Bryan Logan/Business Insider
KETTLEMAN CITY, California — Amid swaths of farmland and a smattering of gas stations, fast-food restaurants, and motels, Tesla's largest-ever Supercharger station sits tucked away from the main street that runs underneath the 5 Freeway, on a corner lot that used to be a Burger King drive-thru.
Across the street to the east is a gas station and a Carl's Jr., to the south an auto-repair shop, and to the west two budget hotels.
Farther south across State Route 41, there's a recently built strip mall, curiously named Bravo Farms, whose architecture was designed to resemble old Western saloons of generations past.
The Tesla Supercharger station, unlike the Burger King before it, makes use of nearly all the available space. An expanse of covered solar parking shelters the 40 Superchargers on the lot. A private lounge invites Tesla travelers to rest in plush armchairs, plug in their mobile devices, and enjoy soothing music.
There are vending machines, restrooms, and Tesla staff inside the lounge. A separate display section shows off Tesla Energy products: the solar panels and Powerwall battery packs it sells to residential and commercial customers.
On one of the two large flat-screen displays inside the lounge is a real-time world map with the locations of every Supercharger station on the planet. There are three numbers at the bottom of the screen — kilowatt-hours delivered, miles enabled, and gallons of gasoline saved — that tick up as you watch.
This is now Tesla's domain. Its presence in an otherwise folksy enclave — one of at least six on the route here from Los Angeles — is a clear sign that Tesla is gearing up to own the electric-car future.
Tesla says the Kettleman City Supercharger is its largest in the US. Another in Baker, California, sits along a major route connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas.Bryan Logan/Business Insider
This trip served two purposes: to determine whether I could make it to the Kettleman City Supercharger without stopping to top up, and to check out Tesla's newest digs.Bryan Logan/Business Insider
I planned to drive from Los Angeles in the red Model S P100D Tesla loaned to me. Before I got on the road, I stopped briefly at the Supercharger station on the SpaceX campus in Hawthorne.Bryan Logan/Business Insider
I got there with 46 miles of range left.Bryan Logan/Business Insider
About 17 minutes in, I'd already gained 54 miles of range.Bryan Logan/Tesla
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
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- Ex-Tesla employee Martin Tripp posted dozens of photos that he alleges came from inside Tesla
- A former Tesla engineer says the company silenced her entire team after they brought up safety and quality issues
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