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Urban Supercharger - Downtown - Seattle, WA

im.thatoneguy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
316
564
Seattle, WA
They tried to do final inspection yesterday but the electrical contractor failed to show up.

'FINAL
Rick Montoya (7/3/2019 2:31 PM)

8:45 AM CALLED CONTACT, LEFT MESSAGE, WAITED 10 MONUTES, NO ANSWER. CONTRACTOR CALLED AFTER INSPECTOR HAD LEFT SITE. FOR FUTURE INSPECTION, PLEASE CONTACT INSPECTOR BETWEEN 7:00AM AND 8:00AM TO COORDINATE INSPECTION TIME. '
 

im.thatoneguy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
316
564
Seattle, WA
As to paid parking, considering my alternative is driving an hour to Issaquah and back or leaving my car for 10 hours somewhere and walking home... this charger is gold.

Suburbanites have plenty of charging options. This is for people on cap hill and slu and Belltown without home or office charging.

The next best option is pacific place and at its cheapest it's $10 for parking and $2 for charge. The only downside to this location is the inability to have summon move the car when charging is done.

I was up at whistler and that's a paid lot too but it was pretty full. There is definitely a need.
 

im.thatoneguy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
316
564
Seattle, WA
It's working. Not on the map yet but working.
IMG_20190708_185706.jpg
 

im.thatoneguy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
316
564
Seattle, WA
Price appears to be 25c vs 28c so that helps offset half of the $6 parking cost (if you got a full 75kwh)

The destination chargers are hot but fenced off. However they will be available presumably for free so if you've got time you could just get free power but pay for parking.

The best price I've found in Seattle is 17c kwh (including parking/charging) . At $6 for evening parking you could theoretically get 10c kwh with 48A destination charging.
 
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Reactions: Rocky_H and Araman0

RobertSeattle

Member
Mar 10, 2016
180
152
Kirkland, WA
Price appears to be 25c vs 28c so that helps offset half of the $6 parking cost (if you got a full 75kwh)

The destination chargers are hot but fenced off. However they will be available presumably for free so if you've got time you could just get free power but pay for parking.

The best price I've found in Seattle is 17c kwh (including parking/charging) . At $6 for evening parking you could theoretically get 10c kwh with 48A destination charging.
Not exactly specific to your point, but some of the park and rides operated by Metro offer all day Chargepoint chargers for $2/24 hours. Pretty good deal if you are in absolutely no hurry and don't mind taking a bus in to downtown.
 

im.thatoneguy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
316
564
Seattle, WA
Not exactly specific to your point, but some of the park and rides operated by Metro offer all day Chargepoint chargers for $2/24 hours. Pretty good deal if you are in absolutely no hurry and don't mind taking a bus in to downtown.
Sure the burbs have an abundance of options. Technically you can park at most AMC theaters in the suburbs and use a free Volta. But within Seattle there aren't any of those deals except maybe 60 minutes at QFC while shopping. Kirkland also has the waterfront lot for free after hours and free charging.
 

Padelford

Supporting Member
Jul 1, 2017
391
361
Seattle
I tried visiting this supercharger location today, and it didn't go well. Though the supercharger location now shows up in Nav as an active location, the building/parking garage management aren't letting anyone use it pending some higher-level decision. The chargers are roped off for now. They look ready to go otherwise.

There are NO SIGNS to guide a Tesla owner to the chargers. This is really not very good, and Tesla should provide signs to guide people to the chargers since they're rather buried in the garage AND there are no employees around to ask for directions until you find the chargers.

The garage is basically beneath the Washington State Convention Center off Union St. The entrance to the parking garage is not very large. One has to go down and thru a parking garage gate & take a ticket (parking is free for 15 minutes, I didn't see the parking rates after that), then turn right and go down the ramp to Level B East. The chargers are in an alcove on the right in a rather cramped space behind the valet parking area. There are other cars parked in there across from some of the chargers, and I wasn't allowed into the alcove, but it looked like backing into some of the chargers might be challenging for an MX or MS. The alcove is a dead-end, so only one way in and out. One might have to back into the alcove to access the chargers, which wouldn't be very convenient.

Don't even think of using this charger location if you've got a trailer!
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Kuhz

RobertSeattle

Member
Mar 10, 2016
180
152
Kirkland, WA
I tried visiting this supercharger location today, and it didn't go well. Though the supercharger location now shows up in Nav as an active location, the building/parking garage management aren't letting anyone use it pending some higher-level decision. The chargers are roped off for now. They look ready to go otherwise.

There are NO SIGNS to guide a Tesla owner to the chargers. This is really not very good, and Tesla should provide signs to guide people to the chargers since they're rather buried in the garage AND there are no employees around to ask for directions until you find the chargers.

The garage is basically beneath the Washington State Convention Center off Union St. The entrance to the parking garage is not very large. One has to go down and thru a parking garage gate & take a ticket (parking is free for 15 minutes, I didn't see the parking rates after that), then turn right and go down the ramp to Level B East. The chargers are in an alcove on the right in a rather cramped space behind the valet parking area. There are other cars parked in there across from some of the chargers, and I wasn't allowed into the alcove, but it looked like backing into some of the chargers might be challenging for an MX or MS. The alcove is a dead-end, so only one way in and out. One might have to back into the alcove to access the chargers, which wouldn't be very convenient.

Don't even think of using this charger location if you've got a trailer!

I just called the One Union Garage office and they assured me the SC was open to public. She admitted some incorrect information had been given out today. I am going to try it out tomorrow morning.
 

im.thatoneguy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
316
564
Seattle, WA
"The chargers are roped off for now. They look ready to go otherwise. "

Ha, Tesla must have seen my charging session last night and gone "Hey wait a second, did we forget to rope that off?!"
 

westernvine

Member
Dec 7, 2018
40
38
Seattle, WA
I think I had a slightly better experience than Padelford, though the valets initially were not sure what to do with me. Since I'm familiar with the building, I ran off to the Cortina Cafe upstairs. They wondered if I worked for Tesla.

There were 3 other Teslas there, a Model S and a Model X. The valets were handling the charging for the Model X - and they moved it to a valet space after it was done charging. The valets understood from the driver of the X that there are idle fees, so were doing their part to try and help... though since it's technically a self-service area, and not a valet service, this will be ... interesting to watch.

If someone actually wants to get some good Tesla Level 2 charging done while visiting downtown, this is a good location for that, without having to worry about idle fees: immediately below the Superchargers (which are unmarked) is the sister installation done for this project that includes 6 Tesla Wall Connectors and 4 J1772 Tesla Wall Connectors. The J1772 HPWCs are hard to identify, there is no signage, so hopefully they fix that. None of the Level 2 chargers say "EV charging only", nor do they have green painted lines, so ICEing could be interesting. That's a super busy garage.

Without cell reception in that area of the garage, it's not possible to get updates or control the car via app from outside / around the neighborhood.

My biggest concern: will Tesla find a way to mark "Paid Parking Superchargers" and filter them out on the app? The Model X was coming up from Portland, and I think it would've been better for them to continue to the Lynwood Supercharger.

IMG_5699.jpg


Here's a photo of the Level 2 charging section (not in the valet area), including the J1772 wall connectors... 6 are Tesla, rest are J1772. Interesting that in the permits they are all listed as Clipper Creek brand.

IMG_5707.jpg


And the J1772:
IMG_5702.jpg
 

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Padelford

Supporting Member
Jul 1, 2017
391
361
Seattle
I just called the One Union Garage office and they assured me the SC was open to public. She admitted some incorrect information had been given out today. I am going to try it out tomorrow morning.

The valet in charge called someone who had to be paged. When that person responded, the valet was told that the Superchargers were not to be used pending a decision at some higher level.

Just who’s in charge at that location? Can we get a name in case this happens again?

It’s good to know about the level 2 chargers further down in the garage.
 

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