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No Supercharging for 40Kwh :(

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So yes, it's about 6 hours total, somewhat more in the winter months.
ah, I see now.... here's a trip I make on a regular basis;

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ah, I see now.... here's a trip I make on a regular basis;

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Faster yes, but it couldn't fit all the gear I need to carry with me ;)

Also it would need to recharge completely on generator at my cabin, since it can't take a fast charge. That is ~10 hours on the genset (Honda EU65is, 5.5kW continous) and probably 7 gallons of fuel. The Leaf only needs to charge for 2-3 hours at 3.7kW :)
 
So I spoke to Tesla customer rep and they confirmed the 40Kwh will never have a QC option. The fastest it can charge is ~2 hours if you buy the twin charger. If not it'll take ~4hours.

Also they only expect the 60Kwh and 80Kwh owners to quick charge ONLY in emergencies. They expect supercharging for those battery packs to only happen 2% of the time during the entire life cycle of the battery. So don't be planning on supercharging everyday.

This is because supercharging regularly will actually kill the battery and they obviously don't want that. The Nissan Leaf has a smaller battery pack and different chemistry so it can quick charge more often than the Tesla battery packs.

It's a good thing my reservation won't come up till 2013, since this now gives me time to see if BMW or other car manufacturers can come up with a better solution (for their i series cars) in 2013 or if they too will recommend quick charging only 2% of the time.
 
Also they only expect the 60Kwh and 80Kwh owners to quick charge ONLY in emergencies. They expect supercharging for those battery packs to only happen 2% of the time during the entire life cycle of the battery. So don't be planning on supercharging everyday.
Very interesting info -- though I wouldn't characterize "2%" as "emergencies only." Still, this clearly rules out driving SF-LA-SF every weekend (unless you drive ~40k miles a year, and these are your only supercharging events).

It might be a useful exercise to maintain (or reconstruct) driving logs for ourselves. I took exactly one driving trip in 2011 where Supercharging might have been needed, and even that was marginal: 275 miles almost entirely on interstates, so with my 85kWh pack and aero wheels, conservative driving could have gotten me there, perhaps with a bit of extra charge at a coffee stop somewhere just using normal charging.

Regardless, this new info makes me rethink getting the second 10kW charger.

Tesla should also think about having the ability to dial back the 90kW Supercharger to, say, 50kW that could be used fairly regularly (such as my SF-LA roundtrip example) without serious battery degradation.
 
Regardless, this new info makes me rethink getting the second 10kW charger.

Tesla should also think about having the ability to dial back the 90kW Supercharger to, say, 50kW that could be used fairly regularly (such as my SF-LA roundtrip example) without serious battery degradation.

+1. Let's hope the situation is a bit better than that... and that future battery packs will allow much more frequent supercharging.
 
Even with the 85kWh pack, I'll probably still trade cars with a friend when I need to make a long trip with lots of storage needed. The friend I trade with will be ecstatic and I won't have to worry about taxing the battery or wasting time.
 
Regardless, this new info makes me rethink getting the second 10kW charger.

Hi Robert,

If I understand your remark, you are thinking about getting the second charger as a safer alternative to Supercharging when making frequent road trips?

If so, would you be relying predominantly on charging at RV parks? I gather that Tesla has only commited to building a Supercharger network, not a high amperage Level 2 network, and I haven't read about others installing high amperage Level 2 chargers along highways.

Larry
 
Also they only expect the 60Kwh and 80Kwh owners to quick charge ONLY in emergencies. They expect supercharging for those battery packs to only happen 2% of the time during the entire life cycle of the battery. So don't be planning on supercharging everyday.

This is because supercharging regularly will actually kill the battery and they obviously don't want that. The Nissan Leaf has a smaller battery pack and different chemistry so it can quick charge more often than the Tesla battery packs.
I'm not sure about the accuracy of this information. If this is indeed true - what is Tesla's plans for the future ? Will they continue to rely on batteries that can't be charged even at 1C ?

Future belongs to EVs that can be driven for 3 hours and quick charged in 15 minutes.
 
The "West Coast Green Highway" initiative is installing level 2 chargers up and down the west coast. WA state is also installing them east-west across part of the state.

The L2 chargers will be 6.6kW only, AFAIK.

Yeah and the future isn't here yet. I mean to say that Li-Ion won't be the technology that will be able to do that.
Not in terms of QC. Toshiba's SCiB can charge in 5 minutes - and last 1000s of cycles. They still need to get the cost down, though. Since the market for $80K cars is rather limited, EVs will smaller batteries but capable of QC will likely form the volume market.

My question was really about Tesla's affordable car - Blue Star.
 
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Isn't this the battery in the i-MiEV?
Not sure - Honda Fit is supposed to have that battery. There was some talk earlier of VW using thos ebatteries - not clear what the current status is.

BTW, I should also note that Leaf's battery is capable of being 80% charged in 15 minutes. Nissan has demonstrated even quicker charging.

Tesla's strategy has been to use generic, high density batteries. Apparently there is a problem with quick charging of these (though I've always assumed 1C charging to 80% should be easy for even the LiCo batteries). May be Tesla is seeing some failures after a large # of charges ?

ps : According to Mitsu - they use GS Yuasa batteries.

Mitsubishi i Electric Car Battery & Range / Mitsubishi Motors

While some electric vehicles adapt third-party battery technology, ours is Mitsubishi all the way. To ensure world-class performance, we initiated a joint venture between GS Yuasa, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors to create a dedicated company called Lithium Energy Japan. The goal? To engineer a high-performance lithium-ion battery specifically for the Mitsubishi i.
 
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