EDISON — The township may soon become a destination for some electric car owners.
Tesla, purveyor of the luxury Model S, has an application before the Edison Zoning Board of Adjustment to bring one of its Tesla Superchargers to the outskirts of the Menlo Park Mall.
The electric car company brought its proposal before the zoning board on Dec. 17, seeking to install eight charging stations in the parking lot of the mall, at 199-219 Lafayette Ave. The application requests use and bulk variances regarding parking spaces and fence height.
The board did not approve the proposed project, instead requesting possible changes to the plans and scheduling the company to reappear at the board’s Jan. 14 meeting.
Township officials, along with the attorneys for the zoning board and Tesla, did not return calls to verify comments posted on a Tesla forum stating that the board did not approve the application for aesthetic reasons.
No timetable is set for the project, according to Tesla Communications Manager Patrick Jones.
“We’re really excited to be bringing Superchargers to New Jersey,” Jones said.
The move is part of the company’s plan to allow Tesla drivers on the East Coast to travel by road from Boston to Miami, he said.
“Superchargers enable long-distance travel,” he said. “We need to get over the hump of so-called range anxiety.”
In helping to do so, the Tesla Model S offers a range of 270 miles when powered up at a Supercharger.
“It’s got unprecedented range for electric vehicles,” Jones said, adding that the Model S was named 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year, as well as one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of the Year 2012.
Although the company does not have statistics on the number of Tesla drivers in the state, Jones said 19,000 of the vehicles have been driven on U.S. roads since the start of Tesla’s first full production year in 2013.
“We’re growing extremely fast,” he said.
Drivers of other types of electric cars will have to look elsewhere for charging sites, as Superchargers are only compatible with the Tesla Model S.
With the appearance of a sort of streamlined, space-age gas station, Superchargers allow Tesla drivers to get their cars charged to half capacity within 20 minutes via 120-kilowatt outlets, all free of charge. To put that in perspective, Jones said, a 240-volt outlet at one’s home provides about 30 miles of charge for every hour plugged in.
According to Tesla’s website, Superchargers are placed in areas with nearby amenities, such as restaurants and shopping malls.
Jones said the company recently opened its 50th Supercharger in the United States, and plans call for further expansion throughout 2014.