Tesla Supercharger
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Eighteen months ago, in the kind of flashy, highly-publicized event it's so good at, Tesla Motors said it would launch battery swapping for its Model S electric car. CEO Elon Musk presided over a demonstration in which the underfloor battery pack of a Model S was apparently removed and replaced in roughly 90 seconds. A trial location for a single swapping station was finally announced in November, at one Supercharger location; it will require Model S owners to make an appointment for a swap in advance. DON'T MISS: Tesla Battery-Swap Pilot Program To Launch Next Week In California In late...
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Electric-Car Fast-Charging Networks: Competition Heats Up
It's always interesting to reporters when a news story produces unsolicited counterpoints from affected parties. Yesterday's announcement of the agreement among BMW, Volkswagen, and ChargePoint to install roughly 100 electric-car DC fast-charging stations by the end of the year spawned two separate...
John Voelcker -
Europe Storms Ahead On CCS Fast Charging, U.S. Lags Behind
The ability to recharge 80 percent of an electric car's battery in 20 to 30 minutes--known as DC fast-charging--is a critical element in expanding public acceptance of cars powered by batteries. But unlike the universal standard for conventional 240-Volt charging, the U.S. has three different and...
John Voelcker -
Cross-Country Electric-Car Trips: Reality For A Few, Getting Closer For Many
The idea of traveling long distances in electric cars that have to be recharged after only 70 or 80 miles--or even 250 miles--may seem absurd to some. But while even the fastest of DC fast-charging isn't quite as quick as refilling with gasoline, yet, longer road trips in electric cars are possible...
John Voelcker -
Now That's Combo Quick Charging: CHAdeMO, CCS, Tesla Supercharger
An Italian charging site includes both Tesla Supercharger and multi-standard CHAdeMO/CCS stations.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla Passes 200 Supercharger Sites, Only 60 Percent In U.S.
Tesla Motors opened its 200th Supercharger station in Oxnard, California.
Stephen Edelstein -
The Chinese market has become vital for many global automakers. For some, it's a haven of high sales numbers to offset struggles in markets like the U.S. and Europe. To others, like Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], it's a way to promote your product to a vast and growing marketplace. Tesla has made a big commitment to China and is backing that up with a new deal to set up 400 new charging stations across the country. According to Bloomberg, Tesla is working with China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile communications carrier, to build 400 charging points across 120 cities at China Unicom...
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What It Takes To Build A Tesla Supercharger DC Fast-Charging Site
A contractor's photos show the construction of a new Supercharger site.
Stephen Edelstein -
Hyundai Vs. Tesla: Exec Claims U.S. Funds Superchargers, Electric-Car Maker Angrily Rebuts
Every so often, an auto executive will say something that raises an eyebrow or two. In this case, a Hyundai executive suggested that while his company had received no money for its hydrogen vehicles from the U.S. government, the Tesla Motors network of Supercharger DC fast-charging stations for...
John Voelcker -
Nissan's DC Quick-Charging Stations: 630 CHAdeMO Sites Live Today
While most electric cars get charged overnight for most of their miles, the growing number of DC fast-charging sites enable longer trips when necessary. But those quick chargers--initially CHAdeMO stations for Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i-MiEV cars, and more recently Tesla Supercharger sites for its...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Wants In On Tesla, BMW Electric-Car Charging Talks: Report
With modern, mass-market electric cars on sale for three and a half years now, you might think that the path for growth has been pretty much laid out by now. But the great disruptor, Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors, may be changing the playbook once again. According to a report in...
John Voelcker -
Tesla To Offer Supercharger As Fast-Charging Standard? Free To Drivers, Yes
Electric-car maker Tesla Motors, and more specifically its CEO Elon Musk, has been dropping hints for a while now that it proposes to open up the specifications of its Supercharger DC fast-charging standard for use by other manufacturers. An article yesterday in Engadget claimed Tesla was planning...
John Voelcker -
As the owner of a Tesla Model S in New York's Hudson Valley, I've long lamented the puzzling dearth of Superchargers in the Northeastern U.S. But in the last few weeks, the official opening of two of Tesla's superfast (120-kilowatt) free DC charging stations in New Jersey and upstate New York--both ideally sited--have left me no choice but to declare that the Great Northeast Supercharger Drought is now officially over. DON'T MISS: Life With Tesla Model S: One Year And 15,000 Miles Later It took a while, though. When Tesla opened its first batch of seven Superchargers in December 2012, we...
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Tesla Model S: Yes, Writers, Higher Speeds Use More Energy In Electric Cars
Just when you thought it might be safe to assume no more journalists would do silly, uninformed things with electric cars...comes proof that blissful ignorance knows few bounds. In this case, a writer for the respected print and online outlet The Atlantic took a Tesla Model S for a test drive--and...
John Voelcker -
Tesla's 100th Supercharger Electric-Car Charging Site Now Open
The audacious plan by electric-car maker Tesla Motors to install its own network of free, high-speed charging stations for owners of Tesla cars is starting to pay off. This morning, it announced that its 100th Supercharger site is now open, in Hamilton Township, New Jersey--east of the state...
John Voelcker -
Will National Parks Become A Black Hole For Electric-Car Visitors?
National Parks problem....black holes for our increasing electric vehicle tourists
George Parrott -
Tesla Announces European Expansion Plans At Geneva Show
Tesla Motors will add more service centers, stores, and Supercharger stations in Europe this year.
Stephen Edelstein -
Fees Start April 1 On WA Electric Highway: Same Price As Gas?
All good things must come to an end--and it seems that applies to free DC quick-charging for electric cars along the Northwest's innovative Electric Highway. For the past year or more, the CHAdeMO quick-charging stations in Oregon and Washington states have offered free recharging under the...
John Voelcker -
Last week, in the middle of a prolonged and depressing stretch of winter weather in New York's Hudson Valley, I decided I had to get the hell out. Time for a road trip to a warm place. It was a perfect opportunity to test out Tesla's new East Coast Supercharger Highway, the just-completed string of proprietary ultra-fast DC charging stations the company has installed along Interstate 95 between Boston and Miami. Over a period of two and a half days, I drove more than 1200 miles down I-95, making it as far south as Stuart, Florida, where an old friend lived. Along the way, I charged up at nine...
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Electric-Car Fast-Charging Networks: Nissan CHAdeMO Vs Tesla Supercharger
It's easy to forget how young the current electric vehicle market is. Of the cars on sale today, none were launched before 2010. It's easy too to forget how at that time, a unified fast-charging standard was far from being agreed upon. Today, there are over 3,500 CHAdeMO fast-chargers worldwide...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Patents Prepare For Common Cross-Country Electric-Car Travel Via Supercharger
This past week–almost exactly 500 days after Tesla Motors announced the first six stations in its Supercharger network–a father-daughter team in a Tesla Model S electric car became the first to cross the country by Supercharger alone. MORE: Elon Musk Talks Tesla Model X Details, Model S...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Tesla Model S: NY-To-FL Trip, Day 4, Florida Destination--Made It!
The final segment of my New York-to-Florida electric-car road trip, made possible through Tesla's new network of Supercharger stations along the East Coast, provided what I'd come for--time spent with old comrades--but it started gloomy. The grueling 380-mile day was brightened by the kindness of...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S: NY-To-FL Trip, Day 3, South Carolina To Florida
The third day of my New York-to-Florida electric-car road trip, using the newly completed string of Supercharger stations along the East Coast, brought me almost to my destination in Florida. Here's how the most recent leg of my journey went. DAY 3: Santee, South Carolina, to Ormond Beach, Florida...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S: NY-To-FL Trip, From Home To South Carolina
So far, the New York-to-Florida electric-car road trip in my 2013 Tesla Model S is progressing pretty much according to plan. That's not to say I haven't learned a few things in traveling via the newly-completed network of Tesla Supercharger DC quick-charging stations. One of them would be that...
David Noland