Suggestions for Tesla's Supercharger Network

[KerryOH]

Off topic: NeverFollow is that a Morgan in your profile? I am so jealous.

 

[NeverFollow]

Off topic: NeverFollow is that a Morgan in your profile? I am so jealous.

Hi Kerry,
Thank you for your interest.

This is the picture of Jean Bugatti, Ettore Bugatti's son, in front of the 1932 Bugatti Royal 'Esders' Roadster Type 41, a particular car that he designed and styled.

The Bugatti Royal was the most expensive car ever built. At 500,000 francs, it was three times as expensive as the most expensive Rolls-Royce.

But even for that price there were no headlights, as this would have impaired the beautiful design, so the car could not be driven after sunset.

Bugatti Royale - Wikipedia

 

[BerTX]

Off topic, but I'd like to see more locations with solar canopies.

I'd like to see more Superchargers with canopies. Solar canopies are a little disingenuous to me. A solar canopy can charge one car every few days, but it makes it look like the charging is "solar powered". Don't get me wrong -- I LIKE the solar canopies. I just think they are there for the wrong reason -- Public Relations.

 

[mociaf9]

One of the sort of weird quirks is that the more built out the supercharger network gets, the more annoying little holes it will have. Whereas before the network gets to any sort of robust nature in a region, you know that either you just can't reach somewhere or that you may have to take a 3+ hour detour to get there. And that is just priced in, an accepted part of the limitations of owning an electric car in advance of fully built out charging infrastructure as it were. But once it gets to the point where you pretty much easily can get everywhere you want to go, you start running into lots of minor holes because your available routes with supercharging is still limited. Now you're forced to chose routes that result in minor detours and delays of 30 to 45 minutes or an hour. Which suddenly becomes a major annoyance. Not being able to get somewhere or knowing that the network just isn't robust enough to get somewhere relatively directly is accepted. Now, it's that Tesla just chose the wrong the routes to build for your specific needs in a little region. If they'd just moved a single supercharger you'd be able to save 30 minutes from your trip. etc. etc.

For anyone struggling to deal with the annoyance of being forced into a "minor" detour, remember to take a deep breath. It's getting better. Try to be patient, the charging will eventually get you there directly. And in the meantime, try to focus more on how good you do have it that you can can get there at all or it not needing a 5 hour trek through a neighboring state just to get around your local charging hole.

 

[gavine]

I'd like to see more Superchargers with canopies. Solar canopies are a little disingenuous to me. A solar canopy can charge one car every few days, but it makes it look like the charging is "solar powered". Don't get me wrong -- I LIKE the solar canopies. I just think they are there for the wrong reason -- Public Relations.

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure I fully agree with this. If the canopy has, let's say 100 x 250W panels, depending on geography and time of year, that can produce anywhere from 150 to 250kWh's per day. What does the average supercharge session draw per car? 50kWh? That's 3 to 5 cars per day, not one every few days. Still not perfect, but better than nothing.

Am I way off in my assumptions here?

 

[BerTX]

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure I fully agree with this. If the canopy has, let's say 100 x 250W panels, depending on geography and time of year, that can produce anywhere from 150 to 250kWh's per day. What does the average supercharge session draw per car? 50kWh? That's 3 to 5 cars per day, not one every few days. Still not perfect, but better than nothing.

Am I way off in my assumptions here?

I don't know about WAY off, but yes, you assume better production than at least the average of reality.

First, the nominal production capacity, even on a sunny day, is far higher than the reality. Usually if you can get 75% of the rated production, you are doing extremely well.

Second, sunlight is not as prevalent in most areas throughout the year. I wouldn't say that there are NO locations that might be practical, but on average the country probably only gets about 4 hours of usable sunlight per day.

So, using those numbers, our 100 panel canopy would produce an average of 75 kW per day.

BTW, your 100 panel canopy is about right to cover a 10-12 stall site, which is probably about right for the current average. I don't know if they will get bigger or if there will just be more sites, but maybe both.

It's possible that, with some Powerwall action, there could be some reduction of peak rates at some sites that would make this worthwhile, but that would be a more complex system that Tesla would probably have to invent.

After running these numbers, I realize that my "every few days" numbers were from a few years ago when Supercharger stalls were usually 4-6 in number at most sites. Not really up to today's sizes. So yeah, I was wrong (again).

 

[swaltner]

I ran the numbers for the energy demands (using Net Metering) at both a busy and mostly idle 10-stall supercharger site to be satisfied by solar panels. You can look at Can anyone do the math for a fully solar powered Supercharger site? for the details. Basically, I came up with you needing 3.6 acres (157,188 square feet) of solar panels to cover the power demands of a relatively busy 10-stall Supercharger site in California. Of course, you're welcome to question the validity of some of the assumptions that I made, but I'm pretty sure that the math is sound.

 

[Rocky_H]

It's possible that, with some Powerwall action, there could be some reduction of peak rates at some sites that would make this worthwhile, but that would be a more complex system that Tesla would probably have to invent.

They already did invent that a few years ago. There are several Supercharger sites that do have battery banks to do that compensation for demand charges.
Do Supercharger sites have stationary battery storage?

 

[BerTX]

They already did invent that a few years ago. There are several Supercharger sites that do have battery banks to do that compensation for demand charges.
Do Supercharger sites have stationary battery storage?

Cool! Thanks!

 

[EVSteve]

I’d like to see indicators of SOC on each stall to avoid hopping. Arriving at say an 8 stall site with 4 cars spaced creates an ‘eeny meenie miny moe’ scenario with drivers often hopping from stall to stall searching for whoever is furthest along charging and thus has tapered the most. Sitting at the Allentown supercharger today I watched what I’m dubbing the “Tesla Dance”.

This could be as simple as a numerical display showing the current maximum kW output available at each stall. A failing or broken stall would show 0.

 

[gavine]

I’d like to see indicators of SOC on each stall to avoid hopping. Arriving at say an 8 stall site with 4 cars spaced creates an ‘eeny meenie miny moe’ scenario with drivers often hopping from stall to stall searching for whoever is furthest along charging and thus has tapered the most. Sitting at the Allentown supercharger today I watched what I’m dubbing the “Tesla Dance”.

This could be as simple as a numerical display showing the current maximum kW output available at each stall. A failing or broken stall would show 0.

Doesn't the blinking speed of the charge port indicate the charge speed? If so, it would only apply to cars that are unlocked. Once you lock the car, the charge port light goes-out.

 

[Araman0]

Technically the blinking light speed relates to state of charge, not charge speed. Example: If I plug into a 110V circuit with 10% soc, the light will blink rapidly even though the charge speed is only 4mph.

The light does turn off after the car has been locked.