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Help Get A Supercharger in Binghamton, NY – Minimal Action Requested

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Andyw2100

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2014
6,547
2,448
Ithaca, NY
I think we may be getting close to getting the Tesla Supercharger Team looking at putting a Supercharger in Binghamton, NY. With a little help from some forum members, perhaps we can show the team how important this location is, and make this happen.

A couple of weeks ago, forum user Genedr started this thread:

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/37903-Supercharger-in-Binghamton-NY-need-local-advice

I misunderstood things, and thought he had some direct ties to the Supercharger Team, and that they were, through him, coming to the forums because they were now actively looking for a Binghamton Supercharger site. This made sense to me, as there is a red dot roughly in the Binghamton area on the 2014 Supercharger sites map. http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger.

I suggested “The Spot Diner Restaurant,” which is in a fantastic location with great access to Route 81, open very long hours (5:00 AM to 10:00 PM), and a great place to stop, with access to quick, reasonably priced food, an extensive menu, restrooms, etc. It’s between exits 5 and 6 off of Route 81, so anyone travelling north or south on 81 would exit at one of the two exits and get back on at the other without having to change direction. It’s also only about a mile from the intersection with Route 17, and pretty much right at the intersection with Route 88. Geographically it really couldn’t be better. (I am not connected in any way with this business. I'm not certain I've ever even been there, though I may have been.)

Gene and I corresponded some privately, and the result was that I called the owner of “The Spot”, Styros Dimatos, still under the mistaken impression that the Tesla Supercharger Team was actively interested in Binghamton. I introduced myself to Mr. Dimatos, explaining that I did not represent Tesla, and that I didn’t even have my vehicle yet, but that I was excited about owning one. We had a great conversation. I explained the Supercharger concept and how it might impact his business as best I could, and he was interested in hearing more about what would be involved, from the Tesla Supercharger Team. I (mistakenly) told him they would contact him.

It was only later, when following up with Gene that I learned of my misunderstanding, and that based on the owner’s interest, Gene would be submitting “The Spot” through the Tesla Supercharger site submission form. We could only hope that they would follow up.

Gene and I strategized a bit, and we thought that with both of us submitting “The Spot,” and also writing to the team independently, perhaps the Supercharger Team would take action. I actually wrote them a fairly lengthy message, explaining exactly what happened, explaining why “The Spot” was such a perfect location for Binghamton, and suggesting that even if the team was not ready to move forward with Binghamton as a Supercharger location just yet, that they may want to consider a quick, preliminary contact with Mr. Dimatos, since he was now, (due to my misunderstanding of Gene’s post) expecting one. This would at least open the door for future possible discussions.

It has been two weeks now, and neither Gene nor I have received responses from the Supercharger Team. We think it makes sense for others to now start requesting “The Spot” as a Supercharger location in Binghamton, in an attempt to demonstrate to the Supercharger Team just how important this location is.

Again, Binghamton (or some place near it) has been on the Supercharger 2014 map for some time. We are near the end of 2014, but there is no Supercharger proposed in Binghamton, or any place close to Binghamton. The closest Supercharger is in Albany, about 140 miles away.

If you would like to help, please use the following URL to submit “The Spot.” http://teslafactory.wufoo.com/forms/supercharging/

The information you will need is below:

Type of Contact: Influential Citizen
Business or Organization: The Spot Diner Restaurant
Phone Number: (607) 723-8149
Email: [email protected]
Proposed Site Address: 1062 Front Street, Binghamton, NY 13905

In the “Additional Comments” area you could let the team know why you think a Supercharger is needed in Binghamton, and why you think “The Spot Diner Restaurant” would be a good location for it. Perhaps let them know where you live and when you would be likely to utilize a Binghamton Supercharger.

It really should take you less time to fill out the form than it took you to read this post.

Thanks very much to those willing to help. (Feel free to post here after you have submitted if you are so inclined, so that we may have an idea of how many people are actually submitting.)

Let’s get a Supercharger in Binghamton!

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
This crowdsourcing of a potential site is a great idea. My comments submitted and forwarded appropriately. Great work, Andy!

Thanks very much, JakeP! I appreciate your comment and your having taken the time to submit the site.



Submitted!

Thank you very much, jrreno!



Thanks all....and :biggrin: to AndyW2100. Lets go Binghamton!!

Thanks, Genedr, for getting things going in the first place! It was my misunderstanding of your original post that got us to this point. Let's hope that misunderstanding winds up helping to get a Supercharger at The Spot in Binghamton sooner rather than later!
 
I think we may be getting close to getting the Tesla Supercharger Team looking at putting a Supercharger in Binghamton, NY. With a little help from some forum members, perhaps we can show the team how important this location is, and make this happen.

A couple of weeks ago, forum user Genedr started this thread:

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/37903-Supercharger-in-Binghamton-NY-need-local-advice

I misunderstood things, and thought he had some direct ties to the Supercharger Team, and that they were, through him, coming to the forums because they were now actively looking for a Binghamton Supercharger site. This made sense to me, as there is a red dot roughly in the Binghamton area on the 2014 Supercharger sites map. http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger.

I suggested “The Spot Diner Restaurant,” which is in a fantastic location with great access to Route 81, open very long hours (5:00 AM to 10:00 PM), and a great place to stop, with access to quick, reasonably priced food, an extensive menu, restrooms, etc. It’s between exits 5 and 6 off of Route 81, so anyone travelling north or south on 81 would exit at one of the two exits and get back on at the other without having to change direction. It’s also only about a mile from the intersection with Route 17, and pretty much right at the intersection with Route 88. Geographically it really couldn’t be better. (I am not connected in any way with this business. I'm not certain I've ever even been there, though I may have been.)

Gene and I corresponded some privately, and the result was that I called the owner of “The Spot”, Styros Dimatos, still under the mistaken impression that the Tesla Supercharger Team was actively interested in Binghamton. I introduced myself to Mr. Dimatos, explaining that I did not represent Tesla, and that I didn’t even have my vehicle yet, but that I was excited about owning one. We had a great conversation. I explained the Supercharger concept and how it might impact his business as best I could, and he was interested in hearing more about what would be involved, from the Tesla Supercharger Team. I (mistakenly) told him they would contact him.

It was only later, when following up with Gene that I learned of my misunderstanding, and that based on the owner’s interest, Gene would be submitting “The Spot” through the Tesla Supercharger site submission form. We could only hope that they would follow up.

Gene and I strategized a bit, and we thought that with both of us submitting “The Spot,” and also writing to the team independently, perhaps the Supercharger Team would take action. I actually wrote them a fairly lengthy message, explaining exactly what happened, explaining why “The Spot” was such a perfect location for Binghamton, and suggesting that even if the team was not ready to move forward with Binghamton as a Supercharger location just yet, that they may want to consider a quick, preliminary contact with Mr. Dimatos, since he was now, (due to my misunderstanding of Gene’s post) expecting one. This would at least open the door for future possible discussions.

It has been two weeks now, and neither Gene nor I have received responses from the Supercharger Team. We think it makes sense for others to now start requesting “The Spot” as a Supercharger location in Binghamton, in an attempt to demonstrate to the Supercharger Team just how important this location is.

Again, Binghamton (or some place near it) has been on the Supercharger 2014 map for some time. We are near the end of 2014, but there is no Supercharger proposed in Binghamton, or any place close to Binghamton. The closest Supercharger is in Albany, about 140 miles away.

If you would like to help, please use the following URL to submit “The Spot.” http://teslafactory.wufoo.com/forms/supercharging/

The information you will need is below:

Type of Contact: Influential Citizen
Business or Organization: The Spot Diner Restaurant
Phone Number: (607) 723-8149
Email: [email protected]
Proposed Site Address: 1062 Front Street, Binghamton, NY 13905

In the “Additional Comments” area you could let the team know why you think a Supercharger is needed in Binghamton, and why you think “The Spot Diner Restaurant” would be a good location for it. Perhaps let them know where you live and when you would be likely to utilize a Binghamton Supercharger.

It really should take you less time to fill out the form than it took you to read this post.

Thanks very much to those willing to help. (Feel free to post here after you have submitted if you are so inclined, so that we may have an idea of how many people are actually submitting.)

Let’s get a Supercharger in Binghamton!

Thanks!

Submitted the request.
 
I think you may be over reading the lack of response from Tesla. I know that the East Coast lead for siting superchargers is very busy. The simplest explanation is that he simply hasn't had time to get back to the owner of the diner. There's nothing wrong with sending more notes to the team, but I think at some point they will have gotten the message.
 
I think you may be over reading the lack of response from Tesla. I know that the East Coast lead for siting superchargers is very busy. The simplest explanation is that he simply hasn't had time to get back to the owner of the diner. There's nothing wrong with sending more notes to the team, but I think at some point they will have gotten the message.

I can certainly understand that they are busy completing the I-90 initiative, but how hard is it to respond to an email with a simple response like "Thank you so much for your input, we will take this into consideration", or "Thank you so much, we already have that options for that site in place, but we will keep your suggestion in mind", or even "Thanks but we are currently heads down with other initiatives, we will review and respond as soon as we can"?

Not responding to an email at all doesn't sit well with me from a professionalism standpoint, and it certainly doesn't leave me with the impression that the recipient is too busy performing their own job tasks to respond. It leaves me with the distinct feeling that someone saw the email, and deemed it unworthy of even a 30-second response like the ones above. Or maybe that they are in so far over their heads that they don't have time to read and respond to email. Given that these emails are from a site that they themselves established to solicit input on prospective sites, I am not sure which of the above is more troubling.
 
Not to burst anyone's bubble, but you could replace "Binghamton" with "West Lebanon" in this conversation, and you can see how well that went.

Months ago a MS owner offered his commercial building in West Leb to host a SC. I and several others contacted Tesla to support the location, and got similar replies. There's been exactly 0 apparent movement on the location (or West Leb in general) since then. So don't get your hopes up.
 
Not to burst anyone's bubble, but you could replace "Binghamton" with "West Lebanon" in this conversation, and you can see how well that went.

Months ago a MS owner offered his commercial building in West Leb to host a SC. I and several others contacted Tesla to support the location, and got similar replies. There's been exactly 0 apparent movement on the location (or West Leb in general) since then. So don't get your hopes up.

I'm not suggesting Tesla shouldn't have taken the MS owner up on the offer, but it seems to me one major difference between these two situations, and thus one reason that we possibly can keep our hopes up, is that there is a red dot on the Tesla Supercharger map roughly in the Binghamton area, while there isn't one near West Lebanon. So Tesla was already looking at putting a Supercharger in or near Binghamton.

I think that's a pretty significant difference, and reason to maintain at least some optimism.
 
I'm not suggesting Tesla shouldn't have taken the MS owner up on the offer, but it seems to me one major difference between these two situations, and thus one reason that we possibly can keep our hopes up, is that there is a red dot on the Tesla Supercharger map roughly in the Binghamton area, while there isn't one near West Lebanon. So Tesla was already looking at putting a Supercharger in or near Binghamton.

I think that's a pretty significant difference, and reason to maintain at least some optimism.
I beg to differ. Neither location has a red dot on the "coming soon" map. Both show on the "2014" map, where I see Syracuse and (what looks like) Ithaca, along with WRJ VT/West Leb NH, and Burlington, VT.

West Leb has had a dot on the 2014 map since March or earlier.
 
I beg to differ. Neither location has a red dot on the "coming soon" map. Both show on the "2014" map, where I see Syracuse and (what looks like) Ithaca, along with WRJ VT/West Leb NH, and Burlington, VT.

West Leb has had a dot on the 2014 map since March or earlier.

Yes, you are correct. In my haste I must have looked at the coming soon map, and not the 2014 map when looking for West Lebanon. (I already knew that the Binghamton area was on the 2014 map, so didn't look for it.)

I'll still choose to be optimistic, but you are probably correct that there is less reason to be.
 
Probably doesn't do any good to quibble about whether either location will or won't be successful because of an existing red dot. No? Seems almost like the start of a Monty Python skit. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. :)

Keep in mind that the Supercharging location team scouts several locations in a single area at a time. And some areas are planned, but simply because of bandwidth will not be addressed until later than others. I do know that the team keeps all possible locations under consideration and then 'hits them all' when looking for what makes sense in a geographic location. And owner input is valued.
 
Seeing John Cleese on The Daily Show last night got me thinking.....(but thats another thread).

Not sure if West Lebanon being referred to is NY, NH, or LB, but based on the map dots it seems the NH version would meet TM stated desire of locating SCs on useful routes of travel, with adequate and easily accessible power source. Like Binghamton, West Lebanon NH is at the confluence of interstates and would "open' travel to upper New England. I remain cautiously optimistic for 2015. (for both).
Remember we are in the Tesla time zone.