It could happen.
Not with my F-250, though :(
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.
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.
Please, oh please dear God ... do not allow that woman to reproduce.
Shoot, through the redistribution of intelligence program, she is able to vote three or four times.
The US doesn’t generate enough electricity to charge any significant number of electric cars.
I can think of nothing more fun than sitting at a rest stop for four hours after each three hours of driving.
That makes me laugh! ...until I realize that she can vote... then it makes me cry.
LOL, that is hilarious!
This is where windmill farms come in handy along windy interstates.
Set a good batch of them spinning and charging homogenous batteries, you pull over for a battery swap-out, not a fill-up.
Your question is not totally ridiculous, although I don’t think the charging time is just a function of the voltage used. I suspect that the time required at 110 or 220 volts is related to the maximum current that can be provided at those voltages. I believe the Tesla uses lithium-ion batteries and, at least in the RC hobbyist world, these are generally considered to be able to be charged safely in a minimum of one hour. I don’t know if charging at that rate affects the lifespan of the battery. Those are also small batteries, typically of a few Amp-hours capacity at most. OTOH, let’s take a 1,000 A-h battery - to charge it in an hour would require a current of 1,000 Amps. That’s a lot of current, which would require pretty big conductors.
Set a good batch of them spinning and charging homogenous batteries, you pull over for a battery swap-out, not a fill-up.
There you go.... Have a small two wheel trailer with the batteries on it, pull into the swap station, unhook the trailer, hook up the new one with the charged batteries, use the rest room and on your way again... lol.
I think I got it! (and stuff)
Depending on the option selected the “S” car may have a 320 mile range.
A network of three phase 480 Volt fast chargers would definitely provide an incentive for more people to go electric. However, you would have to consider that the cost of the fast chargers, from what I’ve read is 45K, and figure most people on most days would recharge at home at night. So, your potential market would only be the very long distance drivers, and considering the time it will take to get a large number of EV’s on the road, you may not recoup your money for the charger for years, or possibly decades, by which time the technology could have changed.
Initially, I see resturants, rest areas etc, having 220V hookups, that would let you get an extra 25-50 miles of range while you stopped for lunch etc. I think that fast charge stations are going to require investment from the car compainies that would lose money on the charger, but make money by creating a market for their electric cars.
It could happen.
Not with my F-250, though :(
The Tesla is designed to accept a fast “30 minute” charge up to 80% SOC.
In reality, when you go over 250 volts, things are a lot more dangerous. Putting 480V in the hands of the average motorist is like giving flares and black powder to teenagers; someone's going to get dead and that's a certainty.
Apparently he's not socialist enough to grab a corner of the market.
(My apologies to Slim Pickins)
Bookmark for home.
OMG! I just thought of a good ‘reality’ show- follow that woman around and record anything she says. I bet it would be a hoot
Assuming the theory (”double the voltage, halve the charge time!”) is viable (*cough*), consider:
- For me, “taking the kids to gramma’s” is a 1000-mile 16-hour trip. Save maybe one sit-down meal, food is drive-thru. Ain’t nothin’ like “recharging” every 400 miles in 5 minutes flat.
- Over 220v, electricity becomes an extreme safety issue. You don’t just double voltage in a family setting. Ditto for increasing current (an issue with fast-charging capacitors).
- Difference between gas & electric: with gas, you extract energy from a stable medium as-needed in small doses; with electric, you in essence convert all that energy all at once then try to contain it. It’s hard to release all the energy from gasoline at once; it’s easy to release all the energy from batteries/capacitors all at once ... the difference makes a huge safety problem.
I believe that’s called, “CNN.”
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