In the sunnier parts of southern Europe and the US, one m2 of non-steerable solar panel can be expected to generate about 1 kWh per day. So a home installation for charging your 85 kWh car battery has to have an area on the order of 85 m2, if you wish to be able to fully charge your car once per day.
Note that the average annual electricity consumption for a single household is about 4000 kWh (in Denmark, may be different elsewhere), or 11 kWh/day. A single charge per week for your Tesla S would thus more than double your annual electricity consumption.
Suspect Mr. Musk will start building large solar panel farms in the US deserts in the not too distant future...
That is not required and not the way solarcity tackles the problem.
Everybody hid own solarcell is uneconomic. The startup for an isntallation is too high . Cost decreases with square footage of the installation. So a single 10000 square meter installation is much cheaper than 100 installations each of 100 square meters.
Here is how they are tackling the problem.
They approach companies, schools, public works that have large roof surfaces or parking lots.
They offer to install the installation and maintenance for free. Parking lots get an awning like structure so the cars are in the shade , further reducing power consumption as the AC needs to run less. Same with buildings. The panels are offset from the roof.
Solarcity sells the generated electricity to the grid. That is their revenue. Part of the collected money goes to the person giving them the roof or parking area. So for the building /parking owner it is a pure win situation. At the end of the month they get a cheque. This can be used to offset their electricity bill.
Solarcity does the initial investment and rakes in money from power companies. The installations typically pay for themselves in 3 years. Meanwhile solarcity can also sell green certificates and co offset stuff to companies that need em for tax purposes.
You can see it as a bit of a tax shiffling scam, but hey, the governments allow it. Their loss.
So, now we have a pool of essentially free electricity (to produce) and we get money from people that dont have their own installation and are not self sufficient in terms of production and consumption.
Part of that free energy use used to power the superchargers. Since Tesla and Solarcity are owned by the same guy... Piece of cake. He can give away free power, it is an incentive to buy his cars.
So he not only sells the razors, he's giving away free razorblades. (As opposed to selling them)
So this is where the system is being flipped upside down.
The current system is: You buy a car from a car maker, give money to a dealer , have service done at a dealer , keep burning oil. This unholy trinity makes damns sure not to damage their little club.
They sell razors , but only to assigned channels that pick up part of your money, and the razorblades are controlled by a cartel call OPEC.
Neither one is interested inchanging their business model or producing more efficient cars consuming less as it eats into their profits.
The only reason traditional car makers are making a half arsed electric is because lawmakers mandate that by 2015 every manufacturer selling cars needs to have at least one electric vehicle. If it were not for that law nothing would be done. They are not interested because it eats into their razor-razerblade-licenced dealer trinity.
This is what Tesla is now attempting to flip upside down.
Sell the car , power is free, and we kill of the man in the middle. More profit for Tesla, less cost for the buyer.
This whole car dealership stuff is annoying. I can only buy a car from xyz and need to get it serviced there in order to maintain warranty (there is now a law that blocks the warranty clause, fortunately)
All that guy does is receive the car, remove the wrapping, wash it and takes part of the money i fork over. I have no problem paying a mechanic to repair my car , i have a problem paying some dude with a parkinglot that adds no value to what i buy. I'd rather buy from a guy selling all brands.
So that is why in texas they are blocking tesla from selling. The car dealers association sees the dark cloud coming. They are going away.
An EV also requires virtually no scheduled maintenance. Apart from Tires, brakes and washer fluid nothing needs to be done...
That is what the established model is scared of. If EV's work their business model collapses and they have no way to change it as they are interdependent.
So that is why the traditional car makers do such a poor job.
-Let's limit to 75 miles range so nobody will take these serious
-Let's make em all boxy and nerdy and goofy looking so nobody will buy em
-Let's make em fabulously overpriced (38000$ for a dinky nissan leaf, you can get a big fat BMW or AUdi for that price)
-Le'ts not invest in battery technology.. If it advances too far we are only killing ourselves.
-let's comply with the law, but only at the bare minimum and make it very unattractive
We'll wait and see. If Tesla pulls it off the traditional car makers will be in deep trouble and the middle east can go back to building sand castles.
Any car maker not having serious development started will fall behind.
Toyota and Daimler have caught on. They partner with Tesla. The A class and Smart cars are available today and the B class is coming next year. Equipped with the Tesla drive train. The Camry and Rav4 are available with Tesla drive train.
Industrial vehicle makers also caught on...
Panasonic also caught on. They got a massive order in for cells, way over current capacity and are building a mega plant that will double the worlds production of cells
If you are interested in the battery technology: go read the Tesla patents.
Even though Tesla always shows the standard 18650 cell, they are different. They have the same form factor. A normal laptop cell has 53 components (gaskets, sealants, electrodes, casing discharge circuit board etc. The tesla cell has 4... And the chemistry is slightly different too.
Automotive liion batteries are currently at a pricepoint of 500$ per kilowatthour. Tesla is at 200$ per kilowatt hour.. And probably below that. So they are on track to be able to release a 30.000$ car with 300 mile range within the next few years . A pricepoint where the other guys can't get..
Traditional carmakers will have to step up their game or they will go the way of the dodo.
Of course, tesla may still fail. But at least they have started an attempt and they are throwing everything they got at it. They have top notch designers and engineers and an excellent pool to fish from. So they have a serious chance of actually pulling this off.
Standing at the wayside and looking at it , doing nothing, is not the way forward. Only the daring and innovative will go forward.
Traditional car makers are not innovative. What is the difference between last years model and this years model? It's got two extra cupholders and there is a new color available... Has it gotten better fuel economy ? No. Can the gps tell the car you are gome and send the command to open the garage door ? No. This last thing may sound as a stupid example, but think about it. All cars these days have nav systems and a door transponder. Yet nobody has thought addint a few lines of code... If current position=home postion and car closes in then send commnad to open door.
It's stupid, but why not ? None of the stuff is integrated. Car makers buy modules and components from different sources and nothing really can work together.
Besides, we still operate a car with the same pedals, levers, buttons and dials as 150 years ago ... Come on... 150 years of progress and this is the best you can do ? If cars progressed at the speed of computers we'd all be zooming along , jetson style... Yet we are stuck in a cloud of smoke , perpetually paying for a distillate of dinosaur fat...
I really hope that Tesla is the catalyst that will give the established , complacent and lethargic, car u distry a swift kick in the pants and shove em into the footnotes of technological history.
Funny thing is that the first cars were actually electric ! There was even a famous belgian electric car that set many a record. (La jamais contente)All killed off because some farmer found a black tar like flammable substance...
I'm not waiting any longer. The Tesla is one hell of a technological jump , both as a car , and as a propulsion method. Mid december i will bid big-oil and the lethargic dinosaurs adieu.