Tesla Powers Up The Hume.
American based electric car maker, Tesla, announced that it has opened two new car supercharging stations for the Hume Highway, which connects Melbourne and Sydney. The stations will allow an owner of a Model S vehicle to potentially achieve 270 kilometres of travel after just thirty minutes of charging time.
The Goulbourn station is located at the visitor’s centre in the town itself and is provisioned to charge up to eight cars at once. The Wondonga station, located in the riverside town at 5-13 Havelock Street, will allow up to six cars to be parked for the quick charge system. Both stations have been strategically placed to allow drivers access to town amenities whilst their cars are plugged in and will complement the two charger station at Euroa, north of Melbourne. Power provided is up to 120 kilowatts.
All charging stations are programmed in and can be found by the Google Maps navigation system the Model S cars have. Accessed by the 17 inch touchscreen the vehicles come standard with, it provides peace of mind for a Tesla Model S driver, as the system also shows a clear indication of expected range under driving conditions. The charging system itself can be seen as akin to rapidly filling a glass of water then backing off the flow so as to not overflow, as the charging system computer slows the charge rate as full charge nears. To achieve full charge can take up to eighty minutes as opposed to approximately 80 percent in just that half hour.
The two new stations bring the total amount, worldwide, to 501 with close to 2300 individual charging bays. The Goulbourn station at 201 Sloane Street is also the largest in the southern hemisphere. A highlight of the charging stations is that there is no charge (no pun intended) to the driver. For life.
Tesla has also added to its range, with the launch in the U.S. of the Model X. An SUV based design, the Model X is unique in having “double-hinged Falcon Wing” doors, which require a mere 30 centimetres of room either side for passengers to board or step out. For extra safety, each door is fitted with capacitive, inductive and sonar sensors to monitor the surroundings and for extra pizzaz, the driver’s door opens and closes automatically as the driver approaches or exits.
The Model X has been designed and engineered on a clean sheet, to be the safest SUV available. Across the categories measured, it will receive a five star rating, the first SUV to do so. Adding to the safety aspect is the standard fitment of autonomous emergency braking, 360 degree sonar sensors, a forward looking camera plus locates the battery pack, like the Model S, in the floor, giving the Model X an exceptionally low centre of gravity. Steel rails reinforce the aluminuim pillars to provide both extra strength for the passenger safety cell and reduce weight if afull steel cage was used.
These add up to give the Model X a zero to 100 kmh time of 3.2 seconds (with the recently announced Ludicrous program engaged), the quickest of any SUV, with a top speed of just over 240 kmh. Aiding these numbers is an exceptionally low drag figure, just 0.24 cD and an all wheel drive system.
When it comes to passenger comfort, there’s a full HEPA air filtration system plus monopost seats that slide fore and aft, allowing both flexibility and ease of access to the third row seats. For the driver, Tesla add their Auto Park and Auto Steer systems.
Pricing for Australia is yet to be confirmed. 
Level 2, 9 Help Street
John Aquilina says:
Tesla have a very generous 8 yr warranty on their battery packs. What they don’t tell you is that if the battery pack is losing storage capacity (which will happen after many usage cycles), they define whether the batteries are still serviceable or not.
So the car may be sold with the claimed range of 500km at full charge. This has been recently dropped to 400km with an advisory message sent to owners to only charge batteries to 80% to extend their life. When the batteries do deteriorate you may find yourself with less than 200km range with Tesla arguing that the batteries still successfully store power.
Or you can change the battery pack, current cost over $30,000
October 29th, 2015 at 9:44 am