Supercharger - Council Bluffs, IA

Wow. That appears to have come out of nowhere. First in Iowa. Now need some in the upper 80% of Minnesota's geography. Hope the midwest will get some more love and attention.

We knew it was coming thanks to the vision of Cottonwood the Magnificent. Although one could reach this supercharger from Independence or Worthington with an 85 in good weather, one wonders if this will be isolated for a while or if they will put intervening superchargers to the north and south.

emupilot said:

We knew it was coming thanks to the vision of Cottonwood the Magnificent. Although one could reach this supercharger from Independence or Worthington with an 85 in good weather, one wonders if this will be isolated for a while or if they will put intervening superchargers to the north and south.

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how about east to west? Iowa and Nebraska have a pretty large mass in the center of the country that make it pretty hard to get anywhere, especially in the brutal cold.

flankspeed8 said:

how about east to west? Iowa and Nebraska have a pretty large mass in the center of the country that make it pretty hard to get anywhere, especially in the brutal cold.

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The 2016 map suggests there will be a number of SpCs along I-80/76: 153 (or so) miles to Grand Island, thence 146 mi to N. Platte, thence either 123 mi to Sidney (I-80) or 140 mi to Sterling, CO (I-76).

Great for interstate travel; not of much use to other parts of the state.

flankspeed8 said:

how about east to west? Iowa and Nebraska have a pretty large mass in the center of the country that make it pretty hard to get anywhere, especially in the brutal cold.

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If you look on the 2015 map at Supercharger | Tesla Motors, Council Bluffs is a charging spit of land tenuously[SUP]*[/SUP] connected to I-90 to the north and I-70 to the south. By 2016, it is part of a solid E-W chain on I-80. The logic behind this early Council Bluffs install is less than clear...

[SUP]*[/SUP]At 199 miles to Worthington, MN, and 194 miles to Independence, MO, this drive can be done by an 85 with care and a painfully long Supercharge, but in the Supercharger world, these connections are tenuous at best.

Cottonwood said:

If you look on the 2015 map at Supercharger | Tesla Motors, Council Bluffs is a charging spit of land tenuously[SUP]*[/SUP] connected to I-90 to the north and I-70 to the south. By 2016, it is part of a solid E-W chain on I-80. The logic behind this early Council Bluffs install is less than clear...

[SUP]*[/SUP]At 199 miles to Worthington, MN, and 194 miles to Independence, MO, this drive can be done by an 85 with care and a painfully long Supercharge, but in the Supercharger world, these connections are tenuous at best.

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Topeka to Council Bluffs is 168 miles. Should even be comfortable with a 60 - but where to go from there...

Brass Guy said:

Topeka to Council Bluffs is 168 miles. Should even be comfortable with a 60 - but where to go from there...

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Assumed Addendum: ", in the summer."

As someone who just did a couple legs of 155 and 160 miles in teens and low 20's (deg. F, 'natch) that's as far as I want to try and go in a S60 in the winter, and even that can get pretty uncomfortable if you want to drive the speed limit, or if anything goes wrong (wind speed/direction changes, snow fall, etc.)

Hopefully Tesla will surprise us like this with a few more upper Midwest Superhargers.
Now I'll have to check supercharge.info even more obsesively, knowing they can pop up out of the blue.

It is good start on that portion of I-80. Hopefully Des Moines and points eastward (e.g., Iowa City and the Quad Cities) will come soon. Unfortunately these latter locations were moved from the 2015 map to 2016.

I know that route from Worthington to Council Bluffs. I hope it is operational for Easter weekend, I'll be going by that way in my 60kwh Model S! Should save me a lot of time in Sioux City.

wws said:

It is good start on that portion of I-80. Hopefully Des Moines and points eastward (e.g., Iowa City and the Quad Cities) will come soon. Unfortunately these latter locations were moved from the 2015 map to 2016.

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Had it been Des Moines instead of Council Bluffs it would have completed I-35 giving Minnesota owners a direct supercharger access to points south and those in the south direct supercharger access to points north. What a difference a supercharger can make when one is travelling 100s of miles.

Very excited to see this. Definitely need Des Moines, Iowa City and Quad Cities area for East-West travel.

Not sure where would be the best location along I-35 for North-South travel. Around Hwy 20 would be nice.

Cottonwood said:

If you look on the 2015 map at Supercharger | Tesla Motors, Council Bluffs is a charging spit of land tenuously[SUP]*[/SUP] connected to I-90 to the north and I-70 to the south. By 2016, it is part of a solid E-W chain on I-80. The logic behind this early Council Bluffs install is less than clear...

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Perhaps they got tired of hearing my complaints But most likely it was to get an SC in Iowa before the dealer lobby got some law passed.

jerry33 said:

Perhaps they got tired of hearing my complaints But most likely it was to get an SC in Iowa before the dealer lobby got some law passed.

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Jerry may be correct, but I would hope that politicians would not stoop to such obvious and unethical tactics. After all, people need to get through Iowa to reach destinations, and they will stop and spend money at restaurants, motels and elsewhere. But then again, I can be awfully naive.

I think a more logical scenario is to use Council Bluffs as an anchor site to start building Interstate 80 east and west. Since it makes Minnesota to Kansas doable for north-south travelers, this seems to be a launching point to start building westward to Julesburg at the I-76 split. This allows a choice of routes to and from the Great Lakes region heading west to Colorado and beyond. It would not surprise me in the least if another Supercharger or two will appear along I-80 through Nebraska by mid-summer.

Cottonwood said:

If you look on the 2015 map at Supercharger | Tesla Motors, Council Bluffs is a charging spit of land tenuously[SUP]*[/SUP] connected to I-90 to the north and I-70 to the south. By 2016, it is part of a solid E-W chain on I-80. The logic behind this early Council Bluffs install is less than clear...

[SUP]*[/SUP]At 199 miles to Worthington, MN, and 194 miles to Independence, MO, this drive can be done by an 85 with care and a painfully long Supercharge, but in the Supercharger world, these connections are tenuous at best.

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Yes, building a SC in Council Bluffs before Des Moines doesn't really seem to make sense. While this SC in CB will enable us MN folks to more easily get to places south, it's a bit out of the way; Des Moines would seem to be a more logical site. OTOH, perhaps DM isn't too far behind (even though the map shows DM for 2016) if for no other reason than to make CB not an island.

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crmatson said:

Very excited to see this. Definitely need Des Moines, Iowa City and Quad Cities area for East-West travel.

Not sure where would be the best location along I-35 for North-South travel. Around Hwy 20 would be nice.

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Coming from the north, if I charge up at Albert Lea I can easily make it to Des Moines. If I can recharge in DM, I can then make it to Independence, MO.

I am not sure why it is exciting to me--I don't think I will really need a SupC that is that close to my home (20-25 mi), but I suppose I may need it. I am sure I will make a drive over to see it when my Model S arrives in the next few weeks. I think it is exciting because so many SupCs are popping up (look at Oklahoma or across Nevada) and it gives me more hope that EVs might really be here to stay...

MidAmerican Energy has been working at the site since at least 9am today. Might be up extremely soon!

Just a note--I drove nearby but not over to the site today.
This may be obvious to everyone, but the reason, IMHO, that this SupC is where it is revolves around crossing the two main interstates north/south in the area (I80 and I29).

I'm guessing this charger was planned to get installed in time for the Berkshire Hathaway Stockholder meeting in Omaha. Tesla usually travels to Omaha during this to show cars. Pretty smart, it is a huge event here with everything Warren Buffet does.