The eight Tesla fast chargers being installed in the Mr. D’s parking lot are all the buzz around town. They seem to have come out of nowhere! Yet, the planning has been in the process for years. We sat down with Joey Motherway, one of the owners of Mr. D’s, to hear the story from the source.
According to Joey, about two years ago, several electric vehicle (EV) charging companies reached out to Mr. D’s to see about installing a Level 3 fast charging station on Mr. D’s property. Even with the two fast chargers at the Fremont Ford dealership, another two fast chargers at the Pioneer Museum, and the several Level 2 chargers in town, these EV charging companies still project demand for charging to outpace this supply. While locals will primarily charge their EVs at home, charging companies are trying to connect long distance drives across the U.S.—especially to popular destinations like Jackson. Mr. D’s happens to be an ideal location not only because of its location on Main Street with a large parking lot, but because of the high-voltage power lines that run above the store that EV chargers can tap into. Ultimately, Mr. D’s selected Tesla as the charging company of choice—presumably because of the more favorable terms in the contract and Tesla’s strong EV reputation.
During that two years of planning, Joey and the Tesla representatives went through several iterations of location siting and contract negotiations. What they landed on was a 10 year lease agreement where Tesla still owns, maintains, and receives profit from the chargers but pays rent to Mr. D’s for use of their property. After the 10 years, Mr. D’s has the option to own the chargers and acquire the maintenance or continue as before. This arrangement ultimately gave Joey the most peace of mind. “As a business, we will be generating income from an otherwise unused piece of our property and not need to worry about getting bogged down by the maintenance or servicing of these high-voltage chargers,” said Joey. “Since the chargers will mostly serve travelers passing through, we welcome the added economic development these chargers provide by people stopping to spend money in our town.”
Now, Tesla has a model they follow for installing these chargers. To us, it may seem like eight chargers is a lot given the amount of EVs we see on Lander’s roads, but Tesla projects that demand in the coming years. Tesla isn’t interested in installing solar panels for its chargers unless it’s in the solar-optimized zone around the equator. There are many different billing models out there for EV chargers—Tesla is using time-of-use charging. And, in Joey’s conversations with Tesla, he got the sense that their main priority right now is to create a seamless charging network for its customers. It appears that they aren’t even taking advantage of the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure pass through money made available through WYDOT. This is a purely market-driven decision.
And the wait is almost over! The only thing left to do is install the transformer, which might be a month out. When up and running, these fast chargers will route folks into our community and actually interact with it for the 20-30 minutes it takes to charge their vehicle—maybe even longer if they’re enjoying a beer down at Pushroot, reading a book at Indie Darling, shopping for gifts at Alchemy, and stocking up with groceries at Mr. D’s for their road trip.
ADDITIONAL READING ON EVs
Dive deeper into the efficiency of electric vehicles and greenhouse gas comparisons with these resources.
Electric Vehicle Myths - U.S. EPA : Covers everything from climate impact to safety.
Beyond Tailpipe Emissions Calculator - U.S. DOE : Compare greenhouse gas emissions from EVs on using our grid to gas vehicles.
Where the Energy Goes - U.S. DOE : Illustrations of how energy is spent using electric, hybrid, and gas vehicles. It’s all about efficient use of energy.