Blog Tesla Planning to Triple Supercharger Network

As the number of Tesla vehicles on the road continues to swell, the company is giving some serious consideration to its charging network.

On the company’s Q3 earnings call, the company said it plans to triple the size of its charging network around the world.

“We are executing on accelerating expansion plans globally,” said Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and battery engineering. “The network has doubled in the last 18 months, and we are planning to triple it over the next two years. And even so on an individual-site basis to combat existing congestion more quickly where it is isolated and problematic, we expedite local relief sites, deploy mobile Superchargers, and we try to introduce pricing strategies that encourage more off-peak usage to avoid the waiting.”

Tesla currently has about 29,281 Superchargers at 3,254 locations around the world. In addition to serving Tesla vehicles, the company recently announced that the network will also accommodate electric vehicles from other automakers. 

 

[Rocky_H]

@whitex You still don't seem to understand this issue that @Ogre and I are talking about.

Maybe an example will help. Go ahead and explain to me how you would get from San Francisco to Boise in let's say a Model 3 SR+ or my Model S85.

What route would you take and where would you charge?

If they have to go 40 miles out of the way

The route I have in mind above is over 120 miles out of the way to get something that is connected with Superchargers.

 

[Ogre]

I have parts of Maine that I can't visit... We need more options in kayaking and canoe locations.

Couch dwellers just don’t understand.

Lots of people do more than just go to work and back. Life happens outside city limits.

 

[Ogre]

The route I have in mind above is over 120 miles out of the way to get something that is connected with Superchargers.

I think I know exactly where you are talking about even without looking at the map. Eastern Oregon sort of falls off the Supercharger Map. I was planning a truck from here to Lake Tahoe before the fires and was originally planning on taking 395 south to Susanville but had to reroute along the Highway 5 corridor because there were simply no good Supercharger corridors or even Level 2 chargers east of Klamath Falls.

There are also hundreds of miles of Nevada which are difficult to access which I know of.

 

[whitex]

The smaller the delta is between a person’s experience driving an ICE vehicle and driving an EV, the more likely people will adopt them. If they have to go 40 miles out of the way to find a Supercharger in order to get home from the coast, that is a big giant deterrent to owning an EV.

This is a much bigger deterrent than potentially having to wait 10-20 minutes for a charger on a busy holiday weekend.

Total number of superchargers Tesla can deploy is limited by their resources. I'm sure they are deploying them wherever they think the superchargers will generate most sales. It does unfortunately mean that if your usecase is not common enough, a supercharger will probably not be deployed to address it any time soon. Losing you as a customer to ICE is offset by many customers switching from ICE to EV.

 

[whitex]

@whitex You still don't seem to understand this issue that @Ogre and I are talking about.

Maybe an example will help. Go ahead and explain to me how you would get from San Francisco to Boise in let's say a Model 3 SR+ or my Model S85.

What route would you take and where would you charge?


The route I have in mind above is over 120 miles out of the way to get something that is connected with Superchargers.

Perhaps deploying superchargers between San Francisco and Los Angeles, or San Francisco and Portland or Seattle will result in more supercharger usage than between San Francisco and Boise. To maximize sales, Tesla will deploy the superchargers where it enables most sales, in other words where larger number of people want to drive.

 

[Ogre]

Total number of superchargers Tesla can deploy is limited by their resources. I'm sure they are deploying them wherever they think the superchargers will generate most sales. It does unfortunately mean that if your usecase is not common enough, a supercharger will probably not be deployed to address it any time soon. Losing you as a customer to ICE is offset by many customers switching from ICE to EV.

You don’t seem to get it.

Tesla wants to displace all ICE, not some percentage of it.

 

[whitex]

You don’t seem to get it.

Tesla wants to displace all ICE, not some percentage of it.

They want to displace as many ICE as possible, which does not mean every ICE on the planet given that their resources are finite. Do you think they are willing to build superchargers and service centers all over Canadian Northwest Territories which is almost twice the size of Texas in size but has a total population of 45,000 people?

 

[Rocky_H]

Total number of superchargers Tesla can deploy is limited by their resources. I'm sure they are deploying them wherever they think the superchargers will generate most sales.

Were you aware of how Tesla divided the listings of their Superchargers into the two separate categories on their quarterly SEC filings? I am guessing not, or you would understand this.

The high usage ones were listed in a category that was more oriented to usage and billing, like Operations or Energy.

The low usage Supercharger sites were listed in the category of "Advertising". They understood that providing fundamental coverage of some travel routes was not going to be directly profitable per stall from the cents per kWh of energy dispensed there, but was a loss to make the prospect of using a Tesla more attractive to GENERATE SALES, as you are alluding to.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

They want to displace as many ICE as possible, which does not mean every ICE on the planet given that their resources are finite. Do you think they are willing to build superchargers and service centers all over Canadian Northwest Territories which is almost twice the size of Texas in size but has a total population of 45,000 people?

Well, Northwest Territories only has about 2,200km of all-weather highways, which in the grand scale of things isn't that much.

 

[ohmman]

Moderator Note: A few posts were moved away to Politics - Quarantine Thread. The site admins have outlined that politics can be discussed at TMC only as they directly relate to EV policy. Posts discussing broader political opinions are not permissible and will be moved away. Thanks for staying on topic.

 

[whitex]

Well, Northwest Territories only has about 2,200km of all-weather highways, which in the grand scale of things isn't that much.

And exactly zero superchargers, and zero service centers. Not worth while to capture the few EV sales in that market, which was my original point - Tesla is not after replacing every ICE, they are after replacing as many ICE cars as they can. They will deploy superchargers to maximize the EV sales/penetration, rather than to satisfy every ICE driver's needs.

 

[airborne spoon]

From my prospective I agree. In my Almost 3 years and 80K of driving I've only had to wait at Supercharger once to charge.

However I see these lines in California and I wonder if trippling would even relieve that?

Must be nice, I've had to wait a zillion times in chargers even in remote locations, *sugar* is annoying AF

 

[Zimo]

I also would like to see more locations. I’m planning a trip up 395 and the distance between super chargers in Alturas, Ca and Hines, OR is 190 miles. That’s quite a haul for a standard range And I see only 1 level 2 on PlugShare in between those 2 chargers.

 

[Rocky_H]

I also would like to see more locations. I’m planning a trip up 395 and the distance between super chargers in Alturas, Ca and Hines, OR is 190 miles. That’s quite a haul for a standard range And I see only 1 level 2 on PlugShare in between those 2 chargers.

Heh, that's the alternative route I was considering that is at least doable with the 190 mile gap being small enough. Winnemucca to Boise is 255 miles.

 

[Ogre]

I also would like to see more locations. I’m planning a trip up 395 and the distance between super chargers in Alturas, Ca and Hines, OR is 190 miles. That’s quite a haul for a standard range And I see only 1 level 2 on PlugShare in between those 2 chargers.

Yeah, I had some serious issued planning a trip along that corridor too. Going south from Bend it’s even worse unless you go through Klamath Falls. We were planning on overnighting near Lakeview but that is pretty much a no-go.

 

[whitex]

Must be nice, I've had to wait a zillion times in chargers even in remote locations, *sugar* is annoying AF

The joys of living in California? Rolling blackouts, long EV charger lines, high cost of living. Hmm... sounds like insufficient all around infrastructure for the number of people living there.

 

[Ogre]

The joys of living in California? Rolling blackouts, long EV charger lines, high cost of living. Hmm... sounds like insufficient all around infrastructure for the number of people living there.

If you boil down any state to the bad news headlines, it’s’ going to suck. Texas blackouts and $5000 power bills? Sounds like insufficient infrastructure for the number of people living there!

As with any state, the headlines overstate the issues.

 

[ohmman]

If you boil down any state to the bad news headlines, it’s’ going to suck. Texas blackouts and $5000 power bills? Sounds like insufficient infrastructure for the number of people living there!

As with any state, the headlines overstate the issues.

The point of news is that it's not the ordinary.

 

[whitex]

If you boil down any state to the bad news headlines, it’s’ going to suck. Texas blackouts and $5000 power bills? Sounds like insufficient infrastructure for the number of people living there!

As with any state, the headlines overstate the issues.

Perhaps your example is not the best one. Texas blackouts happened once in recent history, $5,000 bills happened to a few people who chose to pay demand prices. California things I mentioned are ongoing and have been happening for years now. Just because you can find a occasional residential place for rent in Austin which costs $15K a month, doesn't mean cost of living in Austin higher than Silicon Valley.

 

[Earl]

That’s quite a haul for a standard range

SR is wrong tool for the job. It doesn't make sense to buy a standard range car, then complain (not that you're really complaining) about charger spacing. Standard Range is for Standard Driving, not driving in low-density, off-the-beaten-path, out-of-the-way rural areas. I-5 is well suited for SR but further out of your way. 190 miles is easy if you hypermile (ie slow down) but probably still faster than going out of your way.
I, personally, am thrilled that places such as Altura and Hines even have Superchargers. Clearly nobody except Tesla has put any infrastructure in that area.