How does Tesla decide where to install superchargers?

jhogan2424

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I’m sure they have folks with strategic plans who tally up data from whatever sources and decide which general areas would be the most beneficial for Tesla and for Owners but I’m interested to know how they decide on a specific location or a particular piece of property. I sit on the zoning council where I live and was curious if they actively have boots on the ground looking for locations or is it possible for a municipality or even a county to simply throw their name in the hat to be considered. Or if a county had property to donate would that increase their chances of being considered if it was in a beneficial area? The closest superchargers to our area are all hours away in Memphis and Little Rock. I have no idea how they decide where to place the chargers. Now that I think about it I don’t believe I have ever even seen one.
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They are on major corridors. If you are on a major highway it helps. They also tend to prefer places where there are other amenities such as shopping or restaurants. **Definitely bathrooms** are good. It needs to have good access to power (duh)... these things pull a lot of juice when you have 10 cars charging, it's monstrous.

Is your town on a major highway or even a minor artery?

Biden's infrastructure bill is targeting getting EV charging into more rural areas and it seems like Tesla might be trying to tap into that. So maybe there is an angle there.
 

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I’m sure they have folks with strategic plans who tally up data from whatever sources and decide which general areas would be the most beneficial for Tesla and for Owners but I’m interested to know how they decide on a specific location or a particular piece of property. I sit on the zoning council where I live and was curious if they actively have boots on the ground looking for locations or is it possible for a municipality or even a county to simply throw their name in the hat to be considered. Or if a county had property to donate would that increase their chances of being considered if it was in a beneficial area? The closest superchargers to our area are all hours away in Memphis and Little Rock. I have no idea how they decide where to place the chargers. Now that I think about it I don’t believe I have ever even seen one.
Here is the link from Tesla.com where your town/business can apply for a supercharger station
https://www.tesla.com/host-a-supercharger
 
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jhogan2424

jhogan2424

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They are on major corridors. If you are on a major highway it helps. They also tend to prefer places where there are other amenities such as shopping or restaurants. **Definitely bathrooms** are good. It needs to have good access to power (duh)... these things pull a lot of juice when you have 10 cars charging, it's monstrous.

Is your town on a major highway or even a minor artery?

Biden's infrastructure bill is targeting getting EV charging into more rural areas and it seems like Tesla might be trying to tap into that. So maybe there is an angle there.
We are not on what I would consider a major highway but I would definitely consider it a minor artery. If you draw a line from Memphis to Little Rock the 4 lane highway runs very roughly that path(changing designations once or twice) and those are the closest superchargers being one end in Memphis and other end in Little Rock. As far as available power, I feel we are in good shape as far as that infrastructure is concerned and the local government has a good working relationship with that power provider. However, we do not have real shopping to speak of and only a few chain restaurants. No bathrooms at all unless you count the 3 truck stops when you exit. Only a couple of fairly new hotels. No rest stops or parks near the highway either. The municipality has acquired several pieces of land near the highway over the years and has done nothing with it yet and that was what got me to thinking. Half of this stretch between Memphis and Little Rock is cotton and rice fields with the other half hilly forests. Just something I was thinking about.
 


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We are not on what I would consider a major highway but I would definitely consider it a minor artery. If you draw a line from Memphis to Little Rock the 4 lane highway runs very roughly that path(changing designations once or twice) and those are the closest superchargers being one end in Memphis and other end in Little Rock. As far as available power, I feel we are in good shape as far as that infrastructure is concerned and the local government has a good working relationship with that power provider. However, we do not have real shopping to speak of and only a few chain restaurants. No bathrooms at all unless you count the 3 truck stops when you exit. Only a couple of fairly new hotels. No rest stops or parks near the highway either. The municipality has acquired several pieces of land near the highway over the years and has done nothing with it yet and that was what got me to thinking. Half of this stretch between Memphis and Little Rock is cotton and rice fields with the other half hilly forests. Just something I was thinking about.
Another note to add is that not all businesses need to host superchargers. For example, my wife and I drive our Model 3 all the time on road trips (we have a trip planned for NW Arkansas, I know the void of Superchargers you speak of) and we now only stay at hotels that have Tesla destination chargers. They are not nearly as fast as Superchargers but excellent if you plan to stay for a few hours ie. movie theaters, hotels, parks, recreational areas.
 

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No bathrooms at all unless you count the 3 truck stops when you exit. Only a couple of fairly new hotels. No rest stops or parks near the highway either. The municipality has acquired several pieces of land near the highway over the years and has done nothing with it yet and that was what got me to thinking. Half of this stretch between Memphis and Little Rock is cotton and rice fields with the other half hilly forests. Just something I was thinking about.
Most truck stops have bathrooms & some food options.
Do the truck stops you mention have them?

Are any of the available land sites the city owns next to any of the truck stops?
 
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jhogan2424

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Yes the truck stops do have bathrooms and some typical food options. Some parcels are near the truck stops but do not adjoin them. They are not far, but I don’t think would be considered walking distance for most.
 

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My town is located just off I-59 (a major north-south corridor) and the closest Tesla charger is at the Love's truck stop about 15 miles down the Interstate.
I have a friend that owns a big electrical contracting company and I'm going to ask him what he thinks about building a EV only charging station near the Interstate. Land is fairly inexpensive around here since we have lost some major industry over the last few years.
It would have the amenities of a regular gas station but only serve EV's. A fast food franchise and convenience store would pay the bills until charging started generating revenue.
There would be tax advantages and maybe some money from the new infrastructure bill being worked out now.
I'm looking forward and using the "if you build it they will come" mentality.
 

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I have a friend that owns a big electrical contracting company and I'm going to ask him what he thinks about building a EV only charging station near the Interstate. Land is fairly inexpensive around here since we have lost some major industry over the last few years.
...
I'm looking forward and using the "if you build it they will come" mentality.
One of the big issues I see with building a charging station is the network effect or whatever the EV equal of that is.

With a Tesla, I roll into the station and plug in. That's it. No credit card, no wait for authorization, no... anything, just plug it in.

After the first time I plugged into a Supercharger I got an email "Here's your invoice for using the Supercharger network. Please sign in to your Tesla account and pay this bill and authorize future payments." There was no sign up since they already had my details, they just needed the credit card auth.

Since then, nothing, the charges just appear on my statements after charging.

I've used one other (fee based) charging station and it was a huge headache. Honestly so irritating that I just avoid them like the plague.

It's going to be hard to replicate Tesla's Supercharger experience as an indie.
 


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With a Tesla, I roll into the station and plug in. That's it. No credit card, no wait for authorization, no... anything, just plug it in.
I guess I didn't make myself clear.......we would be working with Tesla only for chargers.
They installed them at the Love's so I would think they would work with other private companies as long as said company complied with their criteria. Since Love's only has six stalls the competition would dwindle as the number of EV's increases.
At some point in time they will be the standard unless the government hits them with an anti-trust charge.
 

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I guess I didn't make myself clear.......we would be working with Tesla only for chargers.
They installed them at the Love's so I would think they would work with other private companies as long as said company complied with their criteria. Since Love's only has six stalls the competition would dwindle as the number of EV's increases.
At some point in time they will be the standard unless the government hits them with an anti-trust charge.
Tesla works with a lot of businesses. I'm not sure if there is a revenue sharing deal or if it's just a "You let us put chargers there and get whatever business shows up" sort of deal.
 

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It's not a sexy answer, but with my utility electrical work and interacting with charging companies/reps, one of the primary criteria for charging installs is finding a willing site host that will sign a lease agreement. The owner basically gives up space for the charging spots and equipment, and is usually a real estate company and not the retailers at the property (so the benefits for the site owners are indirect). It's getting easier now to get those "yes" answers, but there are a lot of Tesla employees with boots on the ground chasing property owners to get them to say "yes" with a relatively modest amount of success...Imagine working for a year to locate SC sites and you get only get 4-5 hosts to say yes. That's a lot of work behind the scenes...
 

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The Tesla superchargers could charge the off peak hour rate during peak hour time charging by harnessing the energy via the wind and solar power and using that to power the supercharger stations.
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