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Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

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Re: Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

#241

Post by nancyhua »

Swizec wrote: post #169
kamaal wrote: post #136

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…

From what I understand 30 minute charging is amazing . To paraphrase Richard Hammond: "Forgetting something at home when I go to work would be a 2 day round-trip because it's so far no electric car has the range. I would have to spend one night recharging the car somewhere in the middle" His problem has just been solved. Sure, it might take him 3.5 hours (random number) instead of just 3. But that's insanely better t…

30 minutes is already a vast improvement over the old technology which took hours, maybe 6 hours if you weren't on the fast connection, or I heard days if you were stuck using a normal outlet.

Re: Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

#242

Post by nancyhua »

jaggederest wrote: post #173
Swizec wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand 30 minute charging is amazing . To paraphrase Richard Hammond: "Forgetting something at home when I go to work would be a 2 day round-trip because it's so far no electric car has the range. I would have to spend one night recharging the car somewhere in the middle" His problem has just been solved. Sure, it might take him 3.5 hours (random number) instead of just 3. But that's insanely better t…

Honestly, electric cars are never going to be completely practical for people with a daily commute beyond 150 miles or so. But if you're commuting 3 hours a day total, you have bigger issues with your life, to be honest. Move closer to where you commute!

I read about this charging issue being addressed in Israel with a company called Better Place that does battery swapping. The reasoning was Israel is small enough to roll out something like this on a large scale. Battery swapping sounds great because they were saying it'd only take a few minutes, which is comparable to fueling up with gas.

Re: Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

#243

Post by toomuchtodo »

SudarshanP wrote: post #180
Keyframe wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehh no 2. I wasn't talking about Paypal, but current companies. And you can hardly attribute Paypal to Elon Musk alone, if anyone individualized it would be Peter Thiel. Anyways, SpaceX is a huge endeavour as is Tesla motors and green energy project on the side. Most remarkable thing is a close loop those companies feed on each others achievements. That is without dispute. However, there is absolutely no widespread i…

SpaceX means either lesser tax money spent on space travel for same output or more space travel for same budget. Isn't that enough impact already?

I'd actually argue it'd be better if SpaceX could gobble up more taxpayer money; they are far more likely to use it for research/development/innovation than either costPlus space contractors or other parts of government that would be allocated the cash saved by cheaper SpaceX launches.

Re: Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

#246

Post by at-fates-hands »

I think its interesting to hear people constantly challenging this technology.

Fist it was it couldn't be done. An electric car? No way.

Then Telsa Motors comes out with an electric sports car. No way! Too expensive! Top Gear made a mockery of the car. Not feasible, what happens when you run out of charge?

Then Tesla Motors figures out a way to create "re-fueling" stations for their cars. No way! 30 minutes to charge my car? WAY too long! Stupid.

Whether you know it or not, each step this company takes, it's answering every one of the doubts people have about this technology. Affordable completely electric cars are a lot closer than most people think.

Re: Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

#247

Post by soperj »

maxerickson wrote: post #200
sliverstorm wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tack on to that the increased capacity electric vehicles are going to have to have, as well as the increased electricity prices I am expecting when ten million Americans are charging their cars.

Current U.S. energy use is ~ 10 billion kw-h per day. 1 billion kw-h / day more is a nice big tick on that, but I'm not sure it would drive prices a whole lot.

Yah, but those people won't be using refined gasoline. It uses alot of electricity just to refine a gallon of gas.

Re: Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

#248

Post by eru »

freehunter wrote: post #207
adriand wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, if I can't get there in less than 1/2 an hour on my bicycle, I don't think I'm interested.

Try doing that in the midwest. Finding jobs gets hard and apartments are rare and low quality, so it's not uncommon to have to settle on a 20 minute (or much more) commute by car on the freeway. There are also no bike lanes. Commuting long distances isn't great, but moving more people into the city isn't always the best option either. We learned that in the 1900's

I guess one should move out of the midwest then, where moving people into cities works better?

Re: Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups

#250

Post by freehunter »

gusgordon wrote: post #238
freehunter wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my morning commute, it's important that fueling be quick. I have to stop at a station and fill up, something I can't do at home. However, if I were in an EV, I could fill up at home, while I slept. It'd be fully charged when I got in to go to work. If I could charge 30 minutes to half at home, charging time is nearly insignificant. I would still love to see hydrogen cars instead. I think Honda has it right.

It turns out that, among other advantages for electric cars, they can carry more energy than hydrogen cars when you take the efficiency of transferring kinetic energy to the car into account. There was an interview with Elon Musk where he scoffed at the use of hydrogen and the use of fuel cells.

The advantage of hydrogen lies in the speed of refueling, which is the main disadvantage of electric cars.
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