Fareed Zakaria interviews Elon

That's quite a stretch. Not sure how you can make a $30,000 car when the batteries alone are $20,000.

-Ryan

Interesting. I wonder how people are going to manage to change these half ton battery packs.

Also, to deliver 80% charge in 45 minutes will require higher current - over 200A on a 240V line (no losses). Thus an incompatible connector to the Roadster's and a cable as thick as your arm?

Eewwww. If this is what Elon meant by increased functionality, I'm disappointed.

So there's an onboard ICE engine which drives a high current generator while the car is stationary. And the rest of the time it just takes up payload? If the generator turns out to be the traction motor just disconnected from the wheels and driven on regen by the ICE - that's a clever solution, but you still need a sufficiently powerful engine with it's cooling system and a gas tank. What capacity should you make the fuel tank?

Is this a necessary sweetner for Daimler?

If 99% of journeys are under 200 miles then why hamstring the simplicity of the design for the 1% of journeys which are not? By their own admission they are trying to encourage a recharge/replace business model which will be seasonal/infrequent in its use at best. Who's going to bite that?

Once again Tesla give the appearance of being unsure of the strength of their own BEV message. The company should be all about encouraging an alternative attitude to the automobile Poster Idea 7 - Tesla Motors Club Gallery

But at least this proposal isn't as daft as the Lightning's sound generator. That just shouts; "We don't believe in our own product!"

Offering lower power recharging in more Hotel chains seems far more realistic. Better than setting up a battery swap infrastructure or trying to recharge in an hour.

Imagine the customer announcement over lunch: "Will the owner of the Tesla kindly return to the parking lot and turn off his vehicle to stop it making a f***ing racket!"

malcolm said:

So there's an onboard ICE engine which drives a high current generator while the car is stationary. And the rest of the time it just takes up payload? If the generator turns out to be the traction motor just disconnected from the wheels and driven on regen by the ICE - that's a clever solution, but you still need a sufficiently powerful engine with it's cooling system and a gas tank. What capacity should you make the fuel tank?

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Malcolm I'm not sure where you got this ICE idea from - the article never even mentions it .

What he is saying is the Model S may have the electronics from the Roadster's home/garage charger onboard, which will allow you to hook up to a high current outlet and charge quickly anywhere there is a suitable outlet.

Now I think about it, I was talking to Aaron about standardising EV charging points with known connectors on Sunday and he picked up a 63A three-phase CEE form plug from the trunk and said "you mean like this?".



Why would the Roadster in its current form need three-phase? Perhaps that was a hint...

Ah

I read "high-powered onboard charger" and assumed the worst.

Apologies for the rant.

Three-phase is a good idea since there's a need to reduce the bulk of the cables of the mobile charger. I've often wondered how much trunk space is lost when you have to carry it around.

Should the socket on the side of the car be replaced by a plug and cable - a bit like the flex on a vacuum cleaner? If the plug is fairly soft rubber rather than hard plastic could it be designed with some form of electro-mechanical self-ejector pins and auto-cable rewind option when charging is finished? Hopefully the plug wouldn't be damaged or damage the side of the car as it is retracted.

I know, I know - costly pointless technology for its own sake! Just pull it out by hand and press the rocker switch on the side of the car next to the cable inlet to retract the cable!

The simpler design would still need a set of plug adaptors - but hopefully they could fit into little storage recepticals in the trunk.

The existing Roadster mobile charger is quite small, about 20x10x10 centimetres.

You can see it under the Xerox box (full of datasheets) here



I'm not sure how much current it handles, but I'd guess over 30A by the size of the wires passing through it (it has a transparent lid).

I would say the main problem would be the unwieldy cables needed for very fast charging - compare the size of the Roadster-side cable to the UK 240V/13A cable here for example - so yes three-phase would help a lot.

That cable (in the boot) can be used for 70A also. IT does not look any thinner than the Home charging station cable. When I asked about the box, it was said that it provides the pilot signal that tells the PEM that the plug connection is good (safety measure to keep high voltage away from the mating connector till there is a good contact). I think it also tells the car the max current the cable can handle.

deenko said:

That cable (in the boot) can be used for 70A also. IT does not look any thinner than the Home charging station cable. When I asked about the box, it was said that it provides the pilot signal that tells the PEM that the plug connection is good (safety measure to keep high voltage away from the mating connector till there is a good contact).

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Thanks

I think it also tells the car the max current the cable can handle.

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I thought that was set up on the VDS in the car?

I think the VDS will allow you to limit the charge current, but will only allow you to charge at the max current that the home chaging cable can provide, thus the pilot signal.

It kind of makes sence, as to keep the customer from making a mistake and damaging something.

A better view of the mobile charger:

doug said:

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Since people seem inclined to judging and condemning Tesla for every possible thing they can it should probably be pointed out that this is not the Mobile Charge Unit that will be sold to customers. This is a Tesla project box/test unit.

donauker said:

Since people seem inclined to judging and condemning Tesla for every possible thing they can it should probably be pointed out that this is not the Mobile Charge Unit that will be sold to customers. This is a Tesla project box/test unit.

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I suspected as much. Every engineering firm has its in-house lash-ups to test things out. I suspect this one is designed to be easily modded for different voltages/currents/plug standards.