Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

Post by timroman » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 12:45 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #11

michaelry wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That 1.5 hours represents three(3) thirty(30) minute charges. A supercharge gets 200 miles per 30 minute charge. http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger . This is the beginning of a new way to fuel cars and the charge time technical hurdle (30 minutes) although already small, will be reduced in future battery technologies.

Sure. It's going to get better. But it's still 1.5h per day spent on the equivalent of a gas station. If you wanted to stop for sightseeing while on the road in a gasoline powered car you'd likely take 10 minutes or so to fill up for the whole day, and then stop somewhere more interesting. I'm just saying that it's disingenuous marketing speak by Elon Musk to try to pass of a 1.5 hr mandatory stop at a place you woul…

Post by flexie » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 12:46 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #7

> At 1.5 hrs/day, we will only ever need to > charge when stopping anyway to eat or sightsee, > never just for charging itself. I'm all for the development of electric cars but downplaying having to stop at what's effectively a gas station in the middle of nowhere for 1.5 hours per day is pretty disingenuous. You wouldn't get a lot of people buying a normal gasoline powered car if it took 1.5 hrs to fill it up each t…

Post by avar » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 12:59 PM UTC

timroman wrote: post #12

avar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. It's going to get better. But it's still 1.5h per day spent on the equivalent of a gas station. If you wanted to stop for sightseeing while on the road in a gasoline powered car you'd likely take 10 minutes or so to fill up for the whole day, and then stop somewhere more interesting. I'm just saying that it's disingenuous marketing speak by Elon Musk to try to pass of a 1.5 hr mandatory stop at a place you woul…

True if you're only interested in getting there as fast as possible. For most people who choose to drive from coast to coast, stopping often to see random things is part of the fun and reason they chose to drive in the first place.

Post by matznerd » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 1:08 PM UTC

Ntrails wrote: post #15

avar wrote: post #7

> At 1.5 hrs/day, we will only ever need to > charge when stopping anyway to eat or sightsee, > never just for charging itself. I'm all for the development of electric cars but downplaying having to stop at what's effectively a gas station in the middle of nowhere for 1.5 hours per day is pretty disingenuous. You wouldn't get a lot of people buying a normal gasoline powered car if it took 1.5 hrs to fill it up each t…

This is PR, so spinning the charge time as nothing more than a good opportunity to grab a bite to eat is smart. One assumes that the charging stations are located in places with a variety of nearby amenities for this purpose? To me the fact that any journey would have to be planned with charging stations as waypoints is more obnoxious than the actual stopping itself.

Post by vph » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 1:18 PM UTC

flexie wrote: post #14

avar wrote: post #7

> At 1.5 hrs/day, we will only ever need to > charge when stopping anyway to eat or sightsee, > never just for charging itself. I'm all for the development of electric cars but downplaying having to stop at what's effectively a gas station in the middle of nowhere for 1.5 hours per day is pretty disingenuous. You wouldn't get a lot of people buying a normal gasoline powered car if it took 1.5 hrs to fill it up each t…

It's free. If you could get gasoline for 200 miles for free, would you mind waiting for 30 minutes? I guess it's $25-30 worth of gasoline, corresponding to $50-60 per hour of waiting. I could wait. With the battery swap that Tesla is now introducing, you could also chose to swap the battery in a couple of minutes.