http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 12:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
i guarantee more people know the chevy volt than the tesla roadster, aka rebadged lotus elise.]]>Sep 25th 2009 3:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 6:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/The idea with EVs is you have plugs basically everywhere you park. That means at home, work, business, parking lots, parking spaces on the street etc. This eliminates the need of fast charging for probably 90% of the travel of the common person. For these widespread plugs they will probably be slower chargers that charge in about 8 hours fully for a 200+mile battery pack like the Roadster's.

For the other 10% (road trips) they already have rapid chargers: http://www.greencar.com/articles/hyundai-santa-fe-ev.php
These are quick gas station-like chargers that take 10-20 minutes to give you 80-120 miles of range. So far most EVs probably won't support these kind of chargers yet, but if BEV adoption accelerates, I don't doubt we will see these kind of stations popping up. There is also the idea of Project Better Place that offers battery swaps in under 2 minutes, but I personally don't see that as a very practical idea: http://www.betterplace.com/]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHHvjsFm_88&feature=player_embedded#t=121]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 3:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
>These are quick gas station-like chargers that take 10-20 minutes to give you 80-120 miles of range.

You're kidding right? I can't fathom a way that you would consider that acceptable. A normal car, 10-20 minutes at the pump gives you 400 miles.

Even at a conservative 10 minutes for 10 miles, for a 1,000 mile trip that is 100 minutes at the power station, compared to 40 minutes at most for a gas powered car.

At the upper end of your bracket, 20 minutes for 120 miles, that same trip would be 166 minutes, almost 3 hours, compared to 40 minutes for a gasoline fueled car.

Frankly electric cars aren't even remotely ready to be a families only car. Particularly when you consider that a Tesla costs as much as a BMW. Plug in hybrids, like the Volt are a much more viable option. 40 mile electric range (hopefully Chevy achieves that number), and a gasoline motor if you need to go farther. Combine it with roof top solar cells to charge the battery while it's parked, and parking garages equipped with electric outlets, you have an excellent commuting car that can still be used for longer trips.]]>Sep 25th 2009 8:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Now if it only had more battery capacity...]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/There are faster chargers (250kW) that can do ~130 miles per 10 minutes, though the only battery so far to accept these chargers is the Altairnano batteries. The fastest charger created is 800kW, this can do ~400 miles in 10 minutes, but I don't think any batteries accept them yet.

The only reason why you can't see why this slower charging/fueling can be acceptable is because the only way you ever fueled up in your life is at a gas station. Things start to change when you can charge when you are sleeping, eating, basically any time your car is parked.

Most people can only travel roughly 500 miles a day alone (this changes if you can switch drivers, which then extends this to ~1000 miles). So you spend roughly an hour a day (500 miles/ (80 miles/10minutes) = 62 minutes) charging if you are using normal rapid charge stations I was talking about. If you switch drivers, there is roughly 2 hours you need to charge. This time can be spent as rest or to grab something to eat. Most likely you will need to stop overnight too, so even slower charging might work out. So I don't see why it is not acceptable for roadtrips. I seen Roadster owners do roadtrips using slower 8 hour chargers (basically RV outlets, not even these 4 hour chargers), took 2 days (one overnight stay) for 850 miles, which isn't too bad considering no planning and using much slower chargers.

http://highspeedcharging.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/lessons-learned/]]>Sep 25th 2009 6:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/500 miles a day... LOL you have never taken a road trip have you?

500 miles takes about 6.5 hours. Even if you are only driving for 8 hours you still have another 1.5 hours to drive. I would that most road trips are longer then that, I recently did 1,043 in about 18 hours. I'm taking a 600 mile trip in two weeks.

You make assumptions that don't fit reality, the only people that I've seen that drive as you describe tends to be the RV'ers.]]>Sep 25th 2009 8:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Luckily, today's plants and reactors are much more standardized and easier (relatively speaking) to build, so you don't have deadlines and budgets that keep growing with no end in sight, which was the reality of nuclear power before Chernobyl and 3-mile island scared off the sheep who didn't bother researching the basics of the science and technology behind nuclear power, especially the amazing modern tech that goes into the nuclear reactors of today. ]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Even if it's slow, even if it's limited.
]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.evchargernews.com/regions/ch-tesla-tesla.htm

There's actually already a whole bunch of Tesla specific chargers installed by other people, mostly in NorCal. But it's good they are building more and spreading them out.]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 1:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 2:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 3:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Clean energy means that the process has no emissions or waste leftover that are harmful in any way to anyone.
Storing nuclear fuel rods is just postponing a disaster. I'll only support nuclear energy when they find a way to make the fuel rods into happy rainbows and ice cream. ]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
The 'used' fuel rods are taken to breeder and recycler reactors where the new nuclear fuel is produced... and get this, during the recycling process... more energy is released... So you get even more power just for being environmentally friendly. The recycled fuel can be shipped back to normal plants and enter the nuclear cycle again. Only certain transmutated elements exit the cycle (]]>Sep 25th 2009 3:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/If you compare nuclear energy with wind or solar energy, you'll realise that it's a better solution in the long run.
Nuclear energy requires several steps to make the most of the fuel, whereas wind or solar requires only one step and has no excess waste material.
0 waste material > some waste material.]]>Sep 25th 2009 5:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
I'm not saying that it is bad, it just needs to be addressed like the re-processing of spent fuel and alternative reactor designs have been.

But a smart grid with millions of variable renewable power sources spread out across the country is the way to go eventually.]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Fix your commenting system engadget!]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 3:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 3:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 4:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 6:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 9:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
I would like you point me to a military headquaters or facility which was outside of a 5 mile radius of a city during WWII in Japan. Also consider that it was a show of force, we wanted the populace, or more importantly the emporer to see it, so factor that into your target choices. The Japanese military wanted to keep fighting even after the second bomb was dropped. It was the emporer and his cabinet that ended the war, the shock of the two atomic bombs, combined with the Soviets invading Machuria ended the war.

Finally if you concern was civilian causualities, where is your outrage about fire bombing of Tokyo? That killed more civilians then either atomic bomb.]]>Sep 25th 2009 9:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 9:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 10:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
On another note, how the hell are they going to mediate disputes between enraged Tesla owners when lines start to form at these things?]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Should I list all my other outrages too?

/heavysarcasm

Stick to the point. And it shows your arrogance if you think a show of force, of all possible ways, was the only way to end the war. Couldn't they have dropped smaller bombs on military targets? They could have, but they just decided to do it the american way. As long as it's not Americans dying, it's fine.]]>Sep 25th 2009 11:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 11:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Dropping smaller bombs at military targets. I'm not sure you fathom has far bombing technology has changed in the last 60 years. To bomb a single target you had to saturate the entire area. And military and civilian targets tended to be mixed together, and they still are. And we only really had two bomb sizes available, nuclear or conventional.

Arrogance, that a show of force was the only way. Hardly, we had three options, accept a partial surrender from Japan, what happened in WWI with Germany which many scholars believe help cause WWII, invade Japan and kill hundreds of thousands of people on both sides, or to drop the atomic bombs, and shock them into surrendering. Yeah people died, but you will find that many predictions say that it would have been less than if the war continued and we invaded main land Japan.
]]>Sep 25th 2009 11:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlRQYFsMg6s]]>Sep 25th 2009 11:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 12:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l//Sarcasm

Seriously though, I believe there is a standard that's been agreed to, but there is debate about whether or not it can handle the amount of power that would be required to recharge a car in any reasonable (not hours) amount of time. I think.]]>Sep 25th 2009 3:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Sure they could have identified military targets and destroyed those with a much smaller amount of collateral damage, but that would've required too much effort. "Shocking" as you call it was the lazier way out, with much less planning and effort than the Japanese put in the Pearl Harbor attack (which, by the way, I don't condone in any way).]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
You seriously have no idea what you are talking about. Smaller nukes and precision attacks were not possble until many years after WWII. The highest technolgy of the time, the Norden bomb sight too it from general city bombing, to be able to hit the right half of the city.]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 4:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Or gathering in a peace circle, smoking a peace pipe?]]>Sep 25th 2009 4:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/Sep 25th 2009 8:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
Actually the whole "invasion would have cost millions of lives" argument has been debunked for several years.

In fact, two months before the first nuke was dropped on Japan, Hirohito offered surrender to the U.S. through diplomatic channels with some stipulations. The main sticking point according to the U.S. was that Hirohito wanted to remain on the throne. Truman said this was ridiculous and went ahead with finalizing and deploying the two nukes.
Conspiracy theorists now state this may have been to test the capability of the bombs on urban locations and populations. (This is why both bombs had to be dropped, and would have been dropped even if Japan formally surrendered after the first [they were of different technologies and both needed to be tested]).]]>Sep 25th 2009 5:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/solarcity-charging-stations-on-highway-101-give-tesla-owners-a-l/
As far as conspiracy theories, anyone that even brings up conspiracy theories shouldn't be taken seriously.]]>Sep 25th 2009 8:12PM