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Mercedes-Benz high-power charging goes large at Starbucks
- recursive 2y agoAre there any vehicles on the road that can actually charge at 400kW?
- two_handfuls 2y agoGood question. Neither Rivian’s truck nor Cybertruck can.
- metadat 2y agoThe Rivians peak at 220kw.
- atrus 2y agoMaybe not today, but what about tomorrow?
- Animats 2y agoThey're looking ahead to the solid state battery era. Solid state batteries are now real enough that you can buy them at Home Depot.[1] [1] https://www.homedepot.com/p/YOSHINO-Solid-State-Portable-Power-Station-330W-480W-Peak-Push-Button-Start-Battery-Generator-for-Outdoor-Home-Camping-B330-SST/326523527 https://www.homedepot.com/p/YOSHINO-Solid-State-Portable-Pow...
- craz8 2y agoThe chargers they showed at their first Mercedes location in Atlanta are 400kw split between 2 units. So 200kw each for 2 cars that can handle it, and balanced between the 2. Eg if one car only needs 100kw, the other can pull up to 300kw I’ve seen video of the Cybertruck getting more than 330kw, and the Lotus cars seem to charge at high rates too. But 200kw each is a fine charge whilst getting a coffee The question is how reliable they can be - if a charger is broken, it doesn’t matter what the numbers on the label say
- shiftpgdn 2y agoAudi/Porsche EVs can do 350kw at peak, so almost!
- saagarjha 2y agoI don't think those actually hit 350 kW; they generally top out in the 200s even though the plug might say 350 on it.
- peutetre 2y agoThe 2025 model year Porsche Taycans can do 320 kW peak charge rate: https://www.caranddriver.com/porsche/taycan https://www.caranddriver.com/porsche/taycan https://youtu.be/0ZrEhUl5syE?t=2088 https://youtu.be/0ZrEhUl5syE?t=2088
- raihansaputra 2y agohyundai/kia e-GMP platforms have a 350kW rated cars
- wlesieutre 2y agoIt doesn’t, Hyundai just likes to say “when using a 350 kW charger” in their marketing to imply that it does. Their actual peak charge rate is something like 235 kW which is still nothing to sneeze at.
- peutetre 2y agoThe 2024 Zeekr 001 can hit a peak of 546 kW: https://carnewschina.com/2024/04/02/zeekr-001-fastest-charging-ev-in-china/ https://carnewschina.com/2024/04/02/zeekr-001-fastest-chargi...
- Animats 2y agoPresumably this is for Starbucks where they still allow you to sit down.
- SoftTalker 2y agoAnd use the bathroom.
- xyst 2y agoAwesome! Now I can get my overpriced subpar “coffee” (aka sugary disasters) and charge my overpriced “luxury” vehicle at the same time. Only in America.
- JojoFatsani 2y agoYou can still order regular-ass coffee and espresso drinks from sbux if you have the self discipline to do so.
- kjkjadksj 2y agoFor like 75% more than the 7/11 charges for that black coffee.
- AdamJacobMuller 2y agoI'm far from a coffee snob (I buy most of my coffee from Costco) but the problem is that starbucks over-roasts their beans, so, anything without sugar and milk added tastes bitter.
- ehnto 2y agoIt's worldwide too, I have never had a coffee that wasn't bitter from any Starbucks. A milk heavy coffee like a latte is a drink that shouldn't need it, but even those are too bitter at Starbucks. What it actually reminds me of though, is the taste of a shot that was pulled then stored in a fridge. I wouldn't be shocked find out that they store excess shots for later drinks and they end up even more bitter.
- sgerenser 2y agoThey definitely don’t store excess shots for later. Even their brewed coffee had timers and workers were required to dump and rebrew after ~20 minutes.
- skyyler 2y agoYou can request the coffee roast to be “blonde” (including espresso shots!) which basically means “not burnt”. It’s still a pretty dark roast, but way more tolerable. Still expensive for what it is.
- adrianN 2y agoI wonder how much work on the local power infrastructure is necessary to install a 400kw charger. Does that "just work" or do they have to idk replace some transformers somewhere?
- webprofusion 2y agoIt absolutely does require capacity at the local power distribution, either they have it spare or it has to be added. Spare capacity will depend on the planning in place at the time of sizing the power distribution, e.g. if it was going to be a growing industrial area or not, otherwise they have to either fund the upgrade or wait for distribution kit to get old and be replaced.
- trte9343r4 2y agoTesla uses local diesel generators to handle spikes. Getting permits and contracts for a few megawatts is not simple. It is basically a small factory!
- 10u152 2y agoHave you any evidence of this? Or is this just fud?
- throwaway3306a 2y agoWhat fud? This is a standard way to deal with grid issues. Some people don't see electric cars / chargers as ideology that must remain absolutely pure of oil. Some are just pragmatic - it's a good car that runs cheaply, and supercharger is critical infrastructure that needs a reliable backup.
- thebruce87m 2y ago> Some people don't see electric cars / chargers as ideology that must remain absolutely pure of oil. It’s normally the anti-EV people that seem to go for this angle as a kind of “gotcha”. They are normally the ones spreading the “all the chargers run on diesel generators” misinformation too. Can you run a charger on a generator? Probably. Is it standard practice or mildly common? Absolutely not.
- ehnto 2y agoThe only starbucks I've seen were in urban centres nowhere near parking, so I couldn't quite picture it at first. I wonder what percentage of starbucks this is viable at.
- jjulius 2y ago"Urban centers" are far from the only place Starbucks are at. Suburban areas are quite abundant relative to large cities, and there are thousands upon thousands of Starbucks locations outside of said centers.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 2y agoStarbucks is common in US suburbs.
- peddling-brink 2y agoDo you mean a venti?
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoStarbucks release: https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2024/starbucks-and-mercedes-to-install-ev-chargers-at-starbucks-stores/ https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2024/starbucks-and-mer...
- lofaszvanitt 2y agoShai Agassi's battery swap idea went down the drain, because of mismanagement (?), and now we have these idiotic charging stations.