Tesla Is Rethinking the Rest Stop For California Road Trips (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: In-N-Out Burgers has some new competition for attracting drivers on two heavily traveled stretches of California freeways that help link Los Angeles to Las Vegas and San Francisco: Tesla's biggest Supercharger stations yet. The charging stations in Kettleman City, off Interstate 5, and Baker, near Interstate 15, each have 40 stalls, making them the largest among more than 1,000 in North America, according to an emailed statement Wednesday. If filling up your Tesla takes half an hour, you might as well get comfortable. The Kettleman City station north of Bakersfield has a play wall for kids, a pet relief area and outdoor space for families. It's open round-the-clock, there's wi-fi and there will be food as well. But if you want to stretch your legs, the nearest In-N-Out is just across the street. And there are inevitable Tesla touches at both: solar-covered parking and Tesla Powerpacks.

Comments

Re:2 MW power supply?

[Rei]

Not 40x50kW. 20x145kW max. Each Tesla Supercharger (excluding the new urban superchargers) delivers a max of 145kW to up to two stalls, with a maximum of 120kW per stall.

Most supercharger stations aren't battery buffered, but the new ones (and particularly large ones) increasingly are. This isn't designed so much as to provide backup power when the grid is down (although it will do so at low demand times) as it is to buffer out the surges between vehicles, reducing the peak draw and thus getting lower demand charges on their power bill. It also lets them incorporate the solar awnings (not the majority of the power delivered, but still useful).

Re:Brilliant

[vtcodger]

"The median range for electric cars these days is just short of a single tank of gas, around 380km."

Ahem ... A typical North American sedan will have a practical range of about 300-400 miles on a tank of gas -- that's 480-645km. Of course, some folks prefer absurd vehicles with worse mileage. But I assume they have larger fuel tanks to compensate.

I also don't believe for a second that the median range of current EVs is 380km although I'm sure that a few can manage that on a nice Spring day starting with 100% charge on a reasonably new battery pack.