Thank you CCAN Action Fund for sponsoring. Click here bit.ly/EVraffleOutofSpec to enter. All summer we've been telling you about this amazing raffle and it is one of the best-chance EV raffles we’ve ever seen. The raffle is UNDERSOLD and the drawing is August 24th. Win a Lucid Air, Tesla Model X Plaid or a Rivian, plus $10,000 for free charging - while helping this nonprofit fight climate change nationwide.
It cracks me up that Kyle doesn’t have the attention span to accurately count one row of these chargers, but can do single cut hour long video narration.
for those curious, the actual town of Kettleman City is a little further east. Unfortunately, it very much is one of those Steinbeck towns (same themes/but i don't think he wrote about it specifically). Don't breathe too deep -- there is a highly toxic waste dump just west of I5 and the wind blows west-east over the truck stop area and the town. Lots of health problems for people who live there full time sadly.
I just bought a Model Y in Los Angeles. It’s absolutely insane how much is the charging infrastructure is expanding. Pasadena currently has 400 chargers, and they’re planning on an even larger expansion of public charging, much of which is free for Level 2. It’s nearly one public charger for every 200 residents.
An interesting bit of trivia is that Kettleman Hills is an early (1928) California oil/gas production location. ICE vehicles created the demand for oil/gas production which is now being replaced with EV charging (eventually to be based on renewable power) 100 years later. Progress!!...what's next?
Ah yes, Kettleman City. I remember driving the new I-5 in the 70s. You knew you were getting close to Kettleman City because you could smell it from miles away thanks to a huge cattle feedlot that I believe was owned by Harris Ranch. When that lovely fragrance hit your nose it was time to roll up the windows and put the pedal to the metal. LOL
They built the EA Kettleman City station from the ground up. They put the old Signet station for Chademo drivers. Otherwise, it just opened a year ago. There was never an existing station before.
We rolled thru Kettleman City on Sunday, musta just missed you. Signet surge confirmed with the EV6 GT -- those units are the original ones installed in that station, the other unit is there to provide ChaDemo I believe. We drive the I-5 corridor between SF and LA several times a year with a CCS vehicle, and generally find stopping in Firebaugh, CA at the EA station, and then at Bakersfield's EA station, provides the best compromise in terms of charging time and range. You missed one other amenity in Kettleman City -- Bravo Farms (across from In-N-Out) is always a fun tourist stop while juicing up or to get something different to eat.
Hey Kyle, you're near my neck of the woods, Hollister, CA. While you're in the area, you should check out the charming Tesla Supercharger at Casa de Fruta (official Hollister supercharger station). It's only V2 chargers, but they're usually very lightly used. The amenities are the real attraction, especially if you have young children. There's a toy train, an old-timey merry-go-round, a turtle pond, peacocks, ice cream, local fruit wine, and much, much more! Not a paid sponsorship 🙂
Not only is Kettleman City on I-5 it is at the intersection with CA 41 which runs from the Central Coast to Fresno, a very busy, mostly 2 lane highway especially on weekends. It has been there forever. Other than a few gas stations and fast food there is no other reason for it to exist!
I know Tesla has said they don't want charging to be a profit center, but... I'm still amazed that ANY charging location or company can pull a profit considering the capex required for even a small installation. I guess you're looking at long term? Since charging sites are unmanned, I guess the ongoing expenses are much less. We've known for a long time that gas stations get their profits in the convenience store, not the gas sales. Considering there's no place to buy soda and snacks here, but also far less other costs too.
Here in the south, bucc-ees gas stations are installing chargers, including Tesla chargers. 7-eleven is starting their nationwide rollout of charging stations as well. I think we will see more and more gas station operators getting in on charging to be able to attract the EV customers to their stores.
I think the Kettleman EA site was not remodeled. It was built the way you saw it. It is one of the newer installations in CA. This station has not been online all that long. I travel Hwy 41 often & was glad to find this station when they put it in. I used to use the charger at the city maintenance lot. I was not aware of the EV Range station.
@@schlotdoglaser I agree 100%. A RAN station there on Monday would have saved me over an hour getting home. I had to deviate to Kettleman because the Lost Hills (46 & I-5) was full with vehicles waiting. The other charger I tried near Tubman would only deliver 45 KW (a 350 unit). Long drive home.
A few years ago over thanksgiving weekend there was a two mile long line for the original Tesla supercharger station. That may be why they added the installation by In-n-Out.
@@Harrythehun OH, I wasn't in the line, I drove past in in my diesel powered Cayenne. The traffic on I-5 was stopped as far as I could see in both directions as we drove to the coast on Hwy 41.
Been there, charged there many-a-time. I wish all Supercharging stations had solar canopies, a coffee shop, restrooms, some merch, etc., like at the original site there. I'm perplexed that Tesla didn't do the same at its second site. I'd say: Tesla really needs to upgrade at least some of these units with "Magic Docks." If they can do so in Ft. Worth, TX, they could certainly do so in Kettleman City.
If you want that just go to the west side original one. On the east side of Hwy 42 you have In-N-Out that's usually packed from opening until about 10pm, McDonald's, Bravo Farms (the wood building he drove by leaving the 2nd location) which has a BBQ joint, and I think another quick food place plus all the road junk food you could wants (nuts, dried food, souvenirs, etc), then you have a Weinersnitzel and Pizza Hut express, Taco Bell and Jack in the Box. I've watched that town slowly build up since the 1980s. There was nothing on the east side back in the day. The original SC location was a Burger King, Carl's Jr is across the street, Subway is in the 76 station next to the EA and then that Mexican joint next to the EA.
Kettleman lounge is our go-to Supercharger when we’re going between Sacramento and Paso Robles. If people want more amenities, go to the Bernard Dr area; the Bravo Farms building is pretty cool to walk around.
I counted roughly 700 Solar panels on the roof of the first charger you were at. Guesstimating around 450 watts per panel based on the size. That comes out to around 315KW or barley enough to Max out a single stall at 250KW (inefficiencies aside). I would love to see the statistics on how much the solar offsets the whole site power usage. The stalls sit empty a lot and also most cars charge at a slower speed so it probably banks back quite a bit during quiet time. It'd be awesome if they had the statistics on a screen somewhere inside. Fascinating stuff. Keep up the awesome videos! Cheers!
I'm guessing more like 350W to maybe per module as that station was built by mid 2018. Looks like they are underdriving the grid tie inverters (look like 60kW Huawei based on streetview) tho, which is good for their service lives cuz hot location.
EV Charging never receives priority over handicap parking. If you lack a handicap placard, it is illegal to park in a handicap parking space. Putting a level 2 charger in handicap space is a way for most companies to claim they are being 'green' but make the charger ultimately useless. I've been beating my head against my town's planning commission because they did that with the only 1 of the 2 EV chargers in our town.
lots of the signage ive seen have said "ada compliant" or something to that effect. in that situation, it should still be fine to charge unless someone with placard shows up. if its ADA only, then different story.
Not exactly correct. CBC states that charging spaces are for charging, not for parking-you must be actively charging to be in the space. Depending on the number of chargers at the facility dictates how many and what type of accessibility. If less than 5 chargers, one accessible space is required, however, the ISA symbol and signage is not required. This space is intended to be “used last” unless you require accessible accommodations. 5-25 chargers require the van accessible space to be identified and used only by those with the handicap placard (as long as they are charging) in addition to a non-identified standard accessible space.
Quartzsite is an interesting place. The Tesla supercharger is next to Highway with 28 chargers and more scheduled. Quartzsite seems to be a snowbird destination.
We are going to stop there on out way down to SoCal next week. I keep checking the reviews and of all the EA's we will be using, this one is by far getting the best reviews.
Great tour of our favorite Supercharger station in Kettleman City. We stop here on every Colorado to SF Bay Area trip and back. I've never used the big charger farm across the road from the lounge station as it's always nice to get some shade, use the lounge, get a latte, etc. at the lounge. We take Hwy58 through Bakersfield to Kingman and then home and the stop at KC is always full. We have always been able to get on a 250kW stall fortunately. I expect the farm across the way will get some V4 drops besides the 250kW V3s and I hope also some shade with solar panels up top like the Bernard stop. Cheers and drive safely.
There are still not even close to enough ccs chargers on this route. On a weekend I’ve waited an hour to charge right here. It really changes the calculus of charger hopping when you have lines. Everyone charges to 100% for sure.
That is the problem with having to use CCS chargers. There are not enough of them and they don't have enough locations. Plus, existing CCS chargers are known to have a lot of problems with downtime and not usable. That is why Ford, GM, Rivian, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Volvo, Polestar (and more probably to switch over) are switching over to NACS connectors so they will be able to use Tesla Superchargers, eventually. Tesla is in the charging business and continues to expand its Supercharger network. The other EV manufacturers mentioned are NOT in the charging business so that is why they made the decision to switch to NACS connectors, and made some type of agreement with Tesla to eventually use Tesla's Superchargers. It will take a year or more for these manufacturers to start building their EVs with the NACS connectors, though. Those EVs that have CCS ports will have to buy an CCS to NACS adapter, if they can find one. The logistics have not really been worked out, yet.
Wow, more Supercharger units at this one location than in every state up and down the middle of the country (N. Dakota-Oklahoma) COMBINED! I hope Tesla starts paying attention to their underserved territories soon.
Adoption drives the infrastructure, the Model Y was the best selling vehicle in CA for the past two years. You see them everywhere! It’s a chicken and egg, infrastructure needs to improve to drive adoption, adoption needs to improve to drive infrastructure!
Except that’s not the way Tesla did it. They built a huge amount of charging infrastructure before selling a single car so that people would have places to charge their new vehicle. They did not sell a million EV’s before building a single Supercharger, they already had Superchargers in place. That makes perfect sense. Now that Teslas are everywhere, they are lacking in infrastructure along US and State highways since their charging network is only along Interstates. I see Teslas everywhere around here, too, when there isn’t a Supercharger within 50 miles of here, in just one direction. The next one in the opposite direction is 220 miles away on I-70. @@abhaymathur9321
You make a great point. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and Supercharging stations now are pretty much everywhere. They typically have from 8 to 32 connectors. These can be very busy places. There are also a lot of ‘destination’ wall connections at hotels, etc. I’ve also taken cross-country road trips to the upper mid-west, SpaceX at Brownsville, TX and numerous times to San Diego through LA. I’ve had a great experience at all the Tesla Supercharger stations. While adequate, most of the 8 stall rural remote.Superchargers seldom had any other Teslas there. I suspect that may be changing. I understand that a basic 8 stall station costs upwards of a quarter million dollars to initially install, so they and other new ones, as you point out, will need to be subsidized by the existing larger busy ones. Tesla does have FAQs explaining how they locate new installations at: Tesla dot com > Support > Supercharging > FAQ
On Tesla's website, there is a "Supercharger Voting" section. Every 3 months you can cast votes on new Supercharger locations (which helps Tesla pick locations). Lots of California Tesla owners vote because Tesla has sold so many of their vehicles in California. If you (and your fellow N. Dakota-Oklahoma Tesla owners) cast enough votes, maybe Tesla will install Supercharger locations in your area.
NOTE: Also, South of this Kettleman location on I-5 toward Los Angeles (-100 miles) is ANOTHER two Tesla Supercharger locations at Tejon Ranch and Factory Outlets. Both East and West sides of Interstate 5. I would guess 100 more Superchargers.
This is so cool. I love these tours of major charging stations since it's a glimpse into the future. The other small town, big station I'd love a tour of is Baker, CA with the EVgo and Chargepoint stations.
I just saw a video covering Baker a day or two ago. Not sure if he covered EV go or chargepoint, though. There was another large Tesla location, with lots of level 2 superchargers, some new level three lines, and it also has Semi mega chargers! very cool search this channel
I have been by the Coalinga supercharger with the massive 80 superchargers. They closed them off to install some overhead solar panels, just like in Kettleman City, which I have charged a number of times and been in the lounge. They have V2 and V3 chargers.
Kyle, I love these charging stations reviews of all the different brands. Please keep the reviews coming. By the way how is the Rate Your Charge appt coming?
They probably still can later on. It just looked like a big plot of desert surrounding that 2nd site, so I'm sure it'd be easy to put the solar canopies in later.
You should emphasize that all of those V2 dispensers do not support NACS, so that people develop a realistic expectation of what opening the Tesla NACS network to non Teslas means.
The solar canopy isn't working, as at 16:58 you can see that its disconnect is off. Also a waste for them to use bifacial modules when there is so much backside shading from the canopy frame.
The day I get my Rivian CCS to NACS connector and I can use the Supercharging network, im going on road trip up there and back. I never got a chance to see that Kettleman station when I had my Model 3. Looking forward to stopping there, all those chargers will definitely help now that other automakers are using NACS.
You mean a NACS (receptacle) to CCS (plug) for your Rivian, right? I'd sure like to see one! Seems to me that Tesla should simply start selling its Magic Dock as a separate adapter, and configure certain Supercharger to accommodate them.
@@Yanquetino Yes oops. I agree with you, why not make it a profit idea? The Supercharging network should have always been a profit-making center. You pay to keep perpetuating the expansion of the network. You shouldn't use supercharging for use in lieu of home charging (when possible).
Hi Kyle….. You don’t have to put the car in park before you get out. When you press the button to open the door it automatically puts it in park! One less thing!
Kyle, 2 days ago I had a long Lyft ride from Los Angeles to Avenal, CA and so I stopped at the Kettleman City Electrify America to charge my 21 VW ID4 AWD before heading home. Have to say this was the nicest EA I have ever seen and I’ve seen a lot. Is this the only EA in California with any trash receptacles? Lol 😆. It was also nice to be able to enjoy a couple of delicious late night tacos at the 24 hour Taco place across from the chargers 🔌. I have to agree though that Electrify America has a lot of work to do!
A maximum of 7 supercharger cabinets can be linked. Kettleman City Bernard drive is two complete systems of 7 (28 stalls per system) with 56 stalls total.
@@strik4r877 at least it can produce 300kwh a day. 9000kwh per month. it is like charging 180 cars (50kwh per car) dont need to power from grid. earning tesla 3000$ per month just from solar. and saving (considering 0.23314 kg CO2e per kWh) 2098.26kgs of co2 emissions. Thats so cool. If tesla builds 10 of this kind, it can save 30000kgs of co2 per month. this is huge
Stop by the Harris Ranch superchargers. FYI, near Buttonwillow I saw a new Shell gas station being built with many Tesla chargers. Don’t have any more information on the site. Maybe you do.
Interesting that the transformers were working so hard with no vehicles charging. Think the site was selling energy into the grid during the morning shoulder?
The reason is location and this city has tons of cows and they use the manure to produce gas and then produce electricity- so is a win win situation plus Teska has the solar panels as well
It's basically a FAFO situation. Beat on something if you want but in a fault condition that bus duct between the transformer and switchboard can supply nearly 70,000 amps. At that point you're hoping the primary fuses go.
22:24 "Not sure why you'd use it because most people will be charging at the Electrify America station down the street." Correction: They will be *trying* to charge at the Electrify America station: As someone in Canada has had a fair bit of experience with Electrify Canada, they aren't the worst charging stations out there (that dishonour falls on Petro Canada), but still frustrating enough to be the butt of some jokes.
I drove by Kettleman City four times in the last 4 days. I didn’t use the supercharger because I had enough power to get to Paso Robles. I wonder if Tesla is going to install solar panels on the new supercharger area?
When will a non Tesla charging company build one of 50c 60, 70 charging site? Here in VA, PA, MD area, we get 4 at EA and EVGo. Others only have 2 chargers.
no pull through. call them out on it Kyle! you know we need them all to be pull through eventually. they COULD have done it....they just didn't. EA sucks. In fact so does Tesla for not making stations pull through. Every station must have at least some pull through capacity. any charging hub that doesn't feature a SINGLE pull through charger, is worthless for larger trucks and anyone towing. Every single gas pump at that site is pull through. think about it.
You should try and review a tesla supercharging station in a small town in Inyokern CA. They also have Rivian superchargers right next to the tesla superchargers.
Kettleman has a 27MW solar farm close by - about four miles north on highway 41. I see the power from it is owned by the city of Palo Alto, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the EV charging outfits make a deal to source power from that. Quick math, 27MW is enough to run 108 stalls at 250kW each.. So that’s not enough to power all of the Kettleman chargers simultaneously, but it certainly would cover much of the time.
Hope we can dream that some day all transportation will eventually become green, greatly reducing local pollution. Then having a house next to a busy road will not be an issue.
I'm glad Kyle didn't mention the Kettleman City free CalTrans chargers a mile or so north of there! Those are fine for my Chevy Bolt, but the 125a 400V limit makes them too slow for faster-charging cars. Sometimes paying to charge under the canopy makes sense, though--it can get hot out there.
P.S. DO NOT PARK IN A HANDICAP SPOT. Fines can go from 300 plus to 800 dollars and can not be fought in court. Cops in California enforce them and have a free reign on you if you don't have a placard folks. I have seen a lot of it running bars for over 20 years in Southern California. A lot of cops hate EV's because they like the crappy V8 cars and trucks. Don't give em a reason ....
I’m a wheelchair user, and I always get a little bit excited when I see a handicap spot at the superchargers. Generally not necessary, but always appreciated.
An accessible parking stall at a charger is not treated the same as those considered general parking. The codes for constructing these stalls indicate clearly that they may be used for all charging. Otherwise, the charger becomes exclusively for use by those with disabilities, which would be extremely expensive. Some accessible stalls have a sign saying "use last". When we use accessible stalls to charge, we stay in the vehicle. And yes, I have had a placard due to injury. So in CA, Kyle is correct.
This video really felt like a peek into the future for those of us on the right coast. Five more super chargers on I95, and we are great for roadtrips. We don't have In n Outs, so they will need to plant these next to Chick-fil-A and Waffle House... 😂
The number of empty stalls seen in this video is jaw dropping. I would really like to know what day/time is peak usage and see what a goat rodeo it must look like when all stalls are full.
Thanksgiving is when this location, and many others along the I5 corridor, fill up and sometimes have waiting lines. I think other big holidays like 4th of July they also fill up.
24:22 Can you clarify this comment about “see which chargers are open to those [CCS] vehicles”? With Ford, GM, etc. signing agreements with Tesla and saying that an adapter would be available in 2024, my interpretation was that those vehicles would have full access to the Supercharger network. Is that not true? Or were you just referring to Magic Dock deployment?
It'll probably just be the V3 and upcoming V4 superchargers. V1/V2 I read used a different communication protocol that's basically exclusive to Tesla, while the V3's were designed to be compatible with the same standard the CCS charging stations use. Tesla can always retrofit Magic Docks to V3's later on.
The new supercharger is right next to Bravo Farms with great food, ice cream and great Western themed playgrounds for kids. We stop there all the time.
This is swell, but what is also needed -- maybe needed more -- is many, many DCFC and Level 2 ports where today there are none. That is, off smaller roads, in states with few EVs. If we want EVs to flourish, that's where the effort needs to be more focused.
Harris Ranch has great amenities (BBQ yum!) but the EA chargers are more cruddy than the Firebaugh ones. Even though we hit lower in the pack stopping at Harris Ranch when going south on I-5, we stop earlier at Firebaugh because of the more reliable / less congested dispensers. Firebaugh does have a Wayback Burgers which is decent.
CCS is not the plug that's the J1772. CCS includes several different aspects including the protocol which is also used by Tesla super-chargers which is why you can just use an adapter, since the tesla charger speak CCS.
Further south on the 5 is one of the most interesting superchargers, on copuz road. Its the only supercharger I've seen installed on a completely undeveloped dirt lot. Now, theyre building a gas station and some stores next to it. The supercharger literally spurred development of and otherwise completely empty freeway offramp...
We were at Kettleman City over the Thanksgiving weekend, big mistake couldn't even get on to the exit. Glad we didn't take the EUV and drove our ICE car down to Disneyland.
ICE + DISNEYLAND = Maximum Fascist hatred of Mother nature. Disney was an actual ideological Fascist and his entire concept was in preference of artificial against natural ecology.
Interesting so many chargers concentrated there! FYI the term “handicapped” is an outdated 1970s term. These spaces are called “accessible” now. And no, only those with proper state credentials are legally allowed to park in those spaces.
Thank you CCAN Action Fund for sponsoring. Click here bit.ly/EVraffleOutofSpec to enter. All summer we've been telling you about this amazing raffle and it is one of the best-chance EV raffles we’ve ever seen. The raffle is UNDERSOLD and the drawing is August 24th. Win a Lucid Air, Tesla Model X Plaid or a Rivian, plus $10,000 for free charging - while helping this nonprofit fight climate change nationwide.
It cracks me up that Kyle doesn’t have the attention span to accurately count one row of these chargers, but can do single cut hour long video narration.
Thank You Everybody for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth.... Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste.. 🙏🏻 😊 🌈 ✌ ☮ ❤
for those curious, the actual town of Kettleman City is a little further east. Unfortunately, it very much is one of those Steinbeck towns (same themes/but i don't think he wrote about it specifically). Don't breathe too deep -- there is a highly toxic waste dump just west of I5 and the wind blows west-east over the truck stop area and the town. Lots of health problems for people who live there full time sadly.
This was the subject of the cleaning after Erin Brocovich movie. She mentions Kettleman city in the final sequence of the movie even. It’s toxic.
I just bought a Model Y in Los Angeles. It’s absolutely insane how much is the charging infrastructure is expanding. Pasadena currently has 400 chargers, and they’re planning on an even larger expansion of public charging, much of which is free for Level 2. It’s nearly one public charger for every 200 residents.
An interesting bit of trivia is that Kettleman Hills is an early (1928) California oil/gas production location. ICE vehicles created the demand for oil/gas production which is now being replaced with EV charging (eventually to be based on renewable power) 100 years later. Progress!!...what's next?
Tesla should have a Tesla branded windshield washer fluid. Since that’s the only thing you have to fill.
Ah yes, Kettleman City. I remember driving the new I-5 in the 70s. You knew you were getting close to Kettleman City because you could smell it from miles away thanks to a huge cattle feedlot that I believe was owned by Harris Ranch. When that lovely fragrance hit your nose it was time to roll up the windows and put the pedal to the metal. LOL
They built the EA Kettleman City station from the ground up. They put the old Signet station for Chademo drivers. Otherwise, it just opened a year ago. There was never an existing station before.
We rolled thru Kettleman City on Sunday, musta just missed you. Signet surge confirmed with the EV6 GT -- those units are the original ones installed in that station, the other unit is there to provide ChaDemo I believe. We drive the I-5 corridor between SF and LA several times a year with a CCS vehicle, and generally find stopping in Firebaugh, CA at the EA station, and then at Bakersfield's EA station, provides the best compromise in terms of charging time and range.
You missed one other amenity in Kettleman City -- Bravo Farms (across from In-N-Out) is always a fun tourist stop while juicing up or to get something different to eat.
Hey Kyle, you're near my neck of the woods, Hollister, CA. While you're in the area, you should check out the charming Tesla Supercharger at Casa de Fruta (official Hollister supercharger station). It's only V2 chargers, but they're usually very lightly used. The amenities are the real attraction, especially if you have young children. There's a toy train, an old-timey merry-go-round, a turtle pond, peacocks, ice cream, local fruit wine, and much, much more! Not a paid sponsorship 🙂
Not only is Kettleman City on I-5 it is at the intersection with CA 41 which runs from the Central Coast to Fresno, a very busy, mostly 2 lane highway especially on weekends. It has been there forever. Other than a few gas stations and fast food there is no other reason for it to exist!
I know Tesla has said they don't want charging to be a profit center, but... I'm still amazed that ANY charging location or company can pull a profit considering the capex required for even a small installation. I guess you're looking at long term? Since charging sites are unmanned, I guess the ongoing expenses are much less. We've known for a long time that gas stations get their profits in the convenience store, not the gas sales. Considering there's no place to buy soda and snacks here, but also far less other costs too.
I think I read that Tesla supercharging gross margins are around 25%, with operating margins (which includes amortized CapEx) around 10%
Here in the south, bucc-ees gas stations are installing chargers, including Tesla chargers. 7-eleven is starting their nationwide rollout of charging stations as well. I think we will see more and more gas station operators getting in on charging to be able to attract the EV customers to their stores.
3:22 “I think charging takes priority over handicap”……. I’ll bet a handicapped person would disagree.
Cant wait to get my NACS adapter for my Mach-e next year and do a x-country road trip test!
We ever getting part 2&3 of the vegas race on the motoring channel?
The charging lots should use solar panel to cover the lots, provide shade and energy to the users.
dude thats what im saying, but they do this stuff on purpose
May be they want people to hand around in shop indoor while charging. Haha
The first area which Kyle showed is covered with solar panels. They’re great as they keep the cars out of the sun.
I think the Kettleman EA site was not remodeled. It was built the way you saw it. It is one of the newer installations in CA. This station has not been online all that long. I travel Hwy 41 often & was glad to find this station when they put it in. I used to use the charger at the city maintenance lot. I was not aware of the EV Range station.
Quite right. It was built with 9 of those new style cabinets and one old one for the chademo folks
Just hope it is relaible. I am hoping that RIVIAN opens the RAN station in Buttonwillow soon.
@@schlotdoglaser I agree 100%. A RAN station there on Monday would have saved me over an hour getting home. I had to deviate to Kettleman because the Lost Hills (46 & I-5) was full with vehicles waiting. The other charger I tried near Tubman would only deliver 45 KW (a 350 unit). Long drive home.
Great video Kyle! Enjoyed the mix of "review the station" with a side of general EV discussion, news, etc. Really good format!
A few years ago over thanksgiving weekend there was a two mile long line for the original Tesla supercharger station. That may be why they added the installation by In-n-Out.
It took us an hour and forty five minutes at the ea station over July 4th. Then it wouldn’t go above 80kw/hr. Ea stinks!
That’s a brutal EV experience. I’ve been in in 10 minute queues approximately a couple of times.
@@Harrythehun OH, I wasn't in the line, I drove past in in my diesel powered Cayenne. The traffic on I-5 was stopped as far as I could see in both directions as we drove to the coast on Hwy 41.
Yesssss! You finally visted Kettleman city!
Spent many vacation trips at the In N Out in Kettleman City before it was a giant EV recharge station!
Been there, charged there many-a-time. I wish all Supercharging stations had solar canopies, a coffee shop, restrooms, some merch, etc., like at the original site there. I'm perplexed that Tesla didn't do the same at its second site. I'd say: Tesla really needs to upgrade at least some of these units with "Magic Docks." If they can do so in Ft. Worth, TX, they could certainly do so in Kettleman City.
Agreed
If you want that just go to the west side original one. On the east side of Hwy 42 you have In-N-Out that's usually packed from opening until about 10pm, McDonald's, Bravo Farms (the wood building he drove by leaving the 2nd location) which has a BBQ joint, and I think another quick food place plus all the road junk food you could wants (nuts, dried food, souvenirs, etc), then you have a Weinersnitzel and Pizza Hut express, Taco Bell and Jack in the Box. I've watched that town slowly build up since the 1980s. There was nothing on the east side back in the day.
The original SC location was a Burger King, Carl's Jr is across the street, Subway is in the 76 station next to the EA and then that Mexican joint next to the EA.
Better for them to just get an adapter like we did for CCS. Why maintain that on a charger when they will all be NACS.
Kettleman lounge is our go-to Supercharger when we’re going between Sacramento and Paso Robles. If people want more amenities, go to the Bernard Dr area; the Bravo Farms building is pretty cool to walk around.
I counted roughly 700 Solar panels on the roof of the first charger you were at. Guesstimating around 450 watts per panel based on the size. That comes out to around 315KW or barley enough to Max out a single stall at 250KW (inefficiencies aside). I would love to see the statistics on how much the solar offsets the whole site power usage. The stalls sit empty a lot and also most cars charge at a slower speed so it probably banks back quite a bit during quiet time. It'd be awesome if they had the statistics on a screen somewhere inside. Fascinating stuff. Keep up the awesome videos! Cheers!
I'm guessing more like 350W to maybe per module as that station was built by mid 2018. Looks like they are underdriving the grid tie inverters (look like 60kW Huawei based on streetview) tho, which is good for their service lives cuz hot location.
EV Charging never receives priority over handicap parking. If you lack a handicap placard, it is illegal to park in a handicap parking space. Putting a level 2 charger in handicap space is a way for most companies to claim they are being 'green' but make the charger ultimately useless. I've been beating my head against my town's planning commission because they did that with the only 1 of the 2 EV chargers in our town.
lots of the signage ive seen have said "ada compliant" or something to that effect. in that situation, it should still be fine to charge unless someone with placard shows up. if its ADA only, then different story.
Not exactly correct. CBC states that charging spaces are for charging, not for parking-you must be actively charging to be in the space. Depending on the number of chargers at the facility dictates how many and what type of accessibility. If less than 5 chargers, one accessible space is required, however, the ISA symbol and signage is not required. This space is intended to be “used last” unless you require accessible accommodations. 5-25 chargers require the van accessible space to be identified and used only by those with the handicap placard (as long as they are charging) in addition to a non-identified standard accessible space.
Quartzsite is an interesting place. The Tesla supercharger is next to Highway with 28 chargers and more scheduled. Quartzsite seems to be a snowbird destination.
We are going to stop there on out way down to SoCal next week. I keep checking the reviews and of all the EA's we will be using, this one is by far getting the best reviews.
Great tour of our favorite Supercharger station in Kettleman City. We stop here on every Colorado to SF Bay Area trip and back. I've never used the big charger farm across the road from the lounge station as it's always nice to get some shade, use the lounge, get a latte, etc. at the lounge. We take Hwy58 through Bakersfield to Kingman and then home and the stop at KC is always full. We have always been able to get on a 250kW stall fortunately. I expect the farm across the way will get some V4 drops besides the 250kW V3s and I hope also some shade with solar panels up top like the Bernard stop. Cheers and drive safely.
There are still not even close to enough ccs chargers on this route. On a weekend I’ve waited an hour to charge right here. It really changes the calculus of charger hopping when you have lines. Everyone charges to 100% for sure.
That is the problem with having to use CCS chargers. There are not enough of them and they don't have enough locations. Plus, existing CCS chargers are known to have a lot of problems with downtime and not usable. That is why Ford, GM, Rivian, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Volvo, Polestar (and more probably to switch over) are switching over to NACS connectors so they will be able to use Tesla Superchargers, eventually. Tesla is in the charging business and continues to expand its Supercharger network. The other EV manufacturers mentioned are NOT in the charging business so that is why they made the decision to switch to NACS connectors, and made some type of agreement with Tesla to eventually use Tesla's Superchargers. It will take a year or more for these manufacturers to start building their EVs with the NACS connectors, though. Those EVs that have CCS ports will have to buy an CCS to NACS adapter, if they can find one. The logistics have not really been worked out, yet.
Wow, more Supercharger units at this one location than in every state up and down the middle of the country (N. Dakota-Oklahoma) COMBINED! I hope Tesla starts paying attention to their underserved territories soon.
Adoption drives the infrastructure, the Model Y was the best selling vehicle in CA for the past two years. You see them everywhere! It’s a chicken and egg, infrastructure needs to improve to drive adoption, adoption needs to improve to drive infrastructure!
Except that’s not the way Tesla did it. They built a huge amount of charging infrastructure before selling a single car so that people would have places to charge their new vehicle. They did not sell a million EV’s before building a single Supercharger, they already had Superchargers in place. That makes perfect sense. Now that Teslas are everywhere, they are lacking in infrastructure along US and State highways since their charging network is only along Interstates. I see Teslas everywhere around here, too, when there isn’t a Supercharger within 50 miles of here, in just one direction. The next one in the opposite direction is 220 miles away on I-70. @@abhaymathur9321
Heard the OK legislature is trying to keep Tesla out and Tesla has no plans to expand there. Ridiculous…there’s like 6 in the whole state. 🤷🏻♂️
You make a great point.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and Supercharging stations now are pretty much everywhere. They typically have from 8 to 32 connectors. These can be very busy places.
There are also a lot of ‘destination’ wall connections at hotels, etc.
I’ve also taken cross-country road trips to the upper mid-west, SpaceX at Brownsville, TX and numerous times to San Diego through LA. I’ve had a great experience at all the Tesla Supercharger stations. While adequate, most of the 8 stall rural remote.Superchargers seldom had any other Teslas there. I suspect that may be changing.
I understand that a basic 8 stall station costs upwards of a quarter million dollars to initially install, so they and other new ones, as you point out, will need to be subsidized by the existing larger busy ones.
Tesla does have FAQs explaining how they locate new installations at:
Tesla dot com > Support > Supercharging > FAQ
On Tesla's website, there is a "Supercharger Voting" section. Every 3 months you can cast votes on new Supercharger locations (which helps Tesla pick locations). Lots of California Tesla owners vote because Tesla has sold so many of their vehicles in California. If you (and your fellow N. Dakota-Oklahoma Tesla owners) cast enough votes, maybe Tesla will install Supercharger locations in your area.
NOTE: Also, South of this Kettleman location on I-5 toward Los Angeles (-100 miles) is ANOTHER two Tesla Supercharger locations at Tejon Ranch and Factory Outlets. Both East and West sides of Interstate 5. I would guess 100 more Superchargers.
This is so cool. I love these tours of major charging stations since it's a glimpse into the future. The other small town, big station I'd love a tour of is Baker, CA with the EVgo and Chargepoint stations.
I just saw a video covering Baker a day or two ago. Not sure if he covered EV go or chargepoint, though. There was another large Tesla location, with lots of level 2 superchargers, some new level three lines, and it also has Semi mega chargers! very cool
search this channel
wait, I found it for you lol
ua-cam.com/video/Aka6YgZvXEg/v-deo.html
No future
The Bernard Drive SuperCharger location was just a dirt field back on December 25, 2021 - complete with a "Paving Coming Soon" sign.
I just stopped there last Sunday, coming from LA going to Sacramento. Very hot, 105 F, and a long line at Electrify America...
Stopped here on a road trip from San Jose to San Diego and it was amazing!! and the lobby is so cool!!
I have been by the Coalinga supercharger with the massive 80 superchargers. They closed them off to install some overhead solar panels, just like in Kettleman City, which I have charged a number of times and been in the lounge. They have V2 and V3 chargers.
Kyle, I love these charging stations reviews of all the different brands. Please keep the reviews coming. By the way how is the Rate Your Charge appt coming?
Great video! Missed the two Cal Trans CCS/CHADeMO chargers down the road 1/2 mile.
Tesla should have put solar canopies over the 72-spot location.
They probably still can later on. It just looked like a big plot of desert surrounding that 2nd site, so I'm sure it'd be easy to put the solar canopies in later.
You should emphasize that all of those V2 dispensers do not support NACS, so that people develop a realistic expectation of what opening the Tesla NACS network to non Teslas means.
The solar canopy isn't working, as at 16:58 you can see that its disconnect is off. Also a waste for them to use bifacial modules when there is so much backside shading from the canopy frame.
Please bring one of these to Staten Island NY
The day I get my Rivian CCS to NACS connector and I can use the Supercharging network, im going on road trip up there and back. I never got a chance to see that Kettleman station when I had my Model 3. Looking forward to stopping there, all those chargers will definitely help now that other automakers are using NACS.
You mean a NACS (receptacle) to CCS (plug) for your Rivian, right? I'd sure like to see one! Seems to me that Tesla should simply start selling its Magic Dock as a separate adapter, and configure certain Supercharger to accommodate them.
@@Yanquetino Yes oops. I agree with you, why not make it a profit idea? The Supercharging network should have always been a profit-making center. You pay to keep perpetuating the expansion of the network. You shouldn't use supercharging for use in lieu of home charging (when possible).
Hi Kyle….. You don’t have to put the car in park before you get out. When you press the button to open the door it automatically puts it in park! One less thing!
Kyle, 2 days ago I had a long Lyft ride from Los Angeles to Avenal, CA and so I stopped at the Kettleman City Electrify America to charge my 21 VW ID4 AWD before heading home. Have to say this was the nicest EA I have ever seen and I’ve seen a lot. Is this the only EA in California with any trash receptacles? Lol 😆. It was also nice to be able to enjoy a couple of delicious late night tacos at the 24 hour Taco place across from the chargers 🔌. I have to agree though that Electrify America has a lot of work to do!
A maximum of 7 supercharger cabinets can be linked. Kettleman City Bernard drive is two complete systems of 7 (28 stalls per system) with 56 stalls total.
I have a question: i see lot of solar panels on the top. how many panels are there? how many kwhs?
I imagine its probably around 20-30 kW at most so it's not making a huge difference compared to the amount of power being pulled by the chargers
@@strik4r877 at least it can produce 300kwh a day. 9000kwh per month. it is like charging 180 cars (50kwh per car) dont need to power from grid. earning tesla 3000$ per month just from solar. and saving (considering 0.23314 kg CO2e per kWh) 2098.26kgs of co2 emissions. Thats so cool. If tesla builds 10 of this kind, it can save 30000kgs of co2 per month. this is huge
21:27 The CHAdeMO plug supports 400A at 1000V (= 400kW). So the slowness of CHAdeMO was scrappy cars, not a bad standard.
Harris Ranch is super nice. Great steak place there and lots of charging options.
In my large California city, there are only two Tesla chargers open to non-Teslas. They are only open to members (apartment complex etc.)
Go visit all 4 on a Friday evening, I want to see how busy they all get
Stop by the Harris Ranch superchargers. FYI, near Buttonwillow I saw a new Shell gas station being built with many Tesla chargers. Don’t have any more information on the site. Maybe you do.
Stop off in Inyokern at the Classic Burger off the 395. Many chargers and great pastrami burgers in the no place everywhere is a million miles from.
Interesting that the transformers were working so hard with no vehicles charging. Think the site was selling energy into the grid during the morning shoulder?
The reason is location and this city has tons of cows and they use the manure to produce gas and then produce electricity- so is a win win situation plus Teska has the solar panels as well
You need to wear a wide brim hat OR stay out of the sun. LOL
You should have given me this suggestion a week ago!
Just drove through there from sac to Santa Barbara and back. But I charge at Harris ranch
Are the canopies solar? Seems like a good opportunity for solar.
That Tesla charging hub is awesome. That would be great to see over here in Maryland.
You TOTALLY missed the two free CalTrans DCFCs in town that I always use when going North to South or vice versa
Once the adaptor is commonly available the VERSION 2s are fine for many other models of EVs.
Crazy that you can walk around all the transformers and charger technique freely. In Europe this would be behind high fences to avoid damage...
It's basically a FAFO situation. Beat on something if you want but in a fault condition that bus duct between the transformer and switchboard can supply nearly 70,000 amps. At that point you're hoping the primary fuses go.
super excited! next stop CA-1 & US-101 ???
Clean your windshield, Kyle! LOL
22:24 "Not sure why you'd use it because most people will be charging at the Electrify America station down the street." Correction: They will be *trying* to charge at the Electrify America station: As someone in Canada has had a fair bit of experience with Electrify Canada, they aren't the worst charging stations out there (that dishonour falls on Petro Canada), but still frustrating enough to be the butt of some jokes.
I drove by Kettleman City four times in the last 4 days. I didn’t use the supercharger because I had enough power to get to Paso Robles. I wonder if Tesla is going to install solar panels on the new supercharger area?
Kettleman stop has always rocked. The Tesla Lounge is such a nice break
When will a non Tesla charging company build one of 50c 60, 70 charging site? Here in VA, PA, MD area, we get 4 at EA and EVGo. Others only have 2 chargers.
In the bay area I see EVgo building out 12 stall stations right in city. But this is the bay area...
no pull through.
call them out on it Kyle! you know we need them all to be pull through eventually. they COULD have done it....they just didn't. EA sucks. In fact so does Tesla for not making stations pull through. Every station must have at least some pull through capacity. any charging hub that doesn't feature a SINGLE pull through charger, is worthless for larger trucks and anyone towing. Every single gas pump at that site is pull through. think about it.
Tustin Irvine has a new 36 250k install....
RIVIAN needs to fill in and open up they could provide CCS customers with reliable charging.
You should try and review a tesla supercharging station in a small town in Inyokern CA. They also have Rivian superchargers right next to the tesla superchargers.
Are the canopies at the Tesla charging station solar?
surprised to see the new lot doesn't have solar panels providing shade and taking advantage of renewable energy...
Kettleman has a 27MW solar farm close by - about four miles north on highway 41. I see the power from it is owned by the city of Palo Alto, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the EV charging outfits make a deal to source power from that.
Quick math, 27MW is enough to run 108 stalls at 250kW each.. So that’s not enough to power all of the Kettleman chargers simultaneously, but it certainly would cover much of the time.
Hope we can dream that some day all transportation will eventually become green, greatly reducing local pollution. Then having a house next to a busy road will not be an issue.
Would have liked to see the inside of the Tesla Lounge. Seems he just walked in and out quickly. 😢
I'm glad Kyle didn't mention the Kettleman City free CalTrans chargers a mile or so north of there! Those are fine for my Chevy Bolt, but the 125a 400V limit makes them too slow for faster-charging cars. Sometimes paying to charge under the canopy makes sense, though--it can get hot out there.
P.S. DO NOT PARK IN A HANDICAP SPOT. Fines can go from 300 plus to 800 dollars and can not be fought in court. Cops in California enforce them and have a free reign on you if you don't have a placard folks. I have seen a lot of it running bars for over 20 years in Southern California. A lot of cops hate EV's because they like the crappy V8 cars and trucks. Don't give em a reason ....
I’m a wheelchair user, and I always get a little bit excited when I see a handicap spot at the superchargers. Generally not necessary, but always appreciated.
I second this. My spouse is non-ambulatory, and we depend on disabled parking. It is infuriating when spaces are unavailable.
An accessible parking stall at a charger is not treated the same as those considered general parking. The codes for constructing these stalls indicate clearly that they may be used for all charging. Otherwise, the charger becomes exclusively for use by those with disabilities, which would be extremely expensive. Some accessible stalls have a sign saying "use last". When we use accessible stalls to charge, we stay in the vehicle. And yes, I have had a placard due to injury. So in CA, Kyle is correct.
Many EV charging locations specifically sign the handicap spot as "Use Last"
This video really felt like a peek into the future for those of us on the right coast. Five more super chargers on I95, and we are great for roadtrips. We don't have In n Outs, so they will need to plant these next to Chick-fil-A and Waffle House... 😂
The number of empty stalls seen in this video is jaw dropping. I would really like to know what day/time is peak usage and see what a goat rodeo it must look like when all stalls are full.
Thanksgiving is when this location, and many others along the I5 corridor, fill up and sometimes have waiting lines. I think other big holidays like 4th of July they also fill up.
CCAN raffle tickets not available to resident of Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Utah, or California. Bummer.
You missed the free CAL Trans one down the road 100 CCS and 50 chademo
SSSSHHHHHHH! Thou shall not advertise the tax-payer subsidized "free" government electricity to the masses! LOL!
I wonder if early drivers were this excited about uncovered gas pumps appearing in the middle of nowhere to charge them per gallon.
Another huge Tesla supercharger station 60 miles north of Kettlemen city at Harris Branch 8 old 150 kw and 88 new 250 kw chargers
Interesting that there were no cars at either of the CCS chargers. Is this the same location that is notorious for long waits on holiday weekends?
Probably because it's early in the morning and people are still asleep.
the more I see EVs and the inconveniences! 🌎🌍🌏🚙🥰🥰Damn...the more I LOVE the new 2024 LAND CRUISER!
Should have a solar farm somewhere nearby.
There are a bunch of solar farms around that area.
Why are there no roofs over the second Tesla station?
Love Kettlemen! Must stop!
24:22 Can you clarify this comment about “see which chargers are open to those [CCS] vehicles”? With Ford, GM, etc. signing agreements with Tesla and saying that an adapter would be available in 2024, my interpretation was that those vehicles would have full access to the Supercharger network. Is that not true? Or were you just referring to Magic Dock deployment?
It'll probably just be the V3 and upcoming V4 superchargers. V1/V2 I read used a different communication protocol that's basically exclusive to Tesla, while the V3's were designed to be compatible with the same standard the CCS charging stations use.
Tesla can always retrofit Magic Docks to V3's later on.
The new supercharger is right next to Bravo Farms with great food, ice cream and great Western themed playgrounds for kids. We stop there all the time.
Doc Bernstein's went belly up (corporate).
This is swell, but what is also needed -- maybe needed more -- is many, many DCFC and Level 2 ports where today there are none. That is, off smaller roads, in states with few EVs. If we want EVs to flourish, that's where the effort needs to be more focused.
Definitely have to go Harris Ranch, they recently expanded. And maybe less also the Firebaugh, large but crappy amenities and poor roads imo.
Harris Ranch has great amenities (BBQ yum!) but the EA chargers are more cruddy than the Firebaugh ones. Even though we hit lower in the pack stopping at Harris Ranch when going south on I-5, we stop earlier at Firebaugh because of the more reliable / less congested dispensers. Firebaugh does have a Wayback Burgers which is decent.
CCS is not the plug that's the J1772. CCS includes several different aspects including the protocol which is also used by Tesla super-chargers which is why you can just use an adapter, since the tesla charger speak CCS.
Further south on the 5 is one of the most interesting superchargers, on copuz road. Its the only supercharger I've seen installed on a completely undeveloped dirt lot. Now, theyre building a gas station and some stores next to it. The supercharger literally spurred development of and otherwise completely empty freeway offramp...
Wow I do delivery inside the tesla store. Damn I would've love to see a popular youtuber :).
darnit Kyle, dont tell the world about my favorite kettleman EA station. Its already been getting busy enough.
We were at Kettleman City over the Thanksgiving weekend, big mistake couldn't even get on to the exit. Glad we didn't take the EUV and drove our ICE car down to Disneyland.
ICE + DISNEYLAND = Maximum Fascist hatred of Mother nature. Disney was an actual ideological Fascist and his entire concept was in preference of artificial against natural ecology.
Interesting so many chargers concentrated there!
FYI the term “handicapped” is an outdated 1970s term. These spaces are called “accessible” now. And no, only those with proper state credentials are legally allowed to park in those spaces.