Tesla To Blanket US With Superchargers In Two Years 311
dublin writes "Electric car manufacturer Tesla is planning to triple its construction of "supercharger" rapid charging stations, with a trail of stations in place for L.A. to New York trips by the end of this year. In addition to the east & west coasts, islands in Colorado, Illinois, and Texas will grow together to cover nearly the entire continental US by 2015. The two biggest obstacles for electric cars are high cost and range problems. Cost is still a problem, but this move to blanket the US with supercharger stations could fix the range half of the e-car equation."
Map of intended locations (Score:5, Informative)
Re:... with government funds and subsidized chargi (Score:5, Informative)
Third, fast charges are very inefficient by comparison to level 2 chargers-- there's a lot of waste energy.
As much waste energy as carting around an inefficient internal combustion engine, that gets at best 30% efficiency? I think not.
Re:Open platform charging ? (Score:5, Informative)
Right now they're Tesla only. However, Tesla also has a side business selling power trains to more traditional car companies, and they're probably likely to license access to the network to those cars as well once they've built it out some.
Re:Business Model (Score:5, Informative)
Re:... with government funds and subsidized chargi (Score:5, Informative)
Second, these things are extremely expensive to install (especially if they're not immediately next to major power lines). We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I'm guessing that you've never had to build a gasoline station. Environmental assessments. Underground excavation. Costly double-walled tanks and plumbing. Inspections. Insurance in case you contaminate the local soil or water with spilled fuel. And it's not like you get a pipeline direct to the station--every gallon you sell has to be trucked in.
Re:As far as I'm concerned . . . (Score:5, Informative)
Nobody said they don't have to be replaced.
Just that the vast majority of them are running much longer than expected.
Only the first generation of Prius vehicles are reaching their 10 year life.
Re:... with government funds and subsidized chargi (Score:5, Informative)
I'm looking forward to this (Score:5, Informative)
I'm really looking forward to this. Last weekend I took my model S down to Big Sur to do some camping and used a bit more power than I anticipated while driving over dirt roads and due to a headwind driving back north. On my way back I had to stop for a bit in Monterey at a level 2 charger to add a few miles before I could reach the Gilroy supercharger. I ended up having to unplug a Volt who was taking up an EV only spot (and was apparently there for many hours according to a Leaf owner parked across from me).
Of course their announcement shows that this summer a supercharger will be installed in or near Monterey, which would have solved that problem, and there are more on the way along Highway 1.
In fact, it looks like they'll be building some near some of the other out-of-the-way places I like to travel around the state. It looks like at least one is going in along Highway 395 along the Eastern Sierra.
The fact that they are reducing charging time is another bonus. 200 miles in 30 minutes for "free" is awesome. I enjoy the superchargers. It's often nice to chat with other Tesla owners there. When I stopped in Gilroy to charge I had 8 miles left. The fellow who pulled in next to me was down to 2 miles, and like me he had taken his car over a bunch of dirt roads. A standard level 2 charger gives me around 15-20 miles of range per hour. At a Supercharger I can get 15-20 miles of charge in 3 minutes!
While charging I can go stretch my legs, get a meal, check email, surf the web or whatever so I don't consider the delay that big of an issue.
Out of all the times I've used a supercharger I have never had to wait and there are usually plenty of places nearby to eat or shop while charging, even during Memorial Day weekend.
The superchargers really make road trips possible with electric vehicles. Sure, it's not as fast as filling a gasoline car, but 30 minutes for 200 miles is not bad! I suspect that when Tesla comes out with their 3rd generation coupe it will charge even faster since it will be a smaller and lighter vehicle.
Tesla seems to be well ahead of anybody else out there in terms of EV technology. Their batteries have the highest energy density for the lowest cost as well as a very compact electric motor. They spent a lot of effort on battery safety as well. I don't think synchronous motors can compete with induction motors when it comes to power density and I'm sure the cost of induction motors is also lower since there are no rare-earth magnets involved. The 420HP/445ft-lb induction motor in my Tesla is the size of a watermelon.
The Tesla power connector design is also much better than the J1772 Frankenplug or the huge CHaDeMo connector. Both the J1772 frankenplug and the CHaDeMo connectors are the size of a softball vs the much smaller Tesla connector. They have a small J1772 adapter and I'm sure they'll come out with additional adapters in the future for the frankenplug if it becomes popular.
Re:As far as I'm concerned . . . (Score:4, Informative)
Nobody said they don't have to be replaced.
Just that the vast majority of them are running much longer than expected.
Only the first generation of Prius vehicles are reaching their 10 year life.
The Prius's use of the battery is fairly minimal -- most people wouldn't notice if the battery had lost 50% or more of its capacity. (The Prius gets its fuel efficiency from the Atkinson cycle engine, not from the electrics. The electrics are only there because the Atkinson engine has so little torque you'd never get the car moving without an electric "boost".)
If the battery was completely toast, you'd be stuck in a Prius, but even at 15-20% of the capacity, the car will drive just fine.