Supercharging to become limited for new cars

[joninmelbourne]

The reply from Tesla Sydney shows that even the dealers don't really know everything. A sales rep at Tesla Melbourne told me on my test drive the car had 4G. As a fan I said that "I think you'll find its only 3G".

 

[Chuq]

Can an owner give a practical example - how much is "400 kWh" in the context of, say, Melbourne to Sydney?

As I understand it, you'd start from Melbourne will a full charge - then SC at Wodonga, SC at Goulburn - would you put in about 80 kWh each time?

So 400 kWh would effectively be a return MEL-SYD trip once a year, and a little bit extra?

 

[Blue heaven]

Can an owner give a practical example - how much is "400 kWh" in the context of, say, Melbourne to Sydney?

As I understand it, you'd start from Melbourne will a full charge - then SC at Wodonga, SC at Goulburn - would you put in about 80 kWh each time?

So 400 kWh would effectively be a return MEL-SYD trip once a year, and a little bit extra?

At 200Wh/km- 2000km.

 

[RichardMcN]

At 200Wh/km- 2000km.

So if you start with 400km in the tank and want 50 spare when you arrive after a 900km trip, you will need 550km of supercharging from Mel to Syd (assuming you have somewhere free to charge when you arrive). So that 2000km will almost get you 2 return Mel-Syd trips if you drive gently.

 

[Brian May]

The reply from Tesla Sydney shows that even the dealers don't really know everything. A sales rep at Tesla Melbourne told me on my test drive the car had 4G. As a fan I said that "I think you'll find its only 3G".

I noticed during my test drive that some the of advice I was given was questionable, to say the least. For example, I was told that many people don't bother getting a charger installed at home, and just use the superchargers. Having read online forums such as that I was aware that this is discouraged - it is preferable to charge at home unless travelling greater distances.

Plus the Richmond supercharger isn't free if you have to make a special trip on the citylink to get there.

 

[rowdy]

Plus the Richmond supercharger isn't free if you have to make a special trip on the citylink to get there.

Depends where you are coming from. The citylink section from Punt Rd to Church St is actually free and a great shortcut to Tesla Richmond.

I've done a mix of charging over the past 2 years. Probably used the richmond supercharger 15-20 times. It's very convenient and lots to do around the area (restaurants, shopping, or even walk along the yarra). That said I've found 240V 10A acceptable for day to day use as it adds more range than I use on an average day, and there's always a weekend day where it can stay plugged in for the whole time if I've used more than I thought.

I do have 3-phase and the 3-phase charger, just haven't got around to installing it yet. Maybe other tesla drivers have found similar to me and the Tesla staff were simply reporting what they've been seeing.

 

[BenT]

When Tesla does away with unlimited free supercharging it does open up the possibility to engineer the car battery to act as a home power storage and delivery device much like the power wall. With free supercharging the concept would fail as people could simply charge at the Supercharger and then run their house off the car. With a user pays model for charging this loophole is closed.

 

[MOBI63]

When Tesla does away with unlimited free supercharging it does open up the possibility to engineer the car battery to act as a home power storage and delivery device much like the power wall. With free supercharging the concept would fail as people could simply charge at the Supercharger and then run their house off the car. With a user pays model for charging this loophole is closed.

There is another "loophole" to consider.
Your warranty is null and void if you use your car as a "stationary power source"

 

[reynirb]

The reply from Tesla Sydney shows that even the dealers don't really know everything. A sales rep at Tesla Melbourne told me on my test drive the car had 4G. As a fan I said that "I think you'll find its only 3G".

Is it different for Australia? The cars in North America have 4G standard I believe starting in 2015.

I upgraded mine from 3G to 4G a couple of months ago, but it is a 2014.

 

[TesAus]

Is it different for Australia? The cars in North America have 4G standard I believe starting in 2015.

I upgraded mine from 3G to 4G a couple of months ago, but it is a 2014.

I assume the upgrade was done by Tesla? Have you noticed any improvement in performance of the screen or streaming songs etc?

 

[raynewman]

I assume the upgrade was done by Tesla? Have you noticed any improvement in performance of the screen or streaming songs etc?

I found that the 4G (LTE) in CA was much slower than the 3G in QLD. Probably too much traffic.

 

[MDK]

Back on topic... The deadline for ordering a car with unlimited Supercharging has been extended until the 15th of January

 

[BenT]

Back on topic... The deadline for ordering a car with unlimited Supercharging has been extended until the 15th of January

A little confusing as to what the deadline is for Australia. I have been working on the order date deadline but the feedback from Tesla Australia also refererred to a delivery date before 1 April (now 15 April). Given the lack of consumer control over delivery date and the clearly different delivery times for Australia it seems that the order date should be the deadline not delivery.

 

[reynirb]

I assume the upgrade was done by Tesla? Have you noticed any improvement in performance of the screen or streaming songs etc?

Yes, the upgrade was done by the Tesla service center in Dania Beach, FL. The map renders are definitely faster and the streaming is much smoother, it buffers the songs right away. It used to struggle a bit with streaming on 3G, with songs not buffering properly and would sometimes stop playing as the song would play to the end of the buffer and ran out of data.

The upgrade here costs about $500 US dollars, and can be done during any service visit.

 

[reynirb]

What's with the Spiders and the Crocs?

Probably too much time spent watching Crocodile Dundee over here.

I did read however that Australia is the most dangerous place in the world as far as stinging and biting creatures. A Great White eating a surfer about every week probably doesn't help the reputation any.

 

[Mark E]

Probably too much time spent watching Crocodile Dundee over here.

I did read however that Australia is the most dangerous place in the world as far as stinging and biting creatures. A Great White eating a surfer about every week probably doesn't help the reputation any.

Meh. 2 or 3 per year tops..

How many people do sharks kill in Australia each year?

 

[Blue heaven]

Meh. 2 or 3 per year tops..

How many people do sharks kill in Australia each year?

1700+ deaths from skin cancer per year in Australia, doesn't stop the public going to the beach though.

 

[reynirb]

Meh. 2 or 3 per year tops..

How many people do sharks kill in Australia each year?

Well, if you want to kill my theory with facts and logic, New Smyrna Beach, FL which is just about 300km North of my house is actually the shark attack capital of the world. It is estimated that everyone who has ever swam there has been within 10ft of a shark.

You are actually more likely to die from falling off a ladder or falling out of bed than being killed by a shark. Even in Florida, the lightning capital of the world, you are however more likely to be attacked by a shark than killed by a lightning strike.

So there...