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Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging
- leesec 8y agoThe amount Elon has delivered so far this year alone at Tesla and SpaceX is tremendous then you see a headline where he landed a 50+ million tunneling deal on the side because why not. Staggering.
- chubbyrabbit 8y agoHis companies delivered, not him alone. Take nothing away from the man though, he works insane hours.
- DeonPenny 8y agoYeh but you got to hire a good team and he really does that
- luckydata 8y agoThen he fires them constantly or frustrates the hell out of them until they quit. Elon is a bad boss.
- tomp 8y agoI'd much rather have a shitty boss with great vision than a great boss with shitty mission (e.g. advertising or something).
- vermontdevil 8y agoOnly those who just can’t handle him. Plenty of people does not mind working for him. See this survey https://insideevs.com/tesla-spacex-employees-confident-elon-musk/ https://insideevs.com/tesla-spacex-employees-confident-elon-...
- solarkraft 8y agoThen how come the team does good work? "Firing constantly" sounds exactly like weeding out unproductive members (of course I now nothing about the workers' feelings, though).
- luckydata 8y agoNo, a lot of very good folks are shed by Elon's companies all the time. He's just not an effective manager, Tesla is in great measure successful despite Elon, not because of him, and his limitations as a manager are becoming more and more of an obstacle. I have first hand knowledge of that.
- thevardanian 8y agoBut he's the one coordinating it all. Which is impressive. It's often difficult to run a single small business let alone a single large project/company. It's quite outstanding to be able to run multiple of them simultaneously.
- tedivm 8y agoHe's not exactly coordinating it all himself. I doubt SpaceX would be doing anywhere near as well without people like Gwynne Shotwell.
- solarkraft 8y agoGwynne Shotwell is absolutely under-appreciated, perhaps because she's less public. I'd absolutely like hearing more from her.
- leesec 8y agoTotally agree he's not the only person doing great work at his companies. Also really weird to me when people are confident he's not the genius one man band he appears to be, and then immediately point the credit towards another Singular person like Gwynne Shotwell. If we can say it wouldn't be doing great without Gwynne Shotwell, it should also be clear it wouldn't be doing great/even exist without Elon.
- tedivm 8y agoYou're either shifting the goalposts or are misunderstanding what's being said. No one at all said that Gwynne is "a singular person" who is doing all the work. Instead Gwynne was being used as a counter example to show that Elon isn't the only one working at the company or doing all the organization. The only issue being discussed was the original assertion that "he's the one coordinating it all", and pointing to a person doing coordinating seems like a great way to prove that wrong.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoIf we could plot effort vs size of enterprise for the top few roles, I wonder how that looks? I'm willing to bet the average small enterprise requires a lot more effort on behalf of the owners and managers than any of the C-suite roles at large enterprises. The small business owner often has to perform many roles themselves, and probably still not be able to afford a cleaner / household help / assistant(s) / tutors / nannies.
- kumarvvr 8y agoHe sets the vision and drives the team. Reminds me of a recent story about the most recent rocket engines from SpaceX. Elon pushed his team for scaling up an efficient design of rockets, which till then was only done with lower powered engines. Elon took a look at the tech, came to a decision that scaling up is a reasonable risk/reward trade-off and demanded his team go ahead with it. His team balked, but made it happen. I remember the leader of the team specifically thanking Elon, saying that without his push, they would not have done it. It takes a lot of guts, knowledge and confidence in yourself and your team to make such decisions. edit : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19153953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19153953
- computerex 8y agoWhich tunneling deal are you referring to?
- pkaye 8y agoLas Vegas.
- lemoncucumber 8y agoI'm surprised I haven't read any talk of, or even speculation about the idea of the Boring Company getting involved with the tunneling required for CA's high-speed rail project (for the Pacheco Pass and Tehachapi Mountains segments). My guess is that perhaps very different tunneling technology is required given the geology or something. Or maybe it's just that Elon Musk hates trains and loves cars way too much.
- mixmastamyk 8y agoTBC makes small tunnels, enough for an SUV, likely not big enough for a long distance train.
- gamblor956 8y agoTBC's "innovation" was to make smaller tunnels, which is useful for things that can be done in smaller tunnels but is useless for any mass transit activity because they're simply not large enough. (TBC's boring machines were previously used to bore utility and sewer tunnels.)
- pbreit 8y agoWhich makes the Tesla bear cabal so disappointing.
- kmlx 8y agofor sure: - closed stores - no profit - lied about FSD - stock down 30% - long-term investors exit the tunnel is a joke. we were promised something, but as always with musk, we get something completely different. i'm giving the tunnel deal 3 to 6 months before imploding.
- belltaco 8y agoAbout 4 months ago the narrative on HN was that Tesla will go bankrupt right about this time because they'd be unable to repay a loan. Read news recently that they paid it in cash. Been seeing highly upvoted doomsday comments since many years about Tesla, like Model 3 was literally supposed to be DoA, it just feels so weird to me.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoAnd those comments are understandable for a number of reasons. From an outsiders / non-economist's point of view, these things should not be possible. There's also an army of trolls hired by short sellers who would benefit from Tesla's stock losing value - at one point, Tesla was the most shorted stock out there.
- mft_ 8y agoI agree; it always makes me put my tinfoil hat on, and wonder how much of this comes from news planted either by competing car companies, or more likely the hedge funds who will profit if Tesla does fail.
- nickik 8y ago- lowering prices for EV - human rated space craft to ISS - massively extend the lead in terms of EV charging networks But yeah we should really focus on the closes show rooms, that's really whats important ...
- kmlx 8y ago- prices for EVs are coming down irrespective of tesla - tesla doesn’t build spacecraft. that’s spacex. - the tesla ev charging network is expanding. but can i charge another ev at one of their stations? all the things that i mentioned are signs that the company isn’t doing well.
- justanotherjoe 8y agohe's also a trendsetter. What's with Boeing and Blue Origin getting in on the commercial space race. Also he create the market for electric cars with new players like Rivian and old ones like Volvo, and load others I'm sure. Even some big players like Virgin Group jumped in on the Hyperloop thing, although I dont care about this as much. Other players may create supply, but Elon can create demand. He's in such a unique position, imo.
- chrismorgan 8y ago> and charge at rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour So it charges at up to Mach 1.3. Supersonic charging!
- DrScump 8y agoDownside: it's really loud.
- lxe 8y agoLooks like 100kw less than already existing non-Tesla 350kw chargers.
- Retric 8y ago0 cars currently shipping can handle 350kw charging. Delivering lot’s of power is fairly strait forward, designing cars to safely handle that is much harder. Further, as infrastructure that needs to work, the 1MW of power supplying these chargers is the more important upgrade as charging multiple cars was already power limited.
- llukas 8y ago250kw is not that much higher than 175kw - https://electrek.co/2018/12/18/audi-e-tron-155-kw-fast-charge-rate/ https://electrek.co/2018/12/18/audi-e-tron-155-kw-fast-charg...
- Retric 8y agoI don’t know if Tesla’s can do 250kw but that car was maxing out at 155kw charging and averaging below that. Which is my point, getting an affordable car well past 250kw charging is going to be difficult.
- _ph_ 8y agoThere are quite a lot 350kw charger boxes, but unfortunately, most of them still have standard CCS-cables, limiting the maximum current to 200A. This means, for most cars they are limited to about 80kW charging speed (400V). It would be cool though, if Tesla quickly rolled out the software updates to the European Model 3s, as they then could use the 350kW chargers for higher charging speeds as soon as the chargers support higher currents.
- nickik 8y agoThe essentially marketing chargers that don't actually exists in any wide scale and no cars that actually exists that can use it?
- 8y ago
- superkuh 8y ago> more than 99% of the U.S. population is covered by the network The coasts, the south, and interstates highways. Most of the US area, where you can go in the USA, is not covered.
- lbotos 8y agoThe claim was "99% of the population is covered" which I suspect is exactly phrased to be true in light of your claim.
- tempestn 8y agoThese cars have ranges of 300-400 miles or more though. Tough to go that distance in a single trip without traveling through a populated area or using an interstate highway.
- natch 8y agoGenerally 200-300 miles would be more fair but your point stands.
- natch 8y agoNot true. I've been on several long interstate trips in large western states, including very large sparsely populated ones. Coverage was never a problem. There are plenty of superchargers. The network is really impressive... and growing! On my trips I met other people at the superchargers who had similar experiences in the west, the midwest, and the east. Met people driving from Chicago to California for example, and they were doing great. You can pretty much drive anywhere in the US, although you clearly want to choose a route in such a way as to visit chargers when needed.
- azhenley 8y agoThis is awesome. I'm particularly happy about the on-route battery warming. Since I can't charge at my apartment, I tend to charge my car in the morning. If it is around freezing temperatures, it will charge at a rate of 0 miles per hour.
- SnowingXIV 8y agoCan you speak more to this? Similar situation. Interested in a Tesla but live in an apartment without a station but during winter have well below freezing and sub zero temps. Seems difficult.
- azhenley 8y agoI've gotten used to it and do just fine not being able to charge at home. I have chargers at my work but still choose to mostly use the nearby supercharger. When I would use the supercharger on cold mornings, it would charge at 0mph for 10-15 minutes and then slowly increase. The worst I saw was it stayed at a rate of 25mph for over an hour before I finally had to leave. However, using a regular wall socket has consistently given me 4-5mph even in subfreezing temperatures. For comparison, a supercharger on a warm day gives >300mph. If you can drive for a bit before charging then it charges much faster. That is why I'm excited about the on-route battery warming!
- grecy 8y agoI just read a trip report of a couple that did a 4,600 mile road trip in their Model 3 in cold temps (between 0 and 7 F) and their trick was to always charge at the end of a day so the battery was warm.
- fudged71 8y agoAre you at all able to pre-warm the car, like when you wake up and have breakfast, so it is ready to go?
- NoblePublius 8y ago
- yalogin 8y agoThis really speaks to the brilliance of Musk and Tesla. Any other company would be happy selling Model 3s and working hard to provide incentives to sell more. Tesla identities that the bottleneck for all these cars is the charging network and simultaneously works on improving that. Really impressed with the way they think.
- clouddrover 8y agoI think it's more about trying to catch up to the CCS charging networks which already have 350 kW chargers (Ionity, Electrify America, EVgo, FastNed). It'd be better if Tesla adopted the CCS standard for all their cars. The European version of the Model 3 has a CCS plug so it's already the case that some Teslas have it. I can fuel my ICE car at any fueling station. I should be able to charge my electric car at any charging station. Minimizing the number of different charging standards will help achieve that.
- kylec 8y agoI'm not opposed to standardization, but the CCS connector is big and ugly. I'm kind of glad Tesla doesn't use it here in the US.
- abledon 8y agofirst world problem : "UGH my charging connector is big and ugly!" hahaha
- nickik 8y agoHow many actual 350kW chargers actually exist? And do any actual cars actually use them?
- clouddrover 8y agoDon't know how many there are, but CCS charging networks have been installing 350 kW chargers for over a year now so I put the figure at "many": https://fastned.nl/en/blog/post/fastned-onthult-nieuwe-generatie-snellaadstations https://fastned.nl/en/blog/post/fastned-onthult-nieuwe-gener... All cars can use the 350 kW chargers to charge at the car's maximum charge rate (whatever that is for the particular car). The Porsche Taycan has an 800 volt battery system and can make full use of a 350 kW charger. The Taycan will be released at the end of this year. Here are Porsche's specs for the Taycan: https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/products/porsche-taycan-mission-e-drive-unit-battery-charging-electro-mobility-dossier-sportscar-production-christophorus-387-15827.html https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/products/porsche-taycan-miss...
- askafriend 8y agoFor now, I can't imagine my next car being anything but a Tesla.
- andrewmunsell 8y agoI have an i3 now and after my lease is up, I will absolutely either get a Model 3 or Y. There's just no other electric car comparable that will allow you to road-trip without worrying about charger access.
- mixmastamyk 8y agoIs privacy an option yet?
- scarlac 8y agoYou'd have to be more specific than that. You can disable data sharing if you prefer.
- natch 8y ago"Data sharing" is pretty vague but assuming you are talking about car data, it's completely decoupled from the VIN or any other identifiers that could ID you, so disabling it is just silly, but yes you can choose to not opt in.
- oarsinsync 8y agoDoes "car data" include locations? There's not many people that start from area A (~500m^2 around your home) and go to area Z (~500m^2 around your office) every weekday morning, and back again every weekday evening. And yep, this applies to anything that offers vague rudimentary location monitoring.
- mixmastamyk 8y agoCorrect, many folks don’t realize how much can be derived about them from even anonymous data. Personally not interested in all this auto pilot stuff anyway. Deceleration when approaching an object and rudimentary lane assist are all I’d care for and shouldn’t require machine learning.
- colmmacc 8y agoTesla Model S owner here. By choosing spots and times strategically I've gotten nearly 400MPH charging at the existing stations and the difference it makes to convenience is amazing. Super looking forward to 1000MPH! At that rate I can likely make it to Squamish BC, from Seattle, and back, with only one ~20 minute charge in between. That's still about 4x or 5x for the time I would spend filling an ICE car, but getting to around 20 minutes - instead of an hour - feels like an important threshold. I can chill out or catch up on e-mail or something for 20 minutes without feeling the need to go walk, or check out the weird strip mall or Jack in the Box that the charging station I use was planted beside. Also it's been clear since the Tesla Semi truck was announced that some major change in charging infrastructure would be necessary. This doesn't seem quite enough for /that/ though, I wonder if another rev is coming.
- kylec 8y agoYou might need to get a Model 3/Y if you want to hit 1000mi/hr charging. The Model S likely won't be capable of it.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Zanni 8y agoYeah, this is closing the gap in a significant way. It's still not "charge on the way to work" fast, but it wouldn't be a painful delay on the way home. More important, it's an improvement. I still switch back and forth between my Model S and an ICE car--I can't remember a time when the gas station experience ever got better.
- atq2119 8y agoOne of the big benefits of electric in my view is that you can just let it charge overnight in your own garage. There's simply no need to charge on the way to work. (Yeah, this only works if you do have a garage, but that covers a lot of people.)
- yalogin 8y agoThe main info is missing in this PR release though. Is this a hardware upgrade or a software update? Looks like a hw upgrade, if so are they upgrading all their charging stations? Or did they already do it? How long is the upgrade going to take and how much will it cost?
- andrewmunsell 8y agoIt's a completely new hardware design with the power cabinets now using industrial inverters. The old v2 cabinet used a bunch of Model S inverters. The power posts (the white things with the cables on them) are the same as v2 externally, but not internally. They're not retrofitting stations, but all new stations (other than Urban Superchargers, which they will still install in urban locations) will be v3 hardware. For the cars, accepting the higher charger rate is 100% software in Model 3 (because the cabling and battery already support it). Model S & X will probably need thicker DC cables to the battery to support the 250 kW peak charging rate.
- mixmastamyk 8y agoSaid older models software upgradable to 145kw.
- azhenley 8y agoDon't forget the software aspect that warms the battery prior to you arriving at the supercharger. That provides half of the improvement, according to their bar chart.
- Reason077 8y ago> “The old v2 cabinet used a bunch of Model S inverters.“ They used a stack of Model S chargers, not inverters! An inverter converts DC to AC. Chargers, of course, go the other way.
- natch 8y agoIt sounds like they will add new stations alongside the old ones in some cases, and replace or upgrade old ones in other cases, but really a mix of both approaches. I'm not speaking from any inside knowledge here; just thinking about what makes the most sense given how the chargers work now and the mixed makeup of the fleet.
- DeonPenny 8y agoIt preheats the battery for charging now. This level of detail is amazing
- Klathmon 8y agoI was reading some speculation today about how the preheating might actually be super efficient (i have no way to verify this though). The car will most likely just divert the coolant from the motors to the batteries, mostly skipping the radiators. This allows them to preheat the battery without expending any extra energy to do so.
- kregasaurusrex 8y agoBy how much would using the supercharging feature reduce the overall lifetime of the batteries? Lithium cells aren't immune to the memory effect, which would only be shortened with the high heat associated with pushing a significant amount of power through the car. The very first issue of Popular Science magazine I received as a kid had the Tesla when it was still the modified Lotus Elise with the clickbait-y title along the lines of 'Could a sports car powered by laptop batteries be the next generation of cars?'. Kudos to all the teams at Tesla who made this a reality!
- just_one_time_ 8y agoWhat are you, like 13?
- gibolt 8y agoHopefully not significantly. Most damage occurs over the 80% mark, and it sounds like they have optimized the newer cells for this speed
- kalleboo 8y agoWhat does this have to do with the memory effect? The memory effect is about never discharging NiCd/NiMH batteries beyond a specific point (hence old recommendations about occasionally fully discharging your battery), it has nothing to do with fast charging.
- dreamcompiler 8y ago250KW. JFC! That's enough to power 100 average houses, all going into one car. I'm both impressed and slightly terrified.
- mixmastamyk 8y agoCan’t wait for 1.21 Jiggawatts.
- DonHopkins 8y agoI can't wait for the wireless charger that lives up to the name "Tesla".
- xxpor 8y agoPeople might find it slightly inconvenient when their keys get torn from their pants and watches ripped from their wrists every time they charge their car.
- DuskStar 8y agoIt's not really a Tesla until it rips out your pacemaker.
- db48x 8y agoTesla used electric fields, not magnetic ones, for his wireless power tests..
- DonHopkins 8y agoLast I heard, electric fields and magnetic fields were inextricably related. https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2014/01/29/how_tesla_coils_work_108474.html https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2014/01/29/how_tes... >The power of the Tesla coil lies in a process called electromagnetic induction, i.e., a changing magnetic field creates an electric potential that compels current to flow. Conversely, flowing electric current generates a magnetic field. When electricity flows through a wound up coil of wire, it generates a magnetic field that fills the area around the coil in a particular pattern, shown with lines below: [...] >Eventually so much charge has accumulated that it breaks down the electrical neutrality of the air in the middle of the spark gap. The circuit closes for a fleeting second and a huge amount of current blasts out of the capacitor and through the coils. This produces a very strong magnetic field in the primary coil. Which leads us to ask: Fucking magnets: How do they work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-agl0pOQfs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-agl0pOQfs
- gok 8y ago1000 mph charging gets pretty close to solving the road trip problem, if they can really build the network out.
- Tade0 8y agoMy take is that it already solves it. I do no less than eight one-way 1500km trips annually(so that amounts to 12k km during such a period). I used to do it in one take, but that was over 20h behind the wheel - very dangerous - so now I split them into two legs: one of them 1140km long. Assuming I started with enough charge for 300km, I would only need to get enough juice for 840km or so - less than 40min overall at this rate which is roughly the amount I spend during my trips on going to the bathroom, eating and leaving the highway for fueling as to not pay the ridiculous on-highway prices.
- cma 8y agoThe much bigger news is they completely walked back FSD (full self-driving) into something that you have to monitor at all times by changing the description on their website. The release of a proprietary charger is somehow completely overshadowing that news. It's changed from driving itself around in a ride hailing network to earn you money while you sleep, to now making you always be in the car and pay attention and make corrections, essentially turning all purchasers into unpaid neural network training practitioners.
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y agoLink the change?
- cma 8y ago"Tesla updates self-driving language, creates confusion and walks back features" https://electrek.co/2019/03/06/tesla-self-driving-language-walks-back-features-confusion/ https://electrek.co/2019/03/06/tesla-self-driving-language-w... Old language: https://i1.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/D1AhiRgX4AIX1Ex.jpg?zoom=2&w=380&h=374&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1 https://i1.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/201... New language: https://i1.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-4.43.01-PM.jpg?zoom=2&w=612&h=374&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1 https://i1.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/201... All mention of the ride hailing service is gone, and now unsupervised driving isn't just dependent on just regulatory approval like they said before but now is instead dependent on it ever "acheiving reliability".
- pbreit 8y agoJust taking out the car-sharing bit? Meh.
- mtgx 8y agoPrecisely why I said in the past here that it was a big mistake to fit all model 3s with self-driving hardware making the car significantly more expensive in terms of cost to build. Musk once again overestimated by a long shot how good and safe autopilot will be. At least it seems he is becoming more responsible or maybe he is forced to by the new board.
- martinald 8y agoCool but my thought was that load sharing between cars was caused by contended grid connection rather than anything in the supercharger itself? Having 16 * 250kW grid connection (4MW) will be super expensive (in terms of connection speed) and slow to provision in many places. It's a similar amount of power as a data centre and power connection is the slowest and hardest part of that, hence why I assumed they had lower grid connections which would be easier to source from local power companies.
- caf 8y agoYeah, a 4MVA connection would likely require new HV side infrastructure, which is inherently expensive to install.
- tempestn 8y agoThe on-route battery warmup is a cool feature that I hadn't realized they'd implemented.
- ilaksh 8y agoIs this compatible with European charger standards?
- EngineerBetter 8y agoNot sure what you mean. The current European superchargers use a Type 2 Mennekes adapter, but the protocol is proprietary. I gather that European Model 3s will have CCS sockets (a superset of pins of Type 2 Mennekes) so they will be able to charge at other networks' stations.
- _ph_ 8y agoThey already have, as the Model 3 started deliveries in Europe in February. There are thousands of Model 3 in Europe by now :)
- sidcool 8y agoThis is quite an impressive feat. Pushing the tech at such pace is breathtaking.
- AndrewBissell 8y agoIf this isn't just another Tesla vaporware product it will be interesting to see what happens when they start dumping 145kW through charging infrastructure rated for 132kW. Can you smell the disruption? https://twitter.com/ex_Tesla/status/1103515677816631297 https://twitter.com/ex_Tesla/status/1103515677816631297
- vernie 8y agoIs MPH a standard way to measure EV charging speeds? Just for the sake of comparison a slow gas pump (5 gal/min.) fueling an average (25 MPG) ICE car works out to fueling at 7500 MPH.
- scarlac 8y agoFor Teslas, yes. I've found it to be very helpful, as it relates directly to numbers I care about. E.g. 4-5 mph charge rate from a 110v outlet, and I can just multiply by how many hours I'll be parked, to know what I'll get out and if that's enough for me. It also relates to the static-estimated battery capacity readout, which comes full circle to a point where I don't have to worry about kW conversions anymore. But if you want, you can just set it to 'energy' read-out, and you'll get kW, percentages, etc.
- natch 8y agoFor sake of comparison, one gets us on a track toward sustainable energy... the other doesn't. Interesting fact from Elon: Earth has 5 x more estimated recoverable petroleum reserves than it would take to push us over the brink of global environmental catastrophe.
- Animats 8y agoPorsche has had 350KW charging since 2017.[1] A 350KW charging station went into Livermore last year.[2] Tesla is only at 250KW. [1] https://electrek.co/2017/07/14/porsche-350-kw-ev-charging-station/ https://electrek.co/2017/07/14/porsche-350-kw-ev-charging-st... [2] https://electrek.co/2018/12/06/electrify-america-first-350kw-charger-california/ https://electrek.co/2018/12/06/electrify-america-first-350kw...
- freerobby 8y agoNow, all they need is the car...
- EngineerBetter 8y agoNo car in existence can make use of them yet. It's a bit like networks bragging that they have 5G base stations before any 5G phones were created.
- clouddrover 8y agoThe Porsche Taycan already exists and goes on sale at the end of the year. It's designed around an 800 volt architecture that can make use of 350 kW chargers. Porsche is also testing 450 kW chargers for the future: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-bmw-dc-fast-charger-prototype/ https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-bmw-dc-fast-charg... Volkswagen has already announced three cars based on their 800 volt platform to be released across the next three years: 1. Porsche Taycan in sedan and wagon variants at the end of this year: https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a21239621/porsche-taycan-mission-e-electric/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a21239... 2. Audi e-tron GT at the end of 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvNw15W_EK8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvNw15W_EK8 3. Porsche Macan probably at the end of 2021: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-macan-electric-only-official/ https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-macan-electric-on... And I'm sure there'll be other 800 volt cars from Volkswagen and other manufacturers in the future.
- xedeon 8y ago
- mikorym 8y agoDear Elon. Call me about setting up solar roofs in South Africa. Best regards Phillip
- mikorym 8y ago> <gets downvoted> Whatever happened to poetic license?
- mikorym 8y agoJohannesburg has some strong motivators for solar energy (in whichever incarnation) such as: 1. Sunshine days 2. 2000m above sea level (for photovoltaic efficiency) 3. Many power interruptions and "load shedding" by state owned utility 4. Enough private (and government if they were better managed) money 5. Human capital and good universities 6. Enough physical space I think there may be more reasons, but these are some of the main ones.
- Reason077 8y agoFor those interested, some technical details have been posted in this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/awzcir/first_public_tesla_v30_supercharger_station_goes/ehqnqq5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/awzcir/first_p... https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/axy7d2/supercharger_v3_preevent_megathread/ehxrugh/ https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/axy7d2/superch...
- beefman 8y agoI'll not take another road trip in my Tesla after dealing with the complete lack of bathrooms between San Jose and Davis -- including at Tesla Livermore which 1. shouldn't really have been closed at that hour and 2. should leave their bathrooms open after they close and 3. there's no excuse for not providing bathrooms at every supercharger station. Oh yeah, and we only put on about a mile a minute despite the charger being 120kW-capable. Great car for local trips. But at least one of our cars will have to be gas for the foreseeable future.
- EngineerBetter 8y agoOther bathrooms are available. Your Tesla should be able to stop at those; it doesn't only stop at superchargers. One-mile-per-minute definitely sounds like something was wrong. Did you try other charging stations? How full was your battery at that point? If you've seen that with multiple stations when you battery was neither nearly empty or nearly full, I'd suggest getting the car serviced as that's not normal behaviour.
- captainredbeard 8y agoThe poster means that they want to "kill two birds with one stone". On long trips, avoiding another stop (especially if kids are involved) is a big deal™.
- natch 8y agoSounds like you are just starting out and making newbie mistakes with charging. Join the Tesla Slack and you might get some help with that.
- tomp 8y agoSo when you drive a gas car bathrooms just magically appear in front of you?
- FireBeyond 8y agoAt gas "charging stations"? Absolutely.
- simonjgreen 8y agoFantastic tech. However, why do they insist on doing it in a closed proprietary way? Teslas growth is coupled to general EV growth. They can't possibly be arrogant enough to believe they will be the sole supplier of EVs if they win can they? Charging is the number 1 thing holding back adoption right now.
- natch 8y agoTesla has repeatedly offered access to their supercharging network to any car company that wants to use it, but nobody has taken them up on it.
- kristofferR 8y agoThey claim that, but nobody knows the details. The deal they offer other car companies may be completely unreasonable, who knows. They would still be correct that they "offered access" though, so it doesn't mean anything.
- xedeon 8y agoThey have. From what I know, other companies that they had talks with want to change the spec instead of just adopting it. Which is pretty absurd since they are already getting the tech without spending resources on R&D. Yet, they want more control.
- adrianN 8y agoThey can be arrogant enough to think that other manufacturers will license their stuff.
- greglindahl 8y agoI think you missed the part where Tesla offered a free license in exchange for a patent truce... in 2014.
- 8y ago
- Ostinus 8y agoReally impressive numbers. Excited to see what the future holds for Tesla models. I have a gut feeling that it will succeed and pass other major auto manufacturers
- Waterluvian 8y agoPossibly stupid question. Instead of charging 1 battery slowly, why can't we charge 50 little batteries in parallel and connect them all back together after?
- gliptic 8y agoThis is exactly what happens. The "battery" in an electric car is hundreds or thousands of smaller battery cells.
- URSpider94 8y agoThe problem is that the speed at which you can charge a battery without damaging it is proportional to its capacity. Charging 500 small batteries at the same time would be fine, but in general you’d have to charge them each at 1/500 the speed of the entire pack (in terms of kWh of storage). The other problem is having enough sheer power available to charge all of the batteries (together or apart) at their maximum safe rate. The new supercharger can apply roughly double the power to the car, which cuts charging time almost in half.
- faitswulff 8y agoStupid question, but who pays for the electricity at supercharger stations?
- cowsandmilk 8y agoTypically, the person charging the car (well, they're paying Tesla, then Tesla pays for the electricity). Very few Tesla owners actually have free supercharging these days.
- mixmastamyk 8y agoWhat does a close-to “fill up” cost?