Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Tesla Supercharger network goes nationwide, gets quicker

For Model S drivers, Tesla Motors' oft-delayed Supercharger announcement was worth the wait. The electric vehicle company today explained how it will expand its network of high-speed electric vehicle charging stations across North America (and hinted that the technology will come to Europe and other areas in the future).

The Supercharger roll out will take place as follows. The number of Supercharger stations will triple from eight today to 25 by the end of June, bringing coverage to more of California, the Pacific northwest, in Texas between Austin and Dallas, and in Illinois and Colorado, as well as the east coast. By the end of the year, Superchargers "will connect most of the major metro areas in the US and Canada," Tesla says, and by a year from now, the network will cover "almost the entire population of the US and Canada." You can see the 2015 map above (click to enlarge) and there's an interactive map over on Tesla's website that shows the predicted coverage area through the years. CEO Elon Musk said on a conference call today that he thinks there will be more in the ground by 2015 than the map shows today.


The first Tesla model, the Roadster, and other electric vehicles are not compatible with the Superchargers, so for right now, only Model S drivers will be able to use all these new stations. All future Tesla vehicles will be able to take advantage of the technology, though, and Musk said he's not against working with other automakers to make their EVs compatible. The batteries need to be built with Supercharging in mind, he said, and Tesla needed to "solve the problem of long-distance travel and we can't wait for others to agree with our strategy. If we wait for some sort of consensus, it's going to take too long. We just need to get going and other manufacturers can either copy us or join us."

Musk also said there is grid storage – using huge, half-megawatthour batteries – at some of the stations that have solar power, where stationary batteries take energy from the sun and store it until a Model S pulls up. That means these stations can be completely taken off the grid, so that "even if there is a zombie apocalypse," Musk said, "you will still be able to travel throughout the country using Superchargers." Good to know.

We heard before that Tesla might announce something about a battery swap. When asked about that today, Musk coyly said he's a big fan of options and that, "maybe we'll have something to say about that in the future."

On top of the increased number of stations, Tesla is also upgrading the Supercharger technology to be faster. Instead of charging at 90 kW, the new rate is 120 kW, which means you can add three hours of driving to a pack in "just over 20 minutes." Tesla previously announced that Supercharging is and will remain free, for life, which makes going on a road trip awfully affordable once you've paid your $80,000 for a Model S. Musk said he's going to do just that, retracing a college road trip from LA to NYC, with all of his kids (he has five) later this year.

Tesla opened its first Superchargers last October. At the time, the company said each station cost around $250,000 to install. Today, Musk said the stations cost $150,000 without solar and $300,000 if they have solar panels.

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/05/30...aster-w-video/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

You can essentially travel the whole USA in your Tesla S for free. Just wear and tear items like tires, brakes need replacing.

Whitigir

It probably is the PITA to find one of those station as well, for now. Imagine how much off the way you have to go to get to one of the Charger, a trip which may take 8 hours, now will be 10 hours as 1 hour to find the charger and 1 hour to charge. Not to mention if you are unlucky and have somebody in front of you, who may take upto 40 mins to charge LOL!

Impressive non the less. I wish Toyota had one Plug in Hybrid which have Super Charge Capability and a range of 130+ miles. Now this is perfect of both world. But, since when will the world be perfect ?

One can only dream.

edgeucated

iTrader: (4)

Tesla really pushing the boundaries. This could be the new way of life

spwolf

didnt we have another thread for this yesterday?

In short, they are on purpose outside of major centers so you dont freeload on them. They dont expect you to use it more than several times per year. It is also "optional" for 65kwh model now so you have to pay $2000 to enable it.

Whitigir

I suppose Tesla is really pushing the boundary. Fed-Ex already experiencing this EV thing, and it didn't work out for them as planned.

5 years ago, Fed-Ex had some contracts with EV manufacturers to replace all Local Trucks to run on Electric. It didn't work out, just simply because over-night all the Trucks got plugged in, and there was shortage of power for the whole city.....believe it or not. Therefore, they had to trash that plan.

The same thing can be said for Tesla. Lets say if you come into a Charging Station like a Gas station, a busy one, you probably Wait for 15 minutes. Now with Tesla, you probably wait 45 mins to 1 hour for your turn. Imagine being the 2nd or 3rd in line.

Now, let's just say that Tesla have virtually as many Super Charger Stations as Gas Station, and people were to use Tesla 65% on the road. The Power Grid will not be able to handle all of that.

This is the reason why Toyota backed out from EV, and continuing into developing Hybrid. Electrical alone will not be enough to power that many Vehicles around the world.

Still, Tesla can sell Expensive Electric car which may be reaching to the top 15% of the US population Income people. This is another way of seeing High-class people. Another High-Class in it's own League, instead of the Conventional Ferrari, or Lamborghini.

Keep up the good work Tesla. But the Dream of making EV available toe 65% of the Country Population, yet will remain a dream. Because for now Human Technology can not get that far just yet.

Also, keep in mind that the Planet Power Grid has it's own limit as well, The more you consume it, the less it will protect you from Solar Flares....enough said.

Brian@Vossen

More to come

Sens4Miles

A lot of what you say is true if these Supercharging stations were being plugged into the grid. They're not (at least not all of them). Many of them are going to be powered off solar panels, so there will be no strain on the grid. I also heard they're working with a solar company partner that are using more efficient panels than regular solar panels, providing more available energy in a shorter period of time. I am thoroughly impressed with the way this company is being run. They are thinking ahead and figuring out all the obstacles along the way

gengar

I think you're talking about SolarCity, which is another one of Musk's companies. I know what they're claiming they can do with next-next-gen solar panels, but I'll wait until I see it - it takes a lot of solar panels right now to provide enough electricity to fill up (or even half-fill) 85kwh batteries all day long. To put it in perspective, current solar panels around 3'x5' peak at about 200w, or .2kw.... do the math. I guess what they're actually depending on to be a net positive is not winding up having that many Model S' around to use up the power.

I think the real takeaway from this is the boon to homeowners who own electric vehicles and have solar panel systems on their rooftops. That seems like a real cost savings, so long as they have the time to charge or the equipment to charge quickly.