Kettleman City’s Supercharger station, which sits halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is already an immensely popular charge point, but considering Thanksgiving is one of the year’s busiest travel periods, the facility’s 40 charging stalls were insufficient to meet the overwhelming demand.
Kettleman City is an otherwise nondescript small farm town smack in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley on I-5, the major north/south highway.
For a Model S Tesla at a Supercharger station, it will take about 20 minutes to charge 50 percent and 40 minutes to charge 80 percent.
Tesla's website says that drivers will have enough to finish their trip on 80 percent, but owners can reach 100 percent fueled in 75 minutes.
This is a problem that can likely be solved for now with new charging stations, but what about when electric cars become more popular, and governments try to outlaw gas engines? Where's the electricity coming from then? Huh?
This is just an echo of problems to come if trends continue.
To the people who loudly proclaim they "follow the science", actual science (and applied disciplines like Engineering Economics) look like magic.
ReplyDeleteDead white male magic.
The electricity comes from coal - beautiful black coal!
ReplyDeleteAll those people don't want pollution in their back yard.
DeleteNIMBY power!
Horses and wagons looking good as long as there are "hay stations".
ReplyDeleteAnd it takes less than 5 minutes to put 30 gallons of gas in my truck, plus get a breakfast burrito and coffee. People just don't appreciate the energy density of gasoline versus batteries.
ReplyDeleteEven without the line, 20 minutes for an 50% charge and 40 minutes for an 80% charge? I hope the station has free wi-fi or something to keep people entertained. That's a long time to just be standing around.
They probably get free wifi: CNN only of course.
DeleteThis story is almost a year old, hopefully the situation has not repeated. From the land of the rolling blackout.
ReplyDeleteI think Antifa/BLM have their next target, plenty of rich, white privileged motorists that can't get away. And if you need as much water as is found in five fire trucks to put out one Telsa on fire and keep it from reigniting, how much water do you need for fifty burning Teslas.
ReplyDeletehttps://onthenorthriver.com/2019/10/09/tesla/
There's an easy solution to help better manage traffic: Limit everyone to 60% charge during peak travel times. The Supercharger just cuts off at that point and directs the next customer in line. You could even set it up where drivers scan their Drivers License in to make sure it's all on the up and up and nobody is getting more than their Fair Share. No one could possibly mind - right? It's for the greater good.
ReplyDeleteewhen cars wer a new thing, you got gas from the general store. it came on the train. gas stations became a thing when people saw profit potential.
ReplyDeleteelectric car charging stations will become a thing when someone makes a Blue Rhino exchange battery pack available
read up on Blue Rhino. ask yourself if this is a thing you want in your life.
That's a question I've been wanting to ask: how does the Tesla Owner pay for the charge? Does the charger know what car it's charging?
ReplyDeleteThe local mall put in a bevy of SuperChargers in the corner of the lot, but I've never seen more than 1 or 2 in use.
Before that, some much simpler charge ports, likely for Prius (Prii ?)(looked like industrial welder plugs; bring your own cable). Again, who pays, how billed?
I looked at one once, don't recall if it was a parking lot or rest area but there was a slot for your credit card.
DeleteI look forward to the day when the lines get so long that people's batteries go dead before they get to the charging station.
ReplyDeleteWhaddawe do now?
Service truck with gas powered geni on standby
ReplyDeleteAh, Kettleman City - spent many minutes waiting in lines in mini traffic jams driving between OC and the Bay Area. Not to mention crawling along in Tule fog ...
ReplyDeleteI always get a laugh from the "let's all go electric" crowd. Those batteries? Full of fun metals like lithium, not great for the environment.
I'm considering letting go my diesel 6Kw OTR truck APU new in the box so to speak. got a neighbor with a plug in car who keeps running out of power and gets towed to a charge station. the air cooled lombardini one cylinder would run up his charge in no time. a small trailer is all he would need. seems like his ride has a small hitch suitable of lawn implement sized trailers. perfect. wonder what he would pay for it.
ReplyDelete