The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger has a couple of things going for it that have made it a part of Tesla enthusiasts’ lore: It’s the one of the electric car giant’s first Supercharger stations, and with 98 charging bays, it’s also the biggest in the world.
The Central California charging station is such a big deal that Tesla clubs even make it an appointment destination. Yes, they’ll rally-style drive to it just to honor its lineage and size.
But as with many Tesla-related things, there is a secret, thinly obscured by an Oz-like curtain, at the Harris Ranch Supercharger. Hidden in plain sight across the way from the Harris Ranch Supercharger’s main stations, behind a Shell station, is a small diesel plant that has helped power Tesla’s footprint.
‘A far darker reality’
The news was first broken by investigative journalist Edward Niedermeyer. In May 2015, Niedermeyer drove from his Oregon home to Harris Ranch to see whether “Musk’s latest bit of dream weaving could stand up to reality.”
A driver waits in the car while their Tesla vehicle recharges at the Tesla Supercharger station near Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif., on April 17, 2023.
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What Niedermeyer reportedly found was a little different from the company’s clean energy claims.
“I discovered that Tesla’s battery swap station was not in fact being made available to owners who regularly drove between California’s two largest cities,” Niedermeyer wrote in a May 2022 exposé for Slate. “Instead, the company was running diesel generators to power additional Superchargers (the kind that take 30 to 60 minutes to recharge a battery) to handle the holiday rush, their exhaust mingling with the unmistakable smell of bulls—t.”
The fact that a small diesel plant was helping power the additional chargers kicked off a series of events that unraveled the myth of Elon Musk for Niedermeyer: “Once you stop taking Musk at his word,” he wrote, “his heroic popular image evaporates, and a far darker reality begins to reveal itself.”
It seems that tracking Musk’s unsubstantiated claims has become a hobby for some. There’s even a handy website dedicated to things Musk has proclaimed that haven’t come true, along with the number of days that have passed since specific claims have been made.
The promises range from the benign — more than 1,700 days since Musk said Teslas should be able to read parking signs by the end of 2019 — to the silly — more than 1,700 days since Musk submitted a trademark application for a distilled agave liquor named “Teslaquila,” which hasn’t yet hit shelves — to the ridiculous — more than 1,800 days since Elon Musk announced that Tesla’s body shop was planning to repair collision damage in less than an hour.
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Tesla’s claims hardly ‘transparent or credible’
Niedermeyer told SFGATE in an email Friday that while he doesn’t have current information about the specifics of the Harris Ranch Supercharger, “what I can say is that Tesla’s claims about Superchargers and fleet carbon emissions are hardly more transparent or credible than when I investigated in 2015.”
The investigative journalist, who wrote a in-depth investigation of Tesla, pointed to Tesla’s latest impact report, in which the company criticized current measurements of greenhouse gas emissions for failing to factor in “the impact of emissions that are avoided through the sale of zero-emission or clean-tech products.”
“But when you get all the way to the actual explanation for their emission reduction claims (page 204) you get only the vaguest explanation, based on a generous baseline comparison of 24 mpg,” Niedermeyer continued, noting that the national average is dragged down by trucks. Tesla’s own Cybertruck has yet to hit the market after it was announced in 2019 for a planned 2021 release, though the company’s Texas factory did complete its first Cybertruck this summer.
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Newly installed chargers at the Tesla Supercharger station near Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif., on April 17, 2023.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE‘Rampant environmental law violations’
If Tesla’s calculations sound strange or a little off, it’s by design, Niedermeyer said.
“One of the real tragedies of Tesla, in my personal opinion, is the extent to which well-meaning people were convinced that this company whose mission is in fact extreme wealth generation by any means necessary is somehow a force for good, to be supported like one would a real mission-driven nonprofit,” the investigative journalist wrote SFGATE.
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As proof, Niedermeyer cites “Tesla’s record of rampant environmental law violations,” including repeated infractions at its Fremont factory.
But despite every promise unfulfilled and every alleged corner cut and law broken, some Tesla owners — who by now are used to the heady claims from their car company and its attention-seeking CEO — feel what has been delivered at the Harris Ranch Supercharger should be judged against Tesla’s competition. And when Tesla is matched against other car manufacturers, at least when it comes to charging convenience, the difference isn’t close.
Cars move through the assembly line at Tesla Motors, California’s only full-scale auto manufacturing plant, as seen on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, in Fremont, Calif.
Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images“I looked at other EVs before buying my Tesla, trust me,” Hollister resident Joselito Mondorio told SFGATE while he was charging his Tesla Model S at Harris Ranch on Tuesday en route to LA for vacation. “I have a long commute and I just wanted something reliable, with available charging stations to get me there and back.
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“This was really the only choice.”
When asked whether he monitors where the energy comes from that goes into his car, Mondorio paused to think about it for a moment. “You know, I should do it more,” he said. “But for me, I’m not putting gas in the car or exhaust [in the air]. But it’s something to look at, for sure.”
Bill and Sigrie Potter were traveling south on I-5 on Tuesday from their home in Pleasanton to enjoy the long weekend in San Diego. They were charging their 2017 Model X, which had a full battery after the pair enjoyed a quick lunch inside Harris Ranch.
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The generational beef and produce empire offers a 153-room hotel and a super-sized hacienda-style restaurant and gift shop that many swear makes the best burger between LA and SF. All this makes this I-5 oasis a convenient stop for travelers roaming up and down the state on the eve of a heavy-traffic three-day weekend.
Bill Potter admitted that he wasn’t aware of the diesel plant at the Harris Ranch Supercharger but said it didn’t surprise him. “There’s I think an app where you can see where your energy comes from,” he said. “And I know the station a little farther down the road at Kettleman City is mostly solar. Sometimes we go there, but we like the food, atmosphere at Harris better.”
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Tesla vehicles recharge at the Tesla Supercharger station near Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif., on April 17, 2023.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE“It’s something we think about probably more in the background,” Sigrie Potter said. “For us, on trips like this, it’s about getting a full charge on a car that’s a little older and how far we can go from here.”
While at Harris Ranch, SFGATE tried, unsuccessfully, to use the TezLab app, which tracks energy sources used by Tesla Superchargers. So SFGATE reached out to TezLab directly to see whether it’s able to track the amount of diesel, coal or other “nonrenewable” fuels that go into the mix at the Harris Ranch Supercharger.
TezLab spokesperson Ben Perlman emailed SFGATE on Friday to clarify how Tesla’s energy is used at places like the Harris Ranch Supercharger. “All electricity is created and used instantly by the mix of sources that are attached to the grid,” he wrote. “The energy being used at the Harris Ranch supercharger is the same energy being used anywhere within CalISO’s grid coverage.”
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Perlman wrote that by TezLab’s calculations, “nearly all Superchargers, homes, businesses, etc, in California are using those same sources of energy, unless they have their own dedicated solar or theoretical energy contracts, because of how grids work it’s not really feasible to look at one charger and say, ‘Oh, I’d rather drive another 5 minutes to this one that uses a cleaner source of energy’ since they are very likely on the same grid.”
Perlman’s assessment was confirmed by California ISO, a nonprofit that provides oversight to California’s electric power system.
“I checked with our analysts, and we don’t have visibility into diesel usage at individual units,” Cal ISO spokesperson Anne Gonzales wrote in an email to SFGATE.
Visitors from abroad concerned about energy
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For some, like Bruno and Angelika Ellinger, who live in Munich but are on vacation with their two sons and two dogs traveling from Seattle to San Diego and back again, the type of energy used to supply their rental Tesla was top-of-mind.
In this 2014 photo, a Tesla S 85 electric car charges at a supercharging station on the A6 highway near Bad Rappenau, Germany.
Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images“We have a Tesla at home in Germany,” Bruno said. “So, it made sense to rent one here. But the energy part, it’s always something we think about at home. In Germany, energy is so expensive, especially since we shut down our nuclear.
“Now, sadly, we’re using coal. I like to know what’s going into the car.”
Bruno said he wasn’t surprised that there was a possibility of a “mix of energy” being used to power his Tesla here, but he also noted even if some energy besides renewables was going into his car, Tesla was still “far ahead” of other competitors on energy use and convenience. This is a lesson he picked up in southern Germany, which has for generations served as a cradle of car innovation with BMW, Porsche and Audi’s headquarters in the region.
“Even in our part of Europe, Tesla has taken over,” Bruno said. “They were first and fastest with charging stations. I told my friend, an engineer at BMW, ‘You just haven’t kept up.’”
Does this mean that Tesla’s perfect? “Oh no,” Angelika said. “But as far as a car with room for our kids and dogs with charging stations on the way, it makes the most sense. It’s the most economical.”
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Charging stations at the Tesla Supercharger station near Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif., on April 17, 2023.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATETime and again, every Tesla owner at the Harris Ranch Supercharger had a similar story. Their car wasn’t perfect — neither is the company — but it’s the best option for now to do long-range driving, to get them from one end of the state to another, especially at the front end of a busy weekend.
As I left Harris Ranch, I swung by the Shell station next to the small diesel plant to top off for the trip home.
On cue, my new acquaintances from Bavaria drove by. Bruno smiled from the driver’s seat and waved. He appeared to gesture toward the Supercharger as I inserted the gas nozzle into my Toyota.
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