[Fresh Wind]

Even more bizarre, Tesla’s charging stations are solar powered.

“You will be able to drive free forever on pure sunlight. I think it’s pretty hard to beat that.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-25/tesla-fires-up-solar-powered-charging-stations

What could possibly go wrong?

[BobL]

“Even more bizarre, Tesla’s charging stations are solar powered.”

...so they claim. If you do the math on those, you’d see that they need a solar farm to get 85 kW output on a reasonably continuous bases (i.e., only averaging one car at a time), and a HUGE battery for reduced (or no) sunlight conditions. I bet if you look around a 100’ perimeter, you’ll see some pretty fat power lines running from pole to underground - if you know what I mean.

In other words, the panels may do some stuff, but the real charging power is from the grid.

[chimera]

Probably nothing except things like night, clouds, etc. It reminds me of the guy I talked to in CA a few years ago who was going to buy an EV and charge it from solar panels on his roof. At the time, the complete recharge would take about eight hours, but he was sure he could get that overnight while he slept. Must've had some pretty potent moonshine.

Doncha just love it...?