Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Transportation Power

Tesla's New Cybertruck Includes a 'Powershare' Bidirectional Charging Feature (theverge.com) 153

Tesla's new Cybertruck is more than their first new model since 2020, reports the Verge: Tesla announced a new "Powershare" vehicle-to-load charging capability, only available on the new Cybertruck. The feature will allow Cybertruck owners to power their camping equipment, power tools, or even their entire home during a blackout, just by using their electric truck as a mobile generator.

The truck also features a 240-volt outlet in the rear bed that can be used to charge other EVs. An image on Tesla's website shows the Cybertruck charging a Model Y.

The Cybertruck can put out as much as 11.5kW, which is more than the Ford F-150 Lightning's 9.6kW of onboard power or the GMC Sierra Denali EV's 10.2kW. Tesla has been talking about manufacturing vehicles with bidirectional charging capabilities for several years now, first teasing the feature at its Battery Day event in 2020. Since then, many of its competitors have adopted the feature for their EVs, including Ford, GM, Hyundai, Kia, and others...

In essence, it treats high-capacity lithium-ion batteries not only as tools to power EVs but also as backup storage cells to charge other electric devices, an entire home, or even to send power to the electrical grid for possible energy savings... Customers who want to take advantage of the Powershare feature in their homes will need a Tesla Powerwall (of course) and a Wall Connector for the most seamless connection.

Tesla held a launch event for the vehicle on Thursday, and demand appears to be high. Jalopnik reports Tesla is now offering people who'd reserved a Cybertruck a $1,000 discount if they'll instead order another Tesla model.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Tesla's New Cybertruck Includes a 'Powershare' Bidirectional Charging Feature

Comments Filter:
  • by kriston ( 7886 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @10:38AM (#64049065) Homepage Journal

    You mean like the Hyundai Ioniq already has had for years?

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @10:46AM (#64049095)

      You mean like the Hyundai Ioniq already has had for years?

      In the future, this will be a standard feature of EVs.

      EVs will work as load levelers, sucking power from the grid when there is a surplus and feeding it back when there is a deficit.

      • This is exactly what we need to be doing. Put solar on all the roofs, charge your batteries with all the excess power and run off of them at night.
        • You need to just shut the fuck up. Talking sense in America is outlawed, and men in black trucks are going to show up and take you away.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        "EVs will work as load levelers, sucking power from the grid when there is a surplus and feeding it back when there is a deficit."

        I don't agree. That's a feature no one wants, no one understands and solves no long-term problem. For that matter, I doubt bidirectional charging will be standard on EVs either, although it could be considered a "standard feature" since that has no objective meaning. No one has been suggesting it as a standard feature until now, of course, because Tesla has finally gotten arou

        • That's a feature no one wants

          I want it.

          no one understands

          What? 3-year-olds understand that iPads stop working if you don't juice the battery. Batteries aren't a deep concept.

          and solves no long-term problem.

          Load balancing of intermittent renewables is the single biggest problem of the green power transition.

          • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

            And yet you demonstrate that you, yourself, don't even understand it. The claim is "load leveling", not "batteries".

            "Load balancing of intermittent renewables is the single biggest problem of the green power transition."

            Citation please. Also, you seem to have overlooked the "long-term" part. It absolutely isn't a long-term problem. Keep on believing you're the smartest person in the room, though.

            • @dfghjk -I simply plugged "Load balancing of intermittent renewables" into google and top of the list:
              https://smartlifestyleaustrali... [smartlifes...lia.com.au]
              Here is a little quote from the article in case you do not think load balancing is a serious issue for renewables:
              load balancing becomes critical for maintaining grid stability
              Crikey, they even mention EVs feeding back to the grid - imagine that!
              A vehicle-to-grid system can utilise storage from electric vehicles during peak hours and restore it during off-peak periods
        • by Rei ( 128717 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @12:30PM (#64049267) Homepage

          What we should really talk about it Tesla's world-changing 4680 cell with 5x density improvements leading to the "revolutionary" 123 kWh 800V!!!!

          This sentence is borderline incoherent.

          1) Nobody ever claimed "5x density". Did you mean "5x larger"?
          2) 800V has nothing to do with the cells. Li-ion cells are all in the ballpark of a few volts. 400V vs. 800V is the pack / charging voltage, related to how many cells are in series. Where for a given charge rate, 400V uses double the amps (and either double the cross section, or greater cooling) with half as many cells in series, while 800V uses half the amps and twice as many cells in series.

          The choice of voltages is a mixed bag. Obviously, the advantages of narrow conductors for 800V are obvious. But a number of things go against this.

          1) Obviously greater insulation, though this isn't a big deal

          2) Drive units run at pack voltage, and it's easier to make an efficient 400V drive unit than 800V.

          3) If you want to charge at a 400V charging station (aka, most charging stations), you have to either be able to reconfigure your pack in realtime to half the voltage (e.g. switching modules from series to parallel), or a high-power DC-DC converter. Aka, adding complexity and cost.

          4) If you design your wiring for 250kW at 400V then you're using 625A wiring, while if you design for 250kW at 800V, then you're using 312,5A wiring. But then what happens when you do #3 and charge at a 400V charging station designed for delivering 625A? You can only accept half of that, so you charge at half the rate of a vehicle designed for 400A.

          The net result is that there's a range of pros and cons, rather than one single "well, this is the obvious choice!" solution. Now, the more charging stations that start supporting 800V, the more the balance of factors shifts in favour of 800V.

          (Honestly, the 800V part isn't even the most interesting aspect of CT with respect to voltage - the switch to 48V accessory power is far more interesting)

          Cybertruck battery with breathtaking 250 kW charge rate

          Note that this is on current V3 Superchargers, which are at 400V. V4 will support 800V, so one can expect up to a doubling of charge rates (up to 500kW), depending on what the cells take (cells are always the *real* ultimate limit) (this is vs. Rivian at 220kW and F150 Lightning at 155kW). Which they should be able to take, because even previous-generations of Model 3 and Model Y, with their far smaller packs, could take 250kW, and have been able to for half a decade.

          This exact situation happened before. When the Model 3 was released, it was rated for 120kW charging. But then the V3 Superchargers came out, able to deliver up to 250kW, and all the previously-released Model 3s suddenly found themselves able to charge at 250kW, because Tesla had already designed sufficiently-high-gauge wiring into them, knowing that they planned to release the V3 Supercharger soon. Exact same situation with V4 here.

          One addendum to the article:

          Ford F-150 Lightning's 9.6kW of onboard power or the GMC Sierra Denali EV's 10.2kW

          While Tesla and Rivian aren't "nickel-and-dime-you-for-a-million-options" companies, Ford and GM very much are with their trucks. With respect to charge rates, if you want 9,6kW rather than 2,4kW, that's an added option on the Lightning. Note that Rivian only offers 120V outlets, at 1,4kW.

          • by Rei ( 128717 )

            Forgot to add one more to the above:

            5) Higher pack voltage - aka, more cells in series - means fewer in parallel, which means less redundancy against cell failures.

          • by Rei ( 128717 )

            Addendum: reports [topgear.com] are saying [torquenews.com] that the V4 speed is 350kW.

            This would presumably be the speed without the range extender pack, which should enable even faster speeds (more cells to distribute the power across)

            • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

              "...which should enable even faster speeds (more cells to distribute the power across)"
              Onto your next imaginary advantage now that your last one is snuffed out? LOL

              Whatever happened to charging be deigned for currents like 625A or 312A? How does the extender pack change that? We're to believe that the extender pack increases charge rates for the Cybertruck? Because you can explain how it could plausibly be true? Does the pack come with a new RC charger? New high current conductors? It's nearly 50% mor

              • by Rei ( 128717 )

                Onto your next imaginary advantage now that your last one is snuffed out? LOL

                What is "snuffed out"? I talked about how they'd charge faster on V4 than 250kW. Shock of all shock, they can charge faster on V4 than 250kW. Stupid me predicting something that was correct!

                Did you perhaps miss this part? " depending on what the cells take (cells are always the *real* ultimate limit) ". Which is why - ahem - the more cells you add, the more power you can take, unless there are e.g. wiring limitations or whatnot

          • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            Lithium ion chemistry has nominal voltage of ~3.7 volts.

            All battery chemistries have their own nominal voltage. For example another chemistry commonly used in automotive before breakthrough of lithium ion (usually of NMC or LiFePo variety) was NiMH, which has a nominal voltage of 1.2 volts. You can find this in early Toyota hybrids for example.

            System voltage for the entire battery unit full of individual cells is simply a function of how many cells are connected in series in the battery.

            • by Rei ( 128717 )

              I said "several volts" because there's a notable difference between NMC/NCA and LFP. But in all cases, just several volts, not hundreds.

              • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                If memory serves me right, it's 3,3V for lifepo vs 3,7 for NMC. But NMC is what Tesla puts in their batteries in the West, since it's about 20% more energy dense per unit of weight than lifepo.

                • by Rei ( 128717 )

                  It's just a general approximation anyway, since cells charge over a range from (in the case of NMC/NCA) ~4,2V down to "wherever the manufacturer decides to put their cutoff" (usually ~3V-ish).

                  That said, it's inaccurate that western Teslas only use NMC (actually assume you mean NCA, that's been Tesla's preference since the early Model 3 days). The short-range Telsas now use LFP.

            • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

              Current hybrids use NiMH batteries, including ones from Toyota.

              Only Rei thinks that series/parallel pack configurations are some secret sauce that no one knows about.

              • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                This is technically true standalone, but incorrect in context. Toyota has partially shifted to lithium ion about 5-6 years ago, but kept size and weight tolerances of the hybrid battery bay ready to accept NiMH variant of the battery in most of its hybrids.

                This results in hybrids that are designed with two different battery types, and will accept either one. Only the oldest toyota hybrids are NiMH-only. And their plug-in hybrids are pretty much all lithium-ion to my knowledge.

                • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

                  The current Toyota Crown uses a NiMH battery.

                  I suspect PHEVs all use LiIon because of capacity requirements. When your battery is only 1KW, chemistry doesn't matter so much.

          • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

            "This sentence is borderline incoherent."
            That sounds like an Rei problem, and not a new one either.

            "1) Nobody ever claimed "5x density". Did you mean "5x larger"?"
            Literally everyone promoting 4680 when it was announced was claiming 5x density improvement. Why, because Elon Musk encouraged it.

            "2) 800V has nothing to do with the cells."
            Nor did I claim otherwise. Nevertheless, Tesla is promoting the CT as having an 800V architecture, as that were innovative. Notice that I said "leading to", somethin

            • extender - which they'd be sheer morons to not have done - that would add another 50% to the max charge power. Try multiplying 350 by 1.5 and tell me what number you get.

              (V4 Superchargers are capable of up to 615A and 1000V, e.g. 615kW).

              "because even previous-generations of Model 3 and Model Y, with their far smaller packs, could take 250kW, and have been able to for half a decade."
              and yet they don't. I have a current generation Model Y, I can't be convinced with lies.

              My level of trust that you actually ow

              • by Rei ( 128717 )

                ED: Ugh, first part of that got cut off. Something weird is going on with Slashdot tonight.

                "1) Nobody ever claimed "5x density". Did you mean "5x larger"?"
                Literally everyone promoting 4680 when it was announced was claiming 5x density improvement

                I'll take "Things That Never Happened" for $1000.

                It's ***Five Times The Size***. Which has been what was said since day 1. Watch the presentation yourself [youtube.com]. My god are you dense.

                And even if you got it from some journalist who misreported it - like, you're incapab

                • by Rei ( 128717 )

                  Ugh, once again Slashdot, behave:

                  cutting off the rest of that sentence, where I talk about cell limits that can lower that figure. Also, "nowhere had Tesla said" anything about Model 3 having 250kW capability, which is exactly the point.

                  They only claim 250 kW, and suggest future charge rates at 800V could be as much as 350 kW.

                  Not "future" - present, from a V4 Supercharger (there already are a few, though not many). This is for the vehicle without the range extender, which increases the number of cells by

        • I'm with ShanghaiBill on this one.

          It wouldn't be a listed feature if "no one" actually wanted it. Instead, it seems quite a few people want it, with news articles of people using the generation system on their Lightnings and hybrids to power their homes during the big texas power outage.

          No one understands it: The concept is quite simple. Hell, I'd argue that wireless networking is harder to explain. "You buy electricity when it's cheap and sell it when it's expensive using your car battery as storage" i

          • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

            "It wouldn't be a listed feature if "no one" actually wanted it. Instead, it seems quite a few people want it, with news articles of people using the generation system on their Lightnings and hybrids to power their homes during the big texas power outage."
            Two things: (1) 3D TVs, and (2) "load leveling". The comment was on load leveling, not V2H. We were talking about V2G, not V2H or V2L. Particularly regarding V2L, there is no doubt people like it and understand it.

            "You buy electricity when it's cheap and

            • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

              I should have noticed your link to 1GW charging was a year old. That was when Elon Musk was lying to generate new interest for the CT back when the Semi was in the news. The CT announced now doesn't use 1000V and there's no mention of it supporting the Semi's 1000V charging, nor would 8C charging make any sense for the CT's relatively anemic battery and the well known slow charging limitations of the 4680 format.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Vehicle 2 Load will be popular because it saves the owner money. Right now in the UK, Octopus Energy (one of the major suppliers) is paying people to reduce their energy consumption at peak times. People can make a few quid a day by reducing their consumption for an hour and a half.

          One way to do that is to rely on home batteries, or Vehicle 2 Load, during the peak period.

          It will become the norm to have variable pricing based on grid load and energy availability, and using a small portion of your vehicle's s

      • by Ichijo ( 607641 )

        EVs will work as load levelers, sucking power from the grid when there is a surplus and feeding it back when there is a deficit.

        I don't need Vehicle to Grid (V2G), but Vehicle to Home (V2H) would act as a battery backup, allowing my solar panels to supply power to my home during a daytime power outage, or to save money on electricity during peak hours on my Time of Use plan.

    • 11.6 kw is over the 3.6kW V2L feature on the ioniq/ev6 line of vehicles, V2L is pretty standard. I’m still waiting on the day when vehicles can gas share DC power to similar or lower voltage vehicles. After all, the 11.6kW charge rate is the 11 to 22hr charge rate at 100% efficiency. When i hear power sharing i think out of ions vehicle stuck at the side of the road needing a 5-10 minute fix. My vehicle can discharge at 220kW and charge at 235kW plus has a 523V battery, EV batteries drop roughly 1
    • You mean like the Hyundai Ioniq already has had for years?

      As have the F-150 Lightning and the Denali EV, both of which are mentioned in TFS. Tesla knows they need to adopt these sorts of popular features if they want their much-delayed Cybertruck to be competitive.

  • by Talon0ne ( 10115958 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @10:43AM (#64049081)

    What a steal at only sixty thousand dollars. That's like, only 900 a month for 7 years! And the excise tax (where I live) is only like another 3k a year! This thing's practically free. Think of all the dozens of dollars I will save in gas! And if the power goes out, I can power my house for like 3 hours.

    • Ypu forgot about driving a medicore actual truck. It is heavy unbalanced and easily gets stuck.

    • What? $60,000 isn't even high for a truck. An F150 raptor will cost you more than than.

    • Well, to be fair, sum of oil changes would be low thousands under 5k probably depending on your luxury, but you could rest assured that the power was obtained at the lowest possible utility rate, thus the real savings, maybe a jarful you can roll while you watch video while the power is out.
    • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      But think of all the fuel costs you'll save by getting a whopping 2.2 miles/kw! (which is what Tesla's superlative efficiency has accomplished here)

      This thing will not manage 200 miles of range at freeway speeds, or even 100 miles while towing. It's got enough to go a quarter mile pulling a 911 on a trailer through!

      • by Rei ( 128717 )

        You mean 2.76 miles per kilowatt *hour* (AWD version). Which is a weird way to express energy consumption. Most people would write 361Wh/kWh. Which is excellent for a pickup truck.

        • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

          OOOh you got me, I left off a letter. You're so smart. Also, would most people really write "361Wh/KWh"? That is, after all, a unitless number, why not just write ".361" then? I guess your paychecks don't pay for proofreading, only condescension.

          But no, I meant 2.2. Tesla claims that charging 15 minutes at 250 kW yields 128 miles of added range. That's 2.05 miles / kW-HOUR, or 485 watts/mile if that helps you masturbate better.

          It has also been reported that a fully charged Cybertruck reports 267 miles

          • by Rei ( 128717 )

            361 Wh/mi :P Yeah, bad timing for a typo on my part, but to be fair, nobody is actually confusing miles and kWh, while people are constantly confusing watts and watt hours.

            But no, I meant 2.2.

            Then you meant wrong.

            Tesla claims that charging 15 minutes at 250 kW yields 128 miles of added range.

            You fail to understand charge taper. You don't charge at the max power continuously all the way to 100%. Charge rates are highest near 0% and lowest near 100%.

            The way you actually calculate consumption is usable-Wh s

    • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      I'm going to take a stab and say you haven't been shopping for a new truck in the US recently. 60K isn't out there compared to ICE trucks these days. That's around what a optioned up F150 XLT or lower optioned F150 Lariat will run you these days.
    • by Rei ( 128717 )

      The price / stats actually compares quite favourably [fosstodon.org] to other electric trucks. I think it's pretty clear that Tesla realized that they were leaving money on the table, given how production limited they're going to be for the next year and a half and what competitors are charging.

      And if the power goes out, I can power my house for like 3 hours.

      Try dividing 123 kWh (the minimum pack size, not including the range extender pack, which itself is about the size of a Model 3's pack) by 11,5kW (the maximum power o

      • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        The extender pack is 50 kWh

        "11,5kW (the maximum power output, vastly more than a house averages)"

        If only a house would operate correctly on "average" power. The cyber truck is rated to provide about 50A at 220V, for how long who knows, but that would not even allow cooking a meal or doing laundry in many homes. It seems that your argument is that it would power a home for more than 3 hours because it can't actually power a home at all.

        It's hard to imagine how you think that anyone respects what you have t

        • by Rei ( 128717 )

          The extender pack is 50 kWh

          Aka, about the size of a Model 3 SR pack (~55kWh usable)

          If only a house would operate correctly on "average" power. The cyber truck is rated to provide about 50A at 220V, for how long who knows, but that would not even allow cooking a meal or doing laundry in many homes.

          What on Earth are you talking about? US washer and dryer cycles only allow for a MAX surge current of 30A, and a max of 24A sustained. Range outlets have a max of 50A surge current, but sustained only 40A, and m

  • by luvirini ( 753157 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @11:11AM (#64049143)

    If you need quite a lot of power on the go and do not want a noisy generator (that is the by far superior option in most cases), the dual motor version of the tesla cybertruck is not actully a bad deal strangly enough..

    The tryck is estimated to have something between 100 and 150kw battey capacity based on the ones doing the estimate. And the thing costs $80000-$7500 credit=$82500

    Compare that to something like Jackery. Their Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus Portable Power Station with tweo extra batteries for total of 6kwh is $5299.

    So for the cybetruck price you would get 13.7 of the jackery stations.. 14 such would give you 84kwh.. so definitely less that the cybertruck and you would need still a vehicle to haul them around.

    No, i am not saying that it is a good solution for most(see above about generators), but the fact is, you get a lot of battery capacity for the price comparatively.

    • Carry the F150 Lightning's charger on board and you can do the same thing.

      Even without it, it's got a pretty decent outlet onboard.

      I mean fuck Ford, but then, fuck Tesla too

      • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @01:27PM (#64049389)
        Well, if you’re in the market for truck fucking, don’t leave out the Silverado, it’s got the similar V2L capabilities including a 240V 30A plug and two 120V/20A circuits. So does the Ramcharger 1500. It’s so useful and so simple to implement its becoming standard on most car EV and all trucks.
        • by hawk ( 1151 )

          so, are the ERs across the country ready for the inevitable and exotic injuries rising from this new deviant behavior?

          I trust that the delivery rooms, though, won't end up with any new business. But if so, will they be subject to AI regulation?

          hmm.

          hawk

          • What do you mean new?
            • by hawk ( 1151 )

              wow.

              you'd think I'd be over getting shocked by the lower bounds of human behavior after practicing law this long, but . . .

              *shudder*

              I don't even want to *know* the mechanics, and am currently protected by an apparently insufficient imagination!

    • If you need quiet mobile power, the superior option is actually the F-150 Hybrid with the 7.2k inverter.
  • by blastard ( 816262 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @11:25AM (#64049181)

    This isn't news.
    Filter out marketing material instead of posting press release fake innovation as news.

  • by RogueWarrior65 ( 678876 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @11:40AM (#64049195)

    My 1975 GMC Motorhome has a generator that is fed from the engine fuel tanks but the feed tube leaves about 10 gallons in the tank so that you always have enough to get to a gas station. I wonder if Tesla was smart enough to shut off power sharing so it still has enough to get to the nearest charging station.

    • Given that the "nearest charging station" could be as close as "where it's parked right now once they fix the power" to ~100 miles away, I'd probably give you an option to set it in the app. If you're not worried about going anywhere with it (like having a 2nd vehicle or a generator), you could set the reserve quite low.

      That said, everything is still basically rumor at this point.

  • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @11:55AM (#64049219)

    This is being done using the ISO 15118 standard [wikipedia.org] which is what underlies the CCS [wikipedia.org] and NACS [wikipedia.org] charging standards which means it doesn't need to be a Tesla specific interface, just one that fits the NACS socket.

    The reason this is important is because it means you aren't locked into using Tesla specific gear which is a huge plus since "everyone" (Ford, GM, Hyundai, Kia, and others) have all switched to NACS. No walled garden means lower prices and companies that make CCS gear will absolutely make NACS gear because the difference is negligible.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      ISO 15118 is "Plug and Go", which allows the vehicle to identify itself to the charger in order to do automatic billing.

      When charging another vehicle with a Cybertruck, it's done via the 240V outlet at the rear, over AC. Several vehicles have had that capability for some years now, and any vehicle can potentially add it with an inverter. The Tesla one is a bit more efficient, but it's not new.

      Cybertruck also supports Vehicle To Grid, but again that's been available on other vehicles for a long time. In fact

      • ISO 15118 is "Plug and Go", which allows the vehicle to identify itself to the charger in order to do automatic billing.

        ISO 15118-2 and ISO 15118-20 are the two versions of the higher level communications protocol (yes, there is a SLAC which is the lower level PWM-based protocol). Only ISO 15118-20 supports "Plug & Charge" and bidirectional vehicle-to-grid power transference. https://www.switch-ev.com/blog... [switch-ev.com]

        When charging another vehicle with a Cybertruck, it's done via the 240V outlet at the rear, over AC.

        In theory, a direct DC car-to-car power transfer could be done with ISO 15118-20 but you would either have to have a hefty DC-DC power transformer or use two cars with the same voltage.

        I think it may be new to the US, but Europeans have been using it for a while now.

        CHAdeMO has limited distributi

  • Why focus on that? More importantly it's the first car to use entirely 48 volt for the low voltage battery electronics, has steer by wire (YES, STEER by wire), -180 to +180 steering lock to lock for a racing car feel, and an 800 volt main battery.

    This video gives a good rundown of the features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
    • has steer by wire (YES, STEER by wire)

      Well how else are you going to take the balls off?

    • So how do you move it when it's dead (for whatever reason) since you can't steer with no power? So much for failsafe.
      • by radoni ( 267396 )

        > So how do you move it when it's dead (for whatever reason) since you can't steer with no power?
        Answer: Science?

        Approximate weight is 80lbs for a 3kWh "48 volt" LiFePO4 battery pack at today's 2023 technology. It ain't a lot of fun but you can certainly carry that around; Bluetti B300 (or B300S) consumer product is such an item, for your reference. The quoted 5hp steering motor rating equates (on paper anyway) to 3.7285kW times four is a little under ~15kW. If we de-rate to 80% battery capacity as is cu

        • by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @04:45PM (#64049803) Homepage
          How does all that science work if it breaks down at a stoplight in the middle of rush hour? You need to be able to steer it NOW to push it to the side of the road.

          It's even stupider to assume you know every scenario. I wasn't even talking about loading it onto a flatbed I was talking about just moving it out of the way off of a busy highway.

          -'Sorry it's bricked, we can't steer it to safety either.'
    • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      As if "entirely 48 volt" is a feature that anyone should care about or is even a good idea. The "entirely" part is also added because there are MANY cars with 48 volt, it's needed for air suspension and it also common in hybrids. This, like everything Tesla does, is carefully crafted to make it seem like Tesla is a technology innovator. How does 48V make LED lighting work better? How does 48V make 12V outlets work better?

      How is STEER by wire a benefit to drivers? How is not not merely copying other ven

  • by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Saturday December 02, 2023 @01:24PM (#64049383) Homepage

    only available on the new Cybertruck

    Not quite. https://www.ford.com/trucks/f1... [ford.com]

    • by radoni ( 267396 )

      only available on the new Cybertruck

      Not quite. https://www.ford.com/trucks/f1... [ford.com]

      There is some confusion between the 120/240VAC inverter power outlet added-feature and a Vehicle-To-Grid bi-directional power interface from the EVSE plug-in.

      I don't have answers for you, however, it does appear that none of the attempts in N. America market have really gained adoption for Vehicle-To-Grid. It is not as simple as to slap an inverter on the high voltage system and call it Vehicle-To-Grid. Certainly Ford has zero products on the N. America market that implement this, and I'm hesitant to accept

  • ... they can power an 8000 or 12,000 lb winch. Most use 12 Vdc although I'd expect Warn and others to meet any market demand for higher voltage systems as an option.

    The Cybertruck does come with an optional winch mounting bumper/frame, doesn't it? Or what good is it?

A Fortran compiler is the hobgoblin of little minis.

Working...