Tesla Supercharger network

[jerry33]

I'm not sure I get all the angst. By the end of the year they should have close to 240 North American SCs in less than three years. No other company has come anywhere near that. Sure, they set ambitious goals and tend to be about six months behind, but getting sites isn't easy.

 

[Chipper]

So the whole world starts in CA and if we feel like traveling to one of those other states we will add a few chargers to barely get us there. Right ?

- - - Updated - - -

I live close to Washington, DC which does not seem like a small city to me and most of the rest of the world but I have 5 superchargers within 100 miles and most of the rest of the east coast is way worse off than I am. There seems to be a relatively large portion of Model S owners here as I see them all the time. Can I get to NC no. WV no. PA no. Those are not even major road trips.

Why can you not get to these locations? I would have no trouble getting to any of these locations if I were living in D.C.

 

[jvonbokel]

Update including October 6th, 2015

Might I recommend some tables for ease of reading?

North America

Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
2012	0	0	2	7	9
2013	0	2	11	28	41
2014	32	16	19	35	102
2015	42	19	22	-	83
					235

Europe

Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
2013	0	0	6	8	14
2014	0	10	44	54	108
2015	19	19	32	1	71
					193

Asia Pacific (Currently: China, Japan, Australia)

Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
2014	0	3	16	39	58
2015	15	5	15	0	35
					93

Global

Year	NA	EU	AP	Total
2012	9	0	0	9
2013	41	14	0	55
2014	102	108	58	268
YTD 2015	83	71	35	189
				521

Global

Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
2013	0	2	17	36	55
2014	32	29	79	128	268
2015	76	43	69	1	189

In fact, you could combine the above five into one.

North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (Currently: China, Japan, Australia), Global

Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
2012	0	0	2	7	9													2	7	9
2013	0	2	11	28	41	0	0	6	8	14						0	2	17	36	55
2014	32	16	19	35	102	0	10	44	54	108	0	3	16	39	58	32	29	79	128	268
2015	42	19	22	0	83	19	19	32	1	71	15	5	15	0	35	76	43	69	1	189
					235					193					93					521

Global Rates

Period	Stations	Days	Rate
2014 H1	61	181	0.3370
2014 H2	207	184	1.1250
2015 H1	119	181	0.6574
2015 H2	70	98	0.7142
2014	268	365	0.7342
2015	189	279	0.6774

 

[smartypnz]

I, personally, don't understand it.

After all - everyone who desperately wants more SC's has been scouring the countryside, spreading the good word, telling commercial owners how an SC at their location would be beneficial in so many ways. They have been to town meetings, testified at City Council meetings, educated Planning Commissions. No site has gone without consideration for a possible SC. And then notifying Tesla of sites now begging for an SC due to their footwork.
Basically, paving the way for Tesla to build SC's in the 'absolute, desperately needed' spot.

And yet - no sign of an SC where one wants one.

 

[scaesare]

Agreed! If anybody can point me to or give me reliable sales data by state, I would love to incorporate it.

And by the way, I wasn't trying to disparage your effort to present the data, just to understand it. Thanks for doing it.

For some reason my gut disagrees with what it appears to present: PA is the state with the most dire supercharger need at the moment, but I don't have a lot of data to back that up. I just don't feel that PA is a hotbed of EV enthusiasm with pent up buying demand that would be unleashed if more superchargers were open there.

What's more, if the one or two superchargers in PA are largely idle and unused, it might indicate significant LACK of need there, despite what all the ICE traffic around them are doing...

Determining the right metric feels like it needs to take utilization in to account somehow... something also not readily available...

 

[ecarfan]

How many Superchargers there are in a state has little to do with how large a state is in square miles, but much to do with how many Teslas reside in that state. California obviously has far more Teslas than any other state. I have seen some estimates that close to half of all Teslas sold in the USA are in California.

CA has 163,700 sq mi and 34 chargers. 1: 4814 sq mi
FL has 65,700 sq mi and 11 superchargers. 1:5977 sq mi.
Here in VA we are 1:11,697 and there are in fact about 5-6 states that actually have none !! EDIT: there are actually 7 states that have none.

 

[TexasEV]

I, personally, don't understand it.

After all - everyone who desperately wants more SC's has been scouring the countryside, spreading the good word, telling commercial owners how an SC at their location would be beneficial in so many ways. They have been to town meetings, testified at City Council meetings, educated Planning Commissions. No site has gone without consideration for a possible SC. And then notifying Tesla of sites now begging for an SC due to their footwork.
Basically, paving the way for Tesla to build SC's in the 'absolute, desperately needed' spot.

And yet - no sign of an SC where one wants one.

Wow, your user name is appropriate.
No, because the locations we're talking about that are lacking are hundreds of miles away from us. We aren't intimately familiar with the areas, they're just spots on a map between where we are and where we need to get to. Your're implying that the desired locations are in our own communities. We don't need them here. I charge at home. We need them on the way to where people want to go to.

 

[ggr]

That's because they're full of owners who should be charging at home. In the rest of the country the superchargers are usually in the middle of nowhere (or at least not near a cluster of Tesla owners) and they're just used by people traveling.

To me, Fountain Valley IS in the middle of nowhere...

I've never seen the San Diego supercharger, even though it's in the parking lot of a building I used to have meetings in.

 

[David99]

Using area vs # of SC is totally pointless. Area doesn't say anything about how many Teslas are on the road, where they are going and how dense traffic is.
Look at the number of Service centers on the map. http://www.teslamotors.com/findus#/bounds/49.38,-66.94,25.82,-124.39,d?search=service,&name=us
Tesla builds them purely by demand. There is only one or even none in each state. And then zoom in on Californa. 17! You think Tesla operates 17 Service centers in California because they love to waste money? Or maybe because they need to service 17 times more cars.

People not living in California really don't understand the density of Teslas here. No one here is complaining about lack of Superchargers. It's just tiring to hear people from other areas trying to argue that California gets all the cake while other states get nothing. It's just not what is happening. If you haven't been here, you just don't understand. There really is a ridiculous number of Teslas here.

As someone else pointed out, there is no bad press for the lack of chargers in remote areas. But congested Superchargers would backfire immensely. The press and oil industry would pick that up and blow it up like crazy. It would totally defeat the purpose and marketing value. A charging network that slows you down can't happen.

 

[purplewalt]

....and there are in fact about 5-6 states that actually have none !! EDIT: there are actually 7 states that have none.

Of the Lower 48 states, there are only 5 states that currently do not have Superchargers: AR, ME, MS, NE, ND.
Southern Mississippi is basically covered/broached via I-10.
Hawaiian Islands will never need one, well at least until the bridges start connecting islands.
Alaska is at least a couple of years down the road before Denali Highway will see some Superchargers.

Nonetheless, Arkansas/Mississippi/Western Tennessee & Kentucky/Northwestern Alabama/Southern Missouri/Eastern Oklahoma & Texas/Northern Louisiana is the largest (lower 48) US land mass area with a significant population, yet without Supercharger services.

It will be such a relief when this REGION starts to get filled in.
Most people don't take cross country road trips, or if they do, it is only once a year.
But a lot of people DO take Regional road trips to visit family and friends, go to college football games, graduations, weddings, birthdays, etc.

Even installing 4 to 6 Superchargers on I-20 and I-40 would make a HUGE difference and start to get some connections going.
Connections creates awareness.
Awareness creates curiosity.
Curiosity creates want.
Want creates sales.
Sales creates more product and greater need for Superchargers.
And so on...

My example:
As of today, yes, I can drive to Atlanta-- but I would have to travel almost 500 miles out-of-my-way to get there, in lieu of heading nearly due East.
It is huge gap without Superchargers, probably fairly easy to complete in one day's drive (one and a half day max) after they do get installed.

Why not make a kid's day like a Gentleman from GA and I recently did @ Independence, MO Supercharger.
The kid was aware of the Model S, had spotted us charging and he had drug his mom over so he could see two Model S.
The kid is probably still talking about it (I did let him sit in my car.)

Person-to-person is what creates genuine vibe and interest.
TM, Please start spreading some Supercharger Love in the SouthEast....

 

[ken830]

Yeah. Tesla sells far, far, far, far, far more cars in California than anywhere else. Yes... in the long-term, the Supercharger placement strategy should change, but if they did that today, you will have a huge percentage of Tesla owners inconvenienced and pissed in high-owner-concentration areas like California. That will be bad press when Supercharger locations and wait times become a problem that the media picks up on.

And the placement strategy after we reach some "saturation" level should not simply reflect the number of miles traveled. It should reflect the number of vehicles traveling along long-distance travel routes along with high-population areas.

 

[Lotsadriving]

Now this is just wrong:

Tesla High Power Wall Charger, plugged into a Fiat 500e at Tesla Motors HQ last week, yes, somebody figured out how to put a native J1772 connector on the Tesla High Power Wall Charger...

View attachment 97224View attachment 97225View attachment 97227

In the background are about 40 or 50 high powered wall chargers in a line, with a valet parking attendant shuffling cars, and both shades of red side by side ;-)

Because Employees should not need to use the 12 Superchargers located nearby...

 

[RiverBrick]

As someone else pointed out, there is no bad press for the lack of chargers in remote area.

I'm not so sure about that.

Just off the top of my head there was a very critical article by a reporter who ran out of juice between Barstow and Kingman (since then Needles has opened) and the Boston Globe ran a hack piece about nearly running out of charge going to Mount Washington.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

Of the Lower 48 states, there are only 5 states that currently do not have Superchargers: AK, ME, MS, NE, ND.

And AR (Arkansas).

 

[Drucifer]

For some reason my gut disagrees with what it appears to present: PA is the state with the most dire supercharger need at the moment, but I don't have a lot of data to back that up. I just don't feel that PA is a hotbed of EV enthusiasm with pent up buying demand that would be unleashed if more superchargers were open there.

What's more, if the one or two superchargers in PA are largely idle and unused, it might indicate significant LACK of need there, despite what all the ICE traffic around them are doing

I agree, Pennsylvania is a real problem. Pennsylvania connects New England and most of the Mid-Atlantic to the Mid West. There should be SC's in Erie, along I-80, along I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) and along I-81 (Corridor from New Orleans/Birmingham/Chattanooga/Knoxville... to New England) to start with.

 

[purplewalt]

And AR (Arkansas).

I stand corrected: have edited post

AR

I do understand the desire to have multiple Supercharging options to charge in California.

I also think that in light of the rest of the US and Canada's size and scope, that charging via either an RV Park or driving huge amounts of extra distance to travel in various directions is a hardship on other Regions.
It is probably time to re-forecast the map and focus on areas that are not served at all and start getting them taken care of.


If some people in California have to drive 40 miles out of their way, it is not as bad as someone else in the US having to drive 500 miles out of their way.
My sense is the urgency for Supercharger development in some other areas of the US is still in its infancy.

 

[Kevin Harney]

I stand corrected: have edited post

AR

I do understand the desire to have multiple Supercharging options to charge in California.

I also think that in light of the rest of the US and Canada's size and scope, that charging via either an RV Park or driving huge amounts of extra distance to travel in various directions is a hardship on other Regions.
It is probably time to re-forecast the map and focus on areas that are not served at all and start getting them taken care of.


If some people in California have to drive 40 miles out of their way, it is not as bad as someone else in the US having to drive 500 miles out of their way.
My sense is the urgency for Supercharger development in some other areas of the US is still in its infancy.

+1 This is really the crux of my argument and way better said than I did. I just feel that a shift in plan is now due or slightly overdue.

 

[emupilot]

I agree, Pennsylvania is a real problem. Pennsylvania connects New England and most of the Mid-Atlantic to the Mid West. There should be SC's in Erie, along I-80, along I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) and along I-81 (Corridor from New Orleans/Birmingham/Chattanooga/Knoxville... to New England) to start with.

A recent article about the upcoming South Whitehall station mentioned that ground will be broken soon on a supercharger on I-80 in Tannersville. I'd bet it will be at the Premium Outlet mall, as there are a bunch of other installations at those malls.

 

[smartypnz]

Your're implying that the desired locations are in our own communities. We don't need them here. I charge at home. We need them on the way to where people want to go to.

True, but finding a location in your area benefits others - hopefully, others find a location that you could use. Most MS owners do not need a SC next door - we campaigned for one locally because we live in a popular tourist area and a convenient stopover on the way down the coast. Most locals do not need it.

 

[kort677]

As of today, yes, I can drive to Atlanta-- but I would have to travel almost 500 miles out-of-my-way to get there, in lieu of heading nearly due East.
It is huge gap without Superchargers, probably fairly easy to complete in one day's drive (one and a half day max) after they do get installed.

I am not trying to provoke a negative discussion but needing to take a 500 mile detour is NOT what I would consider being a place I would call being within driving range of my Tesla.