New Tesla Charger

[airj1012]

Electrek says a new charger is coming this Friday at the Solar City / Tesla product event. Any thoughts on what it is? Updated HPWC or Supercharger?

Tesla’s ‘solar roof’ event will be live-streamed from Universal Studios on Friday, more hints from the invite

 

[mikevbf]

I am not sure, but despite getting a Tesla Model X around 3 weeks ago, I have decided to wait for this announcement before setting up my home charging. This is relatively easy for me because I live near a rarely used super charger.

 

[Canuck]

The new charger is a two way system so you can use your vehicle's battery in the place of, or in combination with, a powerwall, and supply power to your home?

Just a guess. It sure raises implications for supercharger use, if true. "Honey, I'm just stepping out to grab some power for the home."

 

[gavine]

Maybe a DC charger?

 

[Dstrohl]

The options seem like they would be:

• New Wall Connector or New mobile connector
• Home DC charger
• Upgraded SuperCharger (charging snake?)
• New charging thing connected to the solar stuff (direct connect from PowerWall? charge power wall from car?)
• New in-car charger option
• New PowerWall charger (nothing to do with the car.)

Of these, I am not sure what they could do with the a wall connector or mobile connector other than change the form factor. the speed is pretty much a matter of the number of Amps that it can support, and the current one can support more than most cars can... so upping it does not seem very useful.

A home DC charger could be interesting, though from what I have heard, the cost would have to be pretty high.

Upgrading superchargers with the charging snake (auto connection for autonomous cars) gets my vote, if he wants to do his drive cross country next year without getting out of the car, he would have to start soon in upgrading superchargers, and it fits with the autonomous car push. Not sure why do it as part of a Solar City announcement, but I guess if they are merging...

Something that more directly connects the cars with the solar gear, like a direct connection to PowerWalls, or allowing a house to run off of a car battery as a backup would fit the venue, and be a cool thing, but it doesn't quite feel right in this case (not sure why though, I dont follow Solar City stuff very closely, so I am likely to be off base here).

It could also be something IN the car, (especially since he said "Charger"), something like a triple charger option or something, (charge at 120A) which would need an upgraded wall connector., but that also seems unlikely since even at 72A it is close to or over the limit of most homes without significant infrastructure increases, and beyond most public chargers.

Perhaps a "charger" that has nothing to do with cars, an upgraded charger for the wall connector, since again I don't follow the PowerWall or solar stuff as closely, I cant really judge the likelihood of that..

 

[gavine]

A home DC charger could be interesting, though from what I have heard, the cost would have to be pretty high.

Would the cost be high if it were drawing DC from the Powerwall? With no conversion to be done, it would be very efficient (DC solar to DC Powerwall to DC car) and likely a less-expensive charger than DC chargers that are connected to AC.

 

[Dstrohl]

Would the cost be high if it were drawing DC from the Powerwall? With no conversion to be done, it would be very efficient (DC solar to DC Powerwall to DC car) and likely a less-expensive charger than DC chargers that are connected to AC.

I don't know, but that was kind of what I was thinking of in the "new charging thing connected to solar stuff" But the PowerWalls are only something like 6KwH, which seems like (if the numbers mean the same thing) it would only charge 10% of my (soon to be) 60D.

 

[Craig-Tx]

Home DC charging doesn't really make much sense. Even from solar / powerwall. Typical Solar DC voltages I believe are relatively low (around 48V) Tesla DC charging operates in the 300-400 VDC range. While the Powerwall operates up into a similar high voltage DC, it's capacity is relatively small compared to a vehicle (currently 6.4 kWh vs 60 - 100 kWh)

As for Vehicle to Grid.. While I think it's an interesting idea, I don't see how Tesla would enable a vehicle to grid capability when a model S / model X owner can get free energy from a supercharger then drive home and power their house.
Once the superchargers transition to a pay-per-use model, that makes more sense.

Of all suggestions I've seen, what makes the most sense to me is upgraded superchargers (with a snake and possibly finally moving to adding solar power to the SCs)

Well know soon enough.
-craig

 

[Dstrohl]

Home DC charging doesn't really make much sense. Even from solar / powerwall. Typical Solar DC voltages I believe are relatively low (around 48V) Tesla DC charging operates in the 300-400 VDC range. While the Powerwall operates up into a similar high voltage DC, it's capacity is relatively small compared to a vehicle (currently 6.4 kWh vs 60 - 100 kWh)

That was my thought (without knowing the numbers well enough)

As for Vehicle to Grid.. While I think it's an interesting idea, I don't see how Tesla would enable a vehicle to grid capability when a model S / model X owner can get free energy from a supercharger then drive home and power their house.
Once the superchargers transition to a pay-per-use model, that makes more sense.

I don't know... I suspect that this isn't realistic for most people except as an emergency backup option anyway, and if so, unless you live right next to one, you are more likely to drive as short a distance to whatever decent charger is nearest and charge there, then come home, but given those parameters, it might be an interesting approach. (I just don't know that the use case is high enough to justify the cost of R&D / hardware / productizing costs to build it v. what they would be able to have to charge, especially when the R&D people have enough on their plate with all of the autonomous stuff)

Of all suggestions I've seen, what makes the most sense to me is upgraded superchargers (with a snake and possibly finally moving to adding solar power to the SCs)

Yeah, or simply it being nothing to do with the car and a new charger for the PowerWall from whatever the new solar panels are. (or something non-carish)

Well know soon enough.

Yeah, but that's all the way out to FRIDAY!!! we want to be able to grumble about it now! (I JUST bought a Wall Connector)<grin>

(are we there yet?)

 

[airj1012]

Yeah, but that's all the way out to FRIDAY!!! we want to be able to grumble about it now! (I JUST bought a Wall Connector)<grin>

(are we there yet?)

Haha. Exactly!!!

 

[Dstrohl]

i would LOVE to see it being a new Wall Connector that can magically charge at twice the speed with half the Amps, and has the charging snake built in... for only 75% of the price of the current one... but I suspect I might be dreaming a little there.

 

[BerTX]

Home DC charging doesn't really make much sense. Even from solar / powerwall. Typical Solar DC voltages I believe are relatively low (around 48V) Tesla DC charging operates in the 300-400 VDC range. While the Powerwall operates up into a similar high voltage DC, it's capacity is relatively small compared to a vehicle (currently 6.4 kWh vs 60 - 100 kWh)

As for Vehicle to Grid.. While I think it's an interesting idea, I don't see how Tesla would enable a vehicle to grid capability when a model S / model X owner can get free energy from a supercharger then drive home and power their house.
Once the superchargers transition to a pay-per-use model, that makes more sense.

Of all suggestions I've seen, what makes the most sense to me is upgraded superchargers (with a snake and possibly finally moving to adding solar power to the SCs)

Well know soon enough.
-craig

Actually, the voltage of the solar array depends on whether it is a grid-tie system or off-grid with batteries. Since the charge controller used to charge the batteries is usually limited in the input voltage to a low level, those systems usually run in the 48 volt range, since that is what the voltage of the battery is. Grid-tie inverters do not have this limitation, and the voltages are usually much higher -- my system, for example, is 600 volts.

 

[RobW2428]

I just ordered a High Powered Wall Charger last night. Do you guys think I should try to cancel the order and wait to hear the news on Friday?

 

[Dstrohl]

I just ordered a High Powered Wall Charger last night. Do you guys think I should try to cancel the order and wait to hear the news on Friday?

Nope, if you already ordered it I would not worry about it. it seems unlikely that there will be enough of a change to make the one you get a waste of money, and worst case, I would think you can return it as long as you don't open the box and only be out shipping both ways.

If you hadn't ordered it, I might say wait for a few days as it cant hurt. (I guess to be fair, if it is easy to cancel then it cant hurt to do that, but I would not panic over it).

 

[RobW2428]

Cool. Thanks for the quick response.

 

[Craig-Tx]

Actually, the voltage of the solar array depends on whether it is a grid-tie system or off-grid with batteries. Since the charge controller used to charge the batteries is usually limited in the input voltage to a low level, those systems usually run in the 48 volt range, since that is what the voltage of the battery is. Grid-tie inverters do not have this limitation, and the voltages are usually much higher -- my system, for example, is 600 volts.

Good to know. I can't say I'm a solar expert. I would love to have a system, and I'm sure if I got one, I'd learn a LOT more about the different technologies. Perhaps after Friday's Solar shingle announcement, the next Texas Hail storm will help push me into a solar system.

 

[zambono]

Home DC charging doesn't really make much sense. Even from solar / powerwall. Typical Solar DC voltages I believe are relatively low (around 48V) Tesla DC charging operates in the 300-400 VDC range. While the Powerwall operates up into a similar high voltage DC, it's capacity is relatively small compared to a vehicle (currently 6.4 kWh vs 60 - 100 kWh)

As for Vehicle to Grid.. While I think it's an interesting idea, I don't see how Tesla would enable a vehicle to grid capability when a model S / model X owner can get free energy from a supercharger then drive home and power their house.
Once the superchargers transition to a pay-per-use model, that makes more sense.

Of all suggestions I've seen, what makes the most sense to me is upgraded superchargers (with a snake and possibly finally moving to adding solar power to the SCs)

Well know soon enough.
-craig

Although there might be moochers that would be great if there was an outage.

 

[Ovulation]

Man I want this thing so bad. Do I need it? No. But I bet there are lot of decadent people like me out there who will storm the stores for the snake. So please Elon solve another first world problem and present us today the robot

*decadence is after all the highest form of civilisazion

 

[TacC]

The new charger is a two way system so you can use your vehicle's battery in the place of, or in combination with, a powerwall, and supply power to your home?

Just a guess. It sure raises implications for supercharger use, if true. "Honey, I'm just stepping out to grab some power for the home."

I think this is only feasible if you pay for the electricity from the car. If nothing else, it is a fun thought experiment.

Maybe you can pay Tesla at a variable rate. If you charge exclusively at SCs then the price might be pretty high. And if you never use a SC, it may be free. In addition to the battery backup potential, this might have some miniscule impacts on SC "abuse" and TOU arbitrage.

 

[Dstrohl]

Maybe you can pay Tesla at a variable rate. If you charge exclusively at SCs then the price might be pretty high. And if you never use a SC, it may be free. In addition to the battery backup potential, this might have some miniscule impacts on SC "abuse" and TOU arbitrage.

They *could* put a lockout on it so that if (for example) more than 50% of your existing charge came from a SC you cant discharge it back to the house.

Or perhaps have it be based on a certain number of times per year (each time = an event more than x days apart) so that one cant use it for day to day powering of a location, but could use it in an emergency. or even have it be a one time license key of... $100?? , good for 15 days, and you have to call and enable it each time you want to do it?

Either way, I think the challenges can be gotten around, but I am still not sure that the market for it is large enough to justify the costs.