Tesla plans world’s biggest EV charging station, with 164 stalls

Tesla is rolling out another 420 electric vehicle Supercharger units across its home state of California as part of four new charging facilities, including what could be the world’s largest so far, with a total of 164 stalls.

According to a report by Drive Tesla Canada, the planned projects – all of which have won funding through a state government grant scheme – include two 100-stall sites: one in Barstow, in the Mojave Desert region of California’s south, and one in Willows, a town in the state’s north.

A further “smaller” project will install 56 Superchargers at the San Bernadino County town of Baker, which is often used as a pitstop for people traveling to Las Vegas – so as good a place as any for a bunch of new Tesla fast chargers.

But the headline news is the reported 164-stall site Tesla has secured funding to build in Coalinga, in central California, which appears set to take the mantle of the world’s biggest of its kind.

It tops the Supercharger station at Harris Ranch in California, one of the EV maker’s longest established charging sites, which last year revealed plans to add 82 Superchargers to the existing 18, taking it to an even 100.

According to Electrek, at the time the Harris Ranch expansion was announced, Tesla’s previous largest Supercharger station was a 72-stall facility in Shanghai.

Needless to say, whether in China or the US, these Supercharger stations are all much, much bigger than any in Australia, currently, Tesla or otherwise.

The contrast offers another example of the huge difference that supportive goverment policy makes to the uptake of EVs and the roll-out of the infrastructure around it.

As Drive Tesla Canada’s Marco writes, the California Energy Commission’s Clean Transportation Program Rural Electric Vehicle Charging program, or GFO-21-604, was devised to boost charging access in underserved rural communities.

“Overall, it received a total of 28 applications, and funding was granted for 17 of them. Tesla filed four of those applications and received maximum funding on all four. With a maximum amount of $1.6M per project, this is no small thing.”

The average size of a Tesla supercharging station in Australia is six stalls.