My wish list: somewhere between Lee Vining and Bridgeport, somewhere on 89 around Quincy, in Yosemite valley, Grass Valley/Nevada City, Colfax.
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Superchargers in Northern California (location speculation)
- Thread starter Lyon
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israndy
Supercharger Hunter
So the Oakhurst and the Auburn Superchargers that opened today must make you happy.
Does anyone know, is it harder to get that much reliable power up to places IN the mountains (CA, NV, CO) vs the power for the small/medium sized towns? Would seem bringing in other high power lines either off current grid of from current grid might be more challenging?
Or, maybe Tesla thinks, what goes up (and consumes a lot of power) must come down and regen a lot of power.. and IF one is staying in those places, then lower cost destination chargers or third party chargers might be more economical or situated near need?
Mrbrock
Active Member
Yes to reliable power. If a towns grid can’t handle the power then they would be looking at 4 stalls. That’s a lot of infrastructure for 4 stalls. Going from 4 to 8 to 12 is incrementally less cost as you expand. There aren’t too many small crossing where it would make sense to run large power lines all the way over since the other side can be fed more easily from the other flatter side. So those places at the top probably have minimal connections and bringing in a supercharger would limit other growth by taking up a lot of available power. And there’s only so much solar and batteries can provide without relying on the grid. Can you imagine having a spot that sometimes works and sometimes doesnt based on power demand? Would be better to not have it there and not plan on its use than to plan for it to be there and have it non operational.
Also, good point on destination chargers. If you have enough to get there and down to the other side, why supercharge at the top? You’d only charge if you were going to stay in the area for a couple days so why not L1/L2 charge overnight? Yes supercharging gives you more options but I am sure Tesla has looked at the possibilities in some of these remote areas and have only developed where there is excess power capacity. Also something to keep in mind, if the power limes for Sonora run through Copperopolis, then some of that excess power is no longer available for Sonora.
Also, good point on destination chargers. If you have enough to get there and down to the other side, why supercharge at the top? You’d only charge if you were going to stay in the area for a couple days so why not L1/L2 charge overnight? Yes supercharging gives you more options but I am sure Tesla has looked at the possibilities in some of these remote areas and have only developed where there is excess power capacity. Also something to keep in mind, if the power limes for Sonora run through Copperopolis, then some of that excess power is no longer available for Sonora.
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Thanks for the explanation. Seems to me that we are going to need some serious line upgrades if we plan on selling a lot more EVs.
Personally I 'd like to see a couple destination chargers at every Supercharger location. Gives you time to do something else, frees up Superchargers, and when you return and need more - Supercharge but for less time than you would have without the destination charger option. Shouldn't require much to build or power.
Many of us have talked about this for years. A few locations have this (Grand Canyon/Tusayan comes to mind), but I'd like to see it more broadly myself. I would use it when I need close to a full charge and I'm in heavy taper on the Supercharger. I'd rather free up a Supercharging stall for someone who can take advantage of it than sit there and trickle the last bit in.
Mrbrock
Active Member
Sonoma has this as well. Great for a stroll to the square and a meal.
How could I forget my own town? Valley is good if you haven't been. Sorry for the off-topic.
Mrbrock
Active Member
Had the lamb and sweetbreads at Plaza Bistro last time, delicious. Couple hours was perfect for a relaxed lunch and a 20% top off.
On the destination chargers note, I hope they continue with Gen2 with J1772 handles. Means they will be free. If they put in Gen3 WC with Tesla handles, they can charge up you for their use.
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
Don't wanna forget the Supercharger/Destination Chargers near me in Richmond and Emeryville.
Tesla would need reliable internet to use Gen3, but many of the destination charger units at Superchargers use the Gen2 with Tesla plug. I was at the opening this week in San Bruno that had 6 of them for mall users. It doesn't seem like they are tracked by any charging app either, if you look at Plugshare they just show the the 28 Superchargers as they info is maintained by Tesla, same thing with the Superchargers app.
I have started adding these chargers to the Plugshare app by hand to a separate location:
But I can't do it alone, if you see chargers like these that are NOT listed, be sure to add them to Plugshare and if they are free be sure to add them as such and leave a check in so we know how fast they charged your car.
Tesla would need reliable internet to use Gen3, but many of the destination charger units at Superchargers use the Gen2 with Tesla plug. I was at the opening this week in San Bruno that had 6 of them for mall users. It doesn't seem like they are tracked by any charging app either, if you look at Plugshare they just show the the 28 Superchargers as they info is maintained by Tesla, same thing with the Superchargers app.
I have started adding these chargers to the Plugshare app by hand to a separate location:
Public Market (3) | Emeryville, CA | EV Station
Find EV charging stations with PlugShare, the most complete map of electric vehicle charging stations in the world!Charging tips reviews and photos from the EV community.
www.plugshare.com
But I can't do it alone, if you see chargers like these that are NOT listed, be sure to add them to Plugshare and if they are free be sure to add them as such and leave a check in so we know how fast they charged your car.
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Yes, Grand Canyon really surprises me. They moved to the alternative energy busses and shuttles plan several years ago, at least for high travel periods. I would think they would also want to ENCOURAGE people to come to the rim with EV.
cpa
Active Member
Yep, Quincy or thereabouts would be fantastic. Not sure of the power availability in Yosemite Valley. Grass Valley/Nevada City would be great too. Colfax I would assume will be on Tesla's radar soon enough even though there is no presumed pin on the map as I type.
However, there is nothing between Lee Vining and Bridgeport. Nothing. Lee Vining itself would work. I would assume that the hydro power stations along Lee Vining Creek would provide sufficient juice--there is a substation on 120 just west of the north junction with 395. Bridgeport has a large campground just north of town along 182 that provides 50A power to dozens of campsites, so Bridgeport itself would also likely have an adequate supply of electricity.
I made it easily from Bishop to Minden (bypassing Topaz Lake/Gardnerville) in my royal and ancient S85 last September with a 70% charge. I reckon that at least for the nonce, Tesla deems Mammoth Lakes enough of a compromise to reach points north. I empathize with the likes of Ohmman who is hauling his Airstream which makes navigating this stretch either impossible or dicey. I've only driven west to east once: I left Groveland with 85% and easily reached Hawthorne, Nevada after driving across Tioga Road to US395 before heading northeast on SR167 on the north side of Mono Lake to Hawthorne. The 45MPH speed limit along Tioga Road helped, as did the regen descending from Tioga Pass.
Furthermore, I have made it easily driving home from Topaz Lake/Gardnerville on both highway 4 and 108 leaving with a 90% charge, arriving with about 20%, as once past the summits, the regen essentially is break even until west of highway 49.
Tesla needs to understand that Supercharging is not solely for road tripping from point A to point B. For many Western locations in the transmontane regions of the Sierra Nevada or Rocky Mountains, they are destinations meant for a week's stay at campgrounds or caravansaries located hither and yon with higher than normal energy consumption as we go about our leisure activities. Destination chargers would ameliorate but not solve this issue.
(Edited to add that Lee Vining has free L2 chargers at the county park that are available. So that might be a possible location for 8 V3 stalls.)
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
It won't be that much longer that we worry about there being another charger in range of a near full battery charge, there is almost no place in the country you can't mostly get to at this point. So they will of course be building sites between each of the current sites, and bolstering seriously popular locations (we just got a second San Bruno Supercharger that has the full 28 chargers you can do with one v3 setup), but they will have time to think about people arriving at their destinations and needing to charge. It is crazy that there are so many places you can get to but you'll need to drive halfway out in order to get to a Supercharger. Would love to see more of those Urban Superchargers going up around the cities, now that we can get to them w/o much issue.
I wonder if it's better or worse to charge your car at 250kW vs 75kW
I wonder if it's better or worse to charge your car at 250kW vs 75kW
From all the years of lithium ion phones and laptops and EV cars, I THINK it's always better to charge more SLOWLY than faster from an energy transfer standpoint, but we'll all impatient by nature.
Mrbrock
Active Member
Dozens of 50A campsites? For instance, 2 dozen campsites at 50A is likely an actual max load of 800A or less. Every campsite would need to be running AC and stove and oven to max out and get to 1200A. For charging, you’d be 40A x 240V = 9.6kw x 24 = 240kw. That’s one V3 stall. So to power an 8 stall V3 site, you’d need 8 entire campgrounds worth of power. 192 individual camp sites with a 50A plug. And if you can get to the campsite, why can’t you charge there? If the point Is to ca p, why would you drive so much every day that you can’t replenish overnight?
I get hauling a trailer eliminates many of these options. But I don’t see aTesla investing in superchargers for towing until the cybertruck is in max production. Putting superchargers every 100 miles on these rural routes isn’t feasible. You’d be trusting PGE power to locations likely to start wildfires to make this happen.
Mrbrock
Active Member
It refers to relocating a V2 supercharger. Doesn’t say from where but I assume this is the 4680 pilot facility So there may already be one there, just not public and they are moving it from one place on the property to another.
There is already a prior open permit for Superchargers and Power Packs at 47400 Kato here Accela Citizen Access
The above is the latest revision of a 2019 permit so it looks like there has been one there for a few years and now it’s being moved. Other permits at the site allude to dyno testing so they likely use this site for EPA testing.
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