Casing/non-live wires visibly protruding from the ground alongside a transformer at a site within Corral Centre appears likely to foreshadow the much anticipated installation of Brandonâs first Tesla Supercharger later this year.
A Supercharger is whatâs known to Electric Vehicle (EV) drivers as a âlevel 3â charger, capable of giving a vehicle a necessary charge in less than an hour. Brandon is home to several less powerful chargers including those at Shoppers Mall and Comfort Inn which generally take several hours to fully charge an EV. Faster charges means more practical road trips for electric vehicle drivers present and future, a prospect that quite excites one area Tesla driver I chatted with recently.
Though a precise location has not been announced, it was reported last year that Corral Centre would be the eventual site and what you see in the picture attached to this post is enough to get EV aficionados hopeful that an eventual Supercharger installation in the overall vicinity is closer to a reality.
An installation is said to be underway in Moose Jaw this spring with that city soon to have Saskatchewanâs first Supercharger. Based on a 2017 announcement, other nearby installations as part of a nationwide network are to include include Portage la Prairie and Moosomin.
Teslaâs website only notes 2019 as the targeted opening for the Brandon charger as well as ten others along the Trans Canada Highway in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. On the same site it's said that there are currently 1,533 Supercharger stations with 13,344 Superchargers.
Though all-electric vehicles are anything but common locally in the present, such vehicles gained a level of local attention earlier this year when Murray Chev brought in a Chevy Bolt EV as part of their Brandon Home Show entry. There is no known local Tesla owner (if you know otherwise please drop me a note), though at least one owner from rural Southwest Manitoba can often be seen frequenting city streets.