Saw a Tesla S on the road

[Brovane]

Not only that, but as Musk said, your choices are Fast or Free. So it's not like you have to get the battery swap. Just use the Supercharger as normal.

Yeah I think this is mostly to cover the people that complain that getting a free charge up in 30mins is still so to long. However they will just find something else to complain about how EV's will not work for them. I drive 500+ miles a day in the dead of winter and a EV will not work for me so there for it will not work for anyone else.:\

 

[Brovane]

Yeah, road trip use is where I see the biggest market for this. Because you'd be paying for gas for the long haul anyway.

I wonder if it will be automated or what? If you can pull into a station in the middle of the night & do a pack swap and then be on your way...

From my understanding it is fully automatted. However that would be some serious automation to have everything work and the rotating of the battery packs. Does it also clean the bottom of your car before removal of the battery? It could be covered in mud and dirt. While the station stores your original battery does it also charge it up so when you pick it up again it is fully charged?

 

[KentState]

Yeah I think this is mostly to cover the people that complain that getting a free charge up in 30mins is still so to long. However they will just find something else to complain about how EV's will not work for them. I drive 500+ miles a day in the dead of winter and a EV will not work for me so there for it will not work for anyone else.:\

The problem is that there are too many things to complain about. EVs as they stand are nothing more than a PoC. They work for very few people when you look at the complete picture and I'm not sure they are solving for the intended problem. Batteries have to source components from foreign countries, the technology is still very expensive and the infrastructure is not in place. I believe that the last two will be resolved, but how do we get around relying on China for precious metals for batteries? Is that really a better position than getting 11% of our oil from the Middle East?

 

[Phanuel]

I believe that the last two will be resolved, but how do we get around relying on China for precious metals for batteries? Is that really a better position than getting 11% of our oil from the Middle East?

Big concern of mine as well. I'm hoping Hydrogen can become a viable alternative but I haven't really followed it as much since really only Honda(?) has an active prototype out there?

 

[Brovane]

The problem is that there are too many things to complain about. EVs as they stand are nothing more than a PoC. They work for very few people when you look at the complete picture and I'm not sure they are solving for the intended problem. Batteries have to source components from foreign countries, the technology is still very expensive and the infrastructure is not in place. I believe that the last two will be resolved, but how do we get around relying on China for precious metals for batteries? Is that really a better position than getting 11% of our oil from the Middle East?

I wonder really how much we are depending on China for material for Li-On batteries since around half of the known Lithium reservers are in Bolivia? Also batteries are recycable, oil isn't once it is burned for energy.

 

[Jinny]

they are all over here in the bay area, especially palo alto area, i think i see more of them than honda civics.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah I think this is mostly to cover the people that complain that getting a free charge up in 30mins is still so to long. However they will just find something else to complain about how EV's will not work for them. I drive 500+ miles a day in the dead of winter and a EV will not work for me so there for it will not work for anyone else.:\

Wow that's like 6 hours of driving a day! What the heck do you do??

 

[Kaido]

From my understanding it is fully automatted. However that would be some serious automation to have everything work and the rotating of the battery packs. Does it also clean the bottom of your car before removal of the battery? It could be covered in mud and dirt. While the station stores your original battery does it also charge it up so when you pick it up again it is fully charged?

I almost wonder if it'll be like a car wash...drive onto the rails and have it center your position etc.

I'm pretty sure your old battery will be charged up for you so you can get home

 

[Kaido]

The problem is that there are too many things to complain about. EVs as they stand are nothing more than a PoC. They work for very few people when you look at the complete picture and I'm not sure they are solving for the intended problem. Batteries have to source components from foreign countries, the technology is still very expensive and the infrastructure is not in place. I believe that the last two will be resolved, but how do we get around relying on China for precious metals for batteries? Is that really a better position than getting 11% of our oil from the Middle East?

I'd do it more for the cool factor.

I also think EV's, in their current condition, are great for a second (or third) family car, where you have a reliable gas guzzler for your main ride so you can go anywhere. Even with a 500-mile pack in the Tesla, you're still stuck having to wait to charge up somewhere, which is not nearly as convenient as just filling up your tank with gas. And we're not going to see nationwide distribution of those battery-swapping stations for a long time would be my guess...they announced that they want to have them at all of the Supercharging stations from LA to NYC, but not when haha.

 

[Brovane]

I'd do it more for the cool factor.

I also think EV's, in their current condition, are great for a second (or third) family car, where you have a reliable gas guzzler for your main ride so you can go anywhere. Even with a 500-mile pack in the Tesla, you're still stuck having to wait to charge up somewhere, which is not nearly as convenient as just filling up your tank with gas. And we're not going to see nationwide distribution of those battery-swapping stations for a long time would be my guess...they announced that they want to have them at all of the Supercharging stations from LA to NYC, but not when haha.

Actually for the super charging station it should be the end of the year. Musk has already said that at the end of the year he wants to drive all his children and himself across the country using a Model S and the supercharing stations. Also realistically if you had a sign outside a gas station that they would give a free fill up if you waited 40 mins for the gas you would have a line down the block of people trying to fill up for free. Since the super charging stations are free I don't see as a hugh hassle to wait the extra time for the fill up. The key thing for me is as the cars become popular is Tesla going to make sure they have the extra capacity at the super charging stations. For example if they have 4 slots and they are noticing that during certain time all 4 slots are taken up are they going to add more slots for charging? It will have to remain to be seen as the car becomes popular how busy the super charging stations will be.

 

[Brovane]

I almost wonder if it'll be like a car wash...drive onto the rails and have it center your position etc.

I'm pretty sure your old battery will be charged up for you so you can get home

The video made it kind of look like a car wash you drive up on. I guess they are using the same type of robots they use to install the batteries at the factory. So basically the robots will torque the nuts back down to factory specs. However I could just see the underside of a car getting really dirty and maybe the robots having trouble finding the nuts to take off.

 

[Brovane]

Wow that's like 6 hours of driving a day! What the heck do you do??

I was just being sarcastic. Like some of the people that say EV's will not work for them. I do not do nearly that much driving. However in any discussion there is always one extreme person that says something like they they drive some extreme distance in the dead of winter and a EV will not work for them so there. As if because a EV will not work them it will not work for anyone else. Or the people that say when they are on a road trip they can cover 1000+ miles in a day and stopping every 150-200 miles to charge up wouldn't work for them so EV's are useless.

 

[IBuyUFO]

am I the only one not really that impressed by electric cars?

 

[bigi]

am I the only one not really that impressed by electric cars?

Well, there are electric cars and there are Tesla electric cars.

Tesla Model S has railgun acceleration at any RPM/Speed due to its instant max torque.

It destroys 99.9% gasoline cars on the road not only in acceleration but also in many other aspects such as space, low sound levels, adaptive suspension, etc.

tube is your friend. Consumer reports dudes had to find new words to describe their highest prized car.

Also, you don't really win car of the year for looks alone. Watch the ceremony here. They do explain their entire process.

Also, if you still don't believe that solar can and will power Teslas and many other things perhaps THORIUM will.

 

[desura]

Is there a good real-life review of the "supercharger"?

 

[ND40oz]

Yeah I think this is mostly to cover the people that complain that getting a free charge up in 30mins is still so to long. However they will just find something else to complain about how EV's will not work for them. I drive 500+ miles a day in the dead of winter and a EV will not work for me so there for it will not work for anyone else.:\

I looked at the Model S, if you're strictly using it as a commuter vehicle it works nicely. But if I'm spending 90k on a vehicle, I'd want to use it as the family vehicle, not just to get me to work and back. In that model, it just doesn't work unless you're on the west coast or the I-95 corridor and all of your travel is along those routes. Until the supercharger network is fully up and functional, I just can't justify buying one. I drive to the east coast at least once a year, there's no way to do that until at least 2014. If I want to take a weekend trip anywhere, I can't do that either. The supercharger planned for I-70 in Idaho Springs will help for quick trips to the mountains, but I'm not doing that in the winter either with a rwd only car with minimal ground clearance. Hopefully in 2 years they'll have everything in place and the Model X will be a viable option.

 

[Kaido]

Also, you don't really win car of the year for looks alone. Watch the ceremony here. They do explain their entire process.

Wow, they pretty much all agreed it was an awesome car. Usually there's more of a fight for the top spot haha!

Elon is a cool guy :thumbsup:

 

[Kaido]

I looked at the Model S, if you're strictly using it as a commuter vehicle it works nicely. But if I'm spending 90k on a vehicle, I'd want to use it as the family vehicle, not just to get me to work and back. In that model, it just doesn't work unless you're on the west coast or the I-95 corridor and all of your travel is along those routes. Until the supercharger network is fully up and functional, I just can't justify buying one. I drive to the east coast at least once a year, there's no way to do that until at least 2014. If I want to take a weekend trip anywhere, I can't do that either. The supercharger planned for I-70 in Idaho Springs will help for quick trips to the mountains, but I'm not doing that in the winter either with a rwd only car with minimal ground clearance. Hopefully in 2 years they'll have everything in place and the Model X will be a viable option.

I'm really interested to see how soon that 500-mile pack will come to fruition!

 

[Kaido]

Is there a good real-life review of the "supercharger"?

Found a few on Youtube. Quick one -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5vd0D-C5VA

Walkaround -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocCzCK5vdyg

Full charge in an hour

150-mile "quick charge" in 30 minutes

 

[desura]

Found a few on Youtube. Quick one -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5vd0D-C5VA

Walkaround -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocCzCK5vdyg

Full charge in an hour

150-mile "quick charge" in 30 minutes

I mean, I'm surprised there isn't like a good 800 word Tesla owner's writeup of his experience using a supercharger, the effect on battery lifespan, the range, and so no.

I've been wondering: how is energy stored in these things? A larger battery bank? When charging, there's no way that all of the energy is coming from the solar panels. There must be a reservoir of some sort.

 

[LTC8K6]

I mean, I'm surprised there isn't like a good 800 word Tesla owner's writeup of his experience using a supercharger, the effect on battery lifespan, the range, and so no.

I've been wondering: how is energy stored in these things? A larger battery bank? When charging, there's no way that all of the energy is coming from the solar panels. There must be a reservoir of some sort.

It's coming from the local grid.

Only a few of the stations in Cali (on the 101) have the SolarCity solar supply. IIRC, they got huge grants to set those up, and a relative of Musk is in there somewhere with SolarCity.

 

[desura]

It just hit me that theoretically...you should be able to supercharge hundreds of miles in like half an hour.

Reason being that the Tesla battery pack is basically thousands of laptop battery cells, right? It should be possible to charge each individual cell in a parallel fashion...which is probably what they do, since laptop batteries do take several hours to fully recharge...

But...

If the Tesla realistically has a 240 mile range, and the supercharge adds like 130 hours...it's good for like 5-6 hours of driving per day max.

 

[Brovane]

I looked at the Model S, if you're strictly using it as a commuter vehicle it works nicely. But if I'm spending 90k on a vehicle, I'd want to use it as the family vehicle, not just to get me to work and back. In that model, it just doesn't work unless you're on the west coast or the I-95 corridor and all of your travel is along those routes. Until the supercharger network is fully up and functional, I just can't justify buying one. I drive to the east coast at least once a year, there's no way to do that until at least 2014. If I want to take a weekend trip anywhere, I can't do that either. The supercharger planned for I-70 in Idaho Springs will help for quick trips to the mountains, but I'm not doing that in the winter either with a rwd only car with minimal ground clearance. Hopefully in 2 years they'll have everything in place and the Model X will be a viable option.

I know for me personally this vehicle would work even as a family vehicle for most trips, 2 kids and wife. Most of the time or trips are either to San Diego about 70-75 miles or to Bakersfield which is about 180 miles. The model S would get us to both locations without issue. The key for Tesla will be the SuperCharger stations and the deployment. I am glad it looks like they rolling them out quicker than planned. I know for me I could drive to Bakersfield and pull in to the Tejon Ranch super charger station and top of the vehicle and then continue to Bakersfield. Do the family business and then drive back probably depending on if I could charge it or not in Bakersfield stopping at the Tejon Ranch station again to top of the battery before driving home. Last year we drove to Lake Tahoe and with the way the super charger stations are it wouldn't have been a issue. Even going to Las Vegas shouldn't be a issue as long as you double check that your hotel has a charging station. The thing is for Tesla even without the Super Charging network fully in place they have a waiting list of people for the cars. They just didn't have the capital to put a nation wide super charging network in-place from the start. Looking forward to when the below $50k model is released so I can possibly look at a purchase.

 

[Brovane]

I mean, I'm surprised there isn't like a good 800 word Tesla owner's writeup of his experience using a supercharger, the effect on battery lifespan, the range, and so no.

I've been wondering: how is energy stored in these things? A larger battery bank? When charging, there's no way that all of the energy is coming from the solar panels. There must be a reservoir of some sort.

I think the plan is eventually to use battery packs with solar panels charging the packs. It isn't like Tesla doesn't have access to battery packs. When you pull in you would draw off the battery packs. Right now they are drawing from the grid directly. I have heard that Musk say that eventually the goal is to get the Super Charging stations independent from the Grid so even in a Zombie Apocalypse you could charge up your Model S. Yes he did say Zombie Apocalypse......

 

[Brovane]

It just hit me that theoretically...you should be able to supercharge hundreds of miles in like half an hour.

Reason being that the Tesla battery pack is basically thousands of laptop battery cells, right? It should be possible to charge each individual cell in a parallel fashion...which is probably what they do, since laptop batteries do take several hours to fully recharge...

But...

If the Tesla realistically has a 240 mile range, and the supercharge adds like 130 hours...it's good for like 5-6 hours of driving per day max.

Tesla hasn't said exactly how it works. However they haven't said that excess use of the super charging stations would void the battery warranty. The battery is yes lots of individual cells. My theory is the same of what you indicated is that with that much power 80+kw they have found a way to charge all the cells at once in the battery pack. The battery pack will get to around 50% charge in around 30mins. However you can leave it in longer and eventually it will hit the max charge. This is a good article and it discusses a drive from Lake Tahoe to LA using the super charging stations in a single day covering over 500+ miles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/automobiles/on-an-electric-highway-charging-into-the-future.html?_r=0

You tube video. You can see how once it starts charging the mileage until empty starts increasing in seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5vd0D-C5VA