Supercharger - Flatonia, TX

[emupilot]

A google search this morning brought up this nugget:

The Amigo’s Travel Center in Flatonia, which opened for business last week, will soon get a charging station for Tesla electric cars.

Flatonia City Manager Mark McLaughlin told the Record last week that the owners of Amigo’s reached a deal with Tesla to bring a charging station in Flatonia.

The article goes on to say that it will have 8 stations, so that would be a supercharger. The site is the northeast corner of I-10 and FM609.

 

[TMC Bubba]

A google search this morning brought up this nugget:

The article goes on to say that it will have 8 stations, so that would be a supercharger. The site is the northeast corner of I-10 and FM609.

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Only 35 miles from Columbus, why so close? There are 6 stalls at Columbus, the article says there are only two. Capacity expansion? Is Columbus that busy?

 

[TexasEV]

While more superchargers are always good, I also wonder why here? I can't think of any travel need that this addresses. I've never seen Columbus more than half full and I'm often the only car there. Being further west than the highway 71 exit it's useless for traffic to/from Austin. It's too far from Junction to allow traffic to pass through San Antonio on I-10 without having to stop at the superchargers which will be built at the service center.

 

[TexasEV]

After I posted above I thought of a possible reason for Flatonia. It would provide redundancy if Columbus gets flooded again.

 

[DriverOne]

The drive to Junction is just 200 miles. Larger batteries could use that to skip San Antonio, whereas Columbus is a just-too-long 230 miles.

 

[Twiglett]

odd - the article says that Columbus can only charge two vehicles at once.
I'm pretty sure its got six stalls, not two.

 

[TexasEV]

odd - the article says that Columbus can only charge two vehicles at once.
I'm pretty sure its got six stalls, not two.

The reporter got a fact wrong? When has that ever happens before?
It's unlikely he's ever seen a Tesla or a supercharger. Probably was confused by someone telling him each supercharger (the actual supercharger cabinet) charges two cars, and he mistook that for the supercharger station in Columbus.

 

[Rockster]

I live in Texas and I still think "Flatonia" sounds like a made-up name.

 

[TMC Bubba]

I live in Texas and I still think "Flatonia" sounds like a made-up name.

Made me look.

"The community, originally made up of Anglo American settlers, was named after F. W. Flato, a local merchant and one of the first settlers."

 

[SpiceWare]

I live in Texas and I still think "Flatonia" sounds like a made-up name.

Have stopped at the Flatonia Travel Center many times going to/returning from San Antonio, it's just across I-10 from this new travel center. Flatonia has a big chilli cookoff that's fun to go to, some friends competed in it a few years back.

 

[Twiglett]

The reporter got a fact wrong? When has that ever happens before?
It's unlikely he's ever seen a Tesla or a supercharger. Probably was confused by someone telling him each supercharger (the actual supercharger cabinet) charges two cars, and he mistook that for the supercharger station in Columbus.

I'm thinking more along the lines of them installing a bunch of L2 and not superchargers and the press getting the wrong idea.

 

[BerTX]

There is a mark in that area on the 2017 future Supercharger location map. I thought it would be at Schulenburg, so that traffic on 77 could use it, but apparently not.

 

[Twiglett]

There is a mark in that area on the 2017 future Supercharger location map. I thought it would be at Schulenburg, so that traffic on 77 could use it, but apparently not.

Indeed there is, right there side by side. How odd.
Maybe they have usage patterns from Columbus or telemetry from cars that indicate its needed?

 

[emupilot]

I'm thinking more along the lines of them installing a bunch of L2 and not superchargers and the press getting the wrong idea.

The article never calls them "superchargers" at all, but with 8 of them it almost certainly is a supercharger installation. I would figure this is an opportunistic installation, where a property owner makes it easy for Tesla so they go ahead with it. I don't know how busy Columbus is, but sites with less than 8 superchargers will need to be supplemented soon anyway to prevent congestion.

 

[BerTX]

Columbus to the likely location of the SA supercharger is 142 miles. It is 107 miles from Flatonia. Probably made sense with more lower range cars on the way.

 

[TexasEV]

I'm thinking more along the lines of them installing a bunch of L2 and not superchargers and the press getting the wrong idea.

No that doesn't make any sense at all. Level 2 at nowheresville on I-10? The press gets things wrong but not that wrong. This is a supercharger.

 

[Twiglett]

No that doesn't make any sense at all. Level 2 at nowheresville on I-10? The press gets things wrong but not that wrong. This is a supercharger.

Agreed - and since @BerTX pointed out, it looks like its one of the "coming in 2017" ones from the Tesla map.

as an aside, I resemble your remark suggesting my posts have to make sense, that's just outrageous.
This board has a solid history of nonsensical posts and I'm happy to continue that tradition or else my sig wouldn't make sense either

 

[Missile Toad]

I live in Texas and I still think "Flatonia" sounds like a made-up name.

as is "Plano" and "Llano". I'm think of a few more good ones "Flatsville", Fort Pancake, "The Grid".

 

[TMC Bubba]

as is "Plano" and "Llano". I'm think of a few more good ones "Flatsville", Fort Pancake, "The Grid".

Oh, and let's not forget DISH Texas, the city that renamed itself in exchange for 10 years of television service and a free DVR for every resident.

 

[wart]

Yeah, this is a weird spot. Luling or Seguin might make more sense if Tesla feels like they need something closer to San Antonio. I use the Columbus SpC quite a bit and I've only ever seen it full once, and that was on a holiday weekend. Over the long term I'd like to see SpC's every 30 to 50 miles, but let's fill in some of the bigger gaps first please!