Supercharger - Victoria, TX

emupilot said:

After Cottonwood the Magnificent dropped some hints, I checked the Victoria Texas webpage and found a "Tesla Charging Station" on the September monthly development report. It is at 3107 South Laurent Street, which is a bit of an odd address, but the agent on the building report is Black & Veatch so I think it must be the supercharger. There's a McDonald's across the street and that's about it.

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Nothing terribly odd about the address - it's a La Quinta Inn.

emupilot said:

After Cottonwood the Magnificent dropped some hints, I checked the Victoria Texas webpage and found a "Tesla Charging Station" on the September monthly development report. It is at 3107 South Laurent Street, which is a bit of an odd address, but the agent on the building report is Black & Veatch so I think it must be the supercharger. There's a McDonald's across the street and that's about it.

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Great work on finding the location so quickly!

You are a great TMC Scout!!!

emupilot said:

After Cottonwood the Magnificent dropped some hints, I checked the Victoria Texas webpage and...

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Thanks for finding it, but Victoria has been on the 2015 map all year, so it's not like this was something unexpected.

Hooray! My prayers (and frequent bitching) have been answered! I'll be visiting Corpus Christi next weekend. If I feel like I've got the electrons to spare, I swing by the site and report on what I see.

For those who aren't aware, but might be interested, Victoria, TX will be where I-69W (from Laredo, TX following US-59), I-69C (from Pharr, TX following US-281) and I-69E (from Brownsville, TX following US-77) meet to make I-69. Well, US-59 and US-281 meet before Victoria, but they have a concurrency until they all merge.

I-69 is an Interstate from Mexico to Canada at Port Huron. But it's unfunded, so there are just some pieces.

So, even though there's no Interstate there right now, I still count it as part of Interstate coverage.

ItsNotAboutTheMoney said:

For those who aren't aware, but might be interested, Victoria, TX will be where I-69W (from Laredo, TX following US-59), I-69C (from Pharr, TX following US-281) and I-69E (from Brownsville, TX following US-77) meet to make I-69. Well, US-59 and US-281 meet before Victoria, but they have a concurrency until they all merge.

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Yeah, I had to look it up.

emupilot said:

There's a McDonald's across the street and that's about it.

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That's probably the worst McDonalds I've ever stopped at. Hopefully some other places will open up before I get my Model S.

The important thing about Victoria is it means a Tesla is serious about connecting the major cities in Texas to Brownsville, at the remote southern tip of the state where SpaceX is building its launch site. Victoria has little use by itself but it's the first of three supercharger stops needed to get from Houston to Brownsville. It's the NASA-SpaceX link. The final two stations on this route will also connect San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas to south Texas. I hope we'll see signs of these soon too.

The Permit Dept. disavowed any knowledge of a Tesla permit or a Black&Veatch permit, about a week and a half ago on the phone.

Great job Emu on uncovering it! I was actually thinking to myself "need to check I-69 now that Denton & Amarillo are finishing;" literally out driving, scouting Rosenberg this morning when this posted... Nothing visible there but I'd expect these two's build dates to be pretty close.

TexasEV said:

The important thing about Victoria is it means a Tesla is serious about connecting the major cities in Texas to Brownsville, at the remote southern tip of the state where SpaceX is building its launch site. Victoria has little use by itself but it's the first of three supercharger stops needed to get from Houston to Brownsville. It's the NASA-SpaceX link. The final two stations on this route will also connect San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas to south Texas. I hope we'll see signs of these soon too.

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Victoria, TX is 226 miles from Brownsville, 223 from Pharr and 184 miles from Laredo. Superchargers near the I-37/I-69E intersection west of Corpus Christi and in George West (where US-59 and US-281 meet) would cover both of those.

If Tesla is willing to build off the interstates in areas like Victoria that gives me hope that they might build out 287 or better yet 180 through central Texas. That would go a long way to fill in the gap between I-20 and I-40 and build a gateway into central New Mexico. It would also cut a ton of time off of a trip to Ruidoso, a favorite vacation spot for me and the wife.

fwgmills said:

If Tesla is willing to build off the interstates in areas like Victoria that gives me hope that they might build out 287 or better yet 180 through central Texas. That would go a long way to fill in the gap between I-20 and I-40 and build a gateway into central New Mexico. It would also cut a ton of time off of a trip to Ruidoso, a favorite vacation spot for me and the wife.

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Don't hold your breath. The route to Brownsville is a special case as noted above. Otherwise it would soon be easier to get into earth orbit from Brownsville than it would be to get from there to any of the major cities in Texas in a Tesla.

It also will give supercharger access to South Padre Island, one of the best but most remote beaches in the country. (Can you imagine a California beach still not accessible by supercharger from the major cities?) If anyone has a favorite place to stay in South Padre, start telling them about Tesla destination charging.

My parents took us on a vacation down at South Padre Island 40 years ago. It was really beautiful, and it was just starting to be built up. I remember we stayed in a two-story building right on the beach--that's all there were then, although I remember seeing a highrise under construction down the beach. My dad paid $100 to rent the apartment we stayed in for a week; I doubt that would get us even one night now.

Glad to see this string of chargers filling in, as I plan to take my wife down there (she's never been) to see it all. And maybe catch a SpaceX launch.

Here, enjoy some local input while I await transmission of some early site pictures...

"..other side [of Laurent St.] is Bus-route and UPS customers.
Taco Express ;( ... is just up Laurent.. They need a small Taco-Deli or sandwich shop near to LaQuinta... but Mumphord's Place Restaurant further into town has excellent Pit BBQ Chicken..
This is mostly a Truck Stop Intersection, typical "crossroads" and is closest 59 crossover to downtown.
Medium security..maybe a concern for high-end overnight parkers...?"

I'm no longer going to Corpus Christi this weekend so I won't be able to scout the location.

Hopefully this means Corpus Christ is coming. Its one of the only places in Texas I have "business" (kids sporting) trips away from home.

you hit Victoria with 85 miles in and 85 miles out hit Victoria again.

Corpus should be a destination charging - not SC

smartypnz said:

Corpus should be a destination charging - not SC

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It's part of a corridor though. I figure Robstown or Calallen instead of CC proper.