151–160 of 281 posts
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So basically gas stations are just an excuse to do other business?
Pretty much, depending on their location often people pulling in to refuel are a captive market.
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>It's grid electric powered. The canopy doesn't do much. They're sizing the installations in partnership with SolarCity, one of Musk's other start-ups. They claim they'll be sized such that it will generate as much energy over the course of the year as the vehicles consume. Meanwhile, you're estimating power output from a CG rendering on a marketing page. You could argue whether or not they're lying, but they're cert…
generate as much energy over the course of the year as the vehicles consume Yeah right. At what utilization rate? A single charge is ~90KWh, and takes half an hour. Two charges back to back are 180KWh. jws guesses that each slot generates 28KWh/day. A ten slot charging station would only be able to charge three cars without going into the red. Tesla would have to build a lot of very oversized installations in a lot o…
A simpler explanation would be that he's not telling the whole story, and that perhaps they have dedicated solar farms in development/deployment or something to that effect. Don't afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
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3. It's solar-powered. I wonder if they have a electricity backup... It's grid electric powered. The canopy doesn't do much. Let's calculate: Guess that the canopy for each bay is 7 by 4 meters, 28m^2 Sunny spots receive about 4kWhr of solar power per square meter per day. Solar panels might be 25% efficient. Total daily power: 28m^2 * 4kWhr/m^2/day * 0.25 = 28kWhr/day Model S has an 85kWhr battery, half charge is 42…
Right, so if you think of it as a grid tied system it will generate power when ever it can, and people will charge on it. I've got 5.2kW of panels on my roof and can verify attest to the fact that even though I might use 28kWh in a day I can generate 34kWhr (during the summer, during the winter my best days are about 20kWhr) I would guess that as long as the duty cycle on the fill up is small they will consume net ze…
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I remember talking to a friend who worked for an oil company, who told me that the shops at gas stations actually make 2-3 times more than the revenue generated from the gas. If you were an oil company which dealt exclusively with the consumer (which of course non of them are) you would in fact be a catering business which sold gas on the side.
>I remember talking to a friend who worked for an oil company, who told me that the shops at gas stations actually make 2-3 times more than the revenue generated from the gas That is completely impossible. Maybe profit , but not revenue. Even my sedan with a 17 gallon tank costs more to fill up than even a pack-a-day smoker with a lottery addiction and a love of energy drinks is likely to spend at the shop.
Typically a gas station makes 1 or two cents per liter. A 17 gallon tank is approximately 68 liters so that's between $.68 and $1.36 or thereabouts in gross margin for the station. Of that they still have to operate and service the pumps, and deal with periodic mandatory environmental upgrades and inspections.
You have to do millions of liters per year to turn a profit on the gas. Gross profits on store goodies are on the order or 20 to 30%. If they're refrigerated then likely it is on the low end, if they are non-perishables then it is on the high end.
The arguments in this thread are amusing to say at the least. 30 minute charging times, high prices of Tesla cars. Yes all that is true. But this was never about 'Electric cars are awesome now'. I'm pretty sure cars during and before pre Henry Ford times were not very great in terms of their overall affordability, total cost of ownership and availability of fuel all around the country. You could trust your horse to d…
The arguments in this thread are amusing to say at the least. 30 minute charging times, high prices of Tesla cars. Yes all that is true. But this was never about 'Electric cars are awesome now'. I'm pretty sure cars during and before pre Henry Ford times were not very great in terms of their overall affordability, total cost of ownership and availability of fuel all around the country. You could trust your horse to d…
But the part you should be focusing on is the first one, the positive one. Because that will change everything and to some people, the second part, the negative one, will be irrelevant just long enough for Tesla to work on improving it and years later making it "good enough" for most people.
Remember how the iPhone was awesome at user interface and interaction? But sucked at battery life (compared to other smartphones), had only a 2 MP camera, no video recording, only 2G connection and no MMS? That may not have been good enough for 90% of Nokia or Blackberry users back then, but the iPhone is good enough for almost everyone today, and the iPhone changed the entire industry. That's how disruptive innovations work, and I believe that's exactly how Tesla's new model will work.
Also, do you know how everyone says I wish I would've bought Apple stock when the iPhone first appeared? Well, if I was into stock, I'd probably start buying Tesla stock just about now.
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What's to keep Tesla from partnering up with major supermarkets and malls? Tesla could offer free covered parking spaces to the building owner-operators and free (or metered) charging to the customers. The owner-operators get free 'green' PR, and could see increased business as customers have an incentive to stay in the stores longer. Tesla sees a real-estate free way to offer more charging stations, a marketing cost…
Yeah, I feel like charging stations of tomorrow will be advertised in the same way "free wifi" is advertised today.
I have a feeling that would be very dangerous for some reason, but I'm not an EE so who knows. Certainly would be pretty inefficient though.
I understood it to be free for existing Tesla customers, not new ones...
Right, owners of the "S" model can charge free for life. No word on what owners of subsequent models will pay for it. I'm eager to see whether they can trim that 30 minutes down to, say, a max of 15. 30 minutes every three hours is too long, but 15 would work. Get out, plug in, go take a bio break, come back, wash your windows, and you're just about ready to hit the road again. These are exciting times to live in.
The arguments in this thread are amusing to say at the least. 30 minute charging times, high prices of Tesla cars. Yes all that is true. But this was never about 'Electric cars are awesome now'. I'm pretty sure cars during and before pre Henry Ford times were not very great in terms of their overall affordability, total cost of ownership and availability of fuel all around the country. You could trust your horse to d…
Electric cars are 100 years old and have not improved much, bizarrely http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/05/the-status-quo-of-ele...