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Supercharger - The Star, NSW

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If you had a few cars - or a group of owner drivers - then installing a private CHADeMo 50kW charger might be worthwhile.

These hire cars are pretty much used to chauffeur people around the whole day, and at an average of 400kms, they just don't have the range to last a whole day, maybe a half day.

The superchargers are a necessity as a 50kw charger will mean the car needs to be out of service for 3 hours after just half a day, and until there is an alternate charger which can provide 600kms per hour, it's currently the only viable option.
 
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Strictly they are within their rights to do it, and in many ways it's a smart business move to do so. I'll be honest though it is a little annoying especially for those of us from out of town who mostly charge at home who show up and the place is full. Of the times I have supercharged at St Leonards over the last year I have seen them there on at least half of the occasions.

What makes it worse is that there is no where to queue. On one occasion I was waiting in the car park, got Tesla to move one of theirs only to have another owner show up just as I was about to move in and take the spot.

Really I think they just need to add more capacity and maybe put in some queueing process and we will be ok, at least until Model 3 comes along and then who knows what will happen!!!
 
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The taxi company at Schiphol airport put in a private supercharger. We are, after all, talking about a business!


I agree.

You would think if the police were ever fortunate enough to have a fleet of Teslas, they would have to have their own private supercharger(s)...

Just wouldn't be right having them queue up at The Star or St Leonards...


I mean it's not McDonalds
 
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These hire cars are pretty much used to chauffeur people around the whole day, and at an average of 400kms, they just don't have the range to last a whole day, maybe a half day.

The superchargers are a necessity as a 50kw charger will mean the car needs to be out of service for 3 hours after just half a day, and until there is an alternate charger which can provide 600kms per hour, it's currently the only viable option.

Remember that the supercharger peaks at 130kW, but tapers fairly quickly. How many km are you talking about on average per day? 600? If so, then starting off with a full charge and stopping for an hour or so during the day would give you around 650km per day with a Chademo top up for an hour, and then filling up at home or a depot overnight. 1hr top up on Chademo over lunch is 250km.
 
Remember that the supercharger peaks at 130kW, but tapers fairly quickly. How many km are you talking about on average per day? 600? If so, then starting off with a full charge and stopping for an hour or so during the day would give you around 650km per day with a Chademo top up for an hour, and then filling up at home or a depot overnight. 1hr top up on Chademo over lunch is 250km.

Great, where are these Chademo chargers available at?
 
They are about $30,000.

Thanks Raynewman for the price.

I have no afiliation with these guys but here is a place to start. Veefil – powering your driving future.
As I mentioned previously, if you had a few cars then it might make sense to put one somewhere useful for you as a hire company - maybe near the airport? I have no idea of costs.

Hey Mark, at $30,000 it would only really make sense if they were being used all the time, and visiting the current superchargers you find a lot of the time that people from the same company are using multiple chargers, which would mean they would probably need 2 Chademo's to cater for those times, the location would also have to be somewhere close to the City in Sydney and I doubt there's any free spaces available for someone to give up so they can place a Chademo, they would definitly be charging some sort of money.

Actually scratch that, at $30,000 it's nowhere anywhere near even remotely close to worth it, on top of the charger you have to pay for electricity and land, try and convince a business owner that's a smart move, ahhahahha
 
Thanks Raynewman for the price.



Hey Mark, at $30,000 it would only really make sense if they were being used all the time, and visiting the current superchargers you find a lot of the time that people from the same company are using multiple chargers, which would mean they would probably need 2 Chademo's to cater for those times, the location would also have to be somewhere close to the City in Sydney and I doubt there's any free spaces available for someone to give up so they can place a Chademo, they would definitly be charging some sort of money.

Actually scratch that, at $30,000 it's nowhere anywhere near even remotely close to worth it, on top of the charger you have to pay for electricity and land, try and convince a business owner that's a smart move, ahhahahha
You are running a hire car company and paid $200k for the vehicle. Comparing this to an ICE option - If you are talking about driving 600km per day in an ICE vehicle at a wildly optimistic 6l/100km (assume a very efficient hybrid) then you'd be using 36l of fuel per day. At $1.40 per litre for fuel (also optimistic) you are therefore paying $50 per day in fuel. That's $18k p.a. In fuel. Assuming you do the bulk of your charging in shoulder or off peak time you'd be paying about 18c /kWh, so for the same driving, about $8k in electricity. If the Chademo is $30k and allows your business to run then its got a better than 3 year ROI compared. In reality more like 18 months since your ICE hire car would be more likley using 10-12l/100 with city driving.

I'm assuming that YOU put in the charger rather than trying to convince someone else to. If your business model is reliant on Tesla giving you free fuel then it seems to be abusing the idea behind the superchargers. If you were to do this with 2 cars then the ROI is shorter and it would still work. As I mentioned before the bulk of the day's charging would be while your drivers sleep, using a 20kW charger that comes with the car. The Chademo is only to top up for an hour or so during the day to enable the 600km days.
 
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The Superchargers have vanished from The Star. Oh no!
They are now missing from the car's charging map, and The Star advise that the nearest Supercharger is now at Artarmon.
Tesla haven't advised where the 'new' location is, but word is maybe Barangaroo.
It was always a bit difficult at the star - intercoms, payment required after an hour, a bit tricky to get into, let alone finding the charger for the first time. A bit disappointing to 'lose' a SuperCharger, even temporarily - but then I remember I actually get to drive a Tesla... so I realise it's simply a first world problem... and a small one at that!
 
You are running a hire car company and paid $200k for the vehicle. Comparing this to an ICE option - If you are talking about driving 600km per day in an ICE vehicle at a wildly optimistic 6l/100km (assume a very efficient hybrid) then you'd be using 36l of fuel per day. At $1.40 per litre for fuel (also optimistic) you are therefore paying $50 per day in fuel. That's $18k p.a. In fuel. Assuming you do the bulk of your charging in shoulder or off peak time you'd be paying about 18c /kWh, so for the same driving, about $8k in electricity. If the Chademo is $30k and allows your business to run then its got a better than 3 year ROI compared. In reality more like 18 months since your ICE hire car would be more likley using 10-12l/100 with city driving.

I'm assuming that YOU put in the charger rather than trying to convince someone else to. If your business model is reliant on Tesla giving you free fuel then it seems to be abusing the idea behind the superchargers. If you were to do this with 2 cars then the ROI is shorter and it would still work. As I mentioned before the bulk of the day's charging would be while your drivers sleep, using a 20kW charger that comes with the car. The Chademo is only to top up for an hour or so during the day to enable the 600km days.

Right, but I make reference to land because it will need to be close to the city, just like the Star City Supercharger was, land anywhere near that area will be very expensive and in relation to Evoke which is based in Manly just looking off a quick Google, they would have to invest in another piece of land near the city if it's going to be anywhere near convenient for a mid-day top-up.

The reason these companies decided to get Tesla's in the first place was the very low running costs day-to-day regardless of the intitial upfront hit, you've convinced me that the Chademo's do eventually become a viable option, but they need to be installed somewhere that the driver's can have quick and easy access to and until they have alot more cars to constitute a fleet it's not really going to be worth it.
 
Right, but I make reference to land because it will need to be close to the city, just like the Star City Supercharger was, land anywhere near that area will be very expensive and in relation to Evoke which is based in Manly just looking off a quick Google, they would have to invest in another piece of land near the city if it's going to be anywhere near convenient for a mid-day top-up.

The reason these companies decided to get Tesla's in the first place was the very low running costs day-to-day regardless of the intitial upfront hit, you've convinced me that the Chademo's do eventually become a viable option, but they need to be installed somewhere that the driver's can have quick and easy access to and until they have alot more cars to constitute a fleet it's not really going to be worth it.
I think you will find Evoke picked Teslas for a very different reason.
PJF posted that you can get a Chademo from China for $10k, which is less than one year's fuel saving, plus I showed that even with one car you could justify $30k with a payback of 18 months.
Renting a space small enough for a car to park with a 70A power connection wouldn't be very expensive, it could be in an industrial area within 15 minutes of the city or airport.
 
I think you will find Evoke picked Teslas for a very different reason.
PJF posted that you can get a Chademo from China for $10k, which is less than one year's fuel saving, plus I showed that even with one car you could justify $30k with a payback of 18 months.
Renting a space small enough for a car to park with a 70A power connection wouldn't be very expensive, it could be in an industrial area within 15 minutes of the city or airport.

I'm not saying it's not a viable option, it looks like you can get a car parking spot for about $5K a year. But when the superchargers are there, it just makes more sense to keep the money.
 
I'm not saying it's not a viable option, it looks like you can get a car parking spot for about $5K a year. But when the superchargers are there, it just makes more sense to keep the money.
There is also the labour cost of driving to St Leonard's, I am sure if they can justify a vehicle travelling for th airport to the city then a local charger would pay back but they also probably just plan a north shore trip per day and layover for charge. Would be good to have a charger at the vallet parking area at the airport though. Somewhere like Westfields Pagewood may also be good too.
 
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