Warning - the Tesla stories are coming, be prepared.

[Mark E]

Is was somewhat expensive at my place - due to to the wire between the meter box and the overhead to the house being to thin (antique standards). The fuse on the overhead might have been only 32 or 40 or 50 amps. So that cable had to be replaced. However in order to do that, the entire meter box (which was based on antiquated standards) had to be upgraded or AusNet would have refused to reconnect the power. So it cost $787 to wire the charger, plus $1,939.44 for the sparky and $727.36 for AusNet to come and disconnect and reconnect the power. Much less then $10,000 quoted by the above article, still somewhat impressive.

I spent quite a bit to get the charger installed, but only because the sparky found a few things that weren't up to code that needed to be rectified. In all reality that would have happened without the car if I had him inspect the house. In conversations with him about the state of many houses wiring, its pretty common that there are lots of issues - especially with older houses. Many of these were never wired up for air-conditioning etc etc and in some cases the meter board has been upgraded without doing anything about the feed from the street, so it's antiquated, overloaded and a huge fire risk before the EV is added.

 

[NovoCasGreeny]

I spent quite a bit to get the charger installed, but only because the sparky found a few things that weren't up to code that needed to be rectified. In all reality that would have happened without the car if I had him inspect the house. In conversations with him about the state of many houses wiring, its pretty common that there are lots of issues - especially with older houses. Many of these were never wired up for air-conditioning etc etc and in some cases the meter board has been upgraded without doing anything about the feed from the street, so it's antiquated, overloaded and a huge fire risk before the EV is added.

Exactly my thoughts, in all likelihood 95% or more of the add on work that comes with the installation is due to old wiring or overloaded distribution boards that should be done regardless. A newish home should have sufficient capacity and in the not so distant future hopefully solar and batteries will buffer out the need for 'thick' cables with a higher current.

 

[meloccom]

Getting electricity to my garage cost circa $3,500 in about 2010.
My Charging Story (Long)

 

[NovoCasGreeny]

Getting electricity to my garage cost circa $3,500 in about 2010.
My Charging Story (Long)

I think apartments and large strata complexes are probably the two test cases that would be problematic and potentially costly, due to a large group of people and a shared supply to the building/complex. When you look at the stats though most people could comfortably charge of a 10 A plug overnight and this would fulfill their daily charging requirements, no upgrades necessary. Thus far I have used a 10A plug and supercharging for two days trips to Newcastle, which I would have used the Wetlands Centre to recharge at if needed.

 

[raynewman]

I think apartments and large strata complexes are probably the two test cases that would be problematic and potentially costly, due to a large group of people and a shared supply to the building/complex. When you look at the stats though most people could comfortably charge of a 10 A plug overnight and this would fulfill their daily charging requirements, no upgrades necessary. Thus far I have used a 10A plug and supercharging for two days trips to Newcastle, which I would have used the Wetlands Centre to recharge at if needed.

I got mine installed in a 400+ strata complex over two years ago. Process was: Ask permission, Ignore answer, Install anyway (with meter),
Ask again (luckily Chairman of body corp has a step-son with Tesla), Get approved as it's already there.

 

[lonewolf313]

There is an news article from Business Insider which states that using a Supercharger (costing 35c per Kwh) will charge a Tesla for $38 for a one way trip from Sydney to Melbourne

A $38 supercharge will get your Tesla from Sydney to Melbourne

It appears the calculation is a bit off

I calculated around $60 for the trip. 876km distance (Syd to Mel) at 200 wh/km average usage

 

[Blue heaven]

There is an news article from Business Insider which states that using a Supercharger (costing 35c per Kwh) will charge a Tesla for $38 for a one way trip from Sydney to Melbourne

A $38 supercharge will get your Tesla from Sydney to Melbourne

It appears the calculation is a bit off

I calculated around $60 for the trip. 876km distance (Syd to Mel) at 200 wh/km average usage

Their using Tesla supplied figures, I would guess Tesla are factoring in a full charge at home before departing as your $60 calculation is more accurate.

 

[Mark E]

Their using Tesla supplied figures, I would guess Tesla are factoring in a full charge at home before departing as your $60 calculation is more accurate.

That works.
876km - ~350km is 526km or about 105kWh at 200Wh/km. 105kWh is $36.82. Using those kinds of numbers, Tesla's 'free' allowance of 400kWh per year on the Supercharger would let you do nearly 2 return trips Melb-Sydney per year assuming you charge before you leave.

 

[Blue heaven]

The Model S crash test story is 4 days old now, as usual media sites like to pull out the sensational headlines- to summarize the most recent Model S received top ratings on 4 of the 5 tests, the one test that didn't was due to a seat belt tension issue, Tesla addressed this on all vehicles built after Jan 23rd. The issue of the cars roof strength due to the P100D/100Ds heavier battery has me puzzled, if the vehicles roof can handle 4 times The weight of the 85/90 why can't it handle an extra 20-40kgs, more research to do on this.

Tesla Model S, BMW i3 fall short in IIHS Top Safety Pick tests | CarAdvice

 

[Blue heaven]

No Cookies | Daily Telegraph

Nice photos of Tessie.

 

[meloccom]

What an unusually positive article coming from News Limited.

 

[Blue heaven]

What an unusually positive article coming from News Limited.

After reading the article I went straight to google to se if the Daily Telegraph had changed ownership.

 

[daniel]

No Cookies | Daily Telegraph

Nice photos of Tessie.

uBlock Origin would't let me see that web site the first few times I tried. Just now after blocking me once, it let me through. (Running Chrome on an iMac, OS X 10.11.5.) Nice article. Much of it is predicated on predictions about the cost and energy density of batteries. Let's hope those predictions are correct. Of course, if Saudi Arabia ever decides to stop flooding the market with oil (or runs so low on oil it has to raise prices) the rising cost of gas will give EVs a further boost.

 

[Jays200]

Skim read it granted but I missed the bit about why our useless government isn't offering incentives to EV's like reducing stamp duty or the BS luxury car tax, mandating the phase out of ICE vehicles like most of Europe and the UK, assisting in the rollout of 50kW plus DCFC's, introducing HOV lanes on our freeways (like the west coast of the US) that EV's can use, etc, etc.

 

[lolachampcar]

I wonder which side of this issue the Russian bots will take

 

[meloccom]

I wonder which side of this issue the Russian bots will take

The Russian Cleptocracy relies on oil revenues to keep those on the payroll happy and finance the corruption generally.
So I'm thinking if and when they turn their attention to the subject of electric vehicles, the Russian trolls will be negative given the fall in oil demand from widespread EV adoption will suppress the oil price.

 

[RichardMcN]

No Cookies | Daily Telegraph

Nice photos of Tessie.

Yes excellent coming from News Limited. The sad thing was that Mark from AEVA NSW put a lot of effort into getting the story, but that didn't mention AEVA - grr. Normally they don't mention TOCA !

I think next time (if there is a next time) If an AEVA person helps me get the story, I'll push the AEVA side slightly more, same with TOCA, and balanced if I organise it myself !

 

[Mark E]

Yes excellent coming from News Limited. The sad thing was that Mark from AEVA NSW put a lot of effort into getting the story, but that didn't mention AEVA - grr. Normally they don't mention TOCA !

I think next time (if there is a next time) If an AEVA person helps me get the story, I'll push the AEVA side slightly more, same with TOCA, and balanced if I organise it myself !

Make a 'press kit' to give them with a bunch of questions and points.. too many 'journalists' are lazy these days

 

[lennier]

That works.
876km - ~350km is 526km or about 105kWh at 200Wh/km. 105kWh is $36.82. Using those kinds of numbers, Tesla's 'free' allowance of 400kWh per year on the Supercharger would let you do nearly 2 return trips Melb-Sydney per year assuming you charge before you leave.

I used about 140kWh Melb-Syd last year according to my notes, driving at the speed limit. But I did detour off the Hume through Milawa and up to Wodonga so perhaps a bit different to straight through.

 

[RichardMcN]

140kWh sounds fairly light. If you did 1000km that is 140Wh/km !