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supercharger losses I was thinking the same thing. The fact that the charging is happening on multiple, parallel dc chargers makes me think there wouldn't be any extra losses there, per se. But, whatever efficiency you gain by running at a higher input voltage might be offset by needed to do...

This is very useful to have for planning purposes. Any sense of how ambient temperature extremes might affect these values? I've noticed that when the car is really cold, it can only accept small amounts of current from the supercharger until it warms up. That's why I always now supercharge...

what about supercharging? If going from 110 volts to 240 volts cuts losses by about 30%, is there an argument to be made that bumping up to 300+ volts on a supercharger improves it further? Obviously a more complicated question, given the significant amount of peak heating that can occur at...

Did anyone check the 70/291 interchange in Independence for evidence of supercharger construction? The shopping areas on the NE and SE side of the interchange both seem like plausible locations and would be about 84 miles away from the Topeka supercharger.

I have a 60 and don't do much crazy accelerating, but I'm facing complete replacement of the initial 19" Goodyears with fewer than 15,000 miles, due to the same inside treadwear problem documented on this thread. I haven't seen any discussion on this thread about the other cause of excessive...

We saw the construction work at Gilroy when passing through on Thursday as well. Looked like they were wiring up the latest and greatest supercharger cabinets and also changing their physical orientation. It was possible to see the wiring layouts inside the new superchargers from a little ways...

That's wonderful news! Seems to have been one of the faster supercharger progressions from ground-breaking to full operation, eh? I'll be there in a month to give it a try in person. Thanksgiving meet up anyone?

The amount of graphite in lithium ion batteries greatly outweighs the amount of lithium, so it's more interesting from an investing perspective to consider where the graphite will be sourced. Needs to be very high purity flake graphite as well, which narrows the range of acceptable mines...

BrandonF-- Based on the amount of progress they've made so far in the last photos that were posted, it looks like they'll need another couple weeks or so to finish up and switch this one on...

Topeka is nearly complete in the Arby's parking lot! Here's what we know so far: New Super Charger in Topeka | Forums | Tesla Motors Anyone interested in a Topeka Thanksgiving Tesla meet-up? I'll be in the area from Colorado to see family...

Great news and congrats to the local sleuths! Many restaurants and shopping options nearby, and it's also close to most of the major freeway interchanges on the northwest side of town. Good location! New Super Charger in Topeka | Forums | Tesla Motors

The rumored location is a hotel parking lot near the I-70 exit of 6th and Wanamaker. This makes sense on multiple levels, offering walking access to many restaurants and shopping areas and proximity to I-70 east-west, Highway 75 north-south, and the I-470 bypass, which also feeds the turnpike...

Any special adapters that would allow a Tesla to charge at one of these CCS stations, and, if so, at what kW rate?

I haven't tried the permit office again in Topeka, but here's their contact info. I did submit an item to the news desk at the Topeka Capital Journal encouraging them to look into it. Could be a worthwhile local economic development story now that the other chargers are in place marching...

Another good option for Tesla owners passing through Durango is our brand new zero net energy rental home in the north Animas Valley - Risco Rojo. There's a 14-50 outlet in the garage, and all those electrons are coming from photons!

Has anyone matched the Tesla map dots yet to cities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida? I'm curious where those will land and if we still think they'll all be in place before year end. Thanks...

Sorry I didn't keep notes on the name of the permit office person. I just tracked down the general number from the permit office the last time I was in Topeka and posed the question to the woman who answered the phone for that department. Definitely worth asking again, though. It's been about...

If any Tesla owners need a faster charge while in Durango, just let me know - cjc9er at gmail dot com. I can hook you up with a solar-powered NEMA 14-50 in our garage.

This is one of the most intriguing developments I've seen lately in the supercapacitor field, and speaks to the way their design can be modified fundamentally to store more energy: http://web.mit.edu/erc/spotlights/ultracapacitor.html Although many analysts and pundits are worried about the...

I like it! Delicious irony served with a side of free kWh...

Now that eastern Colorado and most of Kansas are in place, all eyes are on Topeka for the next link in the chain. Reports on the Topeka supercharger thread indicate a likely location on the north end of Wanamaker near I-70, likely between 6th and 10th at one of the hotels or shopping centers in...

I wasn't aware that you could visit these service centers without paying the toll and being on the turnpike system. If you can get on here without paying a toll, couldn't you also exit from here somehow and avoid paying the toll? I was assuming the Tesla supercharger would need to be outside...

OK gang, time for a local to do some more sleuthing in the Topeka area. Last week when I was there, I checked 5 or 6 of the hotel parking lots along or near Wanamaker between 6th and 10th, including the Holiday Inn, without finding any signs of supercharger construction. I also checked the...

I called the Topeka electrical permits office this morning - no record of any filings from Tesla for a supercharger yet...

Looks like the supercharger march is on toward Topeka, now that Tesla has confirmed Limon, Goodland, Hays and Salina on its Coming Soon screen: I just finished checking the most promising hotel locations on the west side of Topeka near the freeway for any signs of surveying or construction -...

Topeka location I checked Topeka's permits department and didn't see any online info about these types of projects. I'll be there later this week though visiting family - can poke around a couple promising locations and see if anything's in process. How about the Residence Inn, Hampton Inn...

Ford and some of the other automakers have test tracks in SW Arizona and appear to alternate between putting Teslas through their paces on the track, and then sending them out for long road trips to and from superchargers. This particular P85 had additional monitoring equipment installed under...

Airj-- I just returned from a 1300 mile trip that included use of 4 superchargers in Utah, 1 in Nevada, 3 in Arizona, and 2 in New Mexico. There were two other Teslas charging in Vegas and 1-2 others charging in Kingman when I was there, including an employee of a US car manufacturer that had...

I'd vote against trying to make it all the way from Vegas to Beaver. Cedar City is also a pleasant stop in between and has a couple nice campgrounds including one right next door to the Best Western Town and Country. Just charged there last week and they threw in the charge free with my stay...

After supercharging at Beaver, I stopped in Cedar City for the night and charged at a 14-50 at the campground adjacent to the Best Western Town and Country. Great spot and I had a full charge in my 60 by morning, which was perfect for my drive into Vegas from there. Didn't see a single Tesla...

I can reassure you that the 60 is sufficient for 90-95% of the driving conditions you are likely to encounter. Going to the 85 doesn't get you to 100% either, so the question of whether it is worth the incremental cost is very much a personal one. The key advantages that persuaded me to...

My Tesla service reps in Denver just traveled back in time to intercept a vague thought I was having in my sleep to call them the next morning about service work. They arrived in my driveway in an electric helicopter before I could wake up that morning, serviced everything that needed attention...

Nice to see the accompanying print story as well when I did my occasional Tesla search in Google News. John was a pleasure to work with!

I met with John in Blanding on Wednesday of this week and we did some filming at the Supercharger and along a nice curving stretch of highway near Comb Ridge. Sounds like the story might air sometime next week...

Nicely done, Cliff and Ben! I'll be an enthusiastic user of the updated site and also put a plug in for it on my recent blogs at ecova.com. Any prospect of getting permission from Tesla to be one of their onboard apps? The touchscreen seems to have made provision for adding more software...

With emphasis on the "adventure" part! If you go through Prescott and Jerome, you've got multiple good options to stop for food and grab a little juice to ensure you have enough to make it to Prescott. Give a shout if you're passing through Durango on your way back!

See the Gigacapacitor thread for a discussion of how supercapacitors/ultracapacitors could help address the problem being discussed here. They are much less temperature sensitive than lithium ion batteries and have a greater power density, so could serve as a buffer between large amounts of...

Lots of good food for thought here from everyone. It will be interesting to see if and when one of the major EVs incorporates a super cap as electric buses have, or if the battery only approach continues to be preferred.

JRP3-- True, but the coulombic losses tend to be higher in batteries than they are in supercapacitors, so even though the ac-dc conversion losses and the high voltage conversion losses are the same in both cases, supercapacitors are more efficient at storing and retrieving large instantaneous...

There's a good discussion about the different ways that batteries and supercapacitors behave at low temperatures here: http://www.cellergycap.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=3 All the various types of lithium batteries rely on an electrochemical process that doesn't...

It would be good to hone in a little further on the stated topic of this thread, and consider why ultracapacitors (or supercapacitors) have been studied so intensively for electric vehicle use: because their electrical properties are complementary to those of lithium ion batteries, not directly...

I also see the value in this. Might be interesting to collaborate with the EV Trip Planner folks, because there are four key considerations at work here when you are sitting at one supercharger planning what to do next: 1. Where am I going next? 2. Which route am I going to take to get...

Nice pics, Steve! Your other route option could be to cut the diagonal from Flagstaff to Quartzsite or Yuma and then head across to Hawthorne, bypassing Barstow entirely, but improving the scenery considerably. I just did San Diego to Prescott, AZ in a day in my 60 with SC stops in Yuma and...

San Diego to Yuma is totally doable - I left La Mesa in my 60 earlier this month and rolled into Yuma with a decent cushion left, even on a 90 degree day. The only concern would be if you had strong Santa Anna winds blowing out of the west and you were trying to go faster than the speed limit...

Cottonwood-- I guess it's time for me to stake my claim for the Mountain region. I made the following supercharger stops on my recent road trip to California: Gallup, Holbrook, Flagstaff, Kingman, Barstow, Tejon Ranch, Atascadero, Gilroy, Fremont, Vacaville, Harris Ranch, Tejon Ranch, Yuma...

That was me! Sorry I didn't get a chance to catch up Sunday either - I'm usually a little more social when I spot another driver at an SC. I had my nose in my EV Trip Planner at that point, trying to figure out how to make Holbrook with as little extra charging as possible... :)

Cottonwood - I think the only exception to your downhill range recovery rule is if people are doing full range charges or if the batteries are quite cold. In those two circumstances, I couldn't really make meaningful use of much of the regen energy for the first 15-20 miles driven. Has that...

Great to meet you as well matthelm! I can definitely attest to the loud protests under the hood from the cooling system as my car was charging in the hot sun. And that was February - July could be a different story altogether! Makes me hope those solar canopies are coming sooner rather than...

The fact that Buckeye wasn't open on Saturday when I was passing through definitely made me change my route in *creative* ways! San Diego to Yuma was no problem, and Yuma to Quartzsite was easy, but then I decided to slice the diagonal to Flagstaff and wander off the Supercharger network for...

Thanks Cottonwood! Figured I have to spend the night somewhere anyway, so Prescott might be a decent option for a slow charge overnight.