Supercharger - Mariposa, CA (LIVE 12 May 2023, 12 V3 stalls)

[ecarfan]

This location is shown on Tesla’s Find Us page map as “Target opening in 2019”. I’m starting this thread in hopes that anyone driving through the small town of Mariposa at the junction of highways 49 and 140 can look around for signs of construction. A Supercharger at this location would be very useful to me when I’m towing my trailer to destinations in Yosemite.

 

[ucmndd]

I don't think there's any movement on this at all. I'm from the area and regularly watch Merced and Mariposa county building permits for signs of either supercharger and have seen no suggestion of activity.

Unfortunately Mariposa County's permits are a bear to search as they post scans online from a dot matrix printer, so it's possible I missed something but I don't think so.

Mariposa County, CA - Official Website

 

[mociaf9]

I don't think there's any movement on this at all. I'm from the area and regularly watch Merced and Mariposa county building permits for signs of either supercharger and have seen no suggestion of activity.

Unfortunately Mariposa County's permits are a bear to search as they post scans online from a dot matrix printer, so it's possible I missed something but I don't think so.

Mariposa County, CA - Official Website

I just checked from September 2018 through March 2019. I didn't see anything that was explicitly a supercharger permit.

 

[ecarfan]

Thanks guys, appreciate your efforts!

 

[SR-75]

We are very interested in having a SuperCharger located here as CA-140 is our preferred route to Yosemite. Have not been to Yosemite since we got our Tesla Model S 75 almost 3 years ago. Thank you and we also appreciate your efforts to keep an eye out for this to happen.

 

[joehuber]

Yes, this potential supercharger would have been immensely helpful yesterday. I normally enter and leave Yosemite via Hwy 120 and use the Groveland supercharger, charging to the max since charging in Yosemite is scarce. Yesterday our cabin lost power and a surprise snow storm hit (yes over Memorial Day weekend) and due to the hazardous conditions and a couple of big accidents BOTH Hwy 120 and Hwy 41 were closed. Those are the only was out of Yosemite that have superchargers along the route. I went to the Majestic Hotel but both chargers were in use and the Model 3 on the J1772 said it would be full in 25 HOURS.

So I had to exit using Hwy 140 through Mariposa and went very close to this proposed location. Even though I needed to go northwest back to the Bay Area, I didn't have enough range to reach Manteca, and only 4% remaining if I tried to make Gustine. The slightly safer bet was to go to the totally wrong direction down to FRESNO and arrive with a forecast 7%. So I drove 40-45 MPH the whole way and made it to Fresno.

Since Hwy 140 is the only year round accessible route into and out of Yosemite, I'd say it's essential that it have a Supercharger along the route, and Mariposa would be the perfect place. Hope Tesla can get past whatever is delaying it and get it built before winter hits again.

 

[ucmndd]

Yes, both Mariposa and Merced would be very useful. Any year now...

 

[PLUS EV]

Yes, this potential supercharger would have been immensely helpful yesterday. I normally enter and leave Yosemite via Hwy 120 and use the Groveland supercharger, charging to the max since charging in Yosemite is scarce. Yesterday our cabin lost power and a surprise snow storm hit (yes over Memorial Day weekend) and due to the hazardous conditions and a couple of big accidents BOTH Hwy 120 and Hwy 41 were closed. Those are the only was out of Yosemite that have superchargers along the route. I went to the Majestic Hotel but both chargers were in use and the Model 3 on the J1772 said it would be full in 25 HOURS.

So I had to exit using Hwy 140 through Mariposa and went very close to this proposed location. Even though I needed to go northwest back to the Bay Area, I didn't have enough range to reach Manteca, and only 4% remaining if I tried to make Gustine. The slightly safer bet was to go to the totally wrong direction down to FRESNO and arrive with a forecast 7%. So I drove 40-45 MPH the whole way and made it to Fresno.

Since Hwy 140 is the only year round accessible route into and out of Yosemite, I'd say it's essential that it have a Supercharger along the route, and Mariposa would be the perfect place. Hope Tesla can get past whatever is delaying it and get it built before winter hits again.

4% should be fine if you are willing to drive slowly like you did. Only exception being maybe if there were snow on the highways you were actually driving. Just lower your suspension if possible and kill the heat and/or a/c. Also, there are most certainly L2 options in Merced and Gustine proper if you are really getting nervous. Just look them up on Plugshare. Definitely not worth diverting all the way to Fresno for a slightly safer route imo.

 

[joehuber]

4% should be fine if you are willing to drive slowly like you did.

If it had been a normal California day I'd have probably trusted the 4% and gone to Gustine. But it was still cold and very rainy even at the lower elevations. The Fresno prediction had dropped from 11% to 7% even with my conservative driving.

And I had rolled the dice earlier in the day just trying to get off the mountain before the snow storm got too bad and had slid off the road and was stuck for a couple of hours until a tow truck and chain installer arrived. Yes I'd been checking PlugShare often, and the most likely option would have been a bed-n-breakfast with two Tesla Destination Chargers in Mariposa. But it said call for reservations and I didn't want to spend any time nor electrons finding those stations only to be denied access. So I figured the safest thing would be to just go to Fresno.

I didn't want to roll the dice twice on the same cold and snowy/rainy day and lose both times.

So in any case a Supercharger in Mariposa would be highly convenient. Tesla's Nav even calls it the "Year Round Yosemite Highway".

 

[ecarfan]

If it had been a normal California day I'd have probably trusted the 4% and gone to Gustine. But it was still cold and very rainy even at the lower elevations. The Fresno prediction had dropped from 11% to 7% even with my conservative driving.

Wise decision. Wet roads definitely impact range, as do low temps of course, and the onboard trip planner does not take those factors into account.

 

[shs1]

My wife and I live in Mariposa County and received our Model S in March of 2013 and our Model 3 in January 2018. We charge in our garage and have had the occasional Tesla visiting Mariposa or Yosemite do the same.

My wife is a County Supervisor and one of her first actions as Supervisor, 4 years ago, was to have the County pass a resolution offering Tesla three potential sites for a Supercharger location in the town of Mariposa, and this was sent to the Tesla Supercharger team. More recently, one of our larger motels has expressed interest in having a Supercharger located there.

While we have occasionally heard, “maybe next year”, from Tesla, there has been nothing definitive and nothing for several years now. In the meantime, both the 120 and 41 corridors have obtained Superchargers, leaving the 140 corridor and the town of Mariposa at a serious disadvantage. This is really too bad as the town of Mariposa is charming with lots of good restaurants, and HWY 140 is the “all weather” entrance to Yosemite as it follows the beautiful and lower elevation Merced River canyon into and out of the Park and thus is far less likely to close because of snow as the recent experience has shown.

The recently updated County Transportation Plan has suggested a charger at our local Park and Ride location. I think that the ball is in Tesla’s court on this one.

 

[PLUS EV]

My wife and I live in Mariposa County and received our Model S in March of 2013 and our Model 3 in January 2018. We charge in our garage and have had the occasional Tesla visiting Mariposa or Yosemite do the same.

My wife is a County Supervisor and one of her first actions as Supervisor, 4 years ago, was to have the County pass a resolution offering Tesla three potential sites for a Supercharger location in the town of Mariposa, and this was sent to the Tesla Supercharger team. More recently, one of our larger motels has expressed interest in having a Supercharger located there.

While we have occasionally heard, “maybe next year”, from Tesla, there has been nothing definitive and nothing for several years now. In the meantime, both the 120 and 41 corridors have obtained Superchargers, leaving the 140 corridor and the town of Mariposa at a serious disadvantage. This is really too bad as the town of Mariposa is charming with lots of good restaurants, and HWY 140 is the “all weather” entrance to Yosemite as it follows the beautiful and lower elevation Merced River canyon into and out of the Park and thus is far less likely to close because of snow as the recent experience has shown.

The recently updated County Transportation Plan has suggested a charger at our local Park and Ride location. I think that the ball is in Tesla’s court on this one.

Thanks for the info. Definitely frustrating to hear that Tesla has moved on it in so many years given this information.

 

[shs1]

For the record, there was a discussion of this in the Northern CA speculation thread at the time the BOS resolution was passed. Superchargers in Northern California (location speculation)

 

[joehuber]

While we have occasionally heard, “maybe next year”, from Tesla, there has been nothing definitive and nothing for several years now.

That's disappointing. Were there any strings attached to those site offers that would make it problematic for Tesla to move forward with construction?

I'm surprised that Tesla even keeps it on their 2019 supercharger map if they don't have any near term plans to take action on this.

 

[shs1]

I don't think there were any "strings" and while the County Planning Department was involved in selecting the sites offered, there certainly was not a completed Use Permit.

The last time my wife talked with them and asked why 41 and 120, but not 140, they said, "Well maybe they offered us more than just the location". I guess we have come a long way from the early days when Tesla was willing to pay rent for the Supercharger site. Now it seems like Tesla wants an incentive to put a SC in a community, and it is difficult to engage them in discussion or negotiation.

 

[ecarfan]

Anyone been through Mariposa lately and looked for construction activity?

 

[shs1]

I live in Mariposa County and there is no construction activity. On a local Facebook Chat someone recently asked if there were any "charging stations" in Mariposa and the resultant discussion was quite interesting. Our Public Works Director then posted:

Public Works met with representatives from Tesla recently to discuss their program and they are at the point now where they will only supply them if there are 7 stations at the same location which is a non-starter given the size and number of spaces within our public parking lots. We are looking at all options to bring both Tesla and Universal Charging Stations to Mariposa just as soon as we can. I view this as an important program not only for the planet but also for economic development. Tesla was also looking at the option of private property and businesses whe n they were here.

 

[ecarfan]

@shs1 thanks for your post. It sounds like the county Public Works Director is a sensible person. Hopefully Tesla will find a suitable site.

 

[Pluto]

I don't think there's any movement on this at all. I'm from the area and regularly watch Merced and Mariposa county building permits for signs of either supercharger and have seen no suggestion of activity.

Unfortunately Mariposa County's permits are a bear to search as they post scans online from a dot matrix printer, so it's possible I missed something but I don't think so.

Mariposa County, CA - Official Website

I'm currently working on a script that scans eTRAKiT search results one by one to find permits based on a keyword because I didn't think you could search permits by their description. I have it working for Merced County and am making it more flexible with other implementations of eTRAKiT. Do you basically click through each permit from Merced County to check if it's a charging station, or how are you watching for these?

 

[ecarfan]

Public Works met with representatives from Tesla recently to discuss their program and they are at the point now where they will only supply them if there are 7 stations at the same location which is a non-starter given the size and number of spaces within our public parking lots. We are looking at all options to bring both Tesla and Universal Charging Stations to Mariposa just as soon as we can

There is a business that is trying to build an off road “park” for EV off-roading near Mariposa. See Model 3 Off-Road Rally Car Prototype . Perhaps they will offer space for a Supercharger location. They seem open to the idea. I have suggested they contact Tesla about it.