Backup Battery Plug-in Port

VirtualTed

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Hey all. I'm on the list to get a dual-motor truck (#26xxx) and have been thinking about the max range of 300 miles. I've never had a Tesla so my range anxiety is at 110% for now until I get used to driving one which seems like a year away at best. I was thinking about what would make the CT even a better vehicle.

Personally, I would love to see Tesla put a power port in the truck bed to utilize a spare battery or other power source for that extra range. Potential options might include..
  • A portable gas turbine to use in more remote areas (I live in Nevada)
  • New battery tech 5-10 years from now to add capacity.
  • 10 to 12 standard car batteries - easy serviced and transported (but probably not good bang for the buck especially given the weight involved)
  • Aftermarket Solar Panels?
  • Recycled battery packs from dead Teslas.
  • etc..
This allows for some future-proofing of stored energy tech to come, and opens up some options for 3rd party dealers too. Plus, I think this would be a relatively inexpensive add-on for the truck to build in at the factory. The plug with a waterproof cover, the wiring back to the battery, plus some overcharge protection - the actual material costs couldn't be that much.

Thoughts?

-VT
Sponsored

 

Ranulf

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Most electric vehicles do not allow movement while charging. Tying in an extra battery is not a simple plug-and-play proposition. While technically possible, it is not technically feasible, unless it is a Tesla designed battery or at the very least, Tesla approved.

Powered trailers with their own batteries are the best bet for added range, as the tow vehicle would only have to supply control power to the trailer. This keeps the “high voltage” systems separate and allows computerized synchronization of the trailer motors with the tow vehicle motors.

Sharing battery range between tow vehicle and trailer is, again, technically possible, but unnecessary. A powered trailer would enable the tow vehicle to have very close to its normal, non towing range.

Many electric railroads use batteries in combination with third rail or overhead catenary. However, when the car is connected to overhead or 3rd rail power, the battery is no longer used to power the car and instead, is being charged by the external power.

The Navy has batteries on its submarines that can be used to power the boat. They have two steam turbines that provide electrical power in parallel. They are AC, not DC, but many of the principles involved are the same. The turbine generators have to be synchronized, and they are exactly the same which makes this easy. When the turbines are providing power, the batteries are not and are being charged instead.

TL;DR, its possible to make two power sources cooperate to power the same load equally, but its much easier to use one or the other, and Tesla has not designed its cars to be able to do either
 

Crissa

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Well, people have done it before.


So hacks are possible. Hopefully Tesla will have a port for it, because people want to hook up solar and other power sources and trailers and other storage solutions and have extra range and share the electrical load.

-Crissa
 

Newton

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p̶r̶i̶u̶s̶ c̶,̶ y̶o̶t̶a̶ p̶i̶c̶k̶u̶p, ⼕丫⻏?尺セ尺ㄩ⼕长
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ev range is something to think about... figure out how much you drive and where superchargers are, i think Teslas can charge on the normal high speed ev charger plug, i think its a j1772/ccs charger with an adapter, so you can look up where those are too...

if you daily commute is far less than the battery capacity, you should have full charge every night. wake up have full battery. if you drive real far, or do alot of far trips outside of normal chrager ranges, might be better to just wait until chargers are near you, or battery tech changes?

you can always find a tesla on turo(the peer to peer car rental company) spend a couple hundred bucks to use it for a few days, see how/ if it will work out.
 

Cybertruck Hawaii

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All three versions of the Cybertruck should have the same 500 mile, long range battery. I ordered the single motor trim line and would like to have a long range battery so that I can leave the air conditioning on while I park the truck while I am shopping for an half an hour to return to a cooled off interior.
 


rr6013

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All three versions of the Cybertruck should have the same 500 mile, long range battery. I ordered the single motor trim line and would like to have a long range battery so that I can leave the air conditioning on while I park the truck while I am shopping for an half an hour to return to a cooled off interior.
Unoccupied A/C that’s a thing?

Exists?
 

CyberT

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All three versions of the Cybertruck should have the same 500 mile, long range battery. I ordered the single motor trim line and would like to have a long range battery so that I can leave the air conditioning on while I park the truck while I am shopping for an half an hour to return to a cooled off interior.
Pre-conditioning the cabin with AC takes just a couple of minutes from 100+ to 72 in my Model 3 and uses very minimal energy less than 1%. Dog mode or Camp mode which will keep the temp at a constant temperature for hours on end will use more battery but still just a few percent for hours of use. No need to have a larger battery for those features alone.

I am currently deciding on Dual and Tri for the off-grid camping that I plan on doing. 3+ days of AC should warrant upgrading to Tri. Just trying to see if I can make the extra $20k in time.
 

Ranulf

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Teslas have a lot more software integration with their batteries than Toyota did, as far as I know. This is the first complication, as they use that software for optimum battery conditioning and cell balancing.

The second complication lies with the fact that batteries only play well together if they at least have the same voltage. Ideally, you want the batteries to have the same kind of cells too.

The third complication is the fact that its difficult for two separate batteries to have the exact same voltage at all times. Even batteries of the same manufacture can have slightly different charging and discharging characteristics which will result in voltage differences under load. This means that most of the time, one battery will actually be acting as a load of the other, resulting in a lot of unnecessary inefficiencies and a significant, possibly permanent, impact on battery health.

A fourth complication is the danger involved with an unconditioned battery pack. The video shown above does not seem to provide any kind of cooling or heating to the extra battery. The car also has no way of knowing whats going on with all the random extra battery capacity it has (as the extra battery has none of the monitoring tech the car has for its factory battery)



A solution I see is to have a backup battery hooked up directly to its own inverter, that can be switched on and off to power the AC loads of the car. Extra batteries would need some way to tell the car their temperature data and such.
 


Crissa

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A controller that steps or gates the packs could be used... But that's a bit more complicated than just plugging two packs together. You could use it like a reserve tank, switching over as needed for traction power. You would need two dedicated power paths, and two battery management systems.

Zero does with with the Modular FX, even selling a separate offboard charging system. Several of the new e-mopeds are also doing this with swapable packs. In fact, several Asian brands just announced they had agreed to a standard for packs.

I hope the truck market agrees to an interface, or one arises.

-Crissa
 
 




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