Supercharger Drive-In Breaks Ground
In the background of all the recent Tesla news like the Model 3 Highland’s release, and the runup to Cybertruck’s first deliveries - the company has been slowly working away on one of their most unique superchargers - and on September 28th, they officially broke ground.
Obviously Tesla has a lot of superchargers in California by now, but this location is sort of an experiment to see if Tesla can run some other amenities alongside their charging services - they want to make a 50’s retro-future-style diner with a full drive-in theater.
Designs for this location were leaked back in February 2022, when the permits and original floor plans were discovered. It was envisioned as a full 50’s diner experience - with some Tesla-futurism twists, like stainless steel fascia.
But the project has gotten several makeovers since then - as new architecture projects often do - and now the station will look more like these renderings:
The 32 supercharger station will be built right in Hollywood, California - at 7001 W. Santa Monica Boulevard. The plot is 24,544 square-feet - including the parking lot, transformer utility area, two-story restaurant - and the two massive 44 foot-high, 63 foot-long drive-in movie screens.
The floor plans don’t seem to have changed much since they shifted from a single storey diner to a rounded, two-storey location with a balcony so folks can take in movies from the second floor. The layout is designed around giving customers a good view of the movies - both from the restaurant, and from their cars if they want that classic Drive-In experience.
Understandably, there have been several permit changes and requests back and forth with the City authorities before construction was approved - anyone who has lived close to any advertising screens can vouch for the need to be careful about where those things point - and these movie screens are truly gigantic.
But since ground has officially broken, everything has likely been taken care of in that regard. Constructions like this don’t tend to take long unless some technical issues rear their headds later in the build - so we’re likely to see a mostly finished building by the end of December, and perhaps a grand opening shortly after that.
Fingers crossed for a smooth construction period!