An In-Depth Look Tesla Supercharger 1

And in that time, Tesla says the Supercharger will add about 150 to 160 miles to Model S' range. At full rip, it'll dispense energy at a nominal rate of 90 kW (but it's capable of charging up to 400 volts at 250 amps, or 100 kW) -- that's a 300 mph rate -- or 4.7 times quicker than the already very aggressive Tesla home charging solution when coupled to the optional Twin Charger on-board unit (240 volts at 80 amps).
The Supercharger is a veritable electron fire hose, delivering DC power directly into the battery and bypassing the car's on-board chargers. We recently had an opportunity to use a Supercharger prototype with a Model S and what's most unusual about it -- although it shouldn't be, I guess -- is the cable's girth. It's quite a chunk of wire. The weight of the cable is elegantly dealt with at the Supercharger station by having it vertically emerge from the bottom of what amounts to its "pump." The cable's own weight then bends it over at an angle to match the height of the car's charge port. Think of a wilting flower.
From there you just plug it in. Tesla doesn't use the SAE standard J1772 charger receptacle (i.e., the male and female parts of the plug itself) but instead uses its own, elegant-looking slim-line one. Plugging in can be a close fit, but even with the chunky cable, it's easy to do. While charging, a ring around the car's charge port blinks green -- quickly at first, then slower as the battery fills. The illumination ceases when the car's locked to avoid drawing attention. The locations of the three Superchargers serving the I-5 corridor (the Gilroy one doing so indirectly) are interestingly located, suggesting that an actual L.A. to San Francisco drive might more likely involve two shorter stops. In the next two years Tesla says it will create a Supercharger corridor cutting across the country, including a stretch between central Ontario and western Quebec.For those left anchorless by the tech-culture loss of Steve Jobs, it's time you met Elon Musk. Although as a presenter he's as startlingly improvisational (including blank pauses to think about what to say next) as Jobs was practiced slick, the crowd surrounding him at this week's event announcing the Supercharger project was no less rapt. I mean, this was a presentation of a charger for an electric car, for heaven's sake. But when Musk said "This is as important as SpaceX's docking with the International Space Station, people leaned forward to listen, hushed. Including the attorney for the Red Hot Chili Peppers standing next to me. But Musk backed the comparison up with some potent visual and conceptual arguments. Behind him was what indeed looked like a small rocket ship emblazoned with the Tesla T, apropos as the presentation was taking place adjacent to the building in which the Falcon 9 rocket is built. That's what will -- at some locations, at least -- contain the power electronics, as well as be one heck of a rest-stop attention-getter. (The kids will go nuts.) The stations themselves -- all five were built in secret and are operational -- look like miniaturized gas stations. But their roofs are actually a bank of solar cells provided by Musk's third company, SolarCity.