The Seattle Area Needs More Superchargers

[Rocky_H]

When I visit my dad in Michigan. Most of the supercharges are at Meijers locations. I think that family has made generous use of their parking lots. Tesla may have a harder time finding free parking in the PNW.

Fred Meyer seems to be the grocery store chain that is friendly to installing chargers in the PNW.

 

[marksvend]

There's a new thread today about a Supercharger under construction in Vancouver, WA.

New Supercharger Washington I-5 exit 7A

 

[DRasheed]

There's a new thread today about a Supercharger under construction in Vancouver, WA.

New Supercharger Washington I-5 exit 7A

That looks like an excellent location right near the I-5/I-205 junction. Really will improve things for those coming from Seattle and visiting Portland. Easily can get there from anywhere in Seattle, skipping centralia. Then a charge up to 50-70% should be plenty to get to Portland, do a bunch of local driving, and get back to the charger. Won't have to deal with the painfully slow charge to get to 90% or higher like was necessary from centralia.

 

[jon1478]

Nice, this will allow much less stress/range anxiety while in Portland when coming from the Seattle area.

 

[hpartsch]

Any bets on how many superchargers WA state will get this year? Looks like 16 are planned. The yellow ones I'm guessing we will get (this is a wild guess). At the current rate they are opening, I'm thinking 7 sounds a bit more realistic.

 

[Mattzilla]

Any bets on how many superchargers WA state will get this year? Looks like 16 are planned. The yellow ones I'm guessing we will get (this is a wild guess). At the current rate they are opening, I'm thinking 7 sounds a bit more realistic.



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Since the one in Vancouver is about to open I sort of doubt the Longview SC will be much of a priority this year.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Since the one in Vancouver is about to open I sort of doubt the Longview SC will be much of a priority this year.

I would argue that the Vancouver SC is the Longview SC. Where the pins on the map were VERY rough estimates.

There also isn't any indication on when the Vancouver one will actually open. It's been sitting there in what appears to be done for well over a month.

 

[hpartsch]

I would argue that the Vancouver SC is the Longview SC. Where the pins on the map were VERY rough estimates.

There also isn't any indication on when the Vancouver one will actually open. It's been sitting there in what appears to be done for well over a month.

Also agree.

 

[mdk1a]

Personally, I would be happy if they opened just the following 7 in 2018: Kirkland, Seattle (U Village), Snoqualmie, Wenatchee, Chelan, Forks and Spokane. I'm not counting the Vancouver one because I also think that one is going to open soon.

Outside of WA, it would be fantastic if they could also open the following in 2018: Portland (somewhere near DT), Victoria, Richmond BC, Vancouver BC and Whistler.

 

[Kuhz]

Just an FYI Chelan has 2 or 3 free chargers near city hall currently. Slow but good enough

 

[Yarder]

I still wish they would put in a supercharger in Pullman. The destination chargers there is like a three hour charge.

 

[Chuq]

Whistler.

Supercharger - Whistler BC

 

[mdk1a]

Supercharger - Whistler BC

Whoa... that was fast

Thanks!

 

[DRasheed]

Quite a few new superchargers in the Seattle area since this thread was started. Although I'm always happy for more chargers, the one problem that actually affects me has not been improved. There still is only one SpC between Portland and Seattle. It's location makes a weekend trip to Seattle from Portland (or vice versa) nearly impossible without some destination charging in Seattle. I have an 85 and even if I get pretty close to full in Centralia, it is difficult to make the centrailia -> seattle -> full weekend of local driving plus vampire drain -> centralia trip. Having to find local charging adds a lot of annoyance.

I'm still hoping there will be a new supercharger soon in the Olympia/Tacoma area, and maybe another closer to Portland along I-5. Or having a SpC in Seattle and Portland themselves. Or both! It looks like these are planned but I haven't heard anything started yet.

Have the new superchargers around Seattle fixed problems for you?

Been about a year since I posted this. Centrailia -> Seattle -> full weekend of local driving plus vampire drain -> Centralia trip is still a major thorn in my side. Really wish they could get something done in the Olympia/Tacoma area.

 

[pdxrajiv]

Been about a year since I posted this. Centrailia -> Seattle -> full weekend of local driving plus vampire drain -> Centralia trip is still a major thorn in my side. Really wish they could get something done in the Olympia/Tacoma area.

Lynwood and Monroe are too far away to your liking?

 

[PLUS EV]

Lynwood and Monroe are too far away to your liking?

Monroe is way out of the way if you are just going to Seattle from the south. Lynnwood is an inconvenient detour when there's no traffic (read: 8pm-4am) and an emergency only detour during high traffic times.

I do agree with DRasheed that the Seattle-Olympia-Seattle (or vice versa) trips are an embarrassment of the supercharger network. Sure there are probably not a ton of Tesla owners in Thurston county, but we have the 15th largest metro area in the US and its state capital so this is a relatively common route. Also, I believe Seattle and WA have the highest number of Teslas per capita outside of CA. And it's not easy to make this round trip without detouring to either Centralia or Lynnwood. If you have a 75, you're probably fine if you are going down and back in one day but if you drive around the city at all or stay overnight, you are left scrambling for public chargers.

 

[pdxrajiv]

Monroe is way out of the way if you are just going to Seattle from the south. Lynnwood is an inconvenient detour when there's no traffic (read: 8pm-4am) and an emergency only detour during high traffic times.

I do agree with DRasheed that the Seattle-Olympia-Seattle (or vice versa) trips are an embarrassment of the supercharger network. Sure there are probably not a ton of Tesla owners in Thurston county, but we have the 15th largest metro area in the US and its state capital so this is a relatively common route. Also, I believe Seattle and WA have the highest number of Teslas per capita outside of CA. And it's not easy to make this round trip without detouring to either Centralia or Lynnwood. If you have a 75, you're probably fine if you are going down and back in one day but if you drive around the city at all or stay overnight, you are left scrambling for public chargers.

I believe the situation is better for SEA->PDX->SEA because of the new(ish) Vancouver WA charger.

I am not arguing against more SCs.
I for one would prefer better coverage for National parks.
North Cascades, Big Bend, Glacier could be better served.

That (ish) is really only for you and @Bighorn - for you guys any SC older than a few days is old.

 

[hpartsch]

Any bets on how many superchargers WA state will get this year? Looks like 16 are planned. The yellow ones I'm guessing we will get (this is a wild guess). At the current rate they are opening, I'm thinking 7 sounds a bit more realistic.



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We'll we got 2 in WA. I guess my estimate of 7/16 was a bit high..... Maybe we will have 3 by the end of the year (Issaquah). It would be nice to have at least 50% of what was promised. Less than 20% of what was planned for 2018 is a bit surprising. I understand putting tons of resources into CA -- hopefully that push moves us to WA soon. The cool thing is that in a few years (est 4-7), the majority of the US might look like CA!
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[ChrisH]

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We'll we got 2 in WA. I guess my estimate of 7/16 was a bit high..... Maybe we will have 3 by the end of the year (Issaquah). It would be nice to have at least 50% of what was promised. Less than 20% of what was planned for 2018 is a bit surprising. I understand putting tons of resources into CA -- hopefully that push moves us to WA soon. The cool thing is that in a few years (est 4-7), the majority of the US might look like CA!
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We still have a quarter of the year left. You are probably right though. Those ones like Yakima aren’t likely to have much action with the weather getting worse.

 

[Seattle Tom]

What are the two? Leavenworth and Lynnwood? Didn’t Arlington open in 2018? Maybe that was 2017...

Anyway, agree with your point. WA is very under-invested. At most, we’ve got Issaquah coming online this year. Bellevue is a long shot since they haven’t even started construction (and we know that won’t move fast given the city/county permitting and inspection process there).

I think the priority has to be Ellensburg, Longview, Tacoma, Spokane, then Forks. The others I don’t know if we’ll ever get unless Tesla raises funds or starts making lots of money somehow. I guess the Seattle one would be good too for travelers into the city, but the others are better for long distance travel needs. Forks would really enable true travel around the Olympic Peninsula, especially if you are towing a camper, but it’s hard to justify above places like Ellensburg and Longview.

Kudos to Tesla that at least Leavenworth was a nice surprise addition. Very convenient for travel needs and well sized by Dan’s Groceries!