Tesla Supercharger network

[Andyw2100]

I meant to post this last week when I stopped at Glenwood Springs to Supercharge, because the signage and pavement markings made such a strong impression on me. You'll note that I parked my car in one of the 'general parking' spots; that was because I believed the others were marked as Handicapped. I even went into the lobby of the Residence Inn (hosts of this SpC) and asked what the protocol was for charging in the spots marked 'Handicapped'; it wasn't until I went back out to take these photos that it dawned on me what the markings were actually saying.

Note that this has been an evolution for the landlord: early on (Glenwood was the second Supercharger opened in Colorado) there were no pavement markings and no orange traffic barrels, and these spots were often ICEd in the evenings by hotel guests. Then they added the barrels; the pavement markings are the most recent addition. Overall, this has to be the best set of anti-ICE markings I've seen at a SpC.

Forgive the lack of knowledge this question shows. I understand the concept of the paired stalls in supercharging, but since I've never been to a supercharger I have not yet had to figure out the whole "which one is the paired stall" thing. But my question is do they have the orange barrels placed in a way to encourage people to not be using chargers on the same pairing? If so, that's brilliant!

 

[Bighorn]

Forgive the lack of knowledge this question shows. I understand the concept of the paired stalls in supercharging, but since I've never been to a supercharger I have not yet had to figure out the whole "which one is the paired stall" thing. But my question is do they have the orange barrels placed in a way to encourage people to not be using chargers on the same pairing? If so, that's brilliant!

Pairing convention is inconsistent and barrels aren't used to help clear up the matter.

 

[Andyw2100]

Pairing convention is inconsistent and barrels aren't used to help clear up the matter.

My question wasn't a general question about the usage of orange barrels at superchargers. I was asking stevezzzz if at the supercharger he had posted the pictures from those orange barrels were blocking one stall of a pair, to encourage use of only one stall from a pair at a time. They don't seem to have enough barrels to block every stall.

 

[stevezzzz]

Forgive the lack of knowledge this question shows. I understand the concept of the paired stalls in supercharging, but since I've never been to a supercharger I have not yet had to figure out the whole "which one is the paired stall" thing. But my question is do they have the orange barrels placed in a way to encourage people to not be using chargers on the same pairing? If so, that's brilliant!

Good thought, but no. In this case, the barrels (there are four of them, even if only two were deployed that day) are placed in the 'EV Charging Only' stalls before check-in time, to discourage ICEing. Glenwood charging pedestals are labeled 1A-2A-3A-1B-2B-3B (left to right when facing the pedestals). You'll find others labeled 1A-2A-1B-2B-, etc. I wonder if there's a better way to arrange a row of stalls to avoid charging contention, because my guess is that the large majority of Model S owners have no appreciation that Superchargers are shared. For instance, last week I pulled into the eight-stall SpC in Quartzite to find two other Model S already plugged in and charging. They were parked several stalls apart and when I checked, I saw that one was on 2A and one on 2B. I asked: neither knew that they were sharing the same Supercharger.

I think it's Roseville, CA that not only has an odd number of charging bays (seven), but no numbering scheme at all on the pedestals. There were a bunch of us there for Bonnie's picnic the evening before TMC Connect started last July, and we started to try and sort out who was sharing with whom, but we never got very far. In the end, when a Supercharger is relatively busy it probably doesn't matter much (for the aggregate rate of charge) which numbering scheme is employed...even if it matters to the individual car owners quite a bit.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

The Whole Foods in Baton Rouge (another example of plain marking painted on charging spots):

 

[Gear]

I meant to post this last week when I stopped at Glenwood Springs to Supercharge, because the signage and pavement markings made such a strong impression on me. You'll note that I parked my car in one of the 'general parking' spots; that was because I believed the others were marked as Handicapped. I even went into the lobby of the Residence Inn (hosts of this SpC) and asked what the protocol was for charging in the spots marked 'Handicapped'; it wasn't until I went back out to take these photos that it dawned on me what the markings were actually saying.

Note that this has been an evolution for the landlord: early on (Glenwood was the second Supercharger opened in Colorado) there were no pavement markings and no orange traffic barrels, and these spots were often ICEd in the evenings by hotel guests. Then they added the barrels; the pavement markings are the most recent addition. Overall, this has to be the best set of anti-ICE markings I've seen at a SpC.

Oddly, during my trip to Minnesota for Thanksgiving, I don't remember seeing the barrels out there at all on either the way there or the way back.

 

[Cottonwood]

Supercharger Openings and Where Will North America Be at the End of 2015

Below are screen shots of the graph page from Supercharger.Info.

World-wide, each horizontal line is 100 Supercharger Sites open, and the total is now at 391.

The same data broken down by region. Each horizontal line is 50 Supercharger Sites.

It's interesting to look at the openings per month. The following chart is derived from the data on Supercharger.Info:

There was a flurry of installs toward the end of 2014. Since then Europe and Asia/Pacific seem to have slowed down, but North America seems to be marching on. This is reflected in the latest 3-month opening averages: North America 15; Europe 10; and Asia/Pacific 11.

The recent blog at 2,000 Superchargers | Tesla Motors celebrates 2,000 Charging Stalls, and almost 400 Supercharger Sites (Stations) world wide. The Tesla number is 393, and the Supercharger.Info number is 391. The count is always a little different due to small details in the counting details.

Most interesting to me is this quote from the Tesla blog, "In 2014, the number of Superchargers increased five fold. We plan to double the number in 2015."

If we focus on North America, the total number of Supercharger Sites according to Supercharger.Info at the end of 2014 was 152. Doubling that is 304. Looking at the Tesla map on Supercharger | Tesla Motors for 2015, I count 315[SUP]*[/SUP]. If we take the last 3-month average of 15 openings per month and extropolate, the total would be 12*15+152 or 332. From 3 different methods, we get numbers of 304, 315, and 332; all those numbers are pretty close. Let's hope those openings for North America keep on coming.

Enjoy your Tesla's!


[SUP]*[/SUP]Counting the number of Superchargers at Supercharger | Tesla Motors is a real bear, but I gave it a go. Some areas have a lot of overlapping icons, especially around New York City. I am sure that my numbers may be off here and there, but the sum should be pretty close. Here are my raw counts if you want to check: Superchargers - Google Sheets

 

[Andyw2100]

Supercharger Openings and Where Will North America Be at the End of 2015

Thanks for compiling that and presenting it as you did. Interesting information!

 

[Benz]

Update including January 28th, 2015:

North America
2012: 0 + 0 + 2 + 7 = 9
2013: 0 + 2 + 11 + 28 = 41
2014: 32 + 16 + 19 + 35 = 102
2015: 14 = 14
Total: 9 + 41 + 102 + 14 = 166

Europe
2013: 0 + 0 + 6 + 8 = 14
2014: 0 + 10 + 45 + 54 = 109
2015: 7 = 7
Total: 14 + 109 + 7 = 130

Asia Pacific (Currently: China, Japan, Australia)
2014: 0 + 3 + 16 + 40 = 59
2015: 9 = 9
Total: 59 + 9 = 68

Global total: 166 + 130 + 68 = 364

2012 total: 9 + 0 + 0 = 9
2013 total: 41 + 14 + 0 = 55
2014 total: 102 + 109 + 59 = 270
2015 total so far: 14 + 7 + 9 = 30

Q1 2013 total: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0
Q2 2013 total: 2 + 0 + 0 = 2
Q3 2013 total: 11 + 6 + 0 = 17
Q4 2013 total: 28 + 8 + 0 = 36

Q1 2014 total: 32 + 0 + 0 = 32
Q2 2014 total: 16 + 10 + 3 = 29
Q3 2014 total: 19 + 45 + 16 = 80
Q4 2014 total: 35 + 54 + 40 = 129

First half of 2014: 32 + 29 = 61
Second half of 2014: 81 + 119 = 209

Q1 2015 so far: 14 + 7 + 9 = 30 (in 28 days)

"About 1 new live Supercharger station per day"
That looks like the going average these days.
And that's extraordinary progress.

Update including March 1st, 2015:

North America
2012: 0 + 0 + 2 + 7 = 9
2013: 0 + 2 + 11 + 28 = 41
2014: 32 + 16 + 19 + 35 = 102
2015: 30 = 30
Total: 9 + 41 + 102 + 30 = 182

Europe
2013: 0 + 0 + 6 + 8 = 14
2014: 0 + 10 + 45 + 54 = 109
2015: 14 = 14
Total: 14 + 109 + 14 = 137

Asia Pacific (Currently: China, Japan, Australia)
2014: 0 + 3 + 16 + 40 = 59
2015: 13 = 13
Total: 59 + 13 = 72

Global total: 182 + 137 + 72 = 391

2012 total: 9 + 0 + 0 = 9
2013 total: 41 + 14 + 0 = 55
2014 total: 102 + 109 + 59 = 270
2015 total so far: 30 + 14 + 13 = 57

Q1 2013 total: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0
Q2 2013 total: 2 + 0 + 0 = 2
Q3 2013 total: 11 + 6 + 0 = 17
Q4 2013 total: 28 + 8 + 0 = 36

Q1 2014 total: 32 + 0 + 0 = 32
Q2 2014 total: 16 + 10 + 3 = 29
Q3 2014 total: 19 + 45 + 16 = 80
Q4 2014 total: 35 + 54 + 40 = 129

First half of 2014: 32 + 29 = 61
Second half of 2014: 81 + 119 = 209

Q1 2015 so far: 30 + 14 + 13 = 57 (in 60 days)

"About 1 new live Supercharger station per day"
That looks like the going average these days. And that's extraordinary progress.

 

[Robert.Boston]

FWIW, 13 of the 20 "under construction" Supercharger sites are in North America (10 US, 3 Canada), which supports @cottonwood's observation that the NA trend is looking stronger than Europe or Asia. I suspect, though, that TMC has more "Supercharger spies" in North America than elsewhere.

 

[dirkhh]

FWIW, 13 of the 20 "under construction" Supercharger sites are in North America (10 US, 3 Canada), which supports @cottonwood's observation that the NA trend is looking stronger than Europe or Asia. I suspect, though, that TMC has more "Supercharger spies" in North America than elsewhere.

I think that's also a reflection of the fact that with all of Elon's talking about how important Germany and China are for Tesla, the sales there clearly don't come close to justifying the rate of SC installs.

 

[Robert.Boston]

I think that's also a reflection of the fact that with all of Elon's talking about how important Germany and China are for Tesla, the sales there clearly don't come close to justifying the rate of SC installs.

And here I thought that all the SCs in Germany were to allow the Norwegians to drive to the Mediterranean. :biggrin:

 

[dirkhh]

And here I thought that all the SCs in Germany were to allow the Norwegians to drive to the Mediterranean. :biggrin:

Based on the numbers I'd guess that more Norwegians are using them than Germans

 

[RiverBrick]

FWIW, 13 of the 20 "under construction" Supercharger sites are in North America (10 US, 3 Canada), which supports @cottonwood's observation that the NA trend is looking stronger than Europe or Asia. I suspect, though, that TMC has more "Supercharger spies" in North America than elsewhere.

Yes, a quick glance at Supercharger.info shows ten of the last 12 sites in China were not added to the map until they were open. I'm not sure if there will be ten such "stealth" sites in NA over the next ten years.

 

[Robert.Boston]

Yes, a quick glance at Supercharger.info shows ten of the last 12 sites in China were not added to the map until they were open. I'm not sure if there will be ten such "stealth" sites in NA over the next ten years.

It happens in NA far more often than I would have expected. There's a about one "stealth" site in NA per month:e.g. Independence MO in Feb., Needles CA in Jan., Greenville AL in Dec., Salisbury MD in Nov..

 

[cpa]

It happens in NA far more often than I would have expected. There's a about one "stealth" site in NA per month:e.g. Independence MO in Feb., Needles CA in Jan., Greenville AL in Dec., Salisbury MD in Nov..

Yes, this is true, although Needles had been rumored back in November but no one knew where to look. (And don't forget Billings, Montana in August or September.) However, I believe that the incidence of "stealth" Superchargers spontaneously appearing will decline as routes get closer to completion. Locations will become more exact and construction crews will reveal their next project. Owners will be able to make real good guesses as the field narrows, as it were.

Maybe the first Supercharger in North Dakota will arrive undetected, and maybe if Tesla decides to build them along rural two-lane secondary highways those will be under the radar, but my guess is that by the end of this year, "stealth" installations will be pretty much gone. :smile:

 

[swaltner]

Tesla blog for 2000 Superchargers at 400 locations:

2,000 Superchargers | Tesla Motors

I just noticed that the legend on the infographic says "Announcing our 200th supercharger". Grrr on proofreading.

 

[ZBB]

Yes, this is true, although Needles had been rumored back in November but no one knew where to look. (And don't forget Billings, Montana in August or September.)

Actually, Needles rumors were confirmed by a local politician back in Sept in the article linked below. But nobody knew where until it went live...
Spike, Tesla expected in Needles by year’s end - Local Business - Mohave Daily News

- - - Updated - - -

Tesla blog for 2000 Superchargers at 400 locations:

2,000 Superchargers | Tesla Motors

So supercharge.info still shows 391 locations... Where are the other 9 (or 11 since Tesla refuses to list some of the service centers with Superchargers)?

 

[Bighorn]

Where are the other 9 (or 11 since Tesla refuses to list some of the service centers with Superchargers)?

It says "almost 400" in the blog

 

[jvonbokel]

More fun with charts and graphs...

Supercharger openings by quarter/region (bars represent new locations and are scaled on the left, lines represent cumulative totals and are scaled on the right, with current quarter projected based on quarter-to-date openings)

And Interestate Miles per Supercharger location - gray bars represent states without a Supercharger, orange bars represent states with at least one under construction.