Posted on 10/27/2009 6:26:23 AM PDT by dangus
I'm not in the position for making any huge investments, and this might be in the category of just plain ignorant, but I figure this proposal might at least prompt some interesting discussion, and if its plausible, someone should do it:
The Tesla gets about 220 miles per charge. Great... if you're going somewhere less than four hours away. But if the S-class (a $50,000 "family car") is going to be someone's main car, they're certainly going to want to take longer trips with it. The problem is the car takes 8 hours to charge with 110 volts. By doubling the voltage (220 volts), it can be charged in 4 hours. But that still means it's useless for driving the kids to see Gramma.
Question: Could an 880-volt super-charger be built that could charge the Tesla in an hour... roughly the time it takes to get a good highway meal. A network of electric-vehicle charging stations at interstate rest stations would be exactly what it would take to make Tesla competitive... and such a network could probably put a profitable surcharge on the electricity delivered.
Do some simple calculations for yourself before you psot something silly
It might be more efficient to build giant catapults to launch the Tesla roadster to the next (catapult) station.
I think for something like this to be profitable, there would have to be way more than a dozen or so of the cars in service.
How about the Tesla tows a trailer with a generator and plenty of gas cans on it.
Sure, you only would need to completely redesign the Tesla to use the power plant of, say, a Japanese Bullet Train in order to handle that, but heck, if we are saying what if, why not.
Could have timeshare cars where you don’t own the particular car but access to a pool of like cars at varous stations or bases...sort of like the old Pony Express I suppose.
You know what would work is if they take a Lotus Elise engine and replace the electric engine, then you could use gas anywhere you could find a station.
Doubling the voltage may not allow you to charge it faster. If the battery recharging is current limited (as suggested by the 8-hour number), it won’t help at all.
If it doesn’t blow up or catch fire. Wonder how much this will cost. Look at your own skyrocketing electric bill and decide for yourself. All they talk about is clean energy; not cost or safety which they know of neither.
You've got to quit walking off and leaving your computer unattended. While you were gone one of your "friends" sat down and posted something to make you look stupid.
LOL! That’s an excellent idea — patent it before somebody else comes up with it.
Did you read all of what I wrote? Tesla is already introducing a 220-volt charger to cut charge time from 8 hours to 4 hours. Although I certainly suspect that the batteries would have to be configured to take faster charging.
Which means .... we ain't members of that club and will be forced to jump through more hoops than is neccesary .. ultimately keeping the 'franchise' home.
With the stress in our culture, I’d suggest you jump
over the 880 volt charging stops and move directly to the
1760 volt stations. This way you could have the Tesla
drivers on their way in 30 minutes...
No wait. If 30 minutes is good, 15 would be better!
Make that 3520 volts! I think they make chairs of this voltage already...
Man, that was hilarious...and yet sooo scary that there are actually people like this out there voting.
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