Japan

[hiroshiy]

Software release v6.0 became available in Japan yesterday, so we now have the expected tweaks from that (calendar, power management options, location-based air suspension etc)...

But... still no Navigation

Also I tried CHAdeMO for the first time yesterday. I couldn't get it to work with Model S, charging ring on the car port would go green for a few seconds and some voltage delivered but it cut out always within a few seconds. I'm not sure if this was a timing issue general with CHAdeMO or just something specific to this location. I had a good conversation afterwards with a guy in a very small Mitsubishi EV who was amazed by Model S and had trouble believing it was a 100% EV

Where was it? What does Tesla center navigation say? It has verified, unverified, or verified not to work. In my experience 1/3 or 1/4 stations have compatibility issues with Tesla's CHAdeMO adapter.

 

[susteki]

Software release v6.0 became available in Japan yesterday, so we now have the expected tweaks from that (calendar, power management options, location-based air suspension etc)...

But... still no Navigation

Also I tried CHAdeMO for the first time yesterday. I couldn't get it to work with Model S, charging ring on the car port would go green for a few seconds and some voltage delivered but it cut out always within a few seconds. I'm not sure if this was a timing issue general with CHAdeMO or just something specific to this location. I had a good conversation afterwards with a guy in a very small Mitsubishi EV who was amazed by Model S and had trouble believing it was a 100% EV

@JustinSullivan, thanks for the information. I'm enjoying reading your post while waiting on my MS. So how is the location based air sus working out for you?

 

[justinsullivan]

Where was it? What does Tesla center navigation say? It has verified, unverified, or verified not to work. In my experience 1/3 or 1/4 stations have compatibility issues with Tesla's CHAdeMO adapter.

This CHAdeMO I couldn't get to work was at Toho Cinemas Odawara at Kanagawa-ken, Odawara-shi, Nakazato, 313−12. I didn't see how this was marked on Tesla center navigation. The site has two EV parking bays but only one CHAdeMO charger. When I arrived, the car before me (Leaf) was charging fine. When I came back it had gone. I tried several times and couldn't get it to work, then that small Mitsubishi EV arrived. I offered it to him since it wasn't working for me (and I didn't really need to charge anyway, was just experimenting and had close to 200 km range left). He could not get it to work for several attempts but it worked for him after about 10 minutes.

 

[justinsullivan]

Does anyone use or consider Tepco's demand-shift power pricing for charging Model S overnight?

We just got our first power bill with full month of Model S and last month used about 160 kWh which is charged at 29.93/kWh rate.

It seems like it should make a lot of sense for us to use offpeak for Model S, based on our driving and charging needs, and it's better for Tepco's load shifting. It looks like with Tepco's "Otokuna Night 8" plan the rate would be 12.16/kWh... but if the whole house is moved to this plan then our daytime use would be at a much higher rate than now. And if Tepco agrees to do a new circuit only for Model S then we pay a new "demand charge" that basically wipes out any saving from the per kWh night time rate.

Did I misunderstand anything? It looks to me for our current usage amount, there isn't a good plan to encourage us to charge offpeak (other than just knowing this is better overall for the grid / reducing peak demand, which is quite a weak incentive compared to saving ¥/kWh...)

 

[susteki]

Does anyone use or consider Tepco's demand-shift power pricing for charging Model S overnight?

We just got our first power bill with full month of Model S and last month used about 160 kWh which is charged at 29.93/kWh rate.

It seems like it should make a lot of sense for us to use offpeak for Model S, based on our driving and charging needs, and it's better for Tepco's load shifting. It looks like with Tepco's "Otokuna Night 8" plan the rate would be 12.16/kWh... but if the whole house is moved to this plan then our daytime use would be at a much higher rate than now. And if Tepco agrees to do a new circuit only for Model S then we pay a new "demand charge" that basically wipes out any saving from the per kWh night time rate.

Did I misunderstand anything? It looks to me for our current usage amount, there isn't a good plan to encourage us to charge offpeak (other than just knowing this is better overall for the grid / reducing peak demand, which is quite a weak incentive compared to saving ¥/kWh...)

I guess this assumes everyone will be out of the house until the evening off-hours. This Definitely will not work for my household.... glad to know the cost to change will be around 6000yen per month. I will try to reduce this even further as I work only a stone through away from a Supercharger.

 

[meloccom]

How much notice did you receive in Japan before the launch day? How long before the first signature cars were asked to arrange for payment?
Thanks - from Australia

Based on page 17 of this thread, Hiroshiy got his invitation for the September 8 Japan launch Event on August 22, 17 days before.
If the Australian Launch Event was on the second Monday in December that is also the 8th of December so you can expect an invite in about a weeks time.
Or not.

 

[JayInJapan]

Hi JS,

I'm not sure this will help you, so it's just for you to compare. In Kyushu the rates are:
Summer day 36.10 (July to September)
Day 30.35
Living 22.81 (mornings and evenings)
Night 10.29

I have 4kWh of solar panels, so our power comes from them first. It really pays to conserve during the day. I'll be charging my car using those night rates.

 

[justinsullivan]

Hi JS,

I'm not sure this will help you, so it's just for you to compare. In Kyushu the rates are:
Summer day 36.10 (July to September)
Day 30.35
Living 22.81 (mornings and evenings)
Night 10.29

I have 4kWh of solar panels, so our power comes from them first. It really pays to conserve during the day. I'll be charging my car using those night rates.

We confirmed with Tecpo thisafternoon, it isn't possible to have offpeak/night pricing on just the EV circuit separately to the house, so it makes no sense to use this I think.

Some good news though, I got the Toho Cinemas Odawara CHAdeMO to work today, and it is quite close to my house, and free. I am thinking to use that sometimes, which will take some load off the home electricity account.

Also I was surprised to see how fast this CHAdeMO could charge Model S today. Somehow I expected it to be much slower than a Tesla Supercharger, but it was delivering 400V 80A (or about 160 km/hr of charge), even though my car was already 80% full. The one time I used a Supercharger at Grand Hyatt it was doing 400V 90A, so it seems like this CHAdeMO one was almost as good.

 

[DITB]

Software release v6.0 became available in Japan yesterday, so we now have the expected tweaks from that (calendar, power management options, location-based air suspension etc)...

But... still no Navigation

Also I tried CHAdeMO for the first time yesterday. I couldn't get it to work with Model S, charging ring on the car port would go green for a few seconds and some voltage delivered but it cut out always within a few seconds. I'm not sure if this was a timing issue general with CHAdeMO or just something specific to this location. I had a good conversation afterwards with a guy in a very small Mitsubishi EV who was amazed by Model S and had trouble believing it was a 100% EV

I believe the Tesla Model S as default is using "Navigon" navigation. Renting a Model S in Germany, I had my iPad as backup in case there was a problem with the Navs in the Model S. I noticed that the maps and voice was exactly the same on the two, except the Model S voice commands were a few seconds later than the iPad.

Too bad about the ChaDeMo, I really look forward to getting one in HK. Not that I need one, I am just born curious, and EVs - with the Model S - has become so much of a passion for me - I simply must have ChaDeMo also.

 

[arg]

Also I was surprised to see how fast this CHAdeMO could charge Model S today. Somehow I expected it to be much slower than a Tesla Supercharger, but it was delivering 400V 80A (or about 160 km/hr of charge), even though my car was already 80% full. The one time I used a Supercharger at Grand Hyatt it was doing 400V 90A, so it seems like this CHAdeMO one was almost as good.

You should expect the CHAdeMO and the Supercharge to be exactly the same when the battery is above about 60% full. When the battery is completely empty, Supercharger can be more than 2.5 times as fast - with the difference gradually decreasing as the battery fills up.

 

[hiroshiy]

We confirmed with Tecpo thisafternoon, it isn't possible to have offpeak/night pricing on just the EV circuit separately to the house, so it makes no sense to use this I think.

Some good news though, I got the Toho Cinemas Odawara CHAdeMO to work today, and it is quite close to my house, and free. I am thinking to use that sometimes, which will take some load off the home electricity account.

Also I was surprised to see how fast this CHAdeMO could charge Model S today. Somehow I expected it to be much slower than a Tesla Supercharger, but it was delivering 400V 80A (or about 160 km/hr of charge), even though my car was already 80% full. The one time I used a Supercharger at Grand Hyatt it was doing 400V 90A, so it seems like this CHAdeMO one was almost as good.

Hi, Justin,
Thanks for the report at Odawara. Great to hear it worked. I think Model S only waits a little bit from CHAdeMO adapter connection to charging start. I usually click Start button right after I connect the cable. Maybe that's the trick. Maybe 10 seconds or so.

Also, it is very difficult to have a second line with TEPCO. If the line comes to a separate building of the same house or factory and the second is for EV only, that's allowed. As a workaround you could ask them to have a second line for hot water heating and if they install the line before you purchase the boiler, then you win... You then can charge via hot water! I heard some people did but some weren't successful. If you follow the contract it is not acceptable

 

[justinsullivan]

@JustinSullivan, thanks for the information. I'm enjoying reading your post while waiting on my MS. So how is the location based air sus working out for you?

Well, it works... Remembers where I set it to high or very high setting and adjusts when I go back to the same place. I used it so far for a driveway where I park, as well as at two shopping areas which have a high or steep gutter to enter.

I think it's basically quite good and handy. It seems like the geographic area that triggers it is a bit bigger than I would expect, e.g. it seems to start raising the car about 100 metres or so before the driveway, then stays raised for much longer than is necessary to get over the steep part. But I guess that is still fine, and not really a problem.

 

[DITB]

Well, it works... Remembers where I set it to high or very high setting and adjusts when I go back to the same place. I used it so far for a driveway where I park, as well as at two shopping areas which have a high or steep gutter to enter.

I think it's basically quite good and handy. It seems like the geographic area that triggers it is a bit bigger than I would expect, e.g. it seems to start raising the car about 100 metres or so before the driveway, then stays raised for much longer than is necessary to get over the steep part. But I guess that is still fine, and not really a problem.

I tried it too, and it does keep high for quite a while after you leave the location in question. I wonder if there is any way to set the radius, or define an area or point at which it should be back to normal again.

 

[justinsullivan]

I tried it too, and it does keep high for quite a while after you leave the location in question. I wonder if there is any way to set the radius, or define an area or point at which it should be back to normal again.

Exactly, that is what I noticed too. Like usually for me so far, the part I need to raise for is really only a few metres, but it stays raised for much longer.

On a different topic, how are you finding the parking for Model S? All our Japanese cars have had guidelines on the reverse cameras to help align the car with the parking space. Model S is bigger (or at least longer) than anything I have driven regularly in Japan before, and although the camera is sharper and better than anything else, I find the lack of guidelines to be a bit challenging so far.

I am guessing this would be a relatively easy thing for Tesla to add in software. I think this is particularly important for Japan where the average parking space size is relatively small, and with several parking spots I use regularly I have to sit Model S to be almost touching both painted lines on either side of the parking space, so aligning it accurately is not always easy first time.

 

[MDK]

I tried it too, and it does keep high for quite a while after you leave the location in question. I wonder if there is any way to set the radius, or define an area or point at which it should be back to normal again.

It seems the location is used for auto-raising only, the suspension remains in the high position until you drive faster than the threshold speed (55km/h)

Release Notes:

 

[susteki]

Well, it works... Remembers where I set it to high or very high setting and adjusts when I go back to the same place. I used it so far for a driveway where I park, as well as at two shopping areas which have a high or steep gutter to enter.

I think it's basically quite good and handy. It seems like the geographic area that triggers it is a bit bigger than I would expect, e.g. it seems to start raising the car about 100 metres or so before the driveway, then stays raised for much longer than is necessary to get over the steep part. But I guess that is still fine, and not really a problem.

Cool, great to know it is working well here. With some of places I tend to visit in Tokyo, this auto raising will definitely come in handy. Let me make sure my understanding is correct on this. When approaching a place you have set to memory, the car auto raises and will not lower back down until you have left that defined area (100M radius)? Does it lower if the car is set to park?

 

[susteki]

What is the process to receive your car in Japan? Did they deliver the car to your door step or did you have to meet somewhere for pickup?

 

[JayInJapan]

What is the process to receive your car in Japan? Did they deliver the car to your door step or did you have to meet somewhere for pickup?

As I understand it, you can pick it up at Aoyama or Yokohama or have it delivered by sub contractor.

 

[susteki]

As I understand it, you can pick it up at Aoyama or Yokohama or have it delivered by sub contractor.

Thank you for the response!

 

[justinsullivan]

What is the process to receive your car in Japan? Did they deliver the car to your door step or did you have to meet somewhere for pickup?

Car came to the house for me on an enclosed flatbed truck, although I did also have the option to pick up at Aoyama Showroom (which wasn't super convenient for me given that I live about 80 km away, so delivery worked out very well...)

- - - Updated - - -

It seems the location is used for auto-raising only, the suspension remains in the high position until you drive faster than the threshold speed (55km/h)

Thanks for the info. That is slightly depressing, since all my daily drive areas are basically 30km/h or 40km/h speed limits, which is why I was noticing it seemed to stay up for way too long (more or less indefinitely) or be up in strange places (because it had gone up for some driveway and then stayed up and I hadn't noticed).