It appears there is a new Supercharger under construction at the Casey's in Van Buren - 401 Pointer Trail - Google Maps
Apparently there's significant progress on a Supercharger location in Van Buren, AR. I grabbed these photos from the Arkansas Tesla Facebook group. Google Map
I feel like Alma might have been better so that the I-49 people headed east wouldn't have to go so far west for a charge, but maybe they can make it to Ozark without too much trouble. But if the Van Buren and Ozark locations were combined into an Alma location ... Whatever, it's great to have another one. I'm not too fussed about it
Looks like the thing to do to get the supercharger.info map updated with the new build is to: @BlueShift @Chuq @MarcoRP
Nice find! I've added it to supercharge.info. The pictures currently only show 6 stalls, so that's what I added it as having, but considering there are 2 V3 cabinets it's likely to be 8 stalls.
It's REALLY hard to judge these things. And with holiday hours the install crew might be off work for several days. But looking at the pictures, it's pretty far along! Three or four weeks should be pretty close to done, I would think.
The 3 to 4 week estimate is pretty spot on. The Lowell Supercharger was discovered Jan 29th 2020 in a similar state and was operational by Feb 22nd. So its possible for it to be up and running in 20 to 30 days. There are many things that can go wrong between the Electrical grid connections, inspection timings, and general faults in the cabinets themselves. The real measure of them being up and running is when they appear in the car and the app.
That's basically the only part that matters. Before that, any functionality is highly unreliable, as I've discovered by reading many threads. Occasionally someone says "I GOT A CHARGE AND IT'S NOT EVEN ON THE MAP!" and someone else goes by and the plugs don't even register that anything is plugged into the car. The next day everything is working and the site is listed in the Tesla app.
Van Buren, AR Along Primary Interstates: I-40 Along US Numbered Highways (<=5mi): US-64, US-71 Along Auxiliary Interstates: None I-40 From: Oklahoma City, OK - 194.3 miles To: Ozark, AR - 29.8 miles Diversion: 1.2 miles From: Weatherford, OK - 252.3 miles To: Memphis, TN - 296.7 miles This is clearly the expected Fort Smith, AR area Supercharger. Partial splitter on I-40, 194.3 miles from the Oklahoma City, OK Supercharger. If they can add a location in Henryetta, OK, that would make the connection from Oklahoma. Also splits the 254.4 miles from Texarkana, TX to Lowell, AR: Texarkana, TX to Van Buren, AR (US-71, I-540/US-71): 185.4 miles Van Buren, AR to Lowell, AR (I-40, I-49): 70.1 miles
That's a good point - Texans headed to Fayetteville and beyond will have another route to choose from (and visa versa). I still think it might have been better at Alma nearer the interstate interchange, but I'm not complaining
What’s the reason for this placement within 70mi of another SC when so much of AR isn’t close to a SC?
The main reason is probably because of I49. People coming from the west (OK) need to charge before going north on I49 and people coming from the east (LR) also need to charge before going north. I49 has about 1000 feet of altitude change. Even with a AWD LR Model 3 with 99% charge from LR, I made it to Bentonville with 7%. Its also possible the Van Buren charger was already in progress and was taking forever to get started. The Ozark charging location was also specifically requested by the travel center owners who also own the location in Lowell. So there are at least several different reasons why they are so close together that might make sense. Has anyone scouted out Henryetta recently for possible construction?
There's this neat trick I learned where I just wait for the second one to be finished and then go to both
Yeah I think Ozark is the bigger head-scratcher, but I assume they put one there because the business owner (same as Lowell) gave them a favorable deal (or at least was eager to partner with Tesla). Van Buren, or somewhere nearby, seems like an obvious choice given it's location at the intersection of two interstates.