Re: 400 mile charge in 30 minutes isn't gonna to be easy
Tesla hasn't stated the size of the battery packs, but claims less than 2 kwh per mile. Thus a 400 mile charge is at worst 800 kwh, which means 1.6 megawatts in 30 minutes. Let's say it is really efficient and well under 2 kwh per mile at 1.4 kwh per mile, so it needs a megawatt for 30 minutes. For a single truck.
Yes, but I question how many people will actually need it.
For instance, we have a large agri-feed merchant near us. They run 25-30 artic rigs, on a 7am-4pm day. The trucks are parked overnight and at the weekends. They would not need a megacharger. Those trucks never do 500miles a day, which means a rotating trickle charge could sequentially charge the fleet over the 60hours they're parked at the weekend, followed by partial/half charges overnight during the week to top up the couple of hundred miles each truck does a day.
Certainly they'll draw a lot of power, but you're looking at more like a megawatt for the site, not a megawatt per truck.
For other depots where you do have people pushing the range, I can envisage the site having a battery bank to buffer for trucks who need a fast, full charge. Trucks popping in on a local route either get to sip from the normal supply or don't take a charge at all if they can run all day and charge overnight or whatnot.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
