Tesla Partnership with Buc-ee's (26 New Locations)

[kavyboy]

I and many other Tesla owners have been contacting Buc-ees for many years to have any sort of EV charging stations but have always had crickets. But I think the reason why they waited for so long was simply because of stubbornness and not taking EVs seriously. The past couple of years with major announcement from OEMs on EVs and just seeing more and more Teslas showing up at their stores have really forced them to no longer ignore where the market is heading.

I gotta think that on an emotional level, Tesla moving to Texas didn't hurt. Tesla's now no longer exclusively in the domain of smug west-coast liberals.

 

[CyberGus]

I gotta think that on an emotional level, Tesla moving to Texas didn't hurt. Tesla's now no longer exclusively in the domain of smug west-coast liberals.

Yes, now they're into the domain of the smug gulf-coast liberals. You've been to Austin rite??

 

[ElectricIAC]

Yes, now they're into the domain of the smug gulf-coast liberals. You've been to Austin rite??

Austin isn’t on the coast last I checked.

 

[dhanson865]

Austin isn’t on the coast last I checked.

>The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and these are known as the Gulf States.

So even if Austin isn't on the coast itself it's in a Gulf Coastal State...

 

[Electroman]

With all the new rich imports from CA, I am actually worried that Austin (and eventually Texas) will become just as liberal as CA, and bring with it the much celebrated socialist decay and all its associated problems. There should be an immigration policy, interviews & visa process for TX from other states.

 

[RTPEV]

I and many other Tesla owners have been contacting Buc-ees for many years to have any sort of EV charging stations but have always had crickets. But I think the reason why they waited for so long was simply because of stubbornness and not taking EVs seriously. The past couple of years with major announcement from OEMs on EVs and just seeing more and more Teslas showing up at their stores have really forced them to no longer ignore where the market is heading.

Having been involved in the grassroots EV movement for over 10 ten years now, I am definitely sensing a paradigm shift in the attitudes of everyday people with respect to EVs. And I think businesses that were previously cold to EVs are noticing as well.

Just this week I saw an ad from a local car dealer that was entirely focused on electric vehicles saying how they started selling their first hybrid electric vehicles 20 years ago (Toyota) and have been selling fully electric vehicles for 10 years (Nissan) and they are ready to service all your electric vehicle needs with trained technicians and sales staff! Of course this is all just marketing speak--the actual dealers in question still have a hard time keeping their DC fast charger up and running, but at least they are realizing that the competition (i.e. Tesla) is now an existential threat to them and they damn well better start taking EVs seriously. I've been waiting for this shift for nearly a decade and boy, does it feel good to start seeing it!

 

[PLUS EV]

With all the new rich imports from CA, I am actually worried that Austin (and eventually Texas) will become just as liberal as CA, and bring with it the much celebrated socialist decay and all its associated problems. There should be an immigration policy, interviews & visa process for TX from other states.

Completely ridiculous post, but thanks for the laugh.

 

[Guacahummus]

Buc-ee's has a permit initiated with the City of Terrell, TX in early October but for flatwork (whatever that means). No indication that its a Supercharger. Don't think it deserves its own thread yet but what do y'all think?

https://www.cityofterrell.org/services/municipal-development/permits-and-applications

Go to 2021 Docx

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wzhLYuY_xDTQtRnHhX4q1VaS14nkU9LX/edit

 

[MarcoRP]

Buc-ee's has a permit initiated with the City of Terrell, TX in early October but for flatwork (whatever that means). No indication that its a Supercharger. Don't think it deserves its own thread yet but what do y'all think?

https://www.cityofterrell.org/services/municipal-development/permits-and-applications

Go to 2021 Docx

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wzhLYuY_xDTQtRnHhX4q1VaS14nkU9LX/edit

View attachment 734599

Already checked it. Wasn’t sure what flatwork meant either so looked it up. Apparently it’s asphalt/paving construction

 

[URBAN LEGEND]

I have no idea what took Buc-ee's so long. They are absolutely the best possible place for a supercharger - along traveled routes (typically interstates or the Texas equivalents), they have plenty of land (h-u-g-e parking lots), they are often open 24 hours, they are known for their spotless restrooms, they have a large variety of things to eat, they are an interesting store to visit for all ages, and the time to supercharge Is the sweet spot for the time to visit a Buc-ee's. They should become the supercharger site of choice when available for people/couples/families traveling long distance. This has felt like a no brainer for so long, I just don't know what took them so long. This is great news for us all. I am sure someday when there are enough other makes of EVs out there Buc-ee's will add other types of charging stations, but I think it is the right decision to start with Tesla superchargers, since that's where the customers are.

I rather die than go in that football stadium mess. Nothing but car accidents and cars flying in every direction. No thanks.

 

[ElectricIAC]

I rather die than go in that football stadium mess. Nothing but car accidents and cars flying in every direction. No thanks.

Good thing superchargers are usually out of the way…

 

[Vic_F]

I'm sure the consumer-end cost of fossil fuels doubling over the last year has had an impact on their retail operations and they saw the writing on the wall.

Yep, inflation is affecting the cost of everything

 

[CyberGus]

With all the new rich imports from CA, I am actually worried that Austin (and eventually Texas) will become just as liberal as CA, and bring with it the much celebrated socialist decay and all its associated problems. There should be an immigration policy, interviews & visa process for TX from other states.

Thanks for Being Obsessed with Us, America | Connecting California

Thank you, America, for always keeping California in your thoughts. Now it’s that time of the year when we should give thanks for the only California real

www.zocalopublicsquare.org

 

[Electroman]

Texans like to pretend that they don’t want California influences around—they even had these great T-shirts made (I own one) that say, “Don’t California My Texas.” But, in reality, they brag whenever Californians or California companies relocate themselves and their California values to the Lone Star State. Texas is now home to 40 different In-N-Out Burger locations, Elon Musk, and an electric grid in even worse shape than ours. Plus, all the transplants have made Austin an unofficial California colony.

Texas grid is in a fantastic shape, notwithstanding the once in a millennia big freeze that happened last year. We pay between $0.08 to $15c per kWh. And no rolling blackouts, year after year. And guess what, the proportion of green energy from wind is very high, so much I get free electricity at nights throughout the year - yes $0 per kWh at night.

 

[Jmolloy3]

Man, I wish I could share your confidence in our grid. Although winter 2021 was a serious outlier event, I would add that part of the problem has been gradual erosion of our baseload capacity. Until we figure out, and economically scale-up, long-term energy storage (duration > 12 hours), renewables will be accompanied by occasional, or possibly frequent blackouts. Grid Scale megapacks will not work for that, but they are great for short term spikes and grid frequency stabilization. We have a ways to go, and I'm also pretty damned concerned about the rapid adoption of EVs and the effect on the load. Gene Preston explains it better than anyone, IMO (https://egpreston.com/Preston2020.pdf). We need 10-20 GW of additional base load capacity, and the only way to get that right now is natural gas. I think that would be a reasonable bridge fuel until we establish a viable, cheap, and scalable energy storage systems that can grow with renewables. Right now I like the liquid air battery, and possibly the flow batteries. Regarding the former, it's all off-the-shelf stuff.

 

[Twiglett]

We may have relatively inexpensive energy, but last data from ERCOT has wind at 25% and Solar about 4%
Vast majority (51%) is from gas and a thankfully reducing coal generation of around 13%
The last reliability assessment in 2019 showed that ERCOT has the lowest reserve margin in the country so is always hit when temps drop too low or rise too high. Hardly the picture of a perfect grid.
I'm not too worried about EV charging - most estimates over compensate or inflate the impact of EV charging by assuming that all additional load from charging will happen at the worst peak times. In reality the vast majority of charging happens at home and off-peak. So EV charging just levels out the load at off-peak rather than increasing the peak load. Especially as more and more home charging stations are sold as "smart" chargers, shifting charging to the lowest cost times.

 

[ElectricIAC]

We may have relatively inexpensive energy, but last data from ERCOT has wind at 25% and Solar about 4%
Vast majority (51%) is from gas and a thankfully reducing coal generation of around 13%
The last reliability assessment in 2019 showed that ERCOT has the lowest reserve margin in the country so is always hit when temps drop too low or rise too high. Hardly the picture of a perfect grid.
I'm not too worried about EV charging - most estimates over compensate or inflate the impact of EV charging by assuming that all additional load from charging will happen at the worst peak times. In reality the vast majority of charging happens at home and off-peak. So EV charging just levels out the load at off-peak rather than increasing the peak load. Especially as more and more home charging stations are sold as "smart" chargers, shifting charging to the lowest cost times.

I’m just hoping for no peak surcharges at superchargers.

 

[Twiglett]

I’m just hoping for no peak surcharges at superchargers.

I'm assuming they are charging a rate high enough to cover peak costs already.
I just checked how much charging I do away from home - currently hovering at around 10%

 

[ElectricIAC]

I'm assuming they are charging a rate high enough to cover peak costs already.
I just checked how much charging I do away from home - currently hovering at around 10%

For Texas most certainly they are at .28/kWh..

Our P3D has seen about 15-20% DCFC with the rest being AC charging. Our MX is closer to 75% DCFC.

Know what’s messed up though? Our P3D has worse degradation than the MX despite the vastly different charge/discharge profiles at similar ODO mileage.

 

[Hookemhorns]

I rather die than go in that football stadium mess. Nothing but car accidents and cars flying in every direction. No thanks.

Perfect example of YMMV. I've visited many Buc-ee's, many times, and never a single stressful moment with the cars/traffic getting in, out, or around. None getting to the gas pumps when I used to do that, none parking, etc. I speak from years of experience - I am sure you've seen those problems, but I never have. Buc-ee's has long been a head scratcher for me as to why they weren't early supercharger adopters, not a single drawback to siting there.