Shanghai Home To World’s Largest Tesla Supercharger Facility

China is a huge market for Tesla and it has committed to having 1,000 Superchargers installed and operating within the country by the end of 2017 to support its sales efforts there. From the evidence supplied by a new video uploaded to YouTube by German source TeslaMag, somewhere between 40 and 60 of those Superchargers will be located in the parking garage below the Lilacs International Commercial Center in Shanghai.

They won’t be the new compact 72 kW chargers Tesla announced just last week. Looking at the video, these appear to be Tesla’s conventional chargers rated at 125 kW of power. A Tesla spokesperson has confirmed to the folks at Teslarati that installation of the charging equipment is underway but declined to give any further details until after the process is complete. On Reddit, the new location is being referred to as a “superstation” that will serve as an important link for those travelling between Beijing and Hong Kong.

At the present time, the largest Tesla Supercharger facility is located in Nebbenes, Norway, a rural town 40 miles outside Oslo. It features 20 stalls. Several similar installations are underway in the US, particularly in California as Tesla races to fulfill its promise to have 10,000 Superchargers in operation worldwide by the end of 2017.

The Tesla Supercharger network is one of the most powerful sales tools for the Silicon Valley startup, as many of its competitors are sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to take the issue of electric car charging infrastructure seriously. Porsche’s new electric 4 door sedan is said to be capable of an 80% recharge in only 15 minutes using its proprietary 800 volt charging equipment. The problem is, there are fewer of those than there are real Fabergé eggs.

When stock analysts rave about how much Tesla stock will be worth in the future, they often overlook the importance of the Supercharger network the company has created and continues to expand aggressively. That infrastructure, though, is what allows Tesla to sign up hundreds of thousands of new customers for its automobiles when other companies are running around complaining that no one wants to buy electric cars.

No. What people don’t want is to buy electric cars if there is no convenient way to recharge them away from home. That’s the simple fact that most auto company executives can’t seen to grasp.

Source: Teslarati

Compact Tesla Supercharger Coming For Urban Areas

Charging infrastructure for urban areas is a problem. With open land at a premium in congested cities, finding room to install chargers can be a challenge. Tesla is aware of the issue and, as usual, is being proactive in its response. On September 11, Tesla posted on its blog that it has developed a new compact Tesla Supercharger specifically for use in cities.

“It is extremely important for our customers to be able to easily charge their cars. The most convenient way to charge is to plug in overnight at home, and for most people, this is all that is needed. However, for customers who use their car for long distance travel, there is a growing network of Superchargers located along highways on popular driving routes. We have also installed thousands of Destination Charging connectors at hotels, resorts and restaurants that replicate the home charging experience when you’re away from home. Now, as part of our commitment to make Tesla ownership easy for everyone, including those without immediate access to home or workplace charging, we are expanding our Supercharger network into city centers, starting with downtown Chicago and Boston.

“Supercharger stations in urban areas will be installed in convenient locations, including supermarkets, shopping centers and downtown districts, so it’s easy for customers to charge their car in the time it takes to grocery shop or run errands. They also have the same pricing as our existing Superchargers, which is far cheaper than the cost of gasoline.

“Superchargers in urban areas have a new post design that occupies less space and is easier to install, making them ideal for dense, highly populated areas. To increase efficiency and support a high volume of cars, these Superchargers have a new architecture that delivers a rapid 72 kilowatts of dedicated power to each car. This means charging speeds are unaffected by Tesla vehicles plugging into adjacent Superchargers, and results in consistent charging times around 45 to 50 minutes for most drivers.

“We will continue to expand our charging networks so that Tesla owners always have abundant and reliable access to charging wherever they go.”

As our resident Tesla guru, Kyle Field, points out that the compact urban Superchargers won’t feature the full 125 kW of power that is typical for most Superchargers located along major transportation routes. However, those driving in cities are less likely to be passing through, and thus not in such a hurry to charge and go. It is far more likely they will be shopping or dining in the area and will be more than happy to wait 50 minutes to an hour to replenish their batteries. 72 kW is still far greater power than what is available to drivers of other electric cars — other fast charging stations typically range from 25 kW to 50 kW.

Tesla may be the most disruptive company since the British East India Company. Not only is it leading the way toward an electric car future, but it is also bringing dramatic changes to freight hauling with its soon-to-be revealed Tesla Semi, an innovative solar roof from its SolarCity division, intercity travel with the Hyperloop concept, and space travel via its SpaceX corporate cousin.

Electric cars and charging infrastructure are two sides of the same coin. Porsche says its first all-electric car, the Mission E four-door sports car, will be capable of 150 kW charging, but where will Porsche owners find such powerful chargers? Perhaps other carmakers will see the writing on the wall and adopt the Tesla Supercharger system for their own cars and customers before long.

Aggressive Tesla Supercharger Expansion Planned Ahead Of Model 3 Launch

As Tesla prepares to move into mass-market sales of its electric cars, some owners have expressed concerns that all of those new Model 3 owners will overwhelm the existing Tesla Supercharger network. Things are especially bad in California, where Ben Sullins of Teslanomics says there are already 105 Teslas for every Supercharger station. (The average worldwide is about a third of that number.) The problem is only going to get worse in the Golden State, since Tesla says it will build Model 3 sedans for its employees at the Fremont factory first.

To calm jittery current owners and reassure those who will be converting their Model 3 reservations to firm orders soon, Tesla issued a blog post today in which it promised it had a handle on the situation and it’s moving aggressively to expand its Tesla Supercharger network. “As Tesla prepares for our first mass-market vehicle and continues to increase our Model S and Model X fleet, we’re making charging an even greater priority. It is extremely important to us and our mission that charging is convenient, abundant, and reliable for all owners, current and future. In 2017, we’ll be doubling the Tesla charging network, expanding existing sites so drivers never wait to charge, and broadening our charging locations within city centers.”

The blog post goes on to say, “We started 2017 with over 5,000 Superchargers globally and by the end of this year, Tesla will double that number to total more than 10,000 Superchargers and 15,000 Destination Charging connectors around the world. In North America, we’ll increase the number of Superchargers by 150 percent, and in California alone we’ll add more than 1,000 Superchargers. We’re moving full speed on site selection and many sites will soon enter construction to open in advance of the summer travel season.

Some might quibble that the “summer travel season” is already close at hand, but not to worry. Any company that can install a total of 396 Powerpack grid storage batteries for Southern California Edison in just over 3 months time can find a way to install 1,000 Supercharger units in a few months. The plans and specifications are virtually identical from one Tesla Supercharger location to another. All that needs to be done is attend to the permitting process and hire the contractors. Get those backhoes fired up!

“[W]e know that to truly advance electric vehicle adoption, we must continue investing in charging infrastructure. Toward that goal, Tesla will build larger sites along our busiest travel routes that will accommodate several dozen Teslas Supercharging simultaneously. In addition, many sites will be built further off the highway to allow local Tesla drivers to charge quickly when needed, with the goal of making charging ubiquitous in urban centers.

“Tesla will continue to lead the industry with the fastest, most advanced charging technology in the world and continue to build the only cars capable of leveraging that power. The ongoing expansion of the networks will ensure that Tesla drivers are able to quickly and easily charge their vehicles no matter what, and that a seamless charging experience remains our priority.”

People debate whether Tesla’s stock price is too high or too low. When they do, they focus on the number of cars delivered or reservations taken. People seldom stop to consider that the Tesla Supercharger system is the world’s largest, most reliable, and most powerful electric car charging network, but it may prove to be one of the company’s most valuable assets in the future.

If only other manufacturers would put their money where their mouth is and take charging infrastructure seriously. Instead, most of them (especially the American automakers) are standing around with their hands in their pockets waiting for someone else to do the heavy lifting while whining that no one wants to buy electric cars. Yes, Mary Barra and Mark Fields, we are talking about you!

For a look at current and planned Supercharger locations, Tesla has a convenient interactive global map on its website.

Source and image credit: Tesla

Tesla Model S Bursts Into Flames While Charging

On New Year’s Day, a Tesla owner in Norway plugged in his Tesla Model S at a SuperCharger station near Kristiansand in the Aust-Agden region and went off to do some shopping while his battery recharged. A few minutes later, his car burst into flames and was destroyed. The duty officer at the campus police office of Jon Kvitnes College told Norway’s VG News, “We received notification at 2.29 pm that a car was on fire near a cafe on Brokelandsheia. We came out with the fire brigade and police, but it turned out that this car was burned out when the emergency services arrived at the scene.” Fortunately, there was no one in the car at the time and there were no injuries.

The cause of the fire is unknown. Police say they will conduct an investigation of the vehicle and the charging station to find out what caused the car to burst into flames. For now, the SuperCharger station is closed. “Not possible to fast-charge Tesla on Brokelandsheia until further notice,” Agder police tweeted Friday afternoon.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet spoke with a Tesla representative later in the day and was told the company will investigate the fire and issue a report as soon as possible.

According toLeif Hansen, who lives in Norway, the following statement was made to the local news media by Anders Torbjørnsen, a member of the fire brigade operations center at the college. “It is not possible to extinguish EV fires with water , so the fire department closed the area around the powerful SuperCharger and used a special foam to control the flames. The world renowned electric car has batteries made of lithium, a metal that is highly flammable , and that makes firefighting difficult.

“Electric vehicle fires are fairly new for us at Agder . It is quite rare for an electric car to burn, but once it catches fire,  lithium batteries make it more challenging. After a while the fire brigade brought the flames under control but the car was completely damaged.” That’s quite an understatement.

Photo credits: www.igjerstad.no, NTB SCANPIX; VG News

Number of Tesla Chargers Up 200 Percent In US

When we think of recharging a Tesla, we generally think of the company’s network of SuperChargerlocations, those attractively styled high power facilities where Tesla drivers can get free electricity to extend their range while traveling. But Tesla has another arrow in its quiver — destination chargers. Those are lower powered units roughly equivalent to DC fast chargers.

Tesla Electric Car Charging Station Depolyment

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SuperChargers are intended to let you get where you are going with the shortest possible charging time along the way. Destination chargers  are intended to recharge the battery when you get where you are going and the car will be stationary for an hour or two. They are normally found at hotels, upscale B&B’s, restaurants, ski resorts and the like.

The company added 107 SuperCharger locations throughout the US in the past year, bringing the total to 224. But it added 851 destination chargers in the same time period, bring the total in the US to 1,122. All those destination chargers show up on the car’s onboard charger location software. Smart business people are eager to add a destination charger or two in order to attract business from Tesla owners in the area.

Tesla has a number of cooperative arrangements with local merchants. Sometimes it provides the charger free of charge and the destination pays to install it. The local business is permitted to assess a fee for use of the charger, but many merchants quietly absorb that expense in order to attract new business. People who drive $100,000 cars usually are the kind of customers any business would like to have, after all!

Tesla is continuously improving the performance of its SuperChargers, which are typically located along major transportation routes.and can restore a battery to an 80% charge in a half hour or less with charging rates range from 90 kW to 135 kW. Tesla has plans for SuperChargers that can charge at 200 kW. In fact, it has pioneered liquid cooled charging cables to handle the heat that such high powered equipment will generate.

Destination chargers usually have 50 kW of power, considerably less than the SuperChargers but more than enough if a car is going to be parked for a couple of hours or overnight. While other manufacturers fiddle and fret about who is going to pay for electric charger infrastructure, Tesla is just going ahead and building the most comprehensive charging network in the world. One would expect nothing less from Elon Musk and Tesla.

A Closer Look At The New Audi R8 E-Tron Battery

 

Want proof how fast things are changing in the world of electric cars? Look no further than the Audi R8 E-Tron battery. When the car was first introduced in 2010, it had a 49 kWh battery and about 130 miles of range. That was considered outstanding at the time, but since then, Tesla Motors has brought its Model S to market. That car features up to an 85 kWh battery and as much as 265 miles of range, making the R8 E-Tron look pretty ordinary by comparison.

Now Audi has unwrapped a completely new battery for its latest E-Tron. It boasts 90.2 kWh of power and a range closer to 280 miles. Energy density for the new battery has almost doubled from 84 watt-hours per kilogram to 152 watt-hours per kilogram. Yet the whole thing fits in exactly the same space at the battery from 2010. How is such a thing possible?

The secret is in the cells. Audi has figured out how to make much more powerful individual cells, then packed 7,488 of them into 52 modules of 144 cells each. Each module weighs 17 lb. In all, the new battery has over 10,000 parts and weighs 1,312 lbs. Positioned partially between the seat and partially behind them, the car ends up with 40/60 weight distrigution – about what it would be if it was a mid engine gasoline powered car.

But that’s only part of the good news about the new battery. Lots of power is useless if it takes forever to recharge the battery once it is depleted of energy. Using a Combo 2 AC charger, it takes 12 hours to replenish the battery. But if a DC fast charger pushing 50 kilowatts of juice into all those cells is used, the job is complete in just 95 minutes.

Audi has thoughtfully engineered the car’s charging system to accept inputs all the way up to 150 kilowatts, which is more than any Tesla SuperCharger is capable of at the moment. With that set up, an R8 E-Tron driver can power up for more than 90 miles of driving in just 15 minutes.

The world of electric car batteries has indeed changed radically in just over 4 years. Just imagine where the technology will be by the time 2020 rolls around.

Swedish Business Owner Buys Two 60 KW Tesla Superchargers

With nearly 500 Supercharger locations spread out across the word, Tesla is moving fast to ensure its customers have easy access to their fast and free charging network. Yet there are still plenty of gaps in the Supercharger network’s coverage, and the much slower “destination chargers” just aren’t enough for some people.

That prompted Swedish business owner and Model S driver Mikael Blomqvist to contact Tesla about buying some Superchargers to install at his business center. Electrek.co reports that Tesla sold Blomqvist two 60 KW Superchargers for his business center, which are only half as powerful as the standard Supercharger, but still faster than the Level 2 destination chargers at many hotels and resorts. If the 120 KW Superchargers can top off a S85 in an hour, then the 60 KW chargers probably take about twice as long, all the way around.

Blomqvist wouldn’t specify exactly how much each 60 KW Supercharger cost him, saying only that each was “less expensive than the car”, putting it under $75,000. In its most recent SEC filing, Tesla quoted a price of about $55,000 per Supercharger unit, but I assume that’s for the 120 KW version. Tesla hasn’t publicly acknowledged that it’s willing to sell Supercharger stations to individual owners, and given its relutance to embrace a traditional dealership sales model, I’m not entirely convinced this is a new business model, and not just a one-off special case.

Then again, with the announcement of the Tesla Energy home battery system and the growing prevalence of destination charging stations, I don’t see why Tesla wouldn’t want to add an additional revenue stream to its balance sheets.

Tesla “Ends” Range Anxiety With New Nav Features

Last weekend Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla was about to “end range anxiety” with an announcement this Thursday, and as speculated, the fix was an update to the navigation system that basically makes it idiot proof. In Musk’s own words, “It’s impossible to run out unless you do so intentionally.”

So how’s it all work? Three words; data, data, data. The firmware 6.2 update adds the new “Trip Planner” that provides up-to-date info on the nearest of over 2,000 Tesla Supercharger and thousands more destination charger locations. This ensures the driver is always within range of a charging station, and if you try to plan a trip outside of the available driving range, the car will ask you if you’re sure not once, but twice. Musk wasn’t kidding when he said you’d have to intentionally try to run the Model S out of juice.

Of course as any EV owner will tell you, there are other factors that can affect range, and Tesla has taken those into account too. The range assurance software will track changes in elevation and headwinds, traffic conditions, air conditioning use, as well as the closest charging locations to provide the most accurate picture of the available driving range. But that’s not the only update to the software of the Model S, as Tesla is also adding Range Assurance to the mix. This program plots the optimal route based on charging locations and ensures that you’re staying within the range offered by your Model S.

Does this firmware update really end range anxiety? In a sense, though not in the same way 5-minute charging or even battery swaps might. It’s a good band-aid for a big problem facing electric cars, but this could also be classified as more Musk hyperbole.

A welcome improvement? Sure. Does it make ICE cars totally obsolete? Not even close. It is, however, an excellent model for other automakers to follow.

Tesla Model S Logs 100,000 Miles In 21 Months

Over 100,000 Miles In Only 21 Months

Can you believe it? 100,000 miles on a Tesla Model S in 21 months! That sure is a lot of driving. All without 1 drop of gas.

TeslaRoadTrip sets out to show everyone (via a recent tweet) that a Tesla Model S is capable of road trips across the country and that you don’t need a second (ICE or hybrid) vehicle to do it.

Using gas for a road trip is a thing of the past. Charging quickly and for free is what the Model S allows you to do using Tesla’s Superchargers which TeslaRoadTrip takes advantage of.

Model S owners, how many miles are on yours? How is your overall experience with it?  Anyone else over 100,000 miles?

Current Supercharger Network. (8/12/2014)

100th Tesla Supercharger Installed…In New Jersey, No Less

Last week Tesla installed its 100th Supercharger charging station in the state of New Jersey, while promising this is just the beginning. The 100th Supercharger was installed in New Jersey, which last month banned Tesla’s direct sales model. Coincidence? Irony? It’s something, that’s for sure.

In relatively short order, Tesla has installed 86 Superchargers across North America, and another 14 in Europe to reach the magic 100 number. Superchargers now allow Tesla Model S owners to drive to every corner of the country without spending a single penny on fuel costs, and Tesla claims that by the end of next year, 98% of the U.S. population will be within the range of a Supercharger station.

But this is only the beginning, as Tesla is planning rapid expansion of its nascent European network, which is focused mostly on Scandinavia and Central Europe. Then its on to China, where the lack of charging infrastructure has seriously hampered electric car sales. It will still be years before these three major markets are fully connected, but the effects of the Supercharger stations can already be felt by Tesla owners and the environment.

According to Tesla, Superchargers have offput over 570,000 gallons of gasoline, saving owners an estimated $2.3 million in fuel costs alone. Tesla Superchargers have recharged more than 14 million miles of range, enough to go around the Earth 573 times, and in the past week more than 5,000 Teslas have plugged into a Supercharger.

Now imagine what that number will be if Tesla sells 250,000 cars a year instead of 25,000. The Tesla Model E can’t come soon enough.

Source: Tesla Motors

Tesla Embarks On Record-Setting, Cross-Country Road Trip

At midnight on Thursday, a pair of Tesla Model S sedans left the Tesla design studio in Los Angeles on their way to New York City, hoping to set a Guinness World Record in the process. It’s all possible thanks to the recently-completed Supercharger network, which delivers a fast and free charge of electricity to the Model S.

Even though a father-daughter duo already completed the first cross-country trip in a Tesla Model S using the Supercharger network, Tesla itself has a specific goal in mind. The category they’re competing in is the “lowest charge time for an electric vehicle crossing the United States.” Sounds like a recently-invented category if you ask us, though cross-country electric vehicle races are nothing new.

The team of four drivers, split between two cars nicknamed “Thunder” and “Lightning”, is using the Twitter hashtag #DriveFree to keep fans in the loop following their cross-country journey. The three-day journey is set to conclude in New York City late Saturday, though weather is already trying to impede their progress. First, a sandstorm on the edge of Utah slowed them down, and the team is currently dealing with snow in Colorado.

Will Tesla be able to set an unbeatable record with all this inclimate weather in the way? We’ll know by Monday morning.

UPDATE: The Tesla Team is currently making its way through blizzard conditions towards a charging station in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Good luck guys!

Source: Gas 2.

Tesla Superchargers Could Eventually Deliver Half-Charge In Just 5 Minutes

The Tesla Supercharger network provides free, relatively fast-charging for the Tesla Model S, delivering a full charge in about an hour. But that’s still a lot longer than it takes to fill up a regular gas-powered car, though a recent interview with Tesla’s technology chief reveals that the electric automaker is working on a way to deliver a 50% charge in as little as 5 minutes.

As it stands right now, it takes a Supercharger about 30 minutes to deliver a half-charge to the Model S, though a recent upgrade will drop that down to just 20 minutes. In an interview with the MIT Technology Review, Tesla tech boss JB Straubel says that in the next few years, they plan on cutting that time down even further, and eventually 5 minutes of charging could add up to 130 miles of driving. Not too shabby to be sure.

Still not fast enough? Well soon Tesla will roll out battery-swapping stations that can deliver a fully-charged battery in half the time it takes to fill a car with gasoline, though unlike the Superchargers it’ll cost you about the same amount of money as a tank of gas. But if you can afford a Tesla model S, you can afford the $80 or so a fully-charged battery will cost you.

Tesla’s approach to fast charging is only broadening its appeal to mass-market consumers, and soon the company will single-handedly solve one of the biggest issues facing EV drivers today.

 Source: MIT Technology Review via Autoblog Green