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GM has a long track record of fumbling new products. I expect Tesla will suffer from competition, but it will be BMW or Toyota that does the damage. The big a

by gozur88 10y ago

GM has a long track record of fumbling new products. I expect Tesla will suffer from competition, but it will be BMW or Toyota that does the damage. The big advantage Tesla has, as far as I can see, is the charging network. Someone else is going to have to bite the bullet and put up a few thousand charging stations.

skookumchuck 10y ago
It would really suck, though, if each automaker built an incompatible charging system.
madengr 10y ago
There are plenty of non Tesla chargers here in Kansas City. I can charge my Nissan Leaf on a chademo charger in 1/2 hour. So I'm wondering if Teslas own charger network makes that much difference.
- mikeash 10y ago
  CHAdeMO sucks fairly hard in some ways. First, they're not organized into a coherent network. When making a long trip, you may need to go well out of your way to hop from one CHAdeMO location to the next, or just not be able to do it altogether. Tesla's network is not entirely ubiquitous yet, but it covers 95% of cases now. Second, somewhat related to the first, they tend to be installed in small numbers, often just as single units. That makes it almost impossible to rely on them. If you arrive at a single CHAdeMO unit and it's broken or in use, you're screwed. Tesla Superchargers are usually installed of groups of 6 or more. For site-wide outages, the car will tell you and route around the broken sites. Third, they are ssllooww. Charging in half an hour sounds nice, but that's a Leaf, with a tiny battery. Plug a Tesla into a station like that and you're looking at a couple of hours. Most CHAdeMO stations max out at 50kW or less (I believe many of Nissan's are only 20kW!), while Superchargers do up to 120kW. Recharging time on road trips is generally acceptable with Superchargers, but with CHAdeMO you're looking at doubling or tripling that time, and it'll start to become a significant portion of your total travel time. Most people want to be able to make long trips. It's the #1 question I get about my Tesla. So far, no other manufacturer has shown anything capable of long trips. The Bolt could do them, if it had a reasonable charging network and could charge quickly, but it doesn't and it can't.
- vvanders 10y ago
  Chademo is about 1/3rd the speed of a supercharger in practice. I've never seen a full power Chademo and most have been 40-45kW. I get 120kW each time I hit the supercharger near me at <35% battery.

by gozur88 10y ago

skookumchuck 10y ago

It would really suck, though, if each automaker built an incompatible charging system.

madengr 10y ago

There are plenty of non Tesla chargers here in Kansas City. I can charge my Nissan Leaf on a chademo charger in 1/2 hour. So I'm wondering if Teslas own charger network makes that much difference.

mikeash 10y ago
CHAdeMO sucks fairly hard in some ways. First, they're not organized into a coherent network. When making a long trip, you may need to go well out of your way to hop from one CHAdeMO location to the next, or just not be able to do it altogether. Tesla's network is not entirely ubiquitous yet, but it covers 95% of cases now. Second, somewhat related to the first, they tend to be installed in small numbers, often just as single units. That makes it almost impossible to rely on them. If you arrive at a single CHAdeMO unit and it's broken or in use, you're screwed. Tesla Superchargers are usually installed of groups of 6 or more. For site-wide outages, the car will tell you and route around the broken sites. Third, they are ssllooww. Charging in half an hour sounds nice, but that's a Leaf, with a tiny battery. Plug a Tesla into a station like that and you're looking at a couple of hours. Most CHAdeMO stations max out at 50kW or less (I believe many of Nissan's are only 20kW!), while Superchargers do up to 120kW. Recharging time on road trips is generally acceptable with Superchargers, but with CHAdeMO you're looking at doubling or tripling that time, and it'll start to become a significant portion of your total travel time. Most people want to be able to make long trips. It's the #1 question I get about my Tesla. So far, no other manufacturer has shown anything capable of long trips. The Bolt could do them, if it had a reasonable charging network and could charge quickly, but it doesn't and it can't.
vvanders 10y ago
Chademo is about 1/3rd the speed of a supercharger in practice. I've never seen a full power Chademo and most have been 40-45kW. I get 120kW each time I hit the supercharger near me at <35% battery.