Tesla Supercharger network

[AWDtsla]

I think they need goal of at least one 80amp destination charger at every 100 miles on every major road in america. That would make me happy and it wouldn't cost too much. Even just adding a few HPWC at the superchargers stations for people that are just topping or as an overflow off would help alot too.

If you add up all the costs, adding a supercharger shouldn't cost significantly more. It's basically the capital cost difference between an HPWC and the supercharger hardware, which is some fraction of the total cost for a given location. If the power company needs to trench or add poles for the new service, you're already looking at ten's of thousands for your HPWC.

 

[dgpcolorado]

...More Teslas needed in the middle of the country please...

More Service Centers needed in the middle of the country please...

 

[napabill]

Supercharger observation:

I am currently on a longish road trip that originated in New Orleans. Over the course of two days I supercharged in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Houston (north), Huntsville, Corsicana, Ardmore, OKC, Weatherford, Shamrock, Amarillo, Tucumcari, Santa Rosa, Las Vegas NM, Trinidad, Colorado Springs. Almost 1,600 miles so far.

I was the only Tesla charging at every single supercharger except Huntsville, TX and Colorado Springs, CO where there was one other Tesla charging while I was there. I'm still a little surprised by this. #notincalifornia

More Teslas needed in the middle of the country please...

Be careful what you wish for:wink:

 

[NOLA_Mike]

More Service Centers needed in the middle of the country please...

Yes! Not to stray too far off topic but that "Coming Soon" Service Center pin in New Orleans has been there for 3+ years.

Tesla Soon?

 

[roblab]

Yes! Not to stray too far off topic but that "Coming Soon" Service Center pin in New Orleans has been there for 3+ years.

Tesla Soon?

Looks like chicken and egg. Most service centers, most stores, most superchargers are where the cars are. The cars came first. If you want a supercharger in the middle of Nebraska, get 40 or 50 people in Lincoln to buy a Tesla. Otherwise, there are corridors between Tesla populations, but that's about all.

And, as in the early days (like in October 2012), if you don't like the corridor, or there isn't one, your car can plug in anywhere. RV parks are 4-5 times faster than 110. In the early days, there were no superchargers, no Nissan dealers with CHAdeMO. Once the cars are there, the rest fills in.

I keep telling my relative (especially those in empty states) why they need a Tesla.

 

[TexasEV]

Looks like chicken and egg. Most service centers, most stores, most superchargers are where the cars are. The cars came first. If you want a supercharger in the middle of Nebraska, get 40 or 50 people in Lincoln to buy a Tesla. Otherwise, there are corridors between Tesla populations, but that's about all.

And, as in the early days (like in October 2012), if you don't like the corridor, or there isn't one, your car can plug in anywhere. RV parks are 4-5 times faster than 110. In the early days, there were no superchargers, no Nissan dealers with CHAdeMO. Once the cars are there, the rest fills in.

I keep telling my relative (especially those in empty states) why they need a Tesla.

I disagree. Moore normal people (not early adopters) aren't going to buy a car unless there is a service center a reasonable distance from them. Even many early adopters wouldn't buy a car without access to a service center. Elon recognized this two years ago and that is when Tesla started emphasizing building out service centers more than stores in new markets. With regard to superchargers, they're not needed where the cars are, they're needed where the cars are going. There probably weren't more than 200 Teslas in all of Texas when Tesla built out the superchargers connecting Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio in 2013. That's when the sales took off here.

 

[MrPinrel]

Tesla's CFO admitted in the last earnings conference call that "cash is the number one priority." Service centers and super chargers cost cash in the short term. I know super chargers don't cost a lot,but every little counts when cash is king.

Tesla has clearly slowed down the supercharger buildout and is prioritizing other investments like Model III design and development until they become cash flow positive and have more cash available to invest in super chargers.

 

[AWDtsla]

Tesla's CFO admitted in the last earnings conference call that "cash is the number one priority." Service centers and super chargers cost cash in the short term. I know super chargers don't cost a lot,but every little counts when cash is king.

Tesla has clearly slowed down the supercharger buildout and is prioritizing other investments like Model III design and development until they become cash flow positive and have more cash available to invest in super chargers.

Superchargers are revenue generation. The sale of about 6 cars pays for a single supercharger. They'd certainly make a lot of headway in northeastern sales if they build a handful of superchargers.

 

[KJD]

Tesla's CFO admitted in the last earnings conference call that "cash is the number one priority." Service centers and super chargers cost cash in the short term. I know super chargers don't cost a lot,but every little counts when cash is king.
Tesla has clearly slowed down the supercharger buildout and is prioritizing other investments like Model III design and development until they become cash flow positive and have more cash available to invest in super chargers.

I guess it depends on what you consider a lot of money. A few months ago InsideEV's pegged the cost at 284,000 per location.
Net Book Value Of Tesla Supercharger Network Is $152.4 Million

Now here is another thought for you. How many Supercharge stations has BMW built with 8 or 10 stalls each?

How many Supercharge stations has Nissan built with 8 or 10 stalls each?

Maybe these guys think that 284,000 dollars is real money.

 

[purplewalt]

Looks like chicken and egg. Most service centers, most stores, most superchargers are where the cars are. The cars came first. If you want a supercharger in the middle of Nebraska, get 40 or 50 people in Lincoln to buy a Tesla. Otherwise, there are corridors between Tesla populations, but that's about all.

And, as in the early days (like in October 2012), if you don't like the corridor, or there isn't one, your car can plug in anywhere. RV parks are 4-5 times faster than 110. In the early days, there were no superchargers, no Nissan dealers with CHAdeMO. Once the cars are there, the rest fills in.

I keep telling my relative (especially those in empty states) why they need a Tesla.

I partially agree about the chicken and egg, but Superchargers are NOT just for corridors connecting areas of Tesla Population.
They are also ADVERTISING budget expenditures.
Why else would they show up in Malls, Restaurants, Hotels, Sporting Goods Stores, etc.?
Because they are a very visible, active and viable form of (24/7) advertising, both without and especially with cars charging there...

And guess what:
When the Superchargers DO get built, cars will come to them, as it is almost ordained that the cars will seek out and follow where they are built.
It is really hard (and completely counterproductive) to travel out of your way to avoid visiting a Supercharger, and continue driving long distances.

There is a nice sized group of North Texas Teslas (Model S), and ALL Texans have been able to travel North since March of 2015.
And South since Spring of 2014, but those are currently the two choices North Texans have.
Grey dots (future) don't cut it, get some Red dots on the board.
(Guess I should be glad I don't live in Memphis or Arkansas.)

North Texans still cannot travel directly East or West using Superchargers, because they do not currently exist.
DFW to ATL on I-20 seems to be taking an inordinate amount of time to get any viable traction as far as "built" Supercharger stations.

 

[pgiralt]

I disagree. Moore normal people (not early adopters) aren't going to buy a car unless there is a service center a reasonable distance from them. Even many early adopters wouldn't buy a car without access to a service center. Elon recognized this two years ago and that is when Tesla started emphasizing building out service centers more than stores in new markets. With regard to superchargers, they're not needed where the cars are, they're needed where the cars are going. There probably weren't more than 200 Teslas in all of Texas when Tesla built out the superchargers connecting Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio in 2013. That's when the sales took off here.

100% agree with TexasEV. As an early adopter, I would never have bought my Model S if the Raleigh Service center wasn't open and if there wasn't already a plan to have the superchargers I needed in place within a year of me buying. Given the number of times I've had to visit the service center, I made the right decision. My ownership experience would have been terrible if the service center hadn't been close by. Instead, my experience has been fantastic even with the number of issues I had with the car early on because service was so great.

Building out the service center infrastructure will be key for Model 3. There is no way the average consumer is going to buy a car they can't get repaired close by.

 

[jerry33]

Using the $284K number, 250 SCs is around 1.4% of revenue. Although the number I last saw from Tesla was $125K. Anyway, with 12/21 SCs in permitting that we know about, I don't really see any slowdown. Every spring and early summer there are always complaints about slow buildouts, and then it picks up by the end of the year. I think the best thing they could do (other than Service Centres, which I agree are needed) is to fix 7.1 and get the current owners happy again.

 

[tinm]

Building out the service center infrastructure will be key for Model 3. There is no way the average consumer is going to buy a car they can't get repaired close by.

This is why in New Mexico we're fighting to get the laws changed, so that by the time the Model 3 comes out, Tesla can legally open up some service centers and stores all over New Mexico. You just cannot scale up a fleet of Tesla Rangers with flat-bed trailers to deal with thousands of Teslas in the state. As it is, to get a Denver service appointment involving towing from NM takes WEEKS to schedule in advance. I've been waiting since mid-Jan; I'm scheduled Feb 26.

We also urgently need at least 3 more superchargers in the state, all in the southern region, to open up the Tucson - Albquerque - El Paso triangle of routes. I keep looking for permits in the suspect towns, but haven't seen any activity yet.

 

[ohmman]

I disagree. Moore normal people (not early adopters) aren't going to buy a car unless there is a service center a reasonable distance from them. Even many early adopters wouldn't buy a car without access to a service center. Elon recognized this two years ago and that is when Tesla started emphasizing building out service centers more than stores in new markets. With regard to superchargers, they're not needed where the cars are, they're needed where the cars are going. There probably weren't more than 200 Teslas in all of Texas when Tesla built out the superchargers connecting Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio in 2013. That's when the sales took off here.

If you're Tesla, where do you prioritize Service Center buildouts? Where current demand lies. Yes, it will help with sales - so maximize those sales per build. Building in rural areas doesn't make a lot of sense right now when there are locations that have high population density and demand. It reminds me of this xkcd (just like Seinfeld, always an appropriate reference).

 

[Gerasimental]

View attachment 111485

Just love xkcd. Always on point.
Don't even feel bad being totally off topic since there is simply nothing going on on topic.

 

[Cottonwood]

Here is something on-topic:

Rockslide closes I-70 in Glenwood Canyon | 9news.com — One report said that one of the rocks was half the size of a semi and landed on a semi trailer!

The closure of I-70 east of Glenwood Canyon is very serious for I-70 traffic across Colorado. The choices for going around are very limited with "interesting" charging choices. See I70 Closure! for some discussion.

Until Tesla not only fills out the Supercharger network to include most major interstates, but also fills out most secondary highways, will we have a robust network of fast charging with the depth to withstand road closures, charging station failures, etc.

 

[SW2Fiddler]

Tesla's CFO admitted in the last earnings conference call that "cash is the number one priority." Service centers and super chargers cost cash in the short term. I know super chargers don't cost a lot, but every little counts when cash is king.

Tesla has clearly slowed down the supercharger buildout and is prioritizing other investments like Model III design and development until they become cash flow positive and have more cash available to invest in super chargers.

You're saying "clearly" as if there is zero chance that a predictable, announced, TECHNICAL change consideration has "paused" Supercharger rollout - Hmmm I am just not so sure.

Since we do know that 1) there is a new Cooled Cable that has been under testing (since mid June 2015, or about as long as Tesla SAID they would be testing that "next-generation cable tech" at Mountain View) and
2) there's a Next Generation AC/DC Charger which has 48A capability per charger, unless it is 72A, and each Supercharger is MADE of a stack of these chargers;
I suggest that it might not be as "clearly" due to budget as many of us are saying. It might be that, OR due to preparing to roll out Next Generation Superchargers with Liquid Cables, OR due to rollout of Next-Gen Chargers as internal components, OR a combination of these three, OR of course None Of The Above.

 

[vinnie97]

Supercharger observation:

I am currently on a longish road trip that originated in New Orleans. Over the course of two days I supercharged in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Houston (north), Huntsville, Corsicana, Ardmore, OKC, Weatherford, Shamrock, Amarillo, Tucumcari, Santa Rosa, Las Vegas NM, Trinidad, Colorado Springs. Almost 1,600 miles so far.

I was the only Tesla charging at every single supercharger except Huntsville, TX and Colorado Springs, CO where there was one other Tesla charging while I was there. I'm still a little surprised by this. #notincalifornia

More Teslas needed in the middle of the country please...

Make it affordable for us peasants, and we will come.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

Make it affordable for us peasants, and we will come.

I wish I could do something about that.

My next post will be that the superchargers are too crowded...

Mike

 

[S-dog]

With all the northeast people complaining about range loss with the cold, someone should sniff around Watertown NY for permits. I am sure there wont be anything moving until the ground thaws though.