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Supercharger - Emporia, KS

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I am native of KS, living in CA now, but when looking at the plans for superchargers in the KS region I see one glaring hole that I think will need filled. While I have no idea how many Model S's are in Wichita, it seems to be that when driving to southern Johnson County, a supercharger is needed in Emporia. I just don't see how the range works when it's 80Mph on the turnpike and 70\75 between Emporia and Gardner. Am I missing something?

Just was curious if anyone else had a thought on this?

Jeff
 
if you have an 85, the range works ok to get to Wichita, as long as one is a bit careful. or you can take the detour and stop in Topeka.

But I agree, a supercharger in Emporia would be very nice to have. Maybe Tesla will be nice and add it to the 2016 plan!
 
I submitted Emporia as a suggestion to the supercharger team at Tesla but they were more looking for a local advocate\property owner to initiate the conversation vs someone like myself who is 1700 miles away... :)

If I lived there I'd be pushing this hard, very hard as it'd be a permanent barrier to me getting a Model S in KS. If I can't drive to Johnson County from Wichita, via Emporia, then I'd have a major reason to not purchase the car. There are a number of great spots there either by the Spangles on one side or the hotels\starbucks\etc... on the other.

Jeff
 
I agree. If you live on the MO side, a 70 wouldn't make it all the way to Wichita driving highway speeds. I live in Johnson County and while I have made the drive to Wichita in my P85 it would be much more comfortable with a supercharger in Emporia. In the interim, there is a Westar Energy J1772 plug in Emporia that I was going to use as a backup in case my range was dropping too fast; but, I didn't need to use it going either way.
 
I agree. If you live on the MO side, a 70 wouldn't make it all the way to Wichita driving highway speeds. I live in Johnson County and while I have made the drive to Wichita in my P85 it would be much more comfortable with a supercharger in Emporia. In the interim, there is a Westar Energy J1772 plug in Emporia that I was going to use as a backup in case my range was dropping too fast; but, I didn't need to use it going either way.

Out of curiosity, what speed did you drive on the turnpike and roughly where in JoCo were you coming from and going to in Wichita? For instance, I used to live in NW Wichita and would take K254 to El Dorado then the turnpike to Emporia and so on and so forth... Granted since we live in CA now it doesn't really matter but I'm curious nonetheless... :)

Jeff
 
We drove from the Shawnee area South on 495 to 35 South all the way to Wichita. It was about 190 miles and with a full charge we were able to make it driving just a bit over the speed limit the whole way. Arrived in Wichita with under 20 miles of range remaining if I remember correctly. We trickle charged on a 120 volt outlet at the hotel and then stopped at a Westar Energy J1772 plug the next day to fill up for the trip home.
 
I drove from Wichita SC to south Overland Park last Sunday in the rain/ice. Had to drive at 70 mph almost the whole way in order to make it, arrived with 10 miles left. We really need a SC in Emporia.

Since I hadn't received a response from my original request for a supercharger in Emporia, sent a message to Tesla again. This time I got a quick response saying that they don't have any current plans for a location in Emporia but are open to looking into it if I can suggest a location or get them in touch with a business owner who might be interested.

Let me know if you know of any businesses who might be interested and I can pass on the tesla contact I was given. I am exploring a couple of ideas:

- Sent a note to the Holiday Inn Express in Emporia to see if they are interested
- Working with a friend who knows a lot of business owners inEmporia to see if they are interested
 
I drove from Wichita SC to south Overland Park last Sunday in the rain/ice. Had to drive at 70 mph almost the whole way in order to make it, arrived with 10 miles left. We really need a SC in Emporia.

Since I hadn't received a response from my original request for a supercharger in Emporia, sent a message to Tesla again. This time I got a quick response saying that they don't have any current plans for a location in Emporia but are open to looking into it if I can suggest a location or get them in touch with a business owner who might be interested.

Let me know if you know of any businesses who might be interested and I can pass on the tesla contact I was given. I am exploring a couple of ideas:

- Sent a note to the Holiday Inn Express in Emporia to see if they are interested
- Working with a friend who knows a lot of business owners inEmporia to see if they are interested

The Huddle House is open 24/7. Maybe you could contact them as well? Then again, there aren't any other choices right next to it...and it does seem more oriented to truckers. Looks like there are a lot more choices close to Industrial Road, including the IHOP which is also open 24/7.
 
The Tesla Find Us web page lists Emporia as Coming Soon.

Find Us | Tesla

I called the Code Services office in Emporia to ask if they had an on-line search utility for building permits. Unfortunately, no, they don't have this functionality. The woman asked what permit I was interested in, so I mentioned Tesla. After a few seconds, she recognized what it was. She asked a couple folks in the office and it sounded like Tesla is working on submitting a permit, but they weren't aware of what stage the permit was in (draft, submitted, approved).

She did mention thinking it would be at Montana Mike's (3010 Eaglecrest Dr, Emporia, KS 66801), which would be an easy on/off of I-35 for those of us that like taking I-35 for the trips between Wichita and Kansas City. For those that are closer to Emporia or driving through town, this location should probably be monitored for the normal crates of Tesla Supercharger gear or other signs of construction like trenching.

Nothing definitive here and since this hasn't been officially submitted/approved, I didn't think we're ready to create the new thread to track the specific site or submit it to supercharge.info.

Tesla also lists a 2nd site in Kansas City, which would hopefully be more convenient for people traveling North/South on I-35. Also, one in Bethany, MO would make the trip to Des Moines a breeze.
 
I used the contact form on the Montana Mike's web site to ask if it was true and if so, and idea on the status of the project. I received the following reply from the general manager at the Montana Mike's in Emporia.

I can say that yes there is truth to those rumors but I have not been told the exact dates. We have some sign parts and I have spoke with the installer for those and he has no set time frame. Soon we will be doing some remodeling to the restaurant as well. At the moment this is all I know and I can only speculate as to your other questions.

Certainly we look forward becoming a charging station and becoming a part of your traveling routine!

So, confirmation from the site host that this is in the works, but still no definitive confirmation that a building permit has been approved or even submitted.
 
I used the contact form on the Montana Mike's web site to ask if it was true and if so, and idea on the status of the project. I received the following reply from the general manager at the Montana Mike's in Emporia.

<quote>

So, confirmation from the site host that this is in the works, but still no definitive confirmation that a building permit has been approved or even submitted.

Well, thank you for your efforts. It's clearly good enough for Supercharge.info!

Definitely needed. If there is some action, people might want to be looking for other stuff happening in the area.
Tesla's planning to add Colby, KS in western part of Kansas, which will reduce the largest I-70 gap. Since Colby, KS is small it could happen as quickly as the other western Kansas Superchargers did originally.

Also planned this year should be another site (rather than expansion) in Kansas City, MO, which I expect will be located better to serve I-35 N-S travel.
 
Emporia, KS

Interstates: I-35
US Numbered Highways (<=5mi): US-50

I-35
From: Wichita, KS - 87.6 miles
To: West Des Moines, IA - 297 miles
Diversion: 2.4 miles
From: Perry, OK - 178 miles
To: Dows, IA - 383 miles

To: Topeka, KS (I-35,I-335,I-470) - 57.8 miles
To: Independence, MO* (I-35,I-435,I-470) - 123 miles
To: Osage Beach, MO (I-35,KS-68,MO-2,MO-7,US-54,local) - 240 miles
To: Rolla, MO (I-35,KS-68,MO-2,MO-7,MO-5,MO-BB,MO-F,I-44) - 299 miles
To: Springfield, MO (I-35,KS-68,MO-2,MO-7,MO-13,I-44) - 239 miles
To: Joplin, MO (I-35,US-75,KS-47US-59,US-400,I-44) - 194 miles
To: Catoosa, OK (KS-99,US-166,US-75,OK-11,I-244,I-44) - 191 miles
To: Wichita, KS (I-35,I-135,US-81) - 87.5 miles
To: Trinidad, CO (Local,US-50,US-283,local,US-400,US-56,US-160,I-25) - 500 miles
To: Salina, KS (Local,US-50,I-135,I-70) - 116 miles

A splitter of the large gap to the Kansas City area, but also splits the 142 miles between Wichita, KS and Topeka, KS.

According to its map, Tesla's aiming to complete I-35 this year. We already know the location for Dows, IA, and Tesla has new Superchargers planned in Kansas City, MO and Bethany, MO for 2017, plus new Superchargers and expansions of existing Superchargers in Texas all the way from Lardeo, TX and farther north.

* Treated as not on I-35 due to a large diversion. But for now it would need to be used. Tesla plans more Superchargers in the Kansas City, MO area some time this year and that would surely be on or closer to I-35.
 
Since we're talking I-35 expansion a little, I also contacted the code enforcement office in Bethany, MO (on I-35; half-way between Kansas City and Des Moines) to see if they had info about the potential site in their city and also to ask about on-line searches for building permits. It's a small town, so I got a reply from the guy that is the Fire Chief, Building Inspector, and Code Enforcement Officer:

this is the first I have heard of this. My city administrator has seen
the posting on the web site but has not been contacted by anyone from Tesla.
Unfortunately our building permits are not able to be searched through our
website at this time.

So, no real plans for that location yet. Just wanted to pass the info on to keep them from potentially getting inundated by a bunch of people making similar queries.
 
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