Tesla Touts Cross-Country Trip, Aims For World Record 357
smaxp writes "A cross-country trip by two Model S sedans 'recorded the lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the country – a feat that is now being assessed for recognition as a Guinness World Records achievement,' according to a Tesla blog post. 'The 3464.5-mile jaunt is yet another attempt to ease range anxiety among many consumers who worry about being stranded in a car with a depleted battery pack and nowhere near a charging station. While Tesla’s Model S is too expensive for average consumers, the company plans to roll out cheaper models at some point and needs to address the fear that has stopped many people from buying electric cars, even cheaper ones such as the Nissan Leaf...'"
Re:Range anxiety isn't really rational (Score:5, Interesting)
The thing that concerns me is that the various car companies have never even agreed on a standard for charging stations. So not only would I have to look for a charging station somewhere in the (currently pretty limited) areas they're available, but I also have to deal with looking for one specific to my car manufacturer. I can't just take my Nissan Leaf down to a local Tesla charger, or vice-versa.
Re:Range anxiety isn't really rational (Score:5, Interesting)
Nail, head hit. It would be nice to have multiple standards for charging stations, and it work across all cars. If we can do this with phones (MicroUSB), we can do this with cars, except with some caveats:
1: Circuits may vary. One place may have a 15 amp, 120VAC circuit at best. Another place might have an 80 amp circuit to support higher chargers, with a 50 amp subpanel coming from it to handle current charging needs.
2: The charger would need some safety features, If someone stuck a fork in a charging cord and got even a tingle, the lawsuits would be flying. Most current chargers are goof-resistant, but this is definitely an issue, especially in the US where I've seen workers stick two straightened clothes hangers into an outlet, then use alligator clips between those and the prongs on a plug.
3: Patent neutral. This needs to be a benefit for everyone, as vendor-neutral chargers will help every player in the market.
4: Low voltage failsafes. US power can be dirty [1], so it should either downshift or stop trying to charge altogether if it gets under 90 volts.
5: High voltage failsafes... Same reason. Just in case someone hooked up 120VAC to 240 or vice versa. This isn't an issue in Europe and the rest of the world, but there are a lot of RVs killed each year by plugging into a 240VAC dryer outlet which is almost the same shape as a 30 amp, 120VAC receptacle.
[1]: As a RV-er, a hard-wired EMS is a must if one doesn't want to fry their A/C due to voltage sags.
Gas car rentals to supplement electric cars. (Score:5, Interesting)
Also time is ripe for rental car companies to offer a simple car rental accounts to electric car, bus/rail commuter, bicyclers, elderly etc. I imagine if they come up with a model like 50$ a month gets you two days of rentals, and the unused days accumulate, once the customers reach something like 28 days of rentals they just pay a small annual fee to keep the account current. The might even provide a couple of electric charging stations and brag about their green credentials.
Re:But Does it Scale? (Score:2, Interesting)
The same way gasoline powered cars became popular before there was the wide-spread network of gasoline stations that you take for granted today.
1) Sell some cars, paired with home charging stations.
2) Build some free-standing stations.
3) Sell some cars to people around those stations (who don't need to venture out of range of those stations).
4) Using a fraction of the proceeds from Step 3, Go to step 2.
Eventually, you end up with enough of a population of cars & charging stations that *other* people start helping out with the station build-out because they can make money doing so.