Official Tesla Model S thread

[LTLFTcomposite]

I found this article interesting as it speaks to the use cases for the car, not just so many miles this and so many miles that.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/02/20/tesla-getting-there-slowly-or-already-arrived/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are road trips and then there are road trips. Driving cross country stopping every three hours for an hour might be OK, but if you get to the supercharger and find there is a line of cars waiting it would be a nightmare, if there were just one or two cars ahead of you you'd be there half the day.

 

[DaveEV]

If you get to the supercharger and find there is a line of cars waiting it would be a nightmare, if there were just one or two cars ahead of you you'd be there half the day.

That problem is easily solved by adding more charging stations. Duh! Lines of EVs waiting to charge is a good thing as it indicates high demand which should trigger the installation of more charging stations.

It's going to take a while for infrastructure to get to that point, but luckily it appears to mostly be growing at a rate commensurate with the number of plug-ins on the road (behind in some areas and ahead in others).

 

[mynameisjim]

...if there were just one or two cars ahead of you you'd be there half the day.

While its a valid concern, the superchargers I've seen photos of have multiple charging locations, up to four in some. That could potentially mean you'd be the 5th car to be inconvenienced.

Also I'd hope the superchargers are scalable so that once there's enough on the road they could potentially expand them.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Sure you can solve the problem with enough infrastructure, but with 400 new cars a week entering service it's easy to see how this can be a problem, particularly for popular routes at peak times. For the life of me I don't know why anyone would want to drive from DC to Boston in the first place, but think about say, halfway from LA to Vegas on a Friday evening. You could have a lot of Teslas all lining up at once.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

...if there were just one or two cars ahead of you you'd be there half the day.

While its a valid concern, the superchargers I've seen photos of have multiple charging locations, up to four in some. That could potentially mean you'd be the 5th car to be inconvenienced.

Also I'd hope the superchargers are scalable so that once there's enough on the road they could potentially expand them.

if you have 4 chargers and 5 cars inconvenienced that is 9 cars all wanting a charge at the same location at nearly the same time. what are the odds?

i am guessing that if there are 4 charging stations at each location, it will be a while before the line gets too long. I seem to think i heard that a few stations only have 2 chargers?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Also, how is the queuing going to be enforced. Say you have 10 stalls, will it be like a bank teller line? I can see some ugliness as there are arguments about somebody taking too long, or someone jumped the line. Buyers of $100k cars may not correlate the best of humanity when it comes to politeness. Remember the one about what's the difference between a Porsche and a porcupine?

 

[jkirkebo]

i am guessing that if there are 4 charging stations at each location, it will be a while before the line gets too long. I seem to think i heard that a few stations only have 2 chargers?

Harris Ranch only have one, but is currently being expanded to 10 (!). So they are working to scale the system properly. My guess is that quite a few remote locations will be fine with two stations (sharing 120kW of power between them) while others will need 10 or even more than that.

 

[mitch672]

Well, lets see, I've owned my Model S for more than a month, and have never even been to a SuperCharger, most of my charging is done at home, same as your Leafs. Only a small percentage of Model S drivers will be using SuperChargers, they are designed for road trips and long distance travel, most don't do that everyday.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Well, lets see, I've owned my Model S for more than a month, and have never even been to a SuperCharger, most of my charging is done at home, same as your Leafs. Only a small percentage of Model S drivers will be using SuperChargers, they are designed for road trips and long distance travel, most don't do that everyday.

Ah Mitch, u being unrealistic. with the weather u having right now, i would not venture far from home either. will say that at least your Tesla stores enough power that you could live off it for a week unlike my LEAF which might get me thru 48 very low power hours.

wait till Summer comes. the road will beckon...

 

[chris1howell]

We made our first long distance trip in our 85kw Model S this weekend. Over the holiday weekend we put 1050 miles on the car and traveled from the Los Angeles area to the Grand Canyon and back. From Los Angeles we headed to the Barstow Supercharger, we had a quick lunch. The car was waiting for us by the time we made it back.

We then drove 216 miles to Kingman AZ. We stayed overnight at the Kingman KOA in a cabin and charged on a 50A RV circuit. The next morning we headed to Williams AZ via Route 66 had lunch checked out the local area, had dinner and relaxed a bit. We stayed in another Cabin at the Williams KOA an charged on a 50A circuit. At the KOA we meet another Tesla S owner going from Vegas to Pheonix. And apperantly there was a third scheduled to charge and stay overnight in the cabin next to us but he was a no-show.

The next day we went to the Grand Canyon, had lunch took a 15 Mile detour to visit the "deer farm" and headed back to Kingman. We put 226 miles (mostly highway) on the car and had about 20 remaining...

The last day was Kingman AZ to Barstow then home...

We had an Awesome time and the car performed great, it just took 30 minutes of planning to line up lodging/charging...

Total cost for fuel $14.00 ($0.013 per mile)
Total cost for lodging $90 (3 nights)

 

[Train]

I found this article interesting as it speaks to the use cases for the car, not just so many miles this and so many miles that.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/02/20/tesla-getting-there-slowly-or-already-arrived/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are road trips and then there are road trips. Driving cross country stopping every three hours for an hour might be OK, but if you get to the supercharger and find there is a line of cars waiting it would be a nightmare, if there were just one or two cars ahead of you you'd be there half the day.

Yesiree. I mentioned this a few weeks back (actually last year as well) that waiting for someone else to charge is going to be an issue.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

Nice! We've got about 1,300 miles on ours. I have not taken any super long trips but I've put on several hundred miles in a day without having to charge outside my home. I suspected this was the way to go, now I'm sure. I don't have to worry about charging stations being occupied or broken and I don't have to sit and wait for the car to charge hardly ever. After owning the Leaf for two years, a few things continue to boggle my mind about the Tesla S. In the Leaf I would often try and calculate how many miles of range I have left, now I drive more like I used to in a gas car, I just look down at the gauge periodically to make sure I have way more than enough to have to worry about it, no bars to count. in fact, it's harder to judge the available distance in the S than in the Leaf but it's more consistent and there is lots of extra, so I just don't think about it all nearly as much, really it's a wonderful feeling to get back to just driving without worry. Aside from how powerful and beautiful it is, the climate control is very well thought out. In the Leaf I had to drive slowly and be miserly with the climate control, leaving it off as much as possible. With the S, I drive pretty much as fast as I want and I have the climate control dialed in at 71 degrees, all the time. I have the HVAC set to "Range Mode". I have the car set up exactly the way I like it and I leave it that way all the time, no fogged up windows, no fuss. The S is unlike any car I've owned. You set up the sound and climate control and lights and rain sensor and heated seats and just get in and out of the car without pushing a single button. When you get back on, everything comes back on just the way it was set up when I left, it's really quite a magical feeling. It's rather comparable to the i-phone for me, I didn't even know how much I would enjoy it till I got to use it, it's beyond anything I would have come up with had anyone asked me what I "needed", but now it just seems dumb that more cars don't work like this!

As for the Leaf, it's a wonderful car for it's capabilities as well. I find we are not using public charging hardly at all. I think the future of EV's will come down to choosing the right tool for the right job, choosing the car that will have the range you need so as not to require public charging hardly at all. a 40 or 50 kW Leaf would make life so much better in terms of reducing dependence on public charging and all the issues that come with it.

We made our first long distance trip in our 85kw Model S this weekend. Over the holiday weekend we put 1050 miles on the car and traveled from the Los Angeles area to the Grand Canyon and back. From Los Angeles we headed to the Barstow Supercharger, we had a quick lunch. The car was waiting for us by the time we made it back.

We then drove 216 miles to Kingman AZ. We stayed overnight at the Kingman KOA in a cabin and charged on a 50A RV circuit. The next morning we headed to Williams AZ via Route 66 had lunch checked out the local area, had dinner and relaxed a bit. We stayed in another Cabin at the Williams KOA an charged on a 50A circuit. At the KOA we meet another Tesla S owner going from Vegas to Pheonix. And apperantly there was a third scheduled to charge and stay overnight in the cabin next to us but he was a no-show.

The next day we went to the Grand Canyon, had lunch took a 15 Mile detour to visit the "deer farm" and headed back to Kingman. We put 226 miles (mostly highway) on the car and had about 20 remaining...

The last day was Kingman AZ to Barstow then home...

We had an Awesome time and the car performed great, it just took 30 minutes of planning to line up lodging/charging...

Total cost for fuel $14.00 ($0.013 per mile)
Total cost for lodging $90 (3 nights)
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[TonyWilliams]

... a 40 or 50 kW Leaf would make life so much better in terms of reducing dependence on public charging and all the issues that come with it.

That's almost exactly what I get with the "40 or 50 kW(h)" Rav4... my wife actually takes the car regularly and leaves me with the Infiniti convertible oil burner.

She just hated the LEAF, almost from the first trip. We drove from our house to downtown, about 20 miles, and returned. I drove fast (like 80mph) just to prove how capable the car was, and big surprise, the energy gauge said I used it up. She wasn't impressed. The very last time she drove the LEAF was a similar trip to downtown, after a year and a half with two different LEAFs. She got home on LBW. For her, it might as well have just quit in the middle of the freeway.

I just don't really have those issues now, and I look forward to joining the many former LEAF owners who now have or will soon get the Model S.

 

[waidy]

That's almost exactly what I get with the "40 or 50 kW(h)" Rav4... my wife actually takes the car regularly and leaves me with the Infiniti convertible oil burner.

She just hated the LEAF, almost from the first trip. We drove from our house to downtown, about 20 miles, and returned. I drove fast (like 80mph) just to prove how capable the car was, and big surprise, the energy gauge said I used it up. She wasn't impressed. The very last time she drove the LEAF was a similar trip to downtown, after a year and a half with two different LEAFs. She got home on LBW. For her, it might as well have just quit in the middle of the freeway.

I just don't really have those issues now, and I look forward to joining the many former LEAF owners who now have or will soon get the Model S.

I concur with Tony and Tony's wife (although I didn't hate it, only felt that the LEAF was a down grade from what I already had). I think Mrs. Wiliams will be even much, much, more happier if you get the Model S.

 

[mitch672]

We made our first long distance trip in our 85kw Model S this weekend. Over the holiday weekend we put 1050 miles on the car and traveled from the Los Angeles area to the Grand Canyon and back. From Los Angeles we headed to the Barstow Supercharger, we had a quick lunch. The car was waiting for us by the time we made it back.

We then drove 216 miles to Kingman AZ. We stayed overnight at the Kingman KOA in a cabin and charged on a 50A RV circuit. The next morning we headed to Williams AZ via Route 66 had lunch checked out the local area, had dinner and relaxed a bit. We stayed in another Cabin at the Williams KOA an charged on a 50A circuit. At the KOA we meet another Tesla S owner going from Vegas to Pheonix. And apperantly there was a third scheduled to charge and stay overnight in the cabin next to us but he was a no-show.

The next day we went to the Grand Canyon, had lunch took a 15 Mile detour to visit the "deer farm" and headed back to Kingman. We put 226 miles (mostly highway) on the car and had about 20 remaining...

The last day was Kingman AZ to Barstow then home...

We had an Awesome time and the car performed great, it just took 30 minutes of planning to line up lodging/charging...

Total cost for fuel $14.00 ($0.013 per mile)
Total cost for lodging $90 (3 nights)

Nice Chris, I own a duplex house lot (with no house yet) in a town right near Kingman (well, it's off 95, the road from the Hoover Damn to Kingman), it's in a town 40 miles off 95 called "Meadview, AZ", I am planning on retiring their someday. Nice to see their are RV Parks in the area for charging... The west is so large and spread out, glad to see the Model S is usable in such a rural spread out area.

 

[cwerdna]

a 40 or 50 kW Leaf would make life so much better in terms of reducing dependence on public charging and all the issues that come with it.

Yep. I've said it here publicly a few times, if only the Leaf had say 150 miles of range by the EPA, I'd have a Leaf by now and would have a lot fewer reservations about buying it (instead of leasing), taking into account battery degradation, highway driving and heater use.

As it stands, because I live so far from everything, owning or leasing a Leaf limits my choices of future jobs (I'm not working right now) or relegates it to be a car that useful only on the weekends if the future job is too far and has no charging.

 

[evnow]

Yep. I've said it here publicly a few times, if only the Leaf had say 150 miles of range by the EPA, I'd have a Leaf by now ...

Thats like saying, if only Model S cost $40k instead of $80k, you would have bought one by now

A $50k Leaf wouldn't sell many - as you can see from RAV4 EV sales.

 

[cwerdna]

Yep. I've said it here publicly a few times, if only the Leaf had say 150 miles of range by the EPA, I'd have a Leaf by now ...

Thats like saying, if only Model S cost $40k instead of $80k, you would have bought one by now

A $50k Leaf wouldn't sell many - as you can see from RAV4 EV sales.

Yeah, the Rav4 EV still doesn't seem to be selling well w/the incentives Toyota's been putting on. It doesn't help that I've seen 0 advertising for it anywhere. I've seen none on TV, online and heard none on the radio (don't listen to the radio much).

If the Rav4 EV kept coming down further in price, I might actually be interested. If it only had a CHAdeMO port too. :/

 

[ebill3]

Hmm. Maybe I should change my user name to GaslessInPuyallup, because I am truly gasless now. Even those model airplanes in the rack are conversions from glow fuel to electric.

 

[scottf200]

Excellent 3-page "summary" article.

Tesla Motors To Be Profitable Selling Electric Cars By April, It Says
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1082454_tesla-motors-to-be-profitable-selling-electric-cars-by-april-it-says" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

<snip>
"We've said it before," Musk noted, "but we expect that ultimately, we will deliver 10,000 to 15,000 cars in North America, 10,000 in Europe, and 10,000 to 15,000 in Asia--but that will take time to build up, especially China.
<snip>
He acknowledged that in colder regions, the SuperChargers should be more closely spaced--120 to 150 miles apart, perhaps, rather than the current 200-mile separation between SuperCharger locations in Delaware and Connecticut.
The company is rapidly deploying more SuperCharger stations, he said, including in Texas, the Chicago area [glad to see this in my area], and other East Coast locations.
And he hinted at future upgrades to the SuperCharger system. "We've got a fairly meaningful announcement about a step change in SuperCharger technology coming later this year," he said.
<snip>