Sorry yes my bad - but its not for sale in the UK

I'd love to have a Bolt if Chevvy could be bothered to sell it in my country (UK). They dont seem to have any interest in selling it.

The voltage doesn't matter in terms of charging speed. (Since for a given wattage, a higher voltage means a lower amperage.)

Panasonic can sell cells for sure, but not batteries. Tesla owns the batteries, Panasonic owns the cells. This is confusing because most people refer to "cells" as "batteries".

A "9V Battery" is in fact a battery, made up of 6 cells. But an "AA battery" is actually a cell (made up of a single cell of size AA).

Its important to remember the technicality here. An 18650 Lithium Ion Cell is made by Panasonic. When the cells are merged together with electronics (over-voltage / under-voltage sensors, charging, balancing, etc. etc.), that's when it becomes a "battery".

Tesla's biggest moat is certainly its "battery", the electronics and smarts that it uses to put cells together. But Panasonic owns the chemistry, so to replicate Tesla's efforts, other manufacturers will be able to buy cells from Panasonic and build their own batteries.

The question therefore, is whether or not other companies can combine cells in such a way that they are properly cooled, properly maintained, etc. etc. It seems possible for sure, but Tesla certainly has a headstart on battery technology. (But no "moat" on cell technology).

Yeah, I haven't seen any great reports from people who've tried to use the supercharger network for long road trips. I think they should focus on building chargers where people already want to stop, like shopping malls or restaurants. I wouldn't mind enjoying a nice meal while I wait for my car to charge instead of being stuck at some gas station in the middle of nowhere.

At least in Europe, I think it will be more likely that the electricity companies will put them out all over the place (think parking meters, but that are actually chargers), with a unified system that identifies you and charges the cost of the electricity in your home bill. This is how it works in Barcelona already.

Last winter, I was scraping the snow off my SUV in a lodge parking lot in Sequioa National Park. A model S pulled in next to me without any tire chains and I stopped to chat with the elderly driver as he was unloading luggage. He told me the all wheel drive and all season tires worked great coming up the mountain, just like on my SUV.

This is a park with no gas stations in winter (there is one open seasonally within a nearby national forest). So, I have to think about my tank capacity and when I might need to take a trip back down out of the mountains to refuel if I am on a long stay. I asked him about range anxiety and he said he used the superchargers in the Central Valley during his approximately 500 mile trip to the base of the mountain. He spent one night in the last little town before the park entrance gate, and used their 110V outlet in the parking lot to top off his car over night.

Up at about 8k foot elevation, he had a good charge remaining, and would have plenty for local driving during his stay and the descent back to town would actually restore much of his charge due to regenerative braking.

I think it's more than a publicity stunt, it's successful FUD.

First off, Tesla's charging network is better and faster than anyone else's. That said, I think the difference might be overstated, but with a Tesla I know all charging will be easy to locate, functional, and fast.

With another EV I might worry about DC Fast charging standards, who owns it, how much it will cost, whether I am a member of their network, etc. I think it's probably less bad than I assume, but the mere fact that I have doubts helps Tesla.

That is to say, the marketing benefits are likely greater even than the actual functionality benefits, even though the functionality is by far the best.

> The supercharger network was a publicity stunt. While it is possible to drive a Tesla across the US, it isn't exactly practical for real world trips where once you get there you want to spend some time there.

Speaking as an actual Tesla owner, I could not disagree more.

I just did a 2000 mile road trip in my Model 3, and had absolutely zero instances of range anxiety or problems with the super chargers. I stopped to charge approximately every 3.5 hours (the car lasts longer between stops than two passengers and a dog), and on average, I'd add about 200 miles back in the 30 minutes it takes to walk the dogs, go to the bathroom, and get a snack. I'd argue that the supercharger system is more practical than a normal gas stop, since you can't do anything else while filling up your tank. With the supercharger, if I take a couple extra minutes waiting in line for a coffee, I'm getting more miles. It took a lot of the stress out of the drive, and I absolutely would not want to go back to doing an ICE-based road trip.