5 ms·

Even 4-5 minutes is still an eternity if you're in a queue behind 10 cars during the holiday rush, and have to 'fill up' twice to get to your destination. What

Even 4-5 minutes is still an eternity if you're in a queue behind 10 cars during the holiday rush, and have to 'fill up' twice to get to your destination. What would be a 20 minute wait for gas becomes an hour, for something that doesn't even give you the same range.

wklauss 10y ago
It's unlikely that you'll hit those wait times due to other cars at the same supercharger, I think. Not all trips require a visit to a supercharger and unlike ICE, owners of electrical recharge daily at their homes. It could happen for some popular routes, but it will be a minor nuisance and easily fixed with more supercharging stations on the routes that are more congested.
- makecheck 10y ago
  The real problem with shared ports is that cars still occupy stations when they’re done charging, and they are not even required to “plug in” while using the convenient parking spots. You need a way to force a car to start charging while parked in special spots, and force it to leave when done (the Tesla actually could move itself out of the way automatically, if only there weren’t a charging cable attached).
  - delive 10y ago
    It would be a nice enhancement for drivers to have their cars move to non-charging spots after they finish charging. However, Tesla introduced fees just recently: https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharger-idle-fee https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharger-idle-fee. Also, after Dec 31, supercharging won't be unlimited for newly bought Teslas.
the8472 10y ago
How often does that happen per year?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- geodel 10y ago
  I do not know but I do want to reach friends and family as quickly as possible so that we can all spend time on our tablets and phones at same place.
  - refulgentis 10y ago
    A tremendous yawp of a LOL, thank you :-)
_ph_ 10y ago
For long distance travel, one would install some more superchargers than fuel pumps. In day to day driving recharging should not be an issue at all, as it should happen over night anyway, you start with a filled up car every morning.
- vegabook 10y ago
  600 KW is some chunky wattage. It's unlikely you can charge very many cars at the same time without having a power station next door. Delivering, for example, 10 megawatts to handle 15 cars simultaneously, requires some very heavy electrical and safety engineering, which would be very costly. You could run pylons along the highway, but then you'll need an high-wattage electricity substation next to each charging forecourt to bring the voltage down. A gas fuel tank under a service station, however, is cheap, and is limited only by the size of the forecourt in how many cars it can simultaneously service. And we still have the problem of charging time. You'd probably talking a forecourt capable of charging 100-200 cars simultaneously during peak times. That's 60-120 megawatts on Musk's fast charge. That's enormous. It's an entire small power station. For any long distance, my sense is that electric cars are still at a heavy disadvantage to the ICE for the foreseeable future, even assuming Musk's optimistic charging cycle projections. Let's face it, gasoline still has some miraculous energy storage density / transportability advantages.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Tesla uses its power packs at some Supercharges for demand shaving. More batteries = more peak load they can handle.

wklauss 10y ago

It's unlikely that you'll hit those wait times due to other cars at the same supercharger, I think. Not all trips require a visit to a supercharger and unlike ICE, owners of electrical recharge daily at their homes. It could happen for some popular routes, but it will be a minor nuisance and easily fixed with more supercharging stations on the routes that are more congested.

makecheck 10y ago
The real problem with shared ports is that cars still occupy stations when they’re done charging, and they are not even required to “plug in” while using the convenient parking spots. You need a way to force a car to start charging while parked in special spots, and force it to leave when done (the Tesla actually could move itself out of the way automatically, if only there weren’t a charging cable attached).
- delive 10y ago
  It would be a nice enhancement for drivers to have their cars move to non-charging spots after they finish charging. However, Tesla introduced fees just recently: https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharger-idle-fee https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharger-idle-fee. Also, after Dec 31, supercharging won't be unlimited for newly bought Teslas.

the8472 10y ago

How often does that happen per year?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
geodel 10y ago
I do not know but I do want to reach friends and family as quickly as possible so that we can all spend time on our tablets and phones at same place.
- refulgentis 10y ago
  A tremendous yawp of a LOL, thank you :-)

_ph_ 10y ago

For long distance travel, one would install some more superchargers than fuel pumps. In day to day driving recharging should not be an issue at all, as it should happen over night anyway, you start with a filled up car every morning.

vegabook 10y ago
600 KW is some chunky wattage. It's unlikely you can charge very many cars at the same time without having a power station next door. Delivering, for example, 10 megawatts to handle 15 cars simultaneously, requires some very heavy electrical and safety engineering, which would be very costly. You could run pylons along the highway, but then you'll need an high-wattage electricity substation next to each charging forecourt to bring the voltage down. A gas fuel tank under a service station, however, is cheap, and is limited only by the size of the forecourt in how many cars it can simultaneously service. And we still have the problem of charging time. You'd probably talking a forecourt capable of charging 100-200 cars simultaneously during peak times. That's 60-120 megawatts on Musk's fast charge. That's enormous. It's an entire small power station. For any long distance, my sense is that electric cars are still at a heavy disadvantage to the ICE for the foreseeable future, even assuming Musk's optimistic charging cycle projections. Let's face it, gasoline still has some miraculous energy storage density / transportability advantages.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Tesla uses its power packs at some Supercharges for demand shaving. More batteries = more peak load they can handle.