Tesla Reveals Charging Station Sites In 3 US States

locallyunscene writes "Tesla has created the first solar charging stations for its Model S and plans to offer free charging. Is free fuel enough to for the electric car to finally gain traction? 'The technology at the heart of the Supercharger was developed internally and leverages the economies of scale of existing charging technology already used by the Model S, enabling Tesla to create the Supercharger device at minimal cost. The electricity used by the Supercharger comes from a solar carport system provided by SolarCity, which results in almost zero marginal energy cost after installation. Combining these two factors, Tesla is able to provide Model S owners free long distance travel indefinitely." The "free charging" part applies at least to Model S owners, and will be available first from a network of charging stations in California, Arizona, and Nevada, to be expanded nationwide over the next 2 to 4 years; Engadget features a video of the announcement.

The other important announcements

[dnaumov]

From the SEC filling:

As our main focus is on quality, we have methodically increased our Model S production at a rate slower than we had earlier anticipated.

We now anticipate that we will deliver between 200 and 225 Model S vehicles to customers in the third quarter and between 2,500 and 3,000 Model S vehicles in the fourth quarter.

We anticipate, however, that manufacturing and supplier issues will continue to arise and need to be addressed in a timely manner.

In the third quarter of 2012, we anticipate that our gross margin will be negatively affected primarily by the limited number of Model S vehicles we intend to deliver

We also expect selling, general and administrative expenses for the third quarter to increase modestly over the prior quarter as we continue to increase our vehicle selling and servicing capabilities.

We have now fully drawn down our $465 million DOE Loan Facility.

Re:Had to be said

[captainpanic]

That was true of the Roadster, but the Model-S is much cheaper.

Don't bother. Some people will just keep screaming that electric will never work. They will always find something else.

Range already increased so much that you need to take a break before you're empty anyway. The time loss while charging went to an acceptable amount of time. Prices have steadily gone down. Battery life increased. And now charging stations are appearing everywhere... so the skeptics complain about money.

Re:Had to be said

[h4rr4r]

The Model S is only about 1 second slower to 60 than a vette.

The Model S is an attractive car, looks actually a lot like an Aston Martin to me.

The old roadster was a slower Elise, the Model S is a big improvement.

Re:Had to be said

[h4rr4r]

Define acceleration needs please.
Is 0-60 in 5.6 not good enough? What would be?

The Tesla S looks very nice. So it looks like range is the last remaning issue.

The cost is comparable to other comparable luxury sedans.

Hydrogen is absolute bullshit, it embrittles metal, it escapes through everything and the fuel cells that use it need platinum which means the fuel cell costs more than the car you want to buy. Hydrogen was the fossil fuel industry just blowing smoke up your ass. This is because hydrogen comes from steam reformation of natural gas. It is not produced in any "green" way industrially.

The recharge time is not 30 minutes for 100 miles. It is 30 minutes for 80% of 300miles. This will only get better.

Abandoning?

[SilverJets]

By abandon do you mean rolling out an all electric RAV4?

Sure, they're dropping one line of car, their little eQ minicar. But that doesn't mean they are dropping electric all together. They've just realized that the technology isn't there quite there yet. And they are planning on having 21 hybrid versions of their vehicles by 2015.

In other words they moved too fast on the all electric cars for some markets and are backing off for now until the technology catches up with the ideas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/us-toyota-electric-idUSBRE88N0CT20120924 [reuters.com]