New chargers: Kingman, Arizona
Happy New Year, everyone!
I have news on some new chargers soon going live on Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona. First, a little background. In 2014, Tesla opened 6 superchargers in Kingman just a few blocks from Route 66. These are some of the oldest Tesla Superchargers outside California, and by current standards they are rather slow, with a maximum output of 120 kW. Kingman gets a lot of travelers to and from California on I-40, as well as people traveling between the Phoenix area and Las Vegas. The Kingman superchargers get very busy pretty often, and Tesla even added four 'urban style' 72 kW chargers to help with the load.
A solution to this I-40 bottleneck has finally arrived in the form of 16 brand new 250 kW superchargers, opening this weekend! The best part is that these chargers are located at the Powerhouse Visitor Center directly on Route 66, at 120 W. Andy Devine Avenue. The Powerhouse is a historic building that once provided electric power to the Kingman area. It's open to inform visitors of local attractions, houses a gift shop for Kingman and for the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, as well as a Route 66 museum, and since 2014 it has hosted the world's only dedicated electric vehicle museum, run by the Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation. There couldn't be a better place for Route 66 tourism and EVs to intersect than the Powerhouse. Before now, the Powerhouse has been home to one J1772 charger, which was their first foray into supporting EV visitors. I'm glad to see that this support is now going to expand dramatically.
The City of Kingman is hosting a ceremonial 'first plug-in' car show event for the new superchargers on Saturday, January 22 at 2 PM local time (currently the same as Mountain Time). We will be there in The Blue Spirit, along with a contingent of Tesla owners from the Tesla Owners Club of Las Vegas, and together with local Tesla owners we hope to fill up every supercharger for this event. If you are a Tesla owner and want to attend, please see this post on Facebook by the City of Kingman Economic Development, and message them so they can know how many cars to expect, and reserve you a spot. And of course everyone is welcome to attend, EV owners or not.
If you can get to the Powerhouse this Saturday, we'd love to see you. In my experience, most EV owners are happy to answer questions about their cars and so this is a great opportunity for anyone who's interested in EVs to learn about driving electric from lots of folks with firsthand experience. I will also have a small special surprise to unveil that is 100% on topic for a new supercharger unveiling at such an important Route 66 location!
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