ASHLAND — The electric vehicle revolution has come to Ashland — in the form of charging stations.
Tesla has installed 20 charging stations at Wingate by Wyndham Ashland, the former Holiday Inn Express along U.S. Route 250.
The station is known as a Tesla Supercharger Station and its official address is listed at 1392 Enterprise Parkway.
The electric vehicle manufacturer approached the city in October 2022 and applied for a “non-residential construction” permit to construct three “PSU Supercharging Stations and associated equipment.”
PSU stands for prefabricated supercharger units, according to Tesla. They are manufactured at a plant in Buffalo, New York.
So 12 of the stations will be classified as Level 3, the fastest type of electric vehicle charger. Plugging into a level 3 charger will deliver three to 20 miles per minute. A Level 1 charger delivers three to five miles.
The other eight stations are classified as slower charging units, either Level 1 or Level 2.
The city’s engineering office approved Tesla’s permit in January.
A hotel manager said the charging stations have been installed, but are not yet operable. The manager said technicians are due to come to the site soon to “turn them on.”
The manager said once the light is on, they are working.
The charging stations, once operable, will be open to the public.
How to use a charging station
There’s an app for that.
Tesla owners use an app. When you plug in to charge a Tesla at a Supercharger, payment is automatically assigned to the primary payment method on the Tesla account.
It is unclear how compatible the charging stations will be with non-Tesla EVs. Developers of the station in Ashland did not respond to requests for comment.
Some stations around the country have been built with a “Magic Dock.”
Here are instructions on how to use the station if it’s equipped with a Magic Dock, which is a CCS1 adapter that is placed on top of Tesla’s NACS plug that enables non-Tesla EVs to charge at a maximum rate of 250 kilowatts.
- Download the Tesla app and create an account.
- Select “Charge Your Non-Tesla” and find a nearby Supercharger site.
- Add a payment method, select a stall, unlock the adapter and plug in the car.
- Tap “Start Charging.”
- Select “Stop Charging” to complete the session.
How much does it cost to charge your Tesla?
It varies by location, but typically the stations will charge either by kilowatt hour (kWh) or by minute.
If it charges by kHw, the average price as of Nov. 28 in Ohio, is 14 cents. Those prices, however, can fluctuate based on the time of day.
Per-minute costs also vary and there are four tiers of charging speeds. You pay more by the minute based on how fast the car charges.
Tesla also charges an idle fee, which are currently set at 50 cents per minute in the U.S. if the station that’s more than half full. The fee jumps to $1 per minute at a full station. Users are given a five-minute grace period to move cars and avoid paying idle fees.
The first Supercharger in Ashland
The EV charging station is considered the first of its kind in Ashland.
Tesla lists more than 50,000 Supercharging stations around the world. There are around 17,000 in the U.S. and there are 32 in Ohio.
In February, the White House issued guidance that incentivized EV manufacturers to make chargers brand-agnostic.
In order to qualify for subsidies available within a 2021 $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, manufacturers must agree to make the chargers universal. Tesla is one of those manufacturers.
Tesla promised to make at least 3,500 of its stations in the U.S. available to all electric vehicles by the end of 2024. The company also said it would install 4,000 level 2 charging docks.