2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

Tesla's supercharger network greatly increases the utility of this car.

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quadricycle

If Tesla and others keep growing the charging network at a steady rate, we really could be one good battery advancement away from electric cars taking a more significant piece of the market pie.

stovt001_

Wow Tesla is really impressing me with the investment they're putting into this supercharger network. They may be paranoid, but they make a beautiful car and they're serious about addressing the infrastructure issues holding the industry back. Gotta give them props for that.

dragonflight

I'm impressed that the Supercharger network is actually useful rather than the gimmick it seemed like when it was first announced.

That said, the comment about the 2nd car slower charging speed is pretty [non-permissible content removed]. Why wouldn't the charger automatically up the input when the first car disconnects? It's not like the 2nd car owner would be _disappointed_ to have gotten more range than promised...

fordson1

I'm not worried about being the second car getting the slower charge, I'm worried about being the fourth car when there are already three being charged, at a three-station charger. So now in addition to your maybe one-hour charge, you have to add...who the hell knows? Maybe the max charge time is around an hour and the car in front of you is fully charged, but if the driver went off to get some food or shop, he's still gone, and you're still waiting. And while you're waiting, you have to stay with the car to move it into position when a charger opens up. And which car that's already there is going to be done first, so you know which line to get into? To picture the scenario, just imagine being third in line at a gas station, so that your three-minute refill (one-hour recharge) turns into a ten-minute refill (three-hour recharge). There ya go.

robs8

You say you were a little apprehensive about making it to Barstow and therefore slowed down up the Cajon pass before arriving at the supercharger? Care to elaborate on how much spare range you had when you arrived, was such a slow down necessary or does it just add a little "range anxiety" innuendo where none actually existed? Seems to me you made a long distance road trip in the Model S with no true sacrifices whatsoever?

mfennell

The tech mis-spoke.

From memory, the charger stack is capable of 120kW, shared between two cars. First car gets priority (up to 90ish kW). As that car nears fully charged, its rate goes down and the second car's charge rate ramps up.

mayhemm

@stovt001: I'd be a little paranoid too if I was a startup company building my brand and had a well-circulated media outlet with a reputation for journalistic integrity do what amounted to a hit piece on me. Like the saying goes, "just because you'

mayhemm

@fordson1: Each Supercharger unit controls, at most, two chargers. So even if there are ten charge slots, your speed is determined by only one. I understand why Tesla has to stagger the power draw (limitations of the connection and utility) but I don't