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Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

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Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#71

Cool but my thought was that load sharing between cars was caused by contended grid connection rather than anything in the supercharger itself? Having 16 * 250kW grid connection (4MW) will be super expensive (in terms of connection speed) and slow to provision in many places. It's a similar amount of power as a data centre and power connection is the slowest and hardest part of that, hence why I assumed they had lowe…

Yeah, a 4MVA connection would likely require new HV side infrastructure, which is inherently expensive to install.

Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#72
post #58

250KW. JFC! That's enough to power 100 average houses, all going into one car. I'm both impressed and slightly terrified.

At 250 volts, it is only 1000 Amps. Normal houses come with 200 Amp service. Older ones may be 100 Amp, and larger modern ones are 400 Amp. So that is about 5 houses. You could buy that service. I hope Tesla would sell you the supercharger for it.

My house has 200 Amp service. But I never use that much at once. The average US home uses an average of about 1.2KW at any given time [0]. So I was wrong above. It's more like 200 houses.

[0] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3

Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#74
post #42

250KW. JFC! That's enough to power 100 average houses, all going into one car. I'm both impressed and slightly terrified.

Have you ever considered how much chemical energy is flowing through the gas pump when you fill up a car?

I thought about that right after I posted, and you're right. It's probably that gasoline is more of a familiar experience than 1000 amps flowing into lithium batteries.

Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#75
post #58

250KW. JFC! That's enough to power 100 average houses, all going into one car. I'm both impressed and slightly terrified.

At 250 volts, it is only 1000 Amps. Normal houses come with 200 Amp service. Older ones may be 100 Amp, and larger modern ones are 400 Amp. So that is about 5 houses. You could buy that service. I hope Tesla would sell you the supercharger for it.

No, you can't buy that service. Not even close.

400amp service is usually 2 200 amp panels.

Done with 2/0 cable. It's rarely, if ever, 1 400 amp panel.

1. There is no way you would get "1000amp service" at 250v. It would be a minimum of 480v 3 phase (and not 1000amp). You may even want a lot higher, because as you'll see, getting that many amps is ... very very hard.

2. You can't even buy 1000amp cable gauge anywhere commercially, because it would be insane.

The NEC ampacity table doesn't go anywhere near that high it tops out at 2000kcmil, 665 amp cable.

Due to various factors[1], doubling the cable mils will only get you a hundred or so amps here, so it's probably close to 4500kcmil (i'm too lazy to do the mm^2 math, it's 1.89" conductors) Which doesn't really exist for purchase (if you really needed it, you have the means to make it :P).

To try to also put the size in perspective: 2/0 cable has conductors that are about 3/8" in diameter.

2000kcmil cable, which again, tops out at 665 amps, has conductors 1.6" in diameter (they are often also segmented, so while the bare size may be 1.6" in theory, you don't find that). Generally the insulation size on them is ridiculous as well (because they are usually used for like 10kv+ applications)

[1] Current is related to surface area of conductors, or combined surface areas of all the strands in a conductor. So you'd need to double diameter, at least, to come close.

Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#76
post #47

Is MPH a standard way to measure EV charging speeds? Just for the sake of comparison a slow gas pump (5 gal/min.) fueling an average (25 MPG) ICE car works out to fueling at 7500 MPH.

For Teslas, yes. I've found it to be very helpful, as it relates directly to numbers I care about. E.g. 4-5 mph charge rate from a 110v outlet, and I can just multiply by how many hours I'll be parked, to know what I'll get out and if that's enough for me. It also relates to the static-estimated battery capacity readout, which comes full circle to a point where I don't have to worry about kW conversions anymore. But if you want, you can just set it to 'energy' read-out, and you'll get kW, percentages, etc.

Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#78
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 250 volts, it is only 1000 Amps. Normal houses come with 200 Amp service. Older ones may be 100 Amp, and larger modern ones are 400 Amp. So that is about 5 houses. You could buy that service. I hope Tesla would sell you the supercharger for it.

No, you can't buy that service. Not even close. 400amp service is usually 2 200 amp panels. Done with 2/0 cable. It's rarely, if ever, 1 400 amp panel. 1. There is no way you would get "1000amp service" at 250v. It would be a minimum of 480v 3 phase (and not 1000amp). You may even want a lot higher, because as you'll see, getting that many amps is ... very very hard. 2. You can't even buy 1000amp cable gauge anywhere…

Which implies that Tesla is either using a much higher voltage than 250, or they're using superconductors. And I doubt they're using superconductors.

Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#79

Tesla Model S owner here. By choosing spots and times strategically I've gotten nearly 400MPH charging at the existing stations and the difference it makes to convenience is amazing. Super looking forward to 1000MPH! At that rate I can likely make it to Squamish BC, from Seattle, and back, with only one ~20 minute charge in between. That's still about 4x or 5x for the time I would spend filling an ICE car, but gettin…

Yeah, this is closing the gap in a significant way. It's still not "charge on the way to work" fast, but it wouldn't be a painful delay on the way home. More important, it's an improvement. I still switch back and forth between my Model S and an ICE car--I can't remember a time when the gas station experience ever got better.

Re: Tesla – Introducing V3 Supercharging

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His companies delivered, not him alone. Take nothing away from the man though, he works insane hours.

Yeh but you got to hire a good team and he really does that

Then he fires them constantly or frustrates the hell out of them until they quit. Elon is a bad boss.
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