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Comment by dragontamer | Hacker News Reader

The typical supercharger stop doesn't recharge from 10 to 80% either.

Tesla's official marketing has a 10% to 80% charge at 40 minutes, and 10% to 100% at 75 minutes. https://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger

For a 90 kWh battery. I guess the Model 3 will have a smaller battery and less range, but practically speaking, filling up from empty is 5 minutes with Gasoline, and 75-minutes with the Supercharger (all the way to 100%)

You can get more efficient by filling up only to 80% charge over 40 minutes of charging... but that's still very far away from your claim of 15 minutes.

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Right. So it tells you that typically even when superchargers are needed the driver doesn't need 100% to get where they're going. In order to need the 100% you have to be driving 400 miles in one trip.

The author acts like this is a huge deal. As if every Tesla driver will be filling up their Tesla at a supercharger as often as every other driver fills up their car at a gas station. It seems like a very minor point to most. 400 miles is about the limit of what I'll drive on a road trip, anything more than that I'll take a plane. So if I had a Tesla and I took a vacation once a year within 400 miles, it would mean spending 0 minutes filling up my car for 51 weeks out of the year, and adding an extra hour on each end of the trip. I'd probably be annoyed at the delay if it didn't coincide with a meal but it would probably just remind me how awesome it was that I never have to stop the other 51 weeks..

...in a warm climate, on level ground. Anywhere else and range drops, recharging happens routinely.

Range drops by how much? How do you know that recharging happens "routinely" and what frequency is "routinely"? I drive 35 miles to work, more than most anyone I know. Range could drop 50% from the stated 200 miles and I still wouldn't need to charge before I got home.

First off, I don't like the author's writing style. Its definitely too hyperbolic for my tastes. I think the benefits of charging an electric vehicle at home are great.

But I'm still concerned about this long-trip thing, especially because long-trips mean that I'm away from the infrastructure that I've built up myself. (Is there a 240V charger at the hotel I'm staying at? or is it only 110V which only charges ~20 miles overnight in 8 hours?? Reports are 3mi / hour charge times on 110V. https://forums.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/charging-110v-ou...)

It is a concern, but for me (which I'm extrapolating to "most" using this technique: https://xkcd.com/605/) it seems very minor. It's not a concern at all for the first car in a two-car household. It's a very slight concern if I was also buying a second Tesla for the wife. Some long trips we'd be able to take in the Tesla, and some road trips we'd have to rent a car to take. But I already have to do that when we take a vacation that involves a flight.

Single-car house, whatever I get I'm going to have to use for all purposes in my life.

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