Tesla claims 170 miles after 30-minutes of "super-charging". I think it is fair to say 30-minutes of super-charging is a fair amount. 40-minutes of charging goes from 0% to 80%, while it will take 75 minutes total to go all the way to 100%.
If you argue against these numbers, you're arguing against official Tesla marketing... so you better give me a good citation why supercharging is only 15-minutes.
Maybe the typical supercharging stop is only 15-minutes because that's all the patience people have. In any case, they're not getting a full charge in 15-minutes.
This is the beginning of a new way to fuel cars and the charge time technical hurdle (30 minutes) although already small, will be reduced in future battery technologies.
Tesla fast charging at Superchargers is closer to 15-30 minutes, depending on several factors (temperature, battery pack size, state of charge, etc). I have had some 45-60 minute outliers on rare occasions, but it isn’t the norm (over my ~30k miles of road tripping).
Let's be real here. I just did a 2500 mile road trip in my brand new Model 3. While it is true that 20-25 minutes will give me enough range to drive for 120-160 miles, 20 minutes does not give me a full charge. Charging my Model 3 from ~10% SOC to 80% SOC takes 40 minutes at a Supercharger. The car charges quite quickly from 0% to 50%, but slows down dramatically after that. If you pull in to a Supercharger with 10-20% SOC, 20 minutes will get you up to 50-60% SOC at best.
That being said, I generally didn't mind this. I came to like the slower pace of stops. I know my wife is looking forward to the first road trip we take together in the car, as she always wants to stop and stretch her legs more often than I do.
I just wish more Superchargers had convenient access to 24 hour bathrooms.
It only takes ~20mins to charge a Tesla from 10% to 85% at a SuperCharger station. For 3 stops, he likely only added ~45 mins. If you round up and add time getting on/off the highway, plugging in and unplugging, he maybe added an hour to the overall trip. Newer Superchargers (v3) are higher power and reduce the charge time further.
According to Tesla's website, it takes 30 min to charge with a supercharger. That seems much less convenient than the 2 or so minutes it takes to fill a tank.
Most supercharger stops are less than 10 minutes anyway. Very few people are ever charging their battery at a supercharger from 5% to 80%. They’re putting a little bit more in so that they make it all the way home.
45 minutes is only if you are trying to charge over 80% which you don’t actually want to do. Unlike gas tanks that have a consistent fill rate, batteries are like a sponge where near empty the charge/fill rate is much much faster than when it’s nearly full. 20% to 80% is about 10 /15 minutes depending on how new the super charger station is. This gives you about another 3 hours of normal highway driving or so depending on conditions like temperature, 70mph+ and how hilly/windy the drive is. However, if you time the stop around meal times then you can take 45 minutes to charge to fill while you are eating at a restaurant.
Sadly, it is true most non Tesla chargers are terrible and require you make an account/give up personal information first and are not maintained well. Tesla does as well but the stations are maintained and the account signup happens when you buy the car so you just plug it in and charge.
There needs to be a just a pay and fill chargers like gas pumps but that doesn’t fly with todays VC vultures.
Electrify America was built by Volkswagen as punishment for the diesel scandal. They have zero interest in maintaining them.
One major flaw with this article is the notion that supercharging takes 30 - 45 minutes. A typical stop duration at a supercharger is 15 minutes.
The author also fails to mention the most appealing aspect of the car for the performance oriented: instant torque. After getting a Model S, I could never go back to the days of gears (even manually controlled gear changes are sluggish in comparison).
> Even “fast” chargers are going to continue to be slow (a Tesla supercharger takes over an hour for a full charge)
80% in 30 minutes, which gets you to the next Supercharger. You don't want to fuel to 100% whenever possible, as its slower than pouring electrons into an empty battery.
This is becoming less true every year. Tesla now has 250kW superchargers, and there are even 350kW CCS chargers starting to be installed. In practice, for a Model 3, this means that you can charge the battery up to about half in 15 minutes.
For a long day of driving, say, 700 miles, assuming charging available at both ends, this means two charging stops of 15 minutes each instead of one gas stop of 5 minutes.
IMO while this can always be improved, this is now at the "good enough" point for long distance driving. Obviously to make this a true reality, there needs to be widespread charging available in parking lots, and more 250kW Superchargers, but progress towards this is rapid.
> 45 minutes is only if you are trying to charge over 80% which you don’t actually want to do. Unlike gas tanks that have a consistent fill rate, batteries are like a sponge where near empty the charge/fill rate is much much faster than when it’s nearly full. 20% to 80% is about 10 /15 minutes depending on how new the super charger station is. This gives you about another 3 hours of normal highway driving or so depending on conditions like temperature, 70mph+ and how hilly/windy the drive is. However, if you time the stop around meal times then you can take 45 minutes to charge to fill while you are eating at a restaurant.
Great so instead of just filling to 100% and using that until it runs out now I have to think and plan the next few hundred miles and charge accordingly.
>What should I do if all Supercharger stalls are occupied when I arrive?
Check to see if current users have left contact information on their dashboard and give them a call. Most customers charge for 20 to 40 minutes.
> And then the EV has to stop and charge for a couple hours.
Also, it isn't a couple of hours at all. 10% to 90% charge in model 3 takes about 50 minutes using a V2 supercharger (the most ubiquitous one) and about 40 mins using a V3 supercharger.
And both take much faster to get to lower percentages, due to the charge rate curve looking more like a log(1/x) graph, with rapid charge rate at the beginning that slows down the more your car is charged.
Why is a fast charger 1-4 hours a week? You can do an 80% charge in a Tesla Model 3 in 24 minutes with the new generation of Superchargers, https://electrek.co/2019/07/02/tesla-supercharger-v3-range-m.... That will only improve in the coming years. 1-4 hours is not a valid charge time even now.
This is about time spent after having finished charging. As you are well aware, the charge current on Lithium batteries has to drop off a cliff as they near completion, so a full charge on a Tesla supercharger is still 1h+
Tesla claims 170 miles after 30-minutes of "super-charging". I think it is fair to say 30-minutes of super-charging is a fair amount. 40-minutes of charging goes from 0% to 80%, while it will take 75 minutes total to go all the way to 100%.
If you argue against these numbers, you're arguing against official Tesla marketing... so you better give me a good citation why supercharging is only 15-minutes.
Maybe the typical supercharging stop is only 15-minutes because that's all the patience people have. In any case, they're not getting a full charge in 15-minutes.
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