Cybertruck Range Extender

[jahansolu]

I understand Tesla has given up on the Range Extender, however I do wonder if anyone has taken the truck completely apart - especially the truck bed area. The reason I ask is because now I’m curious to know if there ever was true intention of bringing the Range Extender to market or did they falsely advertise this feature.

In my opinion: if there is a port or connection somewhere under the trucks bed or by the high voltage port / connection, then we can indeed confirm that Tesla at least had the intention but the economics didn’t most likely make sense. However, if there is no port or connection for expansion (especially on the Foundation Series) it can pretty much be assumed they never had the intention of ever bringing this feature to market.

If the latter, this poses a lot of questions. Like what did they do with the deposits during that entire time? Yes, I know they refunded all the customers including myself but it does beg the question. Did they use that money as a loan from customer, interest free, then return?

If a port or connector or expansion does exist, could anything be done with it? Where is it located? Even the online service manual for Cybertruck foundation series never had any reference to such a port or connector or expansion. I have had a few devices in the past where expansion was promised but never delivered but it was easy to see where it could have been if it actually came to fruition.

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[hemiarch]

I have the same questions

 

[mongo]

There is an unused port that was called out for an inductive charger. It may be too low current to support supercharging.
Tesla could have either replaced the penthouse on the pack or tied into the existing motor feeds for HV. Similarly, loop the coolant and communications through the extender.

 

[Edphonse]

Autoline CT teardown shows the battery has an extended port, so it was intended to be added.

I personally (probably within the next year or so) plan on installing some programmable 800vdc power supplies (I'm thinking frunk right now) to be able to plug in roof top solar, my own batteries like eg4ll, or just a straight up gas generator for extended driving or towing. The parts I have picked out would be either a 300lb 14.5kw generator, a 500 lb 24kw generator, or 2x 200 lb 12kw generators. Current cost will be somewhere around 10k since I would be doing it myself. To put that in perspective, driving down the freeway not towing consumes about 30-35kw (120 kwh can usually let me drive about 3.5-4 hrs at 70 mph on a full charge). So a 24kw generator would mean that only 6-10 kw is taken from the battery resulting it a 12 (at 70 mph) hour drive time between recharge/fill up. Equivalent range of over 800 miles per charge/fill up.

Edit: it wasn't sandy munro I saw the range extender on, but autoline's caresoft

 

[hemiarch]

Sandy munro CT teardown shows the battery has an extended port, so it was intended to be added.

I personally (probably within the next year or so) plan on installing some programmable 800vdc power supplies (I'm thinking frunk right now) to be able to plug in roof top solar, my own batteries like eg4ll, or just a straight up gas generator for extended driving or towing. The parts I have picked out would be either a 300lb 14.5kw generator, a 500 lb 24kw generator, or 2x 200 lb 12kw generators. Current cost will be somewhere around 10k since I would be doing it myself. To put that in perspective, driving down the freeway not towing consumes about 30-35kw (120 kwh can usually let me drive about 3.5-4 hrs at 70 mph on a full charge). So a 24kw generator would mean that only 6-10 kw is taken from the battery resulting it a 12 (at 70 mph) hour drive time between recharge/fill up. Equivalent range of over 800 miles per charge/fill up.

That’s awesome. Could you please share some more about what parts you have picked out and where/how much solar you plan to use? Will the truck let you charge it through that port while driving?

 

[Edphonse]

That’s awesome. Could you please share some more about what parts you have picked out and where/how much solar you plan to use? Will the truck let you charge it through that port while driving?

It's the extended battery port. If it doesn't let you apply power while driving, the extended battery would be completely useless.

Currently I am not planning on solar, it is just an option. I am currently looking at westinghouse generators (if you know about nikola tesla and westinghouse, then it seems like a good fit) and some laboratory 800vdc power supplies I have my eye on.

And before people jump in saying it's not possible, I invite you to see a proof of concept from James Klafehn on YouTube and his trex trailer that he uses to make extended range batteries for his Teslas (S and X as I recall). Not quite the same set up (looks like he just tapped straight into the HVDC lines between the inverter and battery) but that's the nice thing about working with DC power. It is very easy to put things in parallel if you have the know how.

Edit:autocorrect picked wrong word

 

[tingmo13]

 

[jahansolu]

@Edphonse - I’m glad to hear this feature was at least intended, sucks that it never came to fruition. I would be very keen and interested in seeing your process on how to potentially tap into and make our own make shift version of a range extender.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

I understand Tesla has given up on the Range Extender, however I do wonder if anyone has taken the truck completely apart - especially the truck bed area. The reason I ask is because now I’m curious to know if there ever was true intention of bringing the Range Extender to market or did they falsely advertise this feature.

In my opinion: if there is a port or connection somewhere under the trucks bed or by the high voltage port / connection, then we can indeed confirm that Tesla at least had the intention but the economics didn’t most likely make sense. However, if there is no port or connection for expansion (especially on the Foundation Series) it can pretty much be assumed they never had the intention of ever bringing this feature to market.

If the latter, this poses a lot of questions. Like what did they do with the deposits during that entire time? Yes, I know they refunded all the customers including myself but it does beg the question. Did they use that money as a loan from customer, interest free, then return?

If a port or connector or expansion does exist, could anything be done with it? Where is it located? Even the online service manual for Cybertruck foundation series never had any reference to such a port or connector or expansion. I have had a few devices in the past where expansion was promised but never delivered but it was easy to see where it could have been if it actually came to fruition.

Personally I don’t care. They aren’t moving forward so it is a moot point now (for me).

 

[jahansolu]

Now that I know the connection actually exists, it could mean some DYI plans in the future, or perhaps a third party application?

 

[mongo]

Sandy munro CT teardown shows the battery has an extended port, so it was intended to be added.

Not so.
Sandy's tear down asked the question of what the extra port was for: answer per the service manual at the time was an inductive charger.

Caresoft as featured on Autoline mislabeled the second (and thus unused) rear motor port on an AWD as being for range extender.

 

[Edphonse]

Not so.
Sandy's tear down asked the question of what the extra port was for: answer per the service manual at the time was an inductive charger.

Caresoft as featured on Autoline mislabeled the second (and thus unused) rear motor port on an AWD as being for range extender.

You are right, I thought I saw that on Sandy Munro. It was Autoline that I saw the inductive charge port along side the range extender.

Autoline has labeled at 20:35 in this video () as the range extender isn't actually the range extender per a draft procedure for tesla service centers that I found. So I am not sure which to believe. But it sounds like you found more proof that it is indeed not the range extended connection. Regardless, I am sure that inductive charger port would still be operable while in drive if there is no range extender connection.

Seems strange that Tesla would "sell" the range extender when there was no actual way to connect it to begin with.

 

[hemiarch]

Seems strange that Tesla would "sell" the range extender when there was no actual way to connect it to begin with.

Doesn’t it though?

 

[SCTesla]

You are right, I thought I saw that on Sandy Munro. It was Autoline that I saw the inductive charge port along side the range extender.

Autoline has labeled at 20:35 in this video () as the range extender isn't actually the range extender per a draft procedure for tesla service centers that I found. So I am not sure which to believe. But it sounds like you found more proof that it is indeed not the range extended connection. Regardless, I am sure that inductive charger port would still be operable while in drive if there is no range extender connection.

Seems strange that Tesla would "sell" the range extender when there was no actual way to connect it to begin with.

They would have engineered a connection. It was a semi-permanent addition, so they could have figured that out.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

You are right, I thought I saw that on Sandy Munro. It was Autoline that I saw the inductive charge port along side the range extender.

Autoline has labeled at 20:35 in this video () as the range extender isn't actually the range extender per a draft procedure for tesla service centers that I found. So I am not sure which to believe. But it sounds like you found more proof that it is indeed not the range extended connection. Regardless, I am sure that inductive charger port would still be operable while in drive if there is no range extender connection.

Seems strange that Tesla would "sell" the range extender when there was no actual way to connect it to begin with.

It is right up there with the whole fake battery swap charade.

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