Tesla Supercharger
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It's late January in upstate New York: 8 degrees F, with cloudy, light snow drifting down. The long-range forecast predicts non-stop sub-freezing temperatures for the next eight days. I need to get the hell out of here. Time for a road trip. MORE: Tesla Superchargers Now Opening Fast, Cross-Country Route Close (actually, it's now open) Until recently, that would have been a bit of a problem for my 2013 Tesla Model S. The network of Superchargers, the proprietary DC fast-charging stations installed by Tesla Motors for its owners' exclusive use, has been sparse here in the Northeast. But in the...
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Tesla Electric-Car Cross-Country Trip Underway, With ETA Today
Just a couple of years ago, traveling cross-country in an electric car would have required a great deal of planning and a great deal of time. But with Tesla's Model S and its 265 miles of EPA-rated range in 85 kWh form, it takes little more thought than in any other vehicle. Throw in a...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Superchargers Now Opening Fast, Cross-Country Route Close
After a disappointing 2013, a year in which Tesla fell short of ambitious goals for expanding its Supercharger network, the company has picked up the pace remarkably. Just last week, seven new Superchargers came on line, the latest of a wave of 40 of the proprietary Supercharger DC fast-charging...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S Road Trip To Arrive In DC Over Presidents Day Weekend
Tesla owners will converge on Washington, D.C. Presidents Day weekend for some electric-car camaraderie.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla Supercharger Quick Charging Stations Expand Beyond Coasts
The first Tesla Supercharger station in Wyoming is open.
Stephen Edelstein -
As Battery Cost Falls, Fast-Charging Becomes Key Electric-Car Issue
It's a given that the costs of batteries for electric cars will fall in the coming years. The industry hotly debates how much and how fast--after interviewing numerous auto and battery engineers, our figure is around 7 percent a year--but by 2020 or so, costs may be as low as half what they were in...
John Voelcker -
It's one facet of the American myth: Get in your car, drive away from wherever you are, take the road trip. Think crossing the country to find the California Dream. Think Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Think buddy movies. MORE: Tesla Model S Road Trip: 1,200 West Coast Electric-Car Miles More prosaically, think about driving 600 miles to visit friends or relatives, because flying would mean a connecting flight and TSA security theater--and there are no trains. Battery electric cars make those kinds of road trips impossible, the spontaneity of 10-minute refueling enabling hundreds, thousands of...
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Life With Tesla Model S East-Coast Road Trip: Freeze In Slow Lane, Or Languish At Nissan Dealers?
After reading George Parrott's article yesterday about his effortless 1,200-mile West Coast road trip along Tesla's Supercharger Highway, I have only one thing to say. "George, you lucky bastard." You see, I too recently made a 1,200-mile journey in my Tesla Model S. And it wasn't quite so...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S Road Trip: 1,200 West Coast Electric-Car Miles
600 miles in a day in the all-electric Tesla Model S
George Parrott -
Tesla Model S To Offer 'Autobahn' Tuning For Top Speed Over 130 MPH
Most countries have their own road rules and regulations and it's no surprise that driving conditions and car requirements vary greatly as a result. One such country is Germany, where some sections of freeway--or Autobahn--have long been de-restricted. In other words, they have no posted speed...
Antony Ingram -
Should Public Quick-Charging Be A Marketing Cost For Businesses?
Every so often, stories appear about new networks of charging stations for electric cars that have just opened. But if there's no business model to support public charging stations over the long term, who's going to pay for that infrastructure in the future? One possibility, observers suggest, is...
John Voelcker -
Sorting Out The Superchargers: Doing Tesla Math For Forbes
Business publisher Forbes released a piece yesterday that it couched as a rebuttal to a Green Car Reports article published last week. We reported on Tesla's efforts to install 18 new Superchargers by the summer of 2013, a goal it announced months ago. The Forbes piece claims that Tesla had met its...
David Noland -
Last spring, a map on Tesla's website promised that 18 new "Superchargers"--the ultra-fast charging stations for its Model S electric luxury car--would be activated around the U.S. during "Summer 2013." Though summer's not technically over until September 21, most of us have put away the sunscreen, sent the kids off to school, and transitioned to Fall mode. As the equinox looms, only nine of those 18 promised Superchargers have materialized. (Two additional stations have appeared that were not promised on the Summer 2013 map.) A .500 batting average is really good in baseball. But it's pretty...
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Elon Musk's Tesla Electric Car Cross-Country Road Trip Finalized
Earlier this year, Tesla Motors founder and CEO announced his intentions for a cross-country Tesla Model S road trip. In the past, such a trip would have been the work of much planning, countless hours charging and multiple stops along the way. But in these days of Model S electric cars and free...
Antony Ingram -
Europe's First Six Tesla Superchargers Now Live In Norway
The first Tesla Supercharger fast-charging stations are now up and running in Europe's capital for electric cars, Norway. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] announced via its Twitter feed that 90 percent of Norwegians now live within 200 miles of a Supercharger station--well within the 265-mile range of a...
Antony Ingram -
Why Tesla Launched Battery Swapping; Is It Now In Danger?
Tesla Motors has surprised a lot of skeptics in its decade of existence. But last month's announcement of battery swapping for Model S cars traveling long distances deserves some additional context. It adds a new and quicker way for some Model S drivers to cover distances beyond the battery range...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Strikes Deal To Open Superchargers At Five High-End Malls
Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and CBL & Associates Properties Inc. have struck a deal to put Tesla's fast-charging technology at five malls across the U.S. Five Supercharger points stations will appear at CBL-owned malls at Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers, FL; The Pavilion at Port Orange in...
Antony Ingram -
Beyond Tesla's Superchargers Are .... Silex Hyperchargers ???
The word "hyper", when used as a prefix, is generally considered to be bigger and better than anything prefixed with "super". Hypermarkets and superstores, for example. Or hypercars like the thousand-horsepower Bugatti Veyron, compared to supercars like the 560-horsepower Ferrari 458. Thus, Silex...
Antony Ingram -
The problem with battery electric cars is that you can't take them on long trips, because they take so long to recharge. Or so goes the common wisdom, anyhow. Would a trip from Los Angeles to New York City in an electric car perhaps refute that statement? That's the idea discussed by CEO Elon Musk at Tuesday's annual shareholder meeting of Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA]. Musk is planning to take a "personal road trip" from one coast to the other in a Tesla Model S, using the company's network of Supercharger quick-charging stations to recharge the battery en route. The trip is, in part, a publicity...
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California Takes The Lead In Using Batteries For Grid Storage
We all know producing electricity is an energy-intensive process, but the complications don't stop at how utilities generate that power. Demand for electricity ebbs and flows, and often doesn't correlate with generating capacity. One way of dealing with these fluctuations in supply and demand is to...
Antony Ingram -
Does Tesla Motors Really Want To Be Chevron, Rather Than Ford?
It's been a great few months for Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA]. The company's flagship product attracted a near best-ever rating from Consumer Reports to add to its trophy cabinet. Its DoE federal loans have been paid, and the company made a profit in the first quarter. But is Tesla's greatest potential...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Maps Out Supercharger Network, Speeds Up Charging
The electric-car maker Tesla Motors [NYSE: TSLA] has announced breathtaking expansion plans for its Supercharger network, detailing where the company plans to install its proprietary Supercharger rapid-charging stations all the way through 2015. According to CEO Elon Musk, who announced the...
Bengt Halvorson -
Tesla Supercharger Coming To Midwest Too, Not Just Coasts
The long-promised announcement from Tesla Motors on expansion of its Supercharger network has been delayed by the company's billion-dollar fundraising, and this week's payoff of its entire Department of Energy loan. But Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] still plans a rapid expansion of the network of...
John Voelcker -
Tesla To Expand Supercharger Network In Northwest, TX, FL, and Northeast
One of the features associated with the 2013 Tesla Model S all-electric luxury sport sedan is the dedicated Supercharger network of DC quick-charge locations. Since the first stations went live last September, there have been only eight locations in California and the Northeast Corridor. Now Tesla...
John Voelcker