Double distance SC spacing for regional routes

[BenT]

Until now Tesla Australia have taken the approach of building major SC routes based on spacings of around 200 km to allow convenient shorter rest, recharge and revive stops every 2 hrs or so. This model is based on that of more populated areas such as Europe, Asia and North America and is based on the assumption that drivers are driving longer routes in one stretch (e.g. Brisbane-Sydney, Sydney-Melbourne and soon Melbourne-Adelaide. While this is great for drivers in these bigger centers it leaves a lot of Australia left out and may not be suited to Australia's more scattered population. It also doesn't take into account any future improvements in charging speed. Once the major mainland capitals (except Perth and Darwin) have been linked Tesla should turn its attention to regional centers. Continuing the current pace and spacing of SC this will take forever. Also many regional trips may be shorter trips between regional centres of 4-600 km and so a more efficient method would be to double the spacing of SC. For example placing SC in Mildura and Hay would link Adelaide via these centers to the Gundagai SC and hence to Sydney with only 2 Addison all SC sites rather than the current standard requiring 4. Extrapolated across regional Australia this would double the rate of expansion. The opportunity for smaller centres along these regional routes would be for councils and local retail outlets to band together and install fast destination chargers to lure passing Tesla traffic to stop and spend a few dollars. In this way market forces would fill in some of the gaps. With time, faster charging and improved battery performance would also help to bridge these larger distances.

 

[BenT]

Other potential 350/450km spaced SC regional sites Peterborough SA, Broken Hill, Cubba, Dubbo, Armidale NSW, Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns QLD.

 

[Mark E]

350km is the max that you could do. An S85 has a range of about 380 real world km.

 

[BenT]

350km is the max that you could do. An S85 has a range of about 380 real world km.

Blue Heaven just quoted range 452 km from a full charge on an 85. (See Battery loss after 69k thread).

 

[meloccom]

Blue Heaven just quoted range 452 km from a full charge on an 85. (See Battery loss after 69k thread).

Yes but in summer on a largely flat road and IIRC some of the distance was travelled at circa 90Km/h.
In winter, in the rain and at 110Km/h range is substantial reduced.
Not knocking your idea but you can't assume high rage will always be achievable.

 

[Mark E]

Blue Heaven just quoted range 452 km from a full charge on an 85. (See Battery loss after 69k thread).

Please note I said realistic range. A fully charged 85 has a typical range of 390km - this is assuming 200Wh/km. It's not realistic to base supercharger spacing on the very edge of hypermiling distances - ie flat road, 80-90km/h, no air conditioning, headwind, rain or unexpected diversions.

I've been diverted by up to 50km on the Pacific Highway near Taree when there was some local flooding once - in your proposal that would be a disaster.

 

[RichardMcN]

Agree the more supercharger routes the better ...

Interesting question. Note also that it takes 2 hours to fully charge to 100% on a supercharger (all models) due to diminishing returns.

Model S supercharging times compared S60, S70D, S85, P85D, S85D | Tesla Motors

Maybe better to have a single stand SC every 200k rather than a multi stand SC every 400 to get that result and still be friendly to the 60's !

 

[baillies]

Hay to Mildura is flat and 100k speed limit so 300km should be ok for much of inland Aus but not so good for anything crossing the great dividing range. I think the current plan is for destination chargers to cover most of this. Destination charge with an overnight stay at hay and Mildura also works and is a lot cheaper to deploy. The current spacing is based on S60 and needs to cover 3.50 as well, needs to be even shorter for towing with an X or 3.

Once they have destination chargers covering these routes they should get some data as to which areas are more popular, although having a supercharger installed could change this dramatically.

 

[lennier]

The 200km spacing is not just for convenience, shorter stops etc. It's also to cater for the full fleet including 60s and upcoming Model 3s. There's no reason owners of these should be second class citizens in the Supercharger build-out.

 

[ColinA]

The other factor here is that spacing would then require a much longer supercharger stop - like 75 min. The 200km interval means a supercharger stop of around 25 min. Having just done Brisbane to Melbourne on superchargers I could have skipped a supercharger (I get 420km typical on on my 85D), but chose not to as the total time for the trip would have been longer. Each of my supercharger stops was 20 to 25 minutes - not to mention a perfectly spaced break interval of around 2 hours driving. Not sure it sends the right message indirectly encouraging longer intervals between stops.

 

[NovoCasGreeny]

The other factor here is that spacing would then require a much longer supercharger stop - like 75 min. The 200km interval means a supercharger stop of around 25 min. Having just done Brisbane to Melbourne on superchargers I could have skipped a supercharger (I get 420km typical on on my 85D), but chose not to as the total time for the trip would have been longer. Each of my supercharger stops was 20 to 25 minutes - not to mention a perfectly spaced break interval of around 2 hours driving. Not sure it sends the right message indirectly encouraging longer intervals between stops.

Imho this is the main intention behind the 200 km spacing. It is to allow shorter frequent stops and full fleet availability. I was driving back from Newcastle yesterday and left with just over 300 km range, after a quick 15 minutes stop at Heatherbrae, I arrived at my destination 50 km north of the Port SC with 70 km typical range (helped by the Port roadworks section, pretty much 80 km/h for 30 km, I averaged 148 wH/km in my P90D with roof racks on but no cargo). I could have stopped for around 15 minutes at the Port SC and would have had plenty to get to Coffs for another short stop if this was my intention. Frequent short stops every two hours with some surplus for uh oh between the SC is definitely the quickest and most comfortable way to travel (and safest, "stop, revive, survive'). Hypermiling ends up with a much longer journey for everyone. The interesting point with regards to regional deployment may well have come from Elon himself, very recently. With PowerPack, Solarcity and V3 charging they may chose to 'deployable' smaller flat pack type SCs (maybe only ever one stall max) on these regional routes utilising solar PV and PowerPacks to provide the high kW delivery requirements, no grid. Really really bolt the suckers to the ground in any car park and the PV charges the batteries, the batteries discharge to the infrequent users. No 'infrastructure' required which in very small regional towns may just not be available.