Charging the Roadster

[Dragon]

Dragon: "any conventional household outlet"
There are about as many of those as there are countries. In Switzerland e.g. you get a charging cable with the local 240V/10A connector (T13). In my package also a "europeanised" MC 240 was included that permits charging with 240V/30A. The connector in this case for Switzerland was a red CEE 32A plug. I think I saw that in some other countries that the blue CEE 32A CARA plug was fitted, but that plug is not as universal as its smaller 16A brother, or the red 32A 3 phase version. A picture of the most common higher amps plugs I placed here: http://is.gd/imrcs

Now I know for sure, in Italy you get the same red CEE 32A plug. Thank you Alfred, your post helped me much.
So if I want 32A in my garage, what do I need? Only a compatible power supply line with an output that fits the connector?
On the distribution panel I find 63A total, 40A for power, but no ampere indication is written on the switch used for kitchen/garage. There are some "strange" numbers. Aaand if the circuit for kitchen/garage is the same, does that mean that when I plug in the Roadster I won't have enough power left for cooking?
Excuse me, I'm a noob when it comes to household electricity.

Will ask an electrician soon, but don't wanna know nothing before that.

 

[dsm363]

Does Tesla have a PDF handout for Italy like they do in the US that you hand to your electrician?

 

[Dragon]

Does Tesla have a PDF handout for Italy like they do in the US that you hand to your electrician?

Don't know, the salesmanager never mentioned something like that when I asked about 32A connection.

 

[tomsax]

Standard = charge up to 87%, drive down to 11% i.e. Use middle 76% of the pack.

Range = charge up to 100%, drive down to 0%

Occasionally useful combo: charge Standard, drive Standard then switch to Range if you realised late that you need some extra miles.

In the context of the discussion going on in the comments on the Detroit Bureau, it's a little more complex than that. The range mode 0% and 100% are not literally the a fully discharged battery pack and a fully charged pack. Tesla builds safety buffers into the charging profile even in range mode. See Martin's A Bit About Batteries blog.

 

[widodh]

I create a little blogpost of how I suited our office in The Netherlands for charging a Roadster: http://blog.widodh.nl/2011/01/preparing-the-charging-infrastructure-for-the-tesla-roadster/

Might be useful to see how the European systems are working compared to the US systems.

 

[Alfred]

Now I know for sure, in Italy you get the same red CEE 32A plug. Thank you Alfred, your post helped me much.
So if I want 32A in my garage, what do I need? Only a compatible power supply line with an output that fits the connector?
On the distribution panel I find 63A total, 40A for power, but no ampere indication is written on the switch used for kitchen/garage. There are some "strange" numbers. Aaand if the circuit for kitchen/garage is the same, does that mean that when I plug in the Roadster I won't have enough power left for cooking?
Excuse me, I'm a noob when it comes to household electricity.

Will ask an electrician soon, but don't wanna know nothing before that.

You might have 3 64 A fuses on the main connection to your place, one for each phase and then 3x40A for the counter. With 40A your electrician should be able to install a standard CEE 32A socket in your garage without much ado. He will very likely have to install also appropriate fuses for that connection. If you switch on all plates of a normal household cooking range you draw no more than about 11kW (3x16A), so you have some room there. If your connection is only for 25A on the counter, that would be too low and you would have to make do at home with a 16A CEE plug. A full charge would still be possible within 15 hours. Again rarely a problem: you do not often arrive home late with no charge left to leave again for a long drive early next morning.

In any case: Just ask for a standard CEE 32A. If certification by an electricity board is required, ask the electrician to report also just this standard plug. There are occasionally problem finders in those administrations (in German: "Bedenkenträger") that can make an installation very costly.

 

[Lloyd]

I belive that Tesla will be changing their charging format as the folks at Tesla offered to sell me HPC's at 30% discount if I were to install them and make them public.

Here is a copy of the "CHAdeMo" Connector manual.

http://charge.yazaki-group.com/english/pdf/YPES-15-1197E.pdf

 

[tsla47383]

Hey guys,

Two questions for all you Roadster owners:

1) I know Tesla claims a range of 245 miles per charge, but the is only in "Range Mode," and repeated use of this mode will significantly decrease life of the battery. So my question is, what ranges are you averaging in "Standard Mode" ?

2) The claimed 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds on the Sport, is it only in Performance Mode or is it in all modes? If, it's not, what is the 0-60 in "Standard Mode" ?

I've been searching and searching but I can't find the answers to these questions anywhere. Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[dsm363]

Hey guys,

Two questions for all you Roadster owners:

1) I know Tesla claims a range of 245 miles per charge, but the is only in "Range Mode," and repeated use of this mode will significantly decrease life of the battery. So my question is, what ranges are you averaging in "Standard Mode" ?

2) The claimed 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds on the Sport, is it only in Performance Mode or is it in all modes? If, it's not, what is the 0-60 in "Standard Mode" ?

I've been searching and searching but I can't find the answers to these questions anywhere. Thanks in advance for all your help.

1) Standard mode will give you around 180 miles or so

2) That's correct from what I understand. I believe it drops to regular Roadster performance in standard mode but someone with a Sport will know better.

 

[chronopublish]

1) Standard mode will give you around 180 miles or so

2) That's correct from what I understand. I believe it drops to regular Roadster performance in standard mode but someone with a Sport will know better.

It's also worth mentioning that if you "run out of charge" in standard mode, there is an additional 25 miles of range available (the bottom 10% of the battery pack) which you'll see as soon as you switch into range mode.

I've read that the Sport does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds in Standard mode.

 

[Jaff]

tesla, when I chage in standard mode, I get about 298-301 kms of range.

When I charge in Range mode, I got about 342 kms of range.

Although I've never been on a track to prove it myself, my understanding is that the Roadster Sport's 3.7 time in a 0-60 sprint is in Performance mode only...I really couldn't hazard a guess to what the 0-60 time is in Standard mode...it has been said that a Roadster Sport in standard mode has roughly the same 0-60 time as the Roadster (3.9).

I think if you search this site a little more, I'm sure you will find more detailed answers to these questions.

Hey guys,

Two questions for all you Roadster owners:

1) I know Tesla claims a range of 245 miles per charge, but the is only in "Range Mode," and repeated use of this mode will significantly decrease life of the battery. So my question is, what ranges are you averaging in "Standard Mode" ?

2) The claimed 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds on the Sport, is it only in Performance Mode or is it in all modes? If, it's not, what is the 0-60 in "Standard Mode" ?

I've been searching and searching but I can't find the answers to these questions anywhere. Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[richkae]

My 2010 model 2.0 roadster non sport does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds in performance mode, and 4.4 seconds in standard mode.
I bet that the Sport also has at least a 1/2 second difference between performance mode and standard mode, someone with a sport should try it.

When someone quotes a range number in standard mode it is confusing because the car hides the bottom 10% of charge from you as a reserve until you need it, and that reserve is about 25 miles.
I get 187-189 miles in standard mode which is really 212-214 miles with the reserve included.

In the last 1.5 years of driving it, I have used range mode less than 20 times.

 

[SByer]

I get about 160miles in standard mode on a standard charge, and that's with verifying the 0-35mph and 0-65mph times every chance I get (asymmetric hyper-miling ;-). I could easily get that down to 140mi if I tried, just as easily could get that up to 180mi as well. Range mode on a range charge, I believe I could easily get over 200mi, even with freeway driving. It's all quite predictable and under my control.

 

[dsm363]

I switched into performance mode for fun while driving the other day and my ideal range dropped from 180 to 140. After I switched back to standard, it stayed at 140. When I got home and recharged, it said it recharged 14kWh even though I had only driven 20 miles that day. Now it says ideal miles are 186 but my estimated miles are only 110. Any ideas as to what's going on?

 

[tomsax]

I switched into performance mode for fun while driving the other day and my ideal range dropped from 180 to 140. After I switched back to standard, it stayed at 140. When I got home and recharged, it said it recharged 14kWh even though I had only driven 20 miles that day. Now it says ideal miles are 186 but my estimated miles are only 110. Any ideas as to what's going on?

1. The 180 -> 140 drop is odd. Both standard and performance hide the bottom 10% of the pack, so I'd expect them to show the same number of ideal miles. Performance lets you charge to the top (like Range mode), so the percentage should change but not the ideal miles.

2. Switching back and staying at 140 makes sense.

3. Estimated miles are based on your recent driving, so if you were blasting around in Performance mode, it will reduce your estimated miles until that drops off the driving history.

Any chance you were in Range mode at the beginning? That would explain everything. Other than that, the 180 -> 140 drop and the big charge energy are pretty mysterious.

Have you looked at your log file? That might shed some light.

 

[dsm363]

I was only in performance mode for less than a minute. I had charged the night before in standard mode. I don't think I've driven 30 miles since it did this so maybe it just has to clear out of the estimated range history. I'm almost certain I was in standard mode to start since I've never charged in Range mode before.
I'll take a look at the log. That's a good idea. What should I look for in the log file?

 

[dpeilow]

Epyon Power make a module called LUNA that claims to convert any Li-ion based EV to CHAdeMO DC Fast Charge.

Who wants to try it?

 

[tomsax]

I'll take a look at the log. That's a good idea. What should I look for in the log file?

There's a drive record that occurs every ten minutes that includes the range mode percent state of charge. Take a look to see if that made an abrupt change during that drive. With my parser:

VMSParser -s "02/02/2011" -e "02/02/2011" -r D10M <your log file>

Replace 02/02/2011 with the date of the wacky SOC jump. This will let you know whether it was some display artifact or if the car really changed its estimate of your SOC.

It might also be worth sending your log to Tesla. Obviously, they can tell a lot more about what's going on from the log than we can.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

Epyon Power make a module called LUNA that claims to convert any Li-ion based EV to CHAdeMO DC Fast Charge.

Who wants to try it?

I've contacted epyon in the UK and will look into the possibility of supporting this on my Tesla.

 

[AndrewBissell]

Hi Kevin

I am sure several Tesla Roadster owners will be interested. Can you please keep us publicly informed of your progress.

Thanks

Andrew