the CCS folks could get their act together, but I kinda thought they would have by now.

 

[RubberToe]

As others have pointed out, the CSS magic dock is coming. It is in Tesla’s best interest to install as many chargers in as many locations as possible. If they put 40 SCs in Tehachapi, will the competition even bother? Seems like a great way to lock up a market.

Yeah, I have previously speculated that the Tesla connector would end up being the default standard (vs. CCS) simply due to the number of vehicles using it. It looks like the path forward is instead going to be that with Tesla installing magic docks on so many Tesla chargers, that the Tesla chargers themselves will turn into the default standard charging "station". And yes, it could very well be that Tesla locks up the market, and if they have pricing power can essentially force the other providers out of the market due to their scale.

RT

 

[pb2000]

I would respectfully submit that a 62 kW charger doesn't really count as competition with v3 or v4 Superchargers. Unless you're road tripping in a Bolt (and if you are, all my respect and godspeed!), it's slowing you down absurdly.

It's kind of shocking how many CCS chargers (even new ones going in now!) are 90 kW or less.

Some of the 50kW stations with low peak amperage do suck on 400V vehicles, but if those 62kw stations are charepoints, they can be paired up for 125kW if the adjacent station is empty. Anyways, I always say any DCFC is better than L2.

 

[bmah]

I don't necessarily see a Supercharger in Tehachipi, with or without Magic Docks (and I think people in general are severely overestimating the frequency of Magic Docks in future Supercharger deployments, but that's another story), to be crowding out any competition in this location. Tesla doesn't even need market share in EV charging. That's not their primary business, and they'd make far more in selling EVs than they ever would providing charging services.

Remember that Tesla initially rolled out the Supercharger network in order to enable long-distance travel in their vehicles. If they didn't do that, buyers would never (well, almost never) see them as potential replacements for ICE cars.

Also, we don't generally know why Tesla selected this location. There are likely some constraints (availability of power, willingness of property owners to lease space, etc.) that we're not privy to. What might seem to some people to be a suboptimal location might be the best available.

Bruce.

 

[wwu123]

Easy to miss. I never go to Las Vegas. Well, I remember driving my daughter there once for a soccer tournament, and there was one other time that wasn't just passing through on the way to or from Utah parks. So please point me to the complaining posts about inadequate supercharging along the route. I thought all the complaints were about the LA/Las Vegas corridor.

People coming from LA (i.e. almost all of them) wouldn't ever go through Tehachapi, would they? And traffic from NorCal would be generally light because people would mostly fly (I imagine), since spending that much time driving would be a real waste for just a weekend. So that leaves, what? The population of Bakersfield? Still seems unlikely to me that Tehachapi will be heavily used.

I had assumed that most of the Mojave usage was for Mammoth. Is it actually for Las Vegas?

SF Bay Area <-> Las Vegas certainly gets a lot less traffic than either SF <-> LA or LA <-> Vegas, since it is a 10-hour drive, but there is traffic nonetheless, and not a lot of supercharger capacity cutting between I-5 and Barstow, Mojave is basically it. Only 18 months ago, I found Mojave to be a total sh**show mid-week in one of the lowest travel periods of the year - no V3 chargers, less than a dozen urban/V2 chargers and having problem (52 kw max at the time). Plus with most of the superchargers near Buttonwillow (I-5) and Barstow/Yermo still V2 (meaning avg 72 kw or less), pretty much EVERYONE had to stop at all three areas, not just me with my lowly 230 rated miles, to charge at 72 kw or less at all three places.

I know things are getting better now, and more coming, with more sites, more stall, and more V3, inc Mojave. But Tehachapi is basically not far from Mojave, and to me fairly equivalent to putting more at Mojave - they're close enough it won't change anyone's calculation about where they stop or skip at either I-5 or Barstow/Yermo. And I don't recall there's really any other major places along that corridor.

As to Tehachapi being at the top of an elevation and limiting regen, most are not charging to anywhere near 90%, plus I don't recall needing to do a lot of braking along that route, more like driving 70-90 mph, which will bleed off a pretty full battery in short order?

 

[MY2021f]

SF Bay Area <-> Las Vegas certainly gets a lot less traffic than either SF <-> LA or LA <-> Vegas, since it is a 10-hour drive, but there is traffic nonetheless, and not a lot of supercharger capacity cutting between I-5 and Barstow, Mojave is basically it. Only 18 months ago, I found Mojave to be a total sh**show mid-week in one of the lowest travel periods of the year - no V3 chargers, less than a dozen urban/V2 chargers and having problem (52 kw max at the time). Plus with most of the superchargers near Buttonwillow (I-5) and Barstow/Yermo still V2 (meaning avg 72 kw or less), pretty much EVERYONE had to stop at all three areas, not just me with my lowly 230 rated miles, to charge at 72 kw or less at all three places.

I know things are getting better now, and more coming, with more sites, more stall, and more V3, inc Mojave. But Tehachapi is basically not far from Mojave, and to me fairly equivalent to putting more at Mojave - they're close enough it won't change anyone's calculation about where they stop or skip at either I-5 or Barstow/Yermo. And I don't recall there's really any other major places along that corridor.

As to Tehachapi being at the top of an elevation and limiting regen, most are not charging to anywhere near 90%, plus I don't recall needing to do a lot of braking along that route, more like driving 70-90 mph, which will bleed off a pretty full battery in short order?

I can't imagine charging to 90%. But I see people asleep at the superchargers, they must be the ones following the Nav's instructions to charge for an hour to 100%.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I would respectfully submit that a 62 kW charger doesn't really count as competition with v3 or v4 Superchargers. Unless you're road tripping in a Bolt (and if you are, all my respect and godspeed!), it's slowing you down absurdly.

It's kind of shocking how many CCS chargers (even new ones going in now!) are 90 kW or less. Really hoping the SC network is mostly switched to Magic Docks (or Tesla starts selling an adapter I can carry around) before I switch to a Buzz California. Or I guess the CCS folks could get their act together, but I kinda thought they would have by now.

You may be seeing the tail end of state-subsidized chargers from Dieselgate money. In Maine the preference in the program has been to favor coverage over charging speed, and I believe these lower-power units are relatively cheap. Also in my limited experience (used 5 sites in our Kona) these units have been reliable. There's still 4 of the 7 Maine Dieselgate Phase 3 sites locations not yet open, with 1 opening soon (Fairfield, ME) and 3 likely not even under construction. (Auburn, ME; Belfast, ME; Ellsworth, ME).

Now imagine what Maine's CCS coverage and capacity would be like without having had the Dieselgate money. There have been some CCS DCFC added recently at dealerships, but they aren't in good locations for travel.

The NEVI-funded sites will have more stalls and higher max power.

As somebody else pointed out, the more recent variants are actually set up with 125kW split. Like v2 Superchargers but worse. Nicely timed so it was about 10 years after Tesla quickly updated to v2.

But as somebody who's short-road-tripped in a Kona, which tops out at 75kW, those 62.5kW (don't forget the 0.5kW!) chargers are better than 125A 50kW stations! And at least it's 2 stations, not just one per site.

 

[mpmeyer]

I have been on 2 round trips through Tehachapi, SF -> Dallas -> SF; SF -> Big Bear -> SF.

I had plenty of charge between Bakersfield (I5) and Barstow. Did not even consider Mojave.

 

[smartypnz]

I remember a time when it was difficult for Tesla to get approval to build a Supercharger. I think if one can be installed NOW at any location - do it !!!!
Tesla sales have increased dramatically and will continue to do so. If there's a choice to build at location A or B and B says go - then do it. Any location is going to provide another choice on any trip.
On a personal note... I do go through there (maybe once a year or so). But given a choice to stop here or at Mojave... I would choose this cuz it's closer to my route. More options... like stopping in Yermo vs Barstow - either would work - so, yes, put another cone on my display!!!!