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Minnesota Superchargers (location speculation, discussion)

Minnesota desired SuperCharger locations (General location)

  • Minneapolis/St. Paul

    Votes: 21 29.6%
  • Rochester

    Votes: 7 9.9%
  • Duluth

    Votes: 22 31.0%
  • St. Cloud

    Votes: 21 29.6%
  • Mankato

    Votes: 15 21.1%
  • Winona

    Votes: 7 9.9%
  • Bemidji

    Votes: 10 14.1%
  • Brainerd

    Votes: 11 15.5%
  • Fargo (ND)

    Votes: 13 18.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 17 23.9%

  • Total voters
    71
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My view (and seems to be Tesla's strategy) is that Superchargers are the most useful on the way to somewhere. I live in Minneapolis, but when I get my Tesla, I doubt I would use a Supercharger within the city limits much, if at all. Grand Marais, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, etc are the places they don't seem to be planning them but that I would like them. Its all priorities, I guess.
 
Sent an email to the city in Albert Lea and was told that the tentative location for the charger is here: 811 E. Plaza St., Albert Lea, MN. (Americinn Inn parking lot). Seems logical as it's next to I90 exit; McDonalds, Arby's, Applebees are right there along with what looks to be a Hyvee and some type of small mall. Anyone around the area or driving past, let us know if it's started construction yet.
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With the planned chargers in Duluth and Brainerd, I would like to see one just on the north side of the metro on 35. This would be a good intermediate SC for those traveling to or from the North Shore to Iowa or places south.

Brainerd is an excellent spot as it opens up a lot of cabin territory.

I'm a bit concerned that Albert Lea noted the location was "tentative". I had hoped they were further along than that.
 
Clearwater Travel Plaza... Its on 94 and only 7 miles from Hi-way 10 so it can handle traffic from both locations. It is a bit close to the cities (~40 miles from Maple Grove, ~60 miles to DT Minneapolis), but you look at the map it would connect the planned Albert Lea SC traffic being a distance of 155 miles. Anything north of that (I.E. St. Cloud) is to far away to make the Albert Lea I-35 SC. Unfortunately that now leaves 180 miles to Fargo and given 70mph speed limits wont be close enough to hit the planned SC there with your 60 in the winter.

There are so many places to go in MN and they are all pretty far distances. While main roads like 94 and 35 get really heavily used, the farther north you go the more you start getting off the interstate and taking the highway and back roads. And while maybe the SC network can get you to a destination, with the lack of even Level 2 charging in the state the return trips are almost impossible.

Tesla is looking at only putting in ~6 SC in the state which is pretty obvious that it wont be able to cover all situations. Tesla is going to have to figure out how they are going to handle these situations weather that be licensing their SC technology or making easy cheap adapters for other Level 3 DC chargers.
 
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"Duluth Supercharger".... the map shows it some 20 miles south of Duluth. I bet Cloquet is getting it. It's far enough from both MSP and DLH to enable long distance travel in accordance with Tesla's mission statement while discouraging Duluth owners from running on free electricity. ;)
 
"Duluth Supercharger".... the map shows it some 20 miles south of Duluth. I bet Cloquet is getting it. It's far enough from both MSP and DLH to enable long distance travel in accordance with Tesla's mission statement while discouraging Duluth owners from running on free electricity. ;)

Heard through the grape vine the Duluth one was going into a hotel parking lot after the hotel owner requested/submitted the application for it to Tesla (and they apparently approved). No idea if it is the case - just what I heard.
 
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So a shout out to the nice lady at Americinn and found out: construction well under way already, electrical being put in, some snag on a gas line in the same area but that will be resolved next week. So from the sounds of it, largely more completed already than not completed. Address then of the charger will tentatively be: AmericInn Lodge & Suites Albert Lea811 East Plaza Street, Albert Lea, MN 56007.

So it looks like the Onalaska, Madison and Albert Lea chargers will be all online right around the same time frame: just a matter of a week or two if all goes well.
 
Great news about Albert Lea! Such a vital link for the coast to coast route.
... at an otherwise nondescript speck on the map. Tesla Motors is making the most out of the way places ever so much more interesting and teaching all of us our geography as we explore our country a bit more enthusiastically. Thanks to the superchargers in Wisconsin, we are also learning spelling in the Ojibwe and French languages.
 
If the SC is in the Americinn parking lot, it looks like the pin is off slightly as the Americinn is the building just north of the pin to the right. Both Apple maps and Google maps show the pin in the incorrect location even though 811 is the correct address per Americinn's webpage. Anyways, submitted as incorrect information for them to fix.