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Can I charge my Model S on a generator? (Is that a generator in your frunk?)

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Knowing absolutely nothing about the technical feasibility of this, would it be possible to carry on board in the trunk or frunk a portable gas powered generator to use in certain emergency situations? Could a typical 120 output generator be modified to be more efficient and provide quicker charge times?
Better solution: Carry a cell phone. For the rare occasions when you have an emergency, call a tow truck. If you frequently run out of charge, you're driving the wrong car. If your range anxiety is so bad you'd consider carrying a can of gasoline in your car all the time, you need to buy a Volt or a conventional car instead. (And what will you do when you run out of gas???) And the cell phone will serve you for other kinds of emergencies as well, such as flat tires or breakdowns or an attack by velociraptors or you can't wait until you get home to order a pizza. (But please pull over and stop before ordering pizza. Or have a passenger order the pizza. Talking on the phone while driving is dangerous.)
 
You left out the Zombie apocalypse too. I really don't see the need for a gas generator in an electric car. I agree with Daniel. If this really is something you're thinking about doing, an EV probably isn't the car for you at this point. I understand about being concerned about range, that's natural, but as Bonnie said you get over it quickly. Carry your backup charging cable, plan your trip carefully, and give yourself enough buffer for using more battery on the trip than you estimated.
 
The Model S always keeps some reserve power in the batteries. I would hope that if I'm attacked by velociraptors, I could press the "velociraptors" button on the touch screen and direct the remaining power to the aluminum skin of the vehicle. Obviously you could select all or just one panel or the luggage rack. Velociraptors are smart, so once the first one got fried, they'd probably leave you alone after eating their buddy. Zombies are less smart, but they take less amps to kill than a velociraptors, so no doubt you could take out more of them before your battery was officially toast.

I can't wait until the SDK ships. I will now be adding a 'velociraptor attack' option to my 'zombie apocalypse' and 'launch missile at idiot' buttons.
 
Thanks, Bonnie, and thanks for unfreezing my profile. :) I can't wait to start playing with the Tesla apps. The possibilities are endless. For instance, in addition to displaying the panels for electrification, you could play a T-Rex roar at high volume. Fun for the kids.
 
Velociraptors are smart, so once the first one got fried, they'd probably leave you alone after eating their buddy.

I don't know. Evidence has show us from Jurassic Park that they will probe the fence for a weakness so would expect the same with the Model S:smile: So therefore, no generator in the frunk (back on topic...phew).

Welcome as well.
 
For travel around town - even extended amounts all three battery pack types will do just fine - the difference will just be your maximum radius from home (divide your range by half for round trips). My thought is this... for pre-planned trips (usually one way) that are outside of the radius - if there is a way to make it in one day and charge overnight at the destination then that would be ideal.

For that 0.5% that you'd make these pre-planned trips, it would be nice to have a generator in the frunk to run WHILE you're on the trip, supplementing power consumption as you drive... so say you have the 300 mile battery... and say you drive an average of 60 miles an hour - thats 5 hours of transit before you'd run out of gas. Take that 5 hours and add the generator... say 10kwh - that will add 31 miles per hour - so you've just extended your radius by 150 miles.... for a total of 450 miles... that plenty of road trip range....

Say you dont' want ot put that big of a generator in the frunk... how about 5kwh... then you just add 75 miles to your radius...

Maybe you don't even buy the generator - you rent it... designed for the frunk.. just for those trips that you'd make once a year or so...

food for thought...
 
impossible to put a generator in the frunk!
It can not dissipate the heat (remember : ice are inefficient and therefore dissipate the unused energy as heat)
unless you want to try a Fisker BBQ
Also the exhaust. So ironic! "Died of CO poisoning in their Model S -- running a gasoline turbine inside the car with inadequate ventilation!" The story almost writes itself, as they say.
 
Can I charge my Model S on a generator?

I know that Tesla does not recommend us to charge the car using a generator but just incase if there is a blackout and I can't find any charging station. Can I charge my Model S with my Gas/Natural Gas generator?
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Thanks Nigel, I have a tri-fuels Generator that can run on Gasoline/Natural Gas/LP Gas that I could use incase of emergency due to blackout by Hurricane :) I just want to know my option.

The thread here covers a lot of the topic.

Bottom line is that some generators produce clean enough power, and some generators do not. The cheapie portable units of up to 10 kW are likely not going to have clean enough power. My experience with my home standby 25 kW generator is similar to Nigel's in that it will continue charging. We haven't definitively answered the question whether a small inverter generator will work, with some experiences positive and some negative. One important point is knowing how the system is grounded and bonded, because the Tesla requires a stable ground and the voltage of ungrounded conductors ("hot") must be stable relative to ground.