Tesla is closing its Supercharger station at its design studio in Los Angeles, its very first Supercharger, reportedly over security concerns.
Almost a decade ago, Tesla opened the first Supercharger station, and it happened to be at its own design studio near the Hawthorne airport in Los Angeles.
It features one of Tesla’s rare “Supercharger towers.”
The automaker later ended up expanding it with more stalls following the launch of the Supercharger V3, and it remains a very popular Supercharger station to this day.
I personally found myself waiting for a spot to charge there on several occasions:
But now Tesla is apparently forced to close the Supercharger station.
The automaker posted a notice on the Supercharger stalls at the station that reads: “This Supercharging location will be closing permanently to the general public on Monday July 19th.”
The station is already not visible on Tesla’s Supercharger map and navigation system.
Redditor “jamesf10603,” who posted the picture above, said that he had talked to someone at the design studio about the closure, and they confirm that it is due to security concerns:
I spoke with the leader of the Tesla design studio in Hawthorne and he told me that he requested the supercharger be closed to the public for security reasons. This was the first supercharger ever built.
He also said that he requested it from Elon specifically and that Elon “was a little disappointed, but he understands.”
This is not surprising considering the location of the Supercharger station.
First off, you need to drive on the backstreets of SpaceX’s headquarters just to get to the station.
Secondly, the station shares a lobby with the actual design studio where Tesla works on new vehicles and secret projects.
Some conference rooms are even visible from the lobby.
Tesla owners going into the lobby to wait for their charge or use the bathroom were told not to use their phones because Tesla didn’t want them to record.
We even heard stories of people trying to wander around when there was no one at the front desk despite clear instructions regarding the Supercharger lobby posted at the door.
It wouldn’t be surprising if that happened one too many times and now Tesla decided to restrict access to the Supercharger.
The good news is that Tesla has another Supercharger station at Target across the street.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
