Tesla Reveals Charging Station Sites In 3 US States 332
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.
Had to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Obligatory "People who can afford a Tesla aren't bothered by the price of gas"
Huge increase in total travel time (Score:5, Insightful)
3 hours of driving at 60 mph on the highway (which is dangerous IMO) and 30 minute fillup. More likely 70-75 mph, 2 hours of driving + finding a station? and then 30 minutes of fillup. 25% more travel time on a long trip. I don't know who has that kind of time on the road. Timing over lunch a great idea... what about at 3pm, not so convenient then is it. I think they have a lot of work to do
Re:Had to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
That is how everything works. The first airline passengers could have easily taken a week off work to travel from NYC to London.
I am glad rich folks are buying teslas for vanity, hopefully that will fund a car I can afford. Then hopefully my purchase will help to create a car everyone can afford.
Re:Huge increase in total travel time (Score:5, Insightful)
Not a lot of grass under the Nevada Desert.
Perfect is the enemy of Good.
Even killing a little grass is a hell of a lot better than burning gasoline.
Meanwhile, Toyota (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Had to be said (Score:4, Insightful)
"Range Anxiety" is still a real issue, even with the most advanced totally electric cars. It's very hard to get the same energy density of gasoline in to batteries. Electrics will just not go as far per "fill up" as their fossil fueled siblings. That does not seem to be changing anytime soon. So, you can add more batteries to the car, increasing its weight, cost and lowering it's efficiency to get more range, but who wants to drive around an SUV sized battery pack with one seat and a price tag that is measured in fractions of GDP?
Charging stations are *not* showing up everywhere. In fact I've heard that there are places where they have been slowly disappearing because they are not being used. See: (http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/citing-a-lack-of-usage-costco-removes-e-v-chargers/). It's all been a bit more hype than actual progress.
When electric cars make sense by the numbers, when they are overall cheaper than their fossil fueled counterparts, they will be built and bought by the millions and charging stations will show up everywhere. Until then, the totally electric car will be a fringe market limited to the rich and hobbyist. I expect that Tesla's will continue to be hugely expensive toys, and not much more than that, for a LONG time yet.
How long? Until it makes sense in Europe and they start driving more electrics over there, forget it in the states. Just not going to be viable here. Now if you want to start talking about CNG fueled cars... We might have a viable option to help reduce gasoline use...
Re:Had to be said (Score:4, Insightful)
What are these other easy ways this sort of thing could be funded?
No one said rich people are doing anything good, merely that their money is being used to do good. If they are buying it just to support tesla, then I would think they are doing something good though.
While extreme inequality sucks, I don't see any possible solution to that particular issue. No society has so far been able to solve it or even come close.
Re:Had to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people in the states do not drive that far. My daily commute is under 10 miles. I own two cars, one of them could easily be electric.
I am sure my life is not unique and many american families would be fine with one electric car and one gas fueled vehicle.
CNG has other problems. CNG cars exist but the range also sucks. LNG fixes the range issue, but handling LNG is not something the average moron should really be doing.
Re:Had to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm repeating myself a bit, but.... it seems these opinions just don't die.
It has to have acceleration,
The Tesla S handily beats anything south of a Vette.
at least 500 mile range on a charge
Not a single performance sedan has that range. Heck, not even the Golf TDi has that range. Why that requirement?
and not look like a piece of crap.
The Teslas are all hot.
Oh and it has to at least be in the price ball park of my gasoline powered car.
Define ballpark. It's in the range of the luxus import sedans, which is what the Tesla is competing against. It is not in the range of a Kia Rio, which is what I suspect you're thinking of.
Constant Fill Up? (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing I don't understand, and perhaps someone on here can enlighten me, is why people always assume you will fill up only when the tank is empty? It seems to me that one of the big advantages of electric is that you don't need a speciallized fueling station. You should be able to fuel up all over the place (although perhaps not quickly) provided there were enough charging stations. For example charging while:
At home.
Parked at work.
Out to dinner.
Overnight at a hotel.
At a movie.
Shopping at a mall.
The tank doesn't have to be empty, and the charging doesn't have to be to fill. But consistantly charging a little bit here and there should be one of the main ways to extend range. I realize that infastructure like charging stations need to be installed and the electrical grid must be able to handle it all. But other than that, what am I missing?
Re:Huge increase in total travel time (Score:5, Insightful)
For day-to-day usage, the idea is to have enough range to get you through the day. Then, once you're home, you plug the car in and let it charge while you're doing other things -- because unlike refueling with gas, where someone needs to be there in case there's a malfunction and fuel spills, you can let an electric vehicle charge unattended.
Thus, you're not spending 180 minutes a week charging the car. The car is charging for that much time, but *you* spend about a minute per day total in plugging it in at night, then unplugging it in the morning, for a total of about 6 minutes a week of *your* time spent doing it.
I'll agree that it's still a significant disadvantage on long trips, but for day-to-day use, it's actually more convenient than refueling a gas car, because you don't have to make a stop at a gas station -- you do it somewhere that you're going anyway.
Re:Had to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Had to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
By the time there are enough of these things around to have a line, they'll already have more charging stations. It would be a lot easier and safer to put a charging station at each spot in a parking lot than it would be to fit a gas pump to each one.
Re:Huge increase in total travel time (Score:4, Insightful)
And where I live the median price for a home is ~$600,000 USD (which only buys you a very average 3-bedroom suburban home). $50k USD would be fairly typical for a 'medium-end' family sedan or large SUV here. So despite the fact that I'm most definitely not rich myself, the price of the Tesla doesn't seem too outrageous (though still a bit out of my price range ... another few models/revisions though and we'll see).
Point is, Tesla doesn't have to come up with a good price point for every geography and every segment of the market - they just need to make it low enough so that a decent number of people in SOME markets will buy it. That should bring the prices down for future models and allow EVs to appeal to a greater number of people in the future.
Re:Had to be said (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree they are, and I even like their methods. Sadly most americans disagree with that.
We are pretty culturally opposed to that sort of thing. Americans prefer decisions made not based on the result but based on "moral" grounds. This is why we don't offer free needles to junkies for instance. It would save us millions in ER costs and the like, but people think it immoral to aid the junkie in getting high, never mind that he will do it either way.