Just how big are everyday things in Texas? It’s kind of over the top, actually. The Tesla Supercharger in Temple, Texas has 48(!) V3 charging stalls capable of 250 kW. Tesla has partnered with Buc-ee’s to build several large Supercharging stations on existing Buc-ee’s lots, but this one location in Temple must be one of the largest installations in the world. This massive L-shaped location opened just recently in February of 2023.
Located just off the busy I-35 an hour north of Austin, this location gets a lot of traffic for both charging and pumping gas. When we visited on a busy Saturday afternoon, about 10/48 stalls were occupied, so this location has a lot of headroom for when more Supercharger locations open to other EV brands in 2024 and beyond.
To be fair, we also counted around 100 gas pumps at this Buc-ee’s and those pumps were around 60% occupied. I definitely think this location has the potential to fully saturate the 48 charging stalls as the fleet of EVs on the road continues to grow at an accelerating pace.
This interesting public charging location gives us reason to be optimistic and hopeful for the future. Public EV charging infrastructure is lagging behind EV adoption in the United States and Canada, and it’s much worse for drivers of non-Tesla EVs. But if such a large-scale charging hub can be built here in Temple, it can be templated and replicated elsewhere. We are going to need hundreds of mega charging locations like this one along busy highway interchanges to make EV road trips convenient and accessible for everyone.
