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I was looking forward to this announcement and watched the live announcement. The most interesting/surprising parts of the announcement to me was: 1. Superch

I was looking forward to this announcement and watched the live announcement. The most interesting/surprising parts of the announcement to me was: 1. Superchargers are already deployed in California. Nice work, Tesla, for building it out and proving it works. 2. The whole U.S. will be covered in a few years. Great for traveling cross country. 3. It's solar-powered. I wonder if they have a electricity backup... probably, my guess. But still impressive. 4. It will be FREE for Tesla owners. I don't know how they're pulling this off. To me, this was the most shocking part. How are they going to pay for construction, rent, etc, and still afford this? It's a great extra benefit for Tesla owners... to travel around the country for free (of course you need to buy the car and maintain the car, but still). I wonder if the extra electricity generated from the solar panels will go into paying the rent for the spaces.

trafficlight 14y ago
It won't be free forever, but it's one less barrier to buying buying a Tesla.
- timdorr 14y ago
  No, Elon said free for life on the the announcement.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    Only for Model S owners, it will presumably be phased out sometime in the next couple years.
    - sbierwagen 14y ago
      It's also only for 85KWh Model S owners. The ones with 60KWh batteries don't get free charges.
      - marcamillion 14y ago
        They do get free charges - but for a nominal fee, they have to upgrade some adapter (is what Elon said).
    - timdorr 14y ago
      Why would it be? Once they're built out, the ongoing costs of maintenance is relatively cheap. It becomes a HUGE up-sell for their future vehicles if the free charging is only offered on the more expensive versions of the X and future cars.
jws 14y ago
3. It's solar-powered. I wonder if they have a electricity backup... It's grid electric powered. The canopy doesn't do much. Let's calculate: Guess that the canopy for each bay is 7 by 4 meters, 28m^2 Sunny spots receive about 4kWhr of solar power per square meter per day. Solar panels might be 25% efficient. Total daily power: 28m^2 * 4kWhr/m^2/day * 0.25 = 28kWhr/day Model S has an 85kWhr battery, half charge is 42kWhr. It is going to take about two days to charge off the solar.
- uvdiv 14y ago
  The press release makes a seemingly absurd claim: Each solar power system is designed to generate more energy from the sun over the course of a year than is consumed by Tesla vehicles using the Supercharger. wtf?
  - notJim 14y ago
    They're presumably assuming that the station will not constantly be charging a car. ChuckMcM (your sibling) explains in greater detail.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- schiffern 14y ago
  >It's grid electric powered. The canopy doesn't do much. They're sizing the installations in partnership with SolarCity, one of Musk's other start-ups. They claim they'll be sized such that it will generate as much energy over the course of the year as the vehicles consume. Meanwhile, you're estimating power output from a CG rendering on a marketing page. You could argue whether or not they're lying, but they're certainly not incompetent. SolarCity's sizing calculators take these (and many more) variables into account.
  - sbierwagen 14y ago
    generate as much energy over the course of the year as the vehicles consume Yeah right. At what utilization rate? A single charge is ~90KWh, and takes half an hour. Two charges back to back are 180KWh. jws guesses that each slot generates 28KWh/day. A ten slot charging station would only be able to charge three cars without going into the red. Tesla would have to build a lot of very oversized installations in a lot of sunny, rural locations to hit breakeven.
padraigm 14y ago
"I wonder if the extra electricity generated from the solar panels will go into paying the rent for the spaces." The article definitely made it sound like that would be the case. They might also be counting on charging people in cars other than Tesla ones.
sliverstorm 14y ago
In regards to #4: 1) Tesla isn't making money right now, so what's a little more money they don't have? 2) If Tesla goes bankrupt, what do they care about promises about free charging? If they don't go bankrupt, they will make it big, so what will they care about a few free charges? Practically zero-risk.

trafficlight 14y ago

It won't be free forever, but it's one less barrier to buying buying a Tesla.

timdorr 14y ago
No, Elon said free for life on the the announcement.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  Only for Model S owners, it will presumably be phased out sometime in the next couple years.
  - sbierwagen 14y ago
    It's also only for 85KWh Model S owners. The ones with 60KWh batteries don't get free charges.
    - marcamillion 14y ago
      They do get free charges - but for a nominal fee, they have to upgrade some adapter (is what Elon said).
  - timdorr 14y ago
    Why would it be? Once they're built out, the ongoing costs of maintenance is relatively cheap. It becomes a HUGE up-sell for their future vehicles if the free charging is only offered on the more expensive versions of the X and future cars.

jws 14y ago

3. It's solar-powered. I wonder if they have a electricity backup... It's grid electric powered. The canopy doesn't do much. Let's calculate: Guess that the canopy for each bay is 7 by 4 meters, 28m^2 Sunny spots receive about 4kWhr of solar power per square meter per day. Solar panels might be 25% efficient. Total daily power: 28m^2 * 4kWhr/m^2/day * 0.25 = 28kWhr/day Model S has an 85kWhr battery, half charge is 42kWhr. It is going to take about two days to charge off the solar.

uvdiv 14y ago
The press release makes a seemingly absurd claim: Each solar power system is designed to generate more energy from the sun over the course of a year than is consumed by Tesla vehicles using the Supercharger. wtf?
- notJim 14y ago
  They're presumably assuming that the station will not constantly be charging a car. ChuckMcM (your sibling) explains in greater detail.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
schiffern 14y ago
>It's grid electric powered. The canopy doesn't do much. They're sizing the installations in partnership with SolarCity, one of Musk's other start-ups. They claim they'll be sized such that it will generate as much energy over the course of the year as the vehicles consume. Meanwhile, you're estimating power output from a CG rendering on a marketing page. You could argue whether or not they're lying, but they're certainly not incompetent. SolarCity's sizing calculators take these (and many more) variables into account.
- sbierwagen 14y ago
  generate as much energy over the course of the year as the vehicles consume Yeah right. At what utilization rate? A single charge is ~90KWh, and takes half an hour. Two charges back to back are 180KWh. jws guesses that each slot generates 28KWh/day. A ten slot charging station would only be able to charge three cars without going into the red. Tesla would have to build a lot of very oversized installations in a lot of sunny, rural locations to hit breakeven.

padraigm 14y ago

"I wonder if the extra electricity generated from the solar panels will go into paying the rent for the spaces." The article definitely made it sound like that would be the case. They might also be counting on charging people in cars other than Tesla ones.

sliverstorm 14y ago

In regards to #4: 1) Tesla isn't making money right now, so what's a little more money they don't have? 2) If Tesla goes bankrupt, what do they care about promises about free charging? If they don't go bankrupt, they will make it big, so what will they care about a few free charges? Practically zero-risk.