Interview with Tesla Supercharger Team member

[gene]

Interesting podcast of an interview on Killowatt of a Tesla Supercharger team member about the process of locating and installing Superchargers. It's on most podcast platforms but here is the app link:

‎Kilowatt: A Podcast about Electric Vehicles: Interview with Edwin Xiao on Apple Podcasts

"Supercharger Flachau" by JayUny is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

 

[Watts_Up]

Dould you make a synopsys of it and provide some time stamp key points.

This is a 40 minutes talk, I wonder who have really enough free time to listen o it.

 

[Andrew*Debbie]

Start at 4:56. -- that skips the introductions.

4:56 - Overview of the supercharging program

Discussion of NY City chargers. around 6 minutes

7:22 Challenges of installing superchargers in NY City

Manhatten
Brooklyn

~31:00 Scarcity of Talent. The US has goverment infrastructure subisides but not enouogh skilled workers.

 

[Galve2000]

I listed to the podcast starting from 7:22 and found it most informative as a Manhattan resident without a dedicated parking space to park or charge. I went back and listed to the conversation in it's entirety.

Mr. Xiao made a few eronious assumptions regarding parking and charging in the 5 burroughs (alternate side of the street parking happens twice a week, not once as he states) but he explains very well why Tesla has installed SCers in some random locations where you wouldn't think they would be useful.

also informative was the situation in Hong Kong and how sometimes well meanting civic leaders are excited to offer tax breaks and other benefits to encourage the instalation of SCers and other level 2 chargers, but these tend to be subject to conditions that make it financially impractical to actually take advantage of these benfits.

the conversation is well worth a listen. thank you for the recommendation @gene!

 

[geordi]

Tax incentives are USUALLY laden with so much fine print as to make usage extremely difficult, but hey... They sound good in a 20 second press conference sound bite on the 11pm news.

I was recently looking for an actual charger in Manhattan, and expected that I would have to pay for the parking if not the power (FUSC)... Didn't matter. The two supercharger locations (75kw yuck) were equidistant from my location near Rockefeller Center and both were listed as managed garages with expensive minimums.

With that in mind, I found a charger on Plugshare right on the next block and went there.... And drove into a 30 minute circle of Hell where the attendant was 2 floors down at a dead end, and I had to wait my turn to even talk to him to inquire where the charger was located. Once I was boxed in with other cars behind me and I was the LAST one that he wandered over to finally talk with... When asking about the charger I only got a dumb look in reply and "no charger here, parking. Not charging." So then I had to extricate from that garage and ended up charging in NJ at the 250kw outside the Lincoln Tunnel.

Land is at an extreme premium in NYC and other major cities, I get that. BUT if the cities are serious about reducing the POLLUTION... You shouldn't have to sit IN A GARAGE WITH THE ENGINE IDLING waiting for an idiot to come take your keys for a minimum charge of $50 for an hour! Encourage the adoption of electric vehicles with on-street parking *everywhere* that offers charge pedestals. I would have happily paid for that parking, I was there for 3 hours and even at a level 2, that would have been plenty to get to a charger on the way back to Connecticut. But that option doesn't exist, and the managed garages are run by morons.

 

[ucmndd]

Encourage the adoption of electric vehicles with on-street parking *everywhere* that offers charge pedestals.

Better yet, get private cars out of the urban core altogether.

 

[geordi]

Better yet, get private cars out of the urban core altogether.

It's so cute that you think that is even possible. The congestion charge plan for NYC is badly conceived and will be a complete shitshow for the general public, but because they have WRITTEN INTO THE LAW that they MUST make $1B per year from it, they aren't backing off ever.

But if there is actual change and they DO somehow reduce the number of cars (90% of which are freaking Uber and Lift and taxis) in the city core... They are required to make that $1B, so with less cars then the charge will go up further? That's counterintuitive to the congestion charge in the first place, but nobody EVER said the Port Authority was filled with intelligent people.

The cars and vans will persist - at least if they are EVs have places to power up when they are doing their daily work (thinking of plumber vans and the like) when outside the jobsite... Then the pollution will be less and people will be more willing to take up EVs.

Getting rid of the cars entirely just isn't plausible.

 

[cwerdna]

Start at 4:56. -- that skips the introductions.

4:56 - Overview of the supercharging program

Discussion of NY City chargers. around 6 minutes

7:22 Challenges of installing superchargers in NY City

Manhatten
Brooklyn

~31:00 Scarcity of Talent. The US has goverment infrastructure subisides but not enouogh skilled workers.

Thanks!

i just got started and it seems like the intro starting around 1:30 or maybe 1:50 might be helpful. I use Overcast on my iPhone and blew thru the beginning starting from 0 at max speed.

I often listen to podcasts w/slightly above 1x speeds and I have their "smart speed" enabled. Overcast says that does this: "Pick up extra speed without distortion with Smart Speed, which dynamically shortens silences in talk shows.

Conversations still sound so natural that you’ll forget it’s on — until you see how much extra time you’ve saved."

 

[ucmndd]

It's so cute that you think that is even possible.

It’s uniquely American to immediately decry things that have proven to work well practically everywhere else in the world as plainly impossible because $REASONS. Health care, gun control, now I guess congestion charges.

Getting rid of the cars entirely just isn't plausible.

Of course not, nobody has suggested as much. But starting by disincentivizing private personal auto transport in congested urban areas that absolutely cannot sustain it is as good a place to start as any.

 

[cwerdna]

I'm almost done listening to this podcast ep.

Tax incentives are USUALLY laden with so much fine print as to make usage extremely difficult, but hey... They sound good in a 20 second press conference sound bite on the 11pm news.

I was recently looking for an actual charger in Manhattan, and expected that I would have to pay for the parking if not the power (FUSC)... Didn't matter. The two supercharger locations (75kw yuck) were equidistant from my location near Rockefeller Center and both were listed as managed garages with expensive minimums.

With that in mind, I found a charger on Plugshare right on the next block and went there.... And drove into a 30 minute circle of Hell where the attendant was 2 floors down at a dead end, and I had to wait my turn to even talk to him to inquire where the charger was located. Once I was boxed in with other cars behind me and I was the LAST one that he wandered over to finally talk with... When asking about the charger I only got a dumb look in reply and "no charger here, parking. Not charging." So then I had to extricate from that garage and ended up charging in NJ at the 250kw outside the Lincoln Tunnel.

For 75 kW or whatever, I'm guessing it was a 72 kW urban Supercharger that was discussed in the ep.

As for no charging in the spot Plugshare claimed there was, did you submit a could not charge check-in stating that it doesn't exist or report an error w/the listing to that effect?

Anyway, back to the ep, I've never heard of this podcast before but I'm a little disappointed that the interviewer seemed unfamiliar with NEVi in that he kept talking about Supercharging. NEVI-funded DC FCing requires at least CCS, the way it's written. From Federal Register :: Request Access:
"This final rule establishes a requirement that each DCFC port must have a Combined Charging System (CCS) Type 1 connectors. This final rule also allows DCFC charging ports to have other non-proprietary connectors so long as each DCFC charging port is capable of charging a CCS-compliant vehicle...."

 

[geordi]

Yes I did submit the check-in on Plugshare, not that I expect anyone to reply to that.

The Plugshare location was going to be a Level 2 J1772, which wouldn't be DCFC at all - but I'd have been OK with that if it was! I do think that DCFC locations should have both the NACS plug as well as the CCS2 plug - but we as Tesla owners can have the needed adapters to use CCS anyway, same as I would suggest for any CCS-equipped car should probably carry the adapters for themselves too, it's just a good idea as EV owners to always have those in the car. The reason gassers don't need to carry adapters with them is simple: ubiquity. They can go to any street corner and see a fuel option within sight.

Someday that might be us too, and all the "pumps" will have the same handle too. That's not today.

 

[cwerdna]

Yes I did submit the check-in on Plugshare, not that I expect anyone to reply to that.

The Plugshare location was going to be a Level 2 J1772, which wouldn't be DCFC at all - but I'd have been OK with that if it was! I do think that DCFC locations should have both the NACS plug as well as the CCS2 plug -

We don't have CCS2 in the US. We have SAE Combo/CCS1/Combo1 flavor of CCS. Visual aid at What is CCS charging?.

~31:00 Scarcity of Talent. The US has goverment infrastructure subisides but not enouogh skilled workers.

I finally finished listening. This was really important. If what he's seeing is true more widely in the US, this will be a serious problem in terms of deploying more charging around the US quickly. This further reinforces my vote at Prediction, in Which Year Will New Electric Vehicle Sales Exceed 50% in the United States "Poll" after 2040.

 

[cwerdna]

This is a 40 minutes talk, I wonder who have really enough free time to listen o it.

FWIW, I'd start listening at around 1:30. The actual content ends at 37:00. Edwin promotes his company after that since the interviewer asked him. There are then ads from 37:50 to 40:00. You don't really need to listen past 40:00. This ep was published Sept 29, 2023 but host mention it was recorded in August.

I know what you mean about free time. Fortunately, I listed to part of it in my car using the Overcast iOS app and some while doing other things around the house on my phone.

 

[Galve2000]

I was recently looking for an actual charger in Manhattan, and expected that I would have to pay for the parking if not the power (FUSC)... Didn't matter. The two supercharger locations (75kw yuck) were equidistant from my location near Rockefeller Center and both were listed as managed garages with expensive minimums.

This is the SCer that is georgaphically closest to my home but it as attocious parking fees and I therefore almost never use it.

in a pinch, i'll stop by this location early in the morning b/c the "earlybird" parking rate is "reasonable"

there is a starbucks around the corner where one might sit and wait for their car to charge but when I stopped in during a particularly frigid day in NYC a month or 2 ago the only place to sit was right by the entrance so I got a blast of sub-zero air every few seconds when people entered and exited.

there is a diner-style restaurant also nearby that I have had breakfast in while I waited for my car to charge but honestly it wasn't ideal.

There are many more options for lunch and dinner but you don't get the earlybird parking rate. it's a real pain.

 

[geordi]

I came into the city to drop someone off at a doctor, so I had some time to kill. Those two locations were far enough away that I didn't want to go far though - the 47th street probably would have been closer but the cross-town traffic was.... the usual. 75th st was just right out. I wasn't planning to arrive with just 20% but that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes when coming down from CT.

But the stupidity of that garage that either removed the chargers or just didn't want to deal with it... Not cool.