Not at all. As a Tesla owner I can charge using any J1772 charger with a small adapter in my glove box. I can charge at just about any RV site and can use most 220v outlets and 110v in a pinch. Tesla's grid has been wildly successful so far among Tesla owners.
The Tesla charging grid has done quite well. Tesla's supercharger network is currently the only way to drive from San Diego to Vancouver or from LA to New York or along the eastern seaboard. Neither ChaDeMo nor SAE have anyting even close. The Tesla charging network is also expanding at a very rapid pace. By the end of the year most major routes will be covered. Where it needs to expand is along the not so major routes.
I had no problem driving from the Bay Area to Reno and am planning a trip up to Seattle in a few months which shouldn't be a problem.
Tesla can also easily make an adapter for the SAE combo plug since their signalling is compatible, the problem is that there are very few SAE charging stations, far fewer than Tesla superchargers. ChaDeMo is also extremely spotty in terms of where it is located. You might find it at Nissan dealerships, but it's in no way a network with stations placed along major routes.
For 95% of my driving it takes me 10 seconds per day to charge. It takes 5 seconds to plug in at night and 5 seconds to unplug in the morning to a full battery (in my case I usually charge it to around 60-70% for my daily needs). At home it takes 5 1/2 hours to charge from empty to 265 miles of range but that time is almost always irrelivant since it occurs while I'm sleeping or doing other things. The only time I go into a gas station is to buy a snack and use the restroom. I have found generally on road trips the amount of time it takes to charge at a supercharger hasn't been a big deal. The money I would spend on gas easily pays for a nice meal or two and by the time I'm done eating the car is ready to go. My only complaint is that they need more supercharging stations.
The problem is that the amount of equipment needed to control the current takes a significant amount of space. Each supercharger is basically 12 charging modules hooked up in parallel. The car comes with one and a second one is optional. For example I have two in my car to handle 20KW of charging. The superchargers are fairly large, maybe half the size of a large home refrigerator with a big loud fan on it for cooling. They basically bypass everything in the car and go straight into the battery.
Tesla's superchargers use the same signalling standard as the J1772 combo plug. The car tells the charger what voltage and current to put into the battery so the charger is not tied to any one type of battery.
Most other automakers don't really want to sell EVs, plus they tend to have a big NIH syndrome. Just look how well they're implementing support for the combo plug. As far as I know, the only companies that make money selling EVs are Tesla and Nissan (which pushes ChaDeMo).
There is no cost to the taxpayers. The cost of charging is built into the price of the car. As it is, electricity is dirt cheap for supercharging. It probably cost them $5 for a full charge or less and most owners don't charge at the superchargers all that often since they are located such that it's more convenient to just charge at home.
In my case there's one a few miles from my house but I rarely use it. It's just more convenient to charge at home rather than wait to charge at the factory.
It's $2000 and you can buy it at any point through their web site. Most people are buying the 85Kwh battery which includes access to the supercharger network. The $2000 is also there to help offset the cost of the extra hardware that is installed in the cars. Originally you would have to pay $2000 when you got the car to have the extra hardware installed. I think Tesla found that most people want this and that it's simpler to just always install the extra hardware.
As the owner of a model S the other standards, including the J1772, are indeed clunky. Tesla has managed to create a connector that is smaller than J1772 yet handles more power than any other DC charging solution out there. The same connector is electrically compatible with both J1772 and the J1772 combo plug.. Tesla has a patent on the connector as well since its design also makes it really easy to insert the connector since it basically funnels it into place. Having RGB LEDs on the outside funnel part of the connector is also rather cool. It indicates how fast it's charging (based on how fast it throbs green) or if there's a fault (if it lights up red) or if charging is delayed (blue). The connector that plugs in also has a button on it that pops open the charge port door. The connector also locks inside unless the owner has their key fob so somebody can't just pull out the connector or steal the portable charging cable.
Tesla has promised that the supercharger network is free for the life of the car. Considering that a full charge is probably under $5 it's not hard to build that into the price of the car. Access to the supercharger network cost $2000 for the 60KWh model and is included with the 85Kwh models. Typically owners don't use it all that frequently since it's just more convenient to plug in at home.
If you had bothered to research Solyndra their plan made perfect sense since the cost of silicon was quite high at the time. The problem for them was that the price dropped through the floor and the cost of solar cells dropped by a factor of 20, in part due to Chinese dumping. There was no way that Solyndra could compete with that. If you look at all of the DOE loans that were given out, their success rate was actually quite high. If you're too risk adverse you will never get ahead. That's what's missing today. Look at some of the research that was done in the past by places like Xerox PARK, Bell Laps, IBM, etc. We wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for the basic research that they did. If it wasn't for the work of John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at AT&T labs how long would it have taken for the transistor to come about? At the time that sort of research with crystals might be considered risky for a corporation to do, especially when it seems to have nothing in common with making phone calls.
One thing with research is that you have to expect that some things will fail, that's how good research works. If you are so risk adverse that you won't invest in something that might fail then you won't get ahead. That's one reason Silicon Valley has been so successful. For every big name that grows out of the area there are at least ten failures. People are not punished for their failures since they learn from them and move on.
I've had that happen with two different vehicles. The accelerator cable got stuck on my 1991 Ford Probe a couple of times. A dab of oil fixed the problem and it never returned. On a 1966 Pontiac the carbeurator stuck wide open on me a couple of times. On older cars one problem if the accelerator is stuck wide open is you can lose your power brakes since you don't have the vacuum in the intake manifold and the vacuum resivoir can quickly be used up if pumping the brakes.
And how toxic is aluminum compared to say that lead acid battery found in most cars? Lithium ion batteries are not considered toxic and may be discarded into municipal waste if not charged. The ones in my Tesla are lithium aluminum cobalt which are not considered very toxic. Despite people complaining about the fire risk of the Li-Ion batteries, regular lead-acid batteries are known to catch fire and sometimes explode when shorted out. Improper charging of lead-acid batteries can also build up hydrogen gas inside the battery which can lead to an explosion. Lithium-ion batteries, on the other hand, cannot explode. Aluminum batteries, like lead acid batteries, can also build up hydrogen gas though presumably the batteries are designed with this in mind.
I could see this being successful for a company like Tesla. They already have hot-swappable batteries. For most driving one would just use the li-ion battery. For long distance travel one could swap it for an aluminum battery then swap back to the original li-ion battery on the return trip.
Companies like Tesla can already do automated battery swaps. I can see them offering this on long trips. You pull in to swap your li-ion battery with an aluminum battery then swap back when you return.
I followed the recommendation of my 1991 Ford Probe which recommended an oil change every 7500 miles. I never had any issues with the engine though I also used synthetic oil.
My father went 80,000 miles without changing the oil in his 1966 Pontiac Sprint-Tempest LeMans which he had converted to run on propane during the gasoline crisis in the 1970s. He ran Mobile 1 and when he drained it the oil was clear and the engine was still at the tight end of the factory spec. He still has the car with over 225,000 miles on the original engine.
Modern engines have much tighter tolerances and many can easily handle 7500 miles between changed since fewer contaminantes make it into the oil. The reason my father was able to go 80K miles without changing it is that propane does not create the contaminates that you get from gasoline or diesel.
Even the Optima batteries, while better than many other batteries, still do not like to be overcharged.
The battery in one of my older cars lasted 10 years, I think because every couple of months I would run a desulfate operation on it with a smart battery charger. I wish they would build that technology in to car charging systems since it only cost pennies and can greatly extend the life.
After I got my Tesla I put the 12v battery in my Prius (an Optima replacement for the OEM when the OEM died) on a battery minder which does this and has proper temperature compensation. I only drove my Prius a couple times a year.
I might add that Tesla has several patents dealing with metal oxide batteries and using them in combination with lithium ion batteries. They already have the automated battery swap technology as well.
There are many forms of glass. Some types of glass are a lot tougher than other types. They describe the testing that they have done and how it holds up to wear and tear and how they're designed to handle loads as high as 250,000 pounds.
They describe this. A lot of the grime won't stick. Skid marks just brush off. They're also talking about adding a coating of titanium dioxide which would cause a lot of the grime to break up when exposed to sunlight. They also discuss the loses due to dirt and grime and say it's about a 9% loss of power when coated in grime.
The article is not all that accurate. Actually Tesla itself isn't making much from government subsidies any longer. The article is full of a lot of what-ifs. Currently there are no cars on the horizon that directly compete with Tesla. The GM Cadillac? It's a huge flop. BMW? It lacks the range (the range extender is a joke, you can't add more gas and continue driving and there's no rapid charging support). The reason Tesla is currently not making a profit is because they are in a rapid expansion phase, which is exactly what they should be doing. They are building out their supercharger network and building out their factory in order to meet the demand for their upcoming Model X. As for tax credits, they don't make much from the CARB credits since that article was written and they don't expect to make much on the CARB credits. Also, the GAAP accounting rules don't make a lot of sense with their lease program and the large investors know this. The lease program depends on the cars holding their value, which they are doing quite well I might add.
Having followed Tesla for quite a while they have done extremely well executing according to plan. They also still have quite a long waiting list of people waiting for cars.
Then again I also invested early at around $35 and am holding long.
Their NRE costs are also dropping. Much of the model X design is based on the model S.
Slashdot Mirror
Not at all. As a Tesla owner I can charge using any J1772 charger with a small adapter in my glove box. I can charge at just about any RV site and can use most 220v outlets and 110v in a pinch. Tesla's grid has been wildly successful so far among Tesla owners.
The Tesla charging grid has done quite well. Tesla's supercharger network is currently the only way to drive from San Diego to Vancouver or from LA to New York or along the eastern seaboard. Neither ChaDeMo nor SAE have anyting even close. The Tesla charging network is also expanding at a very rapid pace. By the end of the year most major routes will be covered. Where it needs to expand is along the not so major routes.
I had no problem driving from the Bay Area to Reno and am planning a trip up to Seattle in a few months which shouldn't be a problem.
Tesla can also easily make an adapter for the SAE combo plug since their signalling is compatible, the problem is that there are very few SAE charging stations, far fewer than Tesla superchargers. ChaDeMo is also extremely spotty in terms of where it is located. You might find it at Nissan dealerships, but it's in no way a network with stations placed along major routes.
For 95% of my driving it takes me 10 seconds per day to charge. It takes 5 seconds to plug in at night and 5 seconds to unplug in the morning to a full battery (in my case I usually charge it to around 60-70% for my daily needs). At home it takes 5 1/2 hours to charge from empty to 265 miles of range but that time is almost always irrelivant since it occurs while I'm sleeping or doing other things. The only time I go into a gas station is to buy a snack and use the restroom. I have found generally on road trips the amount of time it takes to charge at a supercharger hasn't been a big deal. The money I would spend on gas easily pays for a nice meal or two and by the time I'm done eating the car is ready to go. My only complaint is that they need more supercharging stations.
The problem is that the amount of equipment needed to control the current takes a significant amount of space. Each supercharger is basically 12 charging modules hooked up in parallel. The car comes with one and a second one is optional. For example I have two in my car to handle 20KW of charging. The superchargers are fairly large, maybe half the size of a large home refrigerator with a big loud fan on it for cooling. They basically bypass everything in the car and go straight into the battery.
Actually Tesla does adhere to the standard for communications though their connector is different.
Tesla's superchargers use the same signalling standard as the J1772 combo plug. The car tells the charger what voltage and current to put into the battery so the charger is not tied to any one type of battery.
Most other automakers don't really want to sell EVs, plus they tend to have a big NIH syndrome. Just look how well they're implementing support for the combo plug. As far as I know, the only companies that make money selling EVs are Tesla and Nissan (which pushes ChaDeMo).
There is no cost to the taxpayers. The cost of charging is built into the price of the car. As it is, electricity is dirt cheap for supercharging. It probably cost them $5 for a full charge or less and most owners don't charge at the superchargers all that often since they are located such that it's more convenient to just charge at home.
In my case there's one a few miles from my house but I rarely use it. It's just more convenient to charge at home rather than wait to charge at the factory.
It's $2000 and you can buy it at any point through their web site. Most people are buying the 85Kwh battery which includes access to the supercharger network. The $2000 is also there to help offset the cost of the extra hardware that is installed in the cars. Originally you would have to pay $2000 when you got the car to have the extra hardware installed. I think Tesla found that most people want this and that it's simpler to just always install the extra hardware.
As the owner of a model S the other standards, including the J1772, are indeed clunky. Tesla has managed to create a connector that is smaller than J1772 yet handles more power than any other DC charging solution out there. The same connector is electrically compatible with both J1772 and the J1772 combo plug.. Tesla has a patent on the connector as well since its design also makes it really easy to insert the connector since it basically funnels it into place. Having RGB LEDs on the outside funnel part of the connector is also rather cool. It indicates how fast it's charging (based on how fast it throbs green) or if there's a fault (if it lights up red) or if charging is delayed (blue). The connector that plugs in also has a button on it that pops open the charge port door. The connector also locks inside unless the owner has their key fob so somebody can't just pull out the connector or steal the portable charging cable.
Tesla has promised that the supercharger network is free for the life of the car. Considering that a full charge is probably under $5 it's not hard to build that into the price of the car. Access to the supercharger network cost $2000 for the 60KWh model and is included with the 85Kwh models. Typically owners don't use it all that frequently since it's just more convenient to plug in at home.
If you had bothered to research Solyndra their plan made perfect sense since the cost of silicon was quite high at the time. The problem for them was that the price dropped through the floor and the cost of solar cells dropped by a factor of 20, in part due to Chinese dumping. There was no way that Solyndra could compete with that. If you look at all of the DOE loans that were given out, their success rate was actually quite high. If you're too risk adverse you will never get ahead. That's what's missing today. Look at some of the research that was done in the past by places like Xerox PARK, Bell Laps, IBM, etc. We wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for the basic research that they did. If it wasn't for the work of John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at AT&T labs how long would it have taken for the transistor to come about? At the time that sort of research with crystals might be considered risky for a corporation to do, especially when it seems to have nothing in common with making phone calls.
One thing with research is that you have to expect that some things will fail, that's how good research works. If you are so risk adverse that you won't invest in something that might fail then you won't get ahead. That's one reason Silicon Valley has been so successful. For every big name that grows out of the area there are at least ten failures. People are not punished for their failures since they learn from them and move on.
I've had that happen with two different vehicles. The accelerator cable got stuck on my 1991 Ford Probe a couple of times. A dab of oil fixed the problem and it never returned. On a 1966 Pontiac the carbeurator stuck wide open on me a couple of times. On older cars one problem if the accelerator is stuck wide open is you can lose your power brakes since you don't have the vacuum in the intake manifold and the vacuum resivoir can quickly be used up if pumping the brakes.
Interestingly enough, Tesla already has patents covering this hybrid battery approach. According to this patent it was filed back in 2010.
And how toxic is aluminum compared to say that lead acid battery found in most cars? Lithium ion batteries are not considered toxic and may be discarded into municipal waste if not charged. The ones in my Tesla are lithium aluminum cobalt which are not considered very toxic. Despite people complaining about the fire risk of the Li-Ion batteries, regular lead-acid batteries are known to catch fire and sometimes explode when shorted out. Improper charging of lead-acid batteries can also build up hydrogen gas inside the battery which can lead to an explosion. Lithium-ion batteries, on the other hand, cannot explode. Aluminum batteries, like lead acid batteries, can also build up hydrogen gas though presumably the batteries are designed with this in mind.
I could see this being successful for a company like Tesla. They already have hot-swappable batteries. For most driving one would just use the li-ion battery. For long distance travel one could swap it for an aluminum battery then swap back to the original li-ion battery on the return trip.
Companies like Tesla can already do automated battery swaps. I can see them offering this on long trips. You pull in to swap your li-ion battery with an aluminum battery then swap back when you return.
I followed the recommendation of my 1991 Ford Probe which recommended an oil change every 7500 miles. I never had any issues with the engine though I also used synthetic oil.
My father went 80,000 miles without changing the oil in his 1966 Pontiac Sprint-Tempest LeMans which he had converted to run on propane during the gasoline crisis in the 1970s. He ran Mobile 1 and when he drained it the oil was clear and the engine was still at the tight end of the factory spec. He still has the car with over 225,000 miles on the original engine.
Modern engines have much tighter tolerances and many can easily handle 7500 miles between changed since fewer contaminantes make it into the oil. The reason my father was able to go 80K miles without changing it is that propane does not create the contaminates that you get from gasoline or diesel.
Even the Optima batteries, while better than many other batteries, still do not like to be overcharged.
The battery in one of my older cars lasted 10 years, I think because every couple of months I would run a desulfate operation on it with a smart battery charger. I wish they would build that technology in to car charging systems since it only cost pennies and can greatly extend the life.
After I got my Tesla I put the 12v battery in my Prius (an Optima replacement for the OEM when the OEM died) on a battery minder which does this and has proper temperature compensation. I only drove my Prius a couple times a year.
I might add that Tesla has several patents dealing with metal oxide batteries and using them in combination with lithium ion batteries. They already have the automated battery swap technology as well.
Most modern batteries have a catalyst to convert the hydrogen and oxygen back into water.
According to their site they have tested their tiles to be able to handle loads of 250,000lbs. I doubt a 5,500 lbs car would do much to them.
If you read their site one of the things they plan to do is do away with snow plows by having the ability to heat the tiles.
There are many forms of glass. Some types of glass are a lot tougher than other types. They describe the testing that they have done and how it holds up to wear and tear and how they're designed to handle loads as high as 250,000 pounds.
They describe this. A lot of the grime won't stick. Skid marks just brush off. They're also talking about adding a coating of titanium dioxide which would cause a lot of the grime to break up when exposed to sunlight. They also discuss the loses due to dirt and grime and say it's about a 9% loss of power when coated in grime.
Um, you know they talk about heating the tiles to prevent ice buildup so no frozen water.
The article is not all that accurate. Actually Tesla itself isn't making much from government subsidies any longer. The article is full of a lot of what-ifs. Currently there are no cars on the horizon that directly compete with Tesla. The GM Cadillac? It's a huge flop. BMW? It lacks the range (the range extender is a joke, you can't add more gas and continue driving and there's no rapid charging support). The reason Tesla is currently not making a profit is because they are in a rapid expansion phase, which is exactly what they should be doing. They are building out their supercharger network and building out their factory in order to meet the demand for their upcoming Model X. As for tax credits, they don't make much from the CARB credits since that article was written and they don't expect to make much on the CARB credits. Also, the GAAP accounting rules don't make a lot of sense with their lease program and the large investors know this. The lease program depends on the cars holding their value, which they are doing quite well I might add.
Having followed Tesla for quite a while they have done extremely well executing according to plan. They also still have quite a long waiting list of people waiting for cars.
Then again I also invested early at around $35 and am holding long.
Their NRE costs are also dropping. Much of the model X design is based on the model S.