Tesla Supercharger network

[ecarfan]

With Tesla owners, car trips are favoured due to the low cost of fuel, the convenience of using your own car, the fun of driving a Tesla vs. the cattle car conditions of commercial airplanes, the inconvenience, expense, and safety issues of renting a car, and the anti-terrorism tactics at the airport.

Absolutely agree. I vastly prefer to drive the 415 miles to visit my parents rather than fly since there are plenty of Superchargers along the way. And next year my wife and I are going to drive to Glacier National Park in Montana rather than fly. It will take 2 1/2 days each way but I would rather drive the S as opposed to flying to Montana and renting an ICE. Plus there will be Superchargers along the whole route.

 

[Gear]

I'm driving home to Minnesota for Thanksgiving just because I can.

 

[AudubonB]

I travel by air...

To New Zealand, Europe, southeast Asia, Latin America, Alaska's Aleutian islands and so forth. IF I had to travel cross-US for business, I'd probably hold my nose and use commercial airlines. Thank heavens, those decades are behind me.

Otherwise, it's mostly by road.

 

[Robert.Boston]

In thinking about whether California has "too many" superchargers, you have to ask "why is Tesla building out a supercharger network?" It appears that the primary purpose is for marketing. That's why we saw the coast-to-coast network built, so that Tesla could run publicity about being able to drive across the country.

So, is adding more chargers into California going to help with marketing? No California buyer would look at the supercharger map and conclude that there are inadequate charging points (Although there might be lines, those don't show up on the maps). However, in the Northeast buyer would see huge gaps in areas where they routinely drive.The problem is equally acute in other areas, like Ohio or Texas.

I don't buy the argument that Tesla is not resource constrained. To constraining resource is not money, but trained employees. Take a look at the job openings at Tesla. The number is approaching 2000. Some problems can be solved by throwing money at them, others require a dedicated team of professionals. The one cannot always substitute for the other.

 

[Nichen]

Sundsvalls Supercharger-station is now under construction. It's up north in Sweden.

 

[smartypnz]

Sundsvalls Supercharger-station is now under construction. It's up north in Sweden.View attachment 62515

First one actually in a gas station?

 

[David99]

I don't buy the argument that Tesla is not resource constrained. To constraining resource is not money, but trained employees. Take a look at the job openings at Tesla. The number is approaching 2000. Some problems can be solved by throwing money at them, others require a dedicated team of professionals. The one cannot always substitute for the other.

Elon said there is no budget limitation. He said literally, 'spend the money as fast as you can' (building superchargers). Sure you can always make the argument that more people could do more work in the same time, but there are limitations to what Tesla can do and what is reasonable. It makes no sense to train 500 people in building Superchargers and then send them all out and have all of them build at the same time and hope you can build 300 of them in the next 2 months. While my example is of course extreme, I'm sure you get the point. As of now Tesla makes no money on Superchargers, it's just a huge expense. It does help sell cars in the future and by selling them they make the money back, but that's many many years from now. Tesla could throw all it's money at building Superchargers and stop everything else. But obviously that would make no sense. So there has to be a reasonable balance. Throwing too many bodies and reserources at it will make it pretty inefficient and drain the company of it's money. Of course there is a budget for Superchargers and I think looking at the pace they are opening them it is significant.
I think when Elon said 'we are building them as fast as we can' it has to be taken within reasonable terms.

 

[jerry33]

It does help sell cars in the future and by selling them they make the money back, but that's many many years from now.

Well, it also creates happy owners. Happy owners create more Tesla customers. So the happier the customer, the more sales in the present--and I don't think it's so many years either.

 

[AlMc]

Elon said there is no budget limitation. He said literally, 'spend the money as fast as you can' (building superchargers). Sure you can always make the argument that more people could do more work in the same time, but there are limitations to what Tesla can do and what is reasonable. It makes no sense to train 500 people in building Superchargers and then send them all out and have all of them build at the same time and hope you can build 300 of them in the next 2 months. While my example is of course extreme, I'm sure you get the point. As of now Tesla makes no money on Superchargers, it's just a huge expense. It does help sell cars in the future and by selling them they make the money back, but that's many many years from now. Tesla could throw all it's money at building Superchargers and stop everything else. But obviously that would make no sense. So there has to be a reasonable balance. Throwing too many bodies and reserources at it will make it pretty inefficient and drain the company of it's money. Of course there is a budget for Superchargers and I think looking at the pace they are opening them it is significant.
I think when Elon said 'we are building them as fast as we can' it has to be taken within reasonable terms.

I am not totally disagreeing with your basic premise but TM does not have an income stream from each time a vehicle charges....but...they do realize $2,000/85KW vehicle sold. The majority...can we agree on 90%..of sales are 85KW. So, there is quite a lot of $$ coming in that is spendable on SCs. I do agree that it makes little sense to train hundreds of employees to work on the superchargers. However, I am not sure how many people you need on the SC 'team' in Freemont. The installers are all contractors and I would imagine that they could hire a local lawyer to negotiate with various land use boards, etc.. There are also companies that you can hire that will locate possible install places AND do the leg work getting it approved by local municipalities.

 

[David99]

There are also companies that you can hire that will locate possible install places AND do the leg work getting it approved by local municipalities.

I think that is the labor intensive part. Physically building it, is something contractors can do with some guidance. But traveling around, finding good spots, then contacting the owners and then having meetings with them where Tesla has to give them the whole intro about EVs and charging and why giving them parking spots is a good thing. I bet the majority of these meetings end up with long time before the owners get back to Tesla with even more questions and then more meetings and then more time passing before everyone (on the owner's side) who could possibly have a concern has been asked and made a decision, and then getting a 'no' and then starting over with a different spot. Only after they have a definite OK and signed a contract with the owner they can start getting permits. It most probably is a tedious process.

 

[AlMc]

I think that is the labor intensive part. Physically building it, is something contractors can do with some guidance. But traveling around, finding good spots, then contacting the owners and then having meetings with them where Tesla has to give them the whole intro about EVs and charging and why giving them parking spots is a good thing. I bet the majority of these meetings end up with long time before the owners get back to Tesla with even more questions and then more meetings and then more time passing before everyone (on the owner's side) who could possibly have a concern has been asked and made a decision, and then getting a 'no' and then starting over with a different spot. Only after they have a definite OK and signed a contract with the owner they can start getting permits. It most probably is a tedious process.

Yes. That is a time consuming process but it is more cost effective to hire a firm that does this. I have encountered these firms personally on two occasions. First one, my small business sits on 3 acres of ground at a high point with respect to the surrounding community. A firm contacted me on behalf of AT&T as a possible site for a cell tower. When I talked with them they indicated they had zeroed in on five sites in a 5 mile radius. They do all the negotiations, have all the info about what will be built, specs for the county land use departments, and what AT&T was willing to pay me to 'rent' the space. I decided it was not in my best interest to go with their 'deal' but a property about 1/2 mile away did. I do a lot of work with land use (abuse) in my community so I was at the meeting where they brought in the plans with a lawyer, did the entire presentation, got the variance, then turned it over to a contractor to build it for AT&T. I never talked with an AT&T person or saw one at any of the land use meetings.

Second, CVS wants to put yet another drug store on some land. The exact same process is going on with that project. We will never see a representative employed by CVS. All negotiations will be done by a third party and area contractors.

 

[ZBB]

First one actually in a gas station?

Nope... The Cordes Junction AZ supercharger is at a Shell station...

 

[KJD]

Missoula is open! I just Saw Bozeman's Second Model S at Bozeman's Supercharger and Just heard that the other Tesla was the first to charge up in Missoula just after 9 am moments after it went active. It was the Owner's employee that was driving the car. She said she charged in Coeur d'Alene at a 30 amp overnight and then caught Missoula and then made it to Bozeman. A fourth red dot in Montana is soon to appear on The Supercharger map!

See post # 66
Bozeman, MT Supercharger - Page 7

 

[DrGuest]

See post # 66
Bozeman, MT Supercharger - Page 7

here is a lengthy really positive article about the Missoula SC opening today.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/te...cle_3fd389a6-0762-5613-9fd7-e427fa0a13ee.html

 

[smartypnz]

27 open SC's in the 31 days of October..... not too shabby

 

[anticitizen13.7]

here is a lengthy really positive article about the Missoula SC opening today.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/te...cle_3fd389a6-0762-5613-9fd7-e427fa0a13ee.html

Anytime I see Missoula in the news I am reminded of the YouTube science show "The Brain Scoop". LOL. It's definitely an appropriate place for a Supercharging station.

 

[Lloyd]

Well, it also creates happy owners. Happy owners create more Tesla customers. So the happier the customer, the more sales in the present--and I don't think it's so many years either.

I've got to say that I have been very happy at the rollout of charging stations here in California. Even though I live on the coast, I can drive in any direction and have supercharging options. Not trying to gloat for the amount of rollout for CA, as I am sure that Tesla will continue in the same mode in other markets as well to match the number of cars sold. The screenshot below is from my home.

 

[snellenr]

I've got to say that I have been very happy at the rollout of charging stations here in California. Even though I live on the coast, I can drive in any direction and have supercharging options. Not trying to gloat for the amount of rollout for CA, as I am sure that Tesla will continue in the same mode in other markets as well to match the number of cars sold. The screenshot below is from my home.

View attachment 62663

I'll admit to some (ok, a lot ) of jealousy, but it does give us non-CAs a glimpse of what it could be like in the future.

 

[jerry33]

I've got to say that I have been very happy at the rollout of charging stations here in California. Even though I live on the coast, I can drive in any direction and have supercharging options. Not trying to gloat for the amount of rollout for CA, as I am sure that Tesla will continue in the same mode in other markets as well to match the number of cars sold.

The problem we folks living in Texas have is that we can't go anywhere outside of Texas, or even to many places in Texas, without relying on RV parks, even though Texas is one of Tesla's larger markets. The Supercharger map still shows Texas is supposed to be connected by the end of 2014, but there's no sign of progress and none of the un-islanding locations have even made it to the coming soon slider position. (Admittedly Tesla isn't very good at updating their website.)

 

[aronth5]

The problem we folks living in Texas have is that we can't go anywhere outside of Texas, or even to many places in Texas, without relying on RV parks, even though Texas is one of Tesla's larger markets. The Supercharger map still shows Texas is supposed to be connected by the end of 2014, but there's no sign of progress and none of the un-islanding locations have even made it to the coming soon slider position. (Admittedly Tesla isn't very good at updating their website.)

Well there actually is progress with 3 permits towards the eastern front, but your certainly correct that Texas has been an island too long.
http://supercharge.info/