Blog Tesla Announces Supercharger Push in Urban Areas

Tesla announced today a new Supercharger station design that aims to better accommodate owners in urban areas.

According to a Tesla blog post:

Superchargers in urban areas have a new post design that occupies less space and is easier to install, making them ideal for dense, highly populated areas. To increase efficiency and support a high volume of cars, these Superchargers have a new architecture that delivers a rapid 72 kilowatts of dedicated power to each car. This means charging speeds are unaffected by Tesla vehicles plugging into adjacent Superchargers, and results in consistent charging times around 45 to 50 minutes for most drivers.

Tesla says the urban Supercharger stations will be installed in convenient locations like supermarkets, shopping centers and downtown districts “so it’s easy for customers to charge their car in the time it takes to grocery shop or run errands.”

Chicago and Boston will receive the first of the urban Superchargers.

 

[lance]

Well this is a good sight better than the Chademo chargers being installed in Ontario and Quebec. Kinda useless single stall stations.

 

[charterhouse]

These Chargers are a realy good idea along the south coast , slos the non-seviced areas where there are a liklihood of tesla owners .

 

[JWardell]

Thanks to @appleguru for the pic of the big charger supply specs.
One thing most haven't commented on is the IP ratings. The small chargers are only IP44/light splashes. I believe they will only ever be inside a garage or under a roof. I'm sure they are less costly to manufacture due to smaller size, no glowing logo, and less water sealing.
It's nice to have a choice in between the full blown supercharger and a tesla wall connector, especially for retail areas like this where there is a covered garage and folks will be shopping for more than 15 minutes.

 

[Jedi2]

Doesn't appear to be a way to use the Boston ones without paying the pru's parking fees? Which... really sucks.

I live downtown. I pay to park in a garage across the street from my apt, that does not have charging facilities.

I was really excited to finally get a super charger nearby so I didn't have to drive to dedham or pay the lenox valet fee every time we want to take a trip or we need a top up. But to use these, it seems the minimum parking fee would be $12. I really hope they come up with a parking validation scheme for tesla owners or these are nearly completely useless for urban owners like me/will basically never get used (only in an emergency).

On the technical side, these seem to be "standard" 135kW paired supercharger cabinets, so the only reason these are limited to 72kW is that the new smaller charging pedestals are only rated for 200A:

There are a few new locations scheduled for Boston in 2018, including the South End, The Seaport, Fenway/Kenmore, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Somerville. Looks like Elon's gonna take care of you after all. Just gotta wait a little longer...

 

[tajio51]

There is one charging station very near to my home. It's when I move around into the city that things get crazy. Take Culver City for example. There is a station at the mall that stays full and people seem to just leave their cars and go shopping without any concern for other owners. A few more chargers will definitely help. Now in San Diego there is one charging station and it too was crowded and required a wait to just hook up. The joys of Tesla ownership. I still wouldn't trade for a gasser!

 

[Franko0331]

You've pulled the idea out of thin air. Of course it was wrong. There is absolutely no reason to believe that these "wouldn't count as superchargers". It's one thing to pass on a rumor; it's another to be the person making it up to begin with.

 

[Franko0331]

I agree some people just guess and post when they should do some research first

 

[appleguru]

Doesn't appear to be a way to use the Boston ones without paying the pru's parking fees? Which... really sucks.

I live downtown. I pay to park in a garage across the street from my apt, that does not have charging facilities.

I was really excited to finally get a super charger nearby so I didn't have to drive to dedham or pay the lenox valet fee every time we want to take a trip or we need a top up. But to use these, it seems the minimum parking fee would be $12. I really hope they come up with a parking validation scheme for tesla owners or these are nearly completely useless for urban owners like me/will basically never get used (only in an emergency).

On the technical side, these seem to be "standard" 135kW paired supercharger cabinets, so the only reason these are limited to 72kW is that the new smaller charging pedestals are only rated for 200A:

BTW, two new Boston area local superchargers opened recently... South Bay center (pro: free parking! Con: have to drive up to the roof of the garage...), cambridgeside galleria (pro: great location. Cons: no signage in garage yet to help you find the chargers, paid parking despite not being listed as such in the built in nav pros: paid parking is a reasonable $3 for an hour).

On the technical side, seems the latest city chargers have moved to a new (city sc optimized?) cabinet rated for full 2x72kW instead of a shared 135kW. Outputs are still 200A max (so 350V 60/75 packs will max out around 65kW).

 

[Jed626]

Hopefully they will install a number of these in their own backyard. For those of us from out of town there are very few places in the San Jose, Campbell area to charge and those sites frequently have a 30 minute wait