Tesla Motors has inaugurated its 100th Supercharger station in Hamilton, New Jersey, coincidentally (or not) the state that banned Tesla’s direct sales model. The event was attended by more than 100 people, including New Jersey state legislators, Tesla executives, and fans.
A Tesla Model S can get half a charge in as little as 20 minutes at a Supercharger, allowing for long-distance travel without having to pay for electricity (only for owners of 85 kWh models). Tesla has now 86 Supercharger stations in North America and 14 in Europe, with the first ones in China energized just this week.
Tesla Motors’ aim is to build a network that will allow drivers to be at a maximum 100 miles (161 km) from a Supercharger. By the end of next year, the company estimates the network will cover 98 percent of the U.S. population.
The network already supports long-distance drives on the most popular routes across America, “whether it be a cross country trip from Los Angeles to New York, an East Coast jaunt from Rhode Island to the southern tip of Florida, or an epic 12,000-mile journey to every corner of the United States,” according to Tesla.
James Chen, Tesla’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, said that electric vehicles and Superchargers will reduce the world’s addiction to oil. “What we are really doing here today is getting to our core mission of catalyzing the electric vehicle industry,” Chen said.
By Dan Mihalascu
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