Tesla’s supercharged amenities really need to be better – great example

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Also: You can’t rely on NACS superchargers for cross-country travel in compatible non-Tesla electric cars

If you live in northern Wisconsin, you’ll see brand new “mega” gas stations/convenience stores everywhere. They are places where you can buy a soft drink, a gallon of milk, a hot meal, etc. while you fill up your car with gas. We have similar convenience stores/large gas stations in Utah under the Maverik brand. Rumor has it that these stations make very little gas, but they make big profits from the convenience stores. If you notice the price of a candy bar or a bag of sunflower seeds in these places, you will understand how this works. Although the price of milk and bread is competitive with Walmart. If this applies to gas stations where you spend 5 minutes filling up your car, what’s better about electric vehicle charging stations, particularly superchargers, where you can reach wealthy customers for 20 to 40 minutes while charging?

Oddly enough, we are lucky to have a clean restroom at a hotel 20 yards away, a supermarket 200 yards away, or a TJ Max 300 yards away, and there is rarely an actual convenience store next to Superchargers. Even garbage cans, window cleaning fluid, mops and paper towels are very scarce. This may make sense to keep blood clotting in the leg, but it cannot make business sense. This probably makes business sense for the 8-stall Supercharger in Rawlins, Wyoming, where we rarely see another car charging. But for the usually fully occupied 32-stall supercharger in Beaver, Utah, or the usually fully occupied 48-stall supercharger in Baker, California, there must be a potential goldmine of customers to tap into.

The first place I saw this fully exploited was at a “small” 16-stall Supercharger in Nephi, Utah. The supercharger in Nephi has 8 stalls on either side of a commercial building that have been empty for two or three years. This building is now occupied by Cody’s Gastro Garage restaurant, which really knows how to target its customers (see menu pictured above, also excerpted below).

Cody’s 10 Minute Tesla list reads in part as follows:

Falcon Fruit & Yogurt Battery Booster Breakfast Burrito Model 3 Cyber ​​Clock Breakfast Sandwich Chicken or Turkey Wrap Model 3 Quarter Pounder ELON-Gated Ham or Turkey Hoagie Powerwall Ham Sandwich

Then there’s GIGAFACTORY’s gluten-free menu, which includes hoagies, wraps and sandwiches.

These guys clearly have a lot of Tesla EV knowledge and have a great sense of humor. My wife ordered the chicken wings and fries from the regular menu, and when it was slow to arrive, they threw in chips and salsa for free. This is in the same Supercharger where I saw the first non-Tesla electric car charging. See the Model 3 and Y line at drive-thru chargers in the image below.

My wife, my little dog, and I have traveled back and forth 5 times from Utah to northern Wisconsin over the past 5 years, so we’re more familiar with the superchargers on this route: what to expect and what not to expect. We usually head a little south, then west to Minneapolis, then southwest to I-90. We cross South Dakota on I-90, then head southwest through the Black Hills into Wyoming. We cross the rest of Wyoming on I-80, which takes us southwest again to Utah and Salt Lake City. Fortunately, the superchargers are never more than 100 miles apart along this entire winding route. Last fall, we drove south to Madison, Wisconsin to visit my brothers, then southwest to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, then the rest of the way on I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska to join our regular route through Wyoming on I-80. On these routes, we never worry about freight. We only drive our preferred shortest route, and there was always an efficient supercharger with booths available at each stop. Below, I’ll address two topics: 1) what kind of conveniences we find in on-road Superchargers, and 2) how many 250-kilowatt V3 and V4 “NACS” Superchargers we find on the road that can be used by non-Tesla EVs. Question: Can a non-Tesla car use all the Superchargers on the road? The answer is no!

Northern Wisconsin to Southern Utah: Supercharger Amenities and Destination Charger

We’ve taken the I-90/I-80 hybrid route several times, so we’re more familiar with the amenities on that route.

Note: New 250 kW V3 and V4 chargers that can be used by non-Tesla EVs are shown in bold. Tesla has installed several 250-kilowatt V3 and V4 high-speed superchargers that can be used by other electric vehicles in the past few years. Many of these filled the longer gaps in the network. Others are upgraded for routes with heavy traffic. However, there are long periods where you only have older chargers, which cannot be used with non-Tesla vehicles. Bottom line: I traveled the long roads across the country. If you don’t drive a Tesla, you can’t rely on a Tesla Supercharger (NACS) in the same way you can rely on a regular Supercharger if you drive a Tesla. On these trips, there are large stretches through South Dakota on I-90 and all of Wyoming on I-80, with only older Superchargers that cannot be used by non-Tesla EVs. This doesn’t mean non-Tesla EVs can’t travel these routes, but they will have to rely on CCS chargers which generally have fewer stalls per charger and have lower reliability.

Both routes Three Lakes, WI (our summer home base) Wausau, WI (clean restrooms, Hilton Garden Inn – 400 feet) Stevens Point, WI (out of the way to Minneapolis) I-39/I-94/I-90/ I-80 (again, stations that can be used by devices other than NACS-compliant Teslas are in bold) Menomonie, Wisconsin (supermarket – 400 feet) Oakdale, MN (Supermarket – 400 ft) Bloomington, MN St. Peter, MN (Fast Food – 1000 ft) Worthington, MN (Our overnight stop is 2 miles from the Supercharger – Fast Food 300 ft) Mitchell, South Dakota (Culver’s Deli Express – 2 miles) Chamberlain, South Dakota Murdo, South Dakota (The only supercharger I’ve ever seen that has trash cans and windshield washer equipment next to the stalls And a real “western themed” convenience store 75 feet away) Wall, South Dakota (Wall Drug Store/Restaurant – 300 feet) Custer, South Dakota (Night at the Bavarian Hotel with Destination Charger. Supercharger 300 feet away from downtown restaurants ) Lusk, Wyoming (4 slow 120 kW chargers, overnight at Pioneer/Best Western motel/restaurant across the street from the supercharger) Casper/Evansville, Wyoming (convenience store – 200 feet) I-39/I-80 (detour over Madison, WI) Note: On this route, there was always a clean restroom 100 yards away, but I don’t remember the amenities Otherwise specified in Madison, WI, East Town Mall (Barnes & Noble, etc.) Dubuque, IA Cedar Rapids, IA Grinnell, IA Des Moines, IA Omaha, Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska Grand Island, Nebraska Lexington, Nebraska Guttenberg, Nebraska Kearny, Nebraska North Platte, Nebraska Ogallala, Nebraska Sidney, Nebraska Cheyenne, Wyoming (4 old 120 kW chargers, 7 miles off I-80 but near the center Commercial) Laramie, Wyoming both routes Rollins, Wyoming (Burger King – 1,000 feet) Rock Springs, Wyoming (mall with TJ Maxx – 750 feet; Restaurant opens after 4pm – 75 feet) Evanston, Wyoming (Hampton Inn with clean restroom – 75 feet) Draper, Utah (Fast food in the Arctic Circle is 75 feet away) Lyndon, Utah (our home base) Navy, Utah ( Cody Gastro’s Garage – 20′) Beaver, Utah (Starbucks – 75′; Dairy Queen – 400′; Mexican Restaurant – 20 feet (1.5 miles) Cedar City, Utah St. George, Utah (our home base in southern Utah)

Tesla has reactivated its referral program. If you find any of my articles useful to you, please use my referral link: https://ts.la/arthur73734. If you are purchasing a new Tesla and use my link (be sure to use it when placing your order), you will currently receive $1,000 off the purchase price of a Model S, Model