Tesla Supercharger Network News: New Charging Stations Open on Monday in Boston and Chicago
Tesla is now moving on to city centers in the next leg of the expansion of their Supercharger network, to serve Tesla car owners near their homes and places of work. This move is seen as a needed step to prepare for more rollouts of the Tesla Model 3.
As production of the highly anticipated Tesla Model 3 continues to ramp up, the company is now opening new urban stations in two locations, one in Chicago and another in Boston. These downtown locations will be the first of the series of Destination Charging stalls being brought out for Tesla customers, as the carmaker announced in their news post on Monday, Sep. 11.
The first urban charging station will be open starting Monday, as a ten-stall facility in downtown Chicago and another eight-car station in Boston start accommodating Tesla electric vehicles. These stations are capable of delivering moderate power that will fully charge a Tesla in about 45 to 50 minutes, according to Bloomberg.
These stalls will feature the new, column-like compact design that will take up less space, making them well-suited for car parks, shopping centers and supermarket parking facilities. These chargers also feature a new, 72-kilowatt design that keeps the charging load constant, regardless of how many cars are plugged into the grid.
More Supercharger network spots will be coming soon, as highway stations, hotels and resorts start hosting Supercharger Destination stalls capable of still faster charging than the urban charging stations.
These new urban charging stalls will have the same pricing rates as the earlier Tesla Superchargers, a service that the company claims "is far cheaper than the cost of gasoline." Estimates on their Supercharger site shows a cost of $90 for 1,500 miles driven for the Model S, as compared to about $195 spent on gasoline for the same distance by a 21 MPG car.
More details on Tesla's Supercharger station location maps and operating hours are also available on their website.