Will Lightning Bikes use Tesla's Superchargers and HPWCs?

ImEric said:

Lightning Motorcycles LS-218 - Jay Lenos Garage - YouTube

At about the 5:20 mark of the video above, the CEO of Lightning bikes says that he's been trying to get Tesla's charging algorithm but hasn't been successful. Of course that was a year ago. Does anyone know if they were ver successful? If not, does anybody know why? It would be cool to see a Lightning or even a Zero at a supercharger. Or see them buying HPWCs and using destination chargers. I think most of us can see the writing on the wall and realize that sooner or later, some other manufacturer is going to make use of Tesla's Supercharger network. I think the only real question is Which one will it be, and when?

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A key design element in the Supercharger system is the data link between the vehicle and the on-site charger bank. (The Tesla's onboard charger is not used when supercharging.) The Supercharger controls charge rate and battery heating/cooling to keep the pack in a safe temperature range while charging. It's unlikely that an electric motorcycle would have these battery protection systems. Even an 80A HPWC might be risky without these battery protections.

No risk at all in the HPWC - it uses j1772 signaling and nothing requires the motorcycle to use 80A - or even half that. Any EV that can handle 220 V and understands j1772 can plug into and charge at an HPWC with a simple adapter.

I don't know the voltage and current limits of the Supercharger, but I suspect it can charge any ~350-400V EV with no issues, provided the EV can talk to it - again, nothing requires the car/motorcycle to use massive amounts of power.

However, unless the motorcycle uses a lithium titanate type battery that can handle 20C charging without issues, I doubt it would be a good use of Supercharger time.
Walter

It would be rather pointless anyway. The Superchargers were created to enable long distance travel - nobody would use a sportbike with a somewhat extreme riding position like the LS 218 for that. Also, it couldn't even cover the distance between two superchargers with its relatively small battery.

When I spoke with the CEO of Lightning at a National Drive Electric Week event in 2014 he said he was trying to work with Tesla to use their connector, but they weren't being very helpful (no surprise). He said CHAdeMO was too big and bulky and nearly pulled the bike over. Was told most of Lightning's customers also owned Teslas so they wanted to use the same connectors, both at home and at Superchargers.

That's disappointing. I don't know why Tesla wouldn't just start selling their connectors to OEMs.

Cosmacelf said:

That's disappointing. I don't know why Tesla wouldn't just start selling their connectors to OEMs.

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You're kidding, right? I see lots of issues here. For one, a motorcycle drawing 10 kW while a Tesla waits for a charge. Especially when Tesla is figuring on increasing numbers exponentially. Everybody wants to jump on Tesla's hard built wagon. Make your own!

Why can't the motorcyclist pull into an RV park or such? Obviously, Lightning doesn't need the unmatched high power that the Superchargers offer. For that matter, most motorcyclists, and especially EV cycles, don't do road trips; it's just silly. And I have ridden BMWs motorcycles for 50 years, so I might have the right to a biased opinion.

Why the CEO is complaining is beyond me. Its ignorant. They can't use it, and they don't like the CHAdeMO plug. What's wrong with the 220 volt outlets? "Oh, the plug is too BIG".

Tesla has the right to tell people that they can or can't use Superchargers.

I was referring to the use of Tesla plugs with HPWCs, not Superchargers. Tesla has made clear that they won't support other cars unless they have a 60 kWh battery minimum, so that would preclude motorcycles.

trils0n said:

When I spoke with the CEO of Lightning at a National Drive Electric Week event in 2014 he said he was trying to work with Tesla to use their connector, but they weren't being very helpful (no surprise). He said CHAdeMO was too big and bulky and nearly pulled the bike over. Was told most of Lightning's customers also owned Teslas so they wanted to use the same connectors, both at home and at Superchargers.

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Lightning has customers? Where are they? There was that video of the first delivery but I haven't heard of any others...

strider said:

Lightning has customers? Where are they? There was that video of the first delivery but I haven't heard of any others...

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Perhaps potential customers / reservation holders might have been more accurate, but I didn't think to ask if they had actual customers at the time. This was over a year ago. Think it was Sept 2014. Was more interested in the idea of another company potentially signing on to use Tesla's connector.

I can see why Tesla doesn't want them to use the connector. For superchargers, the bike for sure would not qualify (even smaller pack than a Leaf and likely much lower power charging so 90kW charging is off the table). Then it becomes a matter of simply using it for AC charging, but then that means suddenly access to Tesla's destination charging network, which Tesla may not necessarily want. I suspect Tesla would have just told them to stick to J1772 and/or CHAdeMO like Zero does.