To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (70308 ) 5/30/2016 4:40:49 PM From: Maurice Winn Read Replies (1) | Respond to 10 kilowatt-hours is maybe too low. << Model X is the safest, fastest and most capable sport utility vehicle in history. With all-wheel drive and a 90 kWh battery providing 257 miles of range, Model X has ample seating for seven adults and all of their gear. >> 20 kWh is more like it. I forget where I got the 10 from. But 10 would be enough for an around town two seat Tootler [tm]. With 10 a Tootler would have a range of about 50 miles or 100 km if the dirty great Model X monster SUV can go 260 miles on 90 kWh. A 7SSS would take about a minute of robotic rumbling around getting a battery, plugging it in and returning the used one to the charging stack. I guess $2 should do it for the machinery. That would be $120 an hour which is a pretty good return for a machine. The electricity would be about $5. I'm not suggesting a little power station should be at each 7SSSS, I just wanted to show the size of such equipment and that it is in fact doable if needed in some remote location such as perhaps Rarotonga or otherwise away from the grid. Such little power stations couldn't compete with big power stations that run at over 50% efficiency and could be nuclear reactors, geothermal, hydro-electric, coal, Orimulsion or huge photovoltaic arrays on a desert. It might be that lugging around a bigger more expensive battery is worthwhile. The capital cost is another $7000 but here's evidence that people would rather pay more for more range << A separate battery replacement guarantee takes effect after the eighth year at a cost of US$10,000 for the 60 kWh battery and US$12,000 for the 85 kWh battery. In 2013, Tesla canceled a 40 kWh version of the car due to lack of demand, stating that only 4% of pre-orders were for the 40 kWh battery option. >> The extra energy used with a big battery would be significant too, carting a huge battery up hills and with constant rolling resistance. When everyone owns their own car, and there's a lot of downtime each day with the car parked, a slow recharge with off-peak power makes sense, especially if there's Qualcomm's Halo so no cables are needed. But imagine a world of Google/Apple Uber-autocar round town Tootlers where downtime to recharge costs money in lost revenue. Worse still when there's a driver involved as at present, cooling their heels for an hour when they could be carrying passengers. Even without queuing, 40 minutes of recharge time is substantial. When queues build up, it will be a nightmare. Rich Yanks like Eric can afford to blow another $8,000 on excess battery and waste time yarning with their rich mates at Superchargers, but the man in the street in India and China won't be interested in that option. The Tata Town Tootler will have a small battery and they'll swap it, by hand rather than robot. Even Euroserfs will think twice about another $8000. Heck, even in the USA, the millions of illegal immigrants might be a bit short of another $8,000 and don't want to spend time and money at a Supercharger. Mqurice
