Featured GM announces many new EV's

GM - Nissan - Toyota - Ford - Mitsu - Chrysler/Fiat are all at the mercy of the handfull of companies willing to build infrastructure for them. It doesn't seem to be in the Wheelhouse of these companies to install decent quantities (per location) of100+kw charge-stalls/Transformers. Other than Tesla - only the VW group is putting up tons of cash for higher speed charging, & then, it's only because of their fines/criminal behavior via dieselgate that they're getting somewhat of a jump start on the even less proactive manufacturers.
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GM management was proud to add ~3,500, L2 chargers in their employee parking lot up from 900 today. But is such 'weak tea.' For example, my Std Rng Model 3:

• ~28 miles/hr - 31 A @208 VAC from split, three phase
• ~31 miles/hr - 31 A @240 VAC from home, split phase

These rates are so slow you can barely get enough charge to cover driving to a grocery store or restaurant. It really needs 7-8 hours to put a usable charge on the car. It is all but useless on a cross country trip unless you're willing to take a nap in the car.

Really the key for cross country travel is a 100 kW or higher charge rate. So in 15-20 minutes, my Model 3 will have enough charge to reach the next Supercharger ~120-150 miles down the road. Tesla designed the Supercharger network to keep them about 120 miles apart.

Bob Wilson

 

Someone saw this in the new Corvette's owner's manual.

"Some sharp eyed members of the Corvette Forum have noticed that the fuses listed in the 2020 owners manual shows a fuse for pedestrian alert and another for a lithium ion battery module. If you download the 2020 Corvette Owner's manual, the fuses are discussed on page 245."

 

Curious as my Model 3 has no owner replaceable fuses. There is a pyro-fuse to isolate the battery halves but this is not easily replaced.

Bob Wilson

 

Armored, short-proof wiring too??
One would expect there are fuses. Perhaps they do not tell the owner about them though.

 

My Volt and Spark EV have regular fuse blocks, like any other car, and the big fuse to isolate the traction battery, just like a Prius.

 

That is so people will see it as a normal car

 

Is that why there are circuit breakers in your house? I though it was to protect the wiring and reduce the risk of fire. I guess my high school electricity and electronics training were wrong.

 

The eAssist/BAS use Li-ion, and it still might be available in the Silverado.

 

no, it's the reason why tsla doesn't have any. they don't feel the need to build like a legacy maker. same reason prius gets its shifter, but hycam does not

 

You had electricity and electronics training in high school?!! Wow! I am very impressed. I had nothing of the sort in my high school. My training came from my dad when I was 12, though. But teaching this stuff in high schools is an excellent idea. As well as basic financial concepts and basic plumbing, carpentry, etc. As it stands now high school graduates are basically babies with adult bodies and a very well developed ability to use a smart phone.

I am only partially serious, of course. I think the preset generation of kids are great, though they do lack the basic skills to even think about repairing anything.

 

The spell will wear off once (and IF) the GM starts implementing these things out of vaporware. GM products always end up ugly, dysfunctional and inferior to competition. And in rare cases they do not, GM cancels them. I have not doubt in my mind that GM will end up botching this effort somehow. The question is how. That is the fun part.

 

In Canada, yes. I chose "Electrical Technology" as my major for grades 11 & 12. That was basically Electricity and Electronics. My electronics professor had recently retired from the DEW (Defense Early Warning) line in northern Canada that looks for hostile aircraft coming over the north pole..
My electricity class actually took a field trip to wire up a dining hall for a youth camp. We helped with the planning beforehand too. The professor was a licensed electrician so it was all legal and passed the building inspection too.

 

That is absolutely amazing! Does Canada still do that? It's not like this in US. I went to grades 1-8 in the former Soviet Union and then grades 10-12 in US. US high schools at that time (early 80's) were ridiculous and I had nothing new to learn from my 8 grades in USSR (except English) in US grades 10-12. I now have a son a bout to graduate high school and it's a little better than in my time, but still not that great. The environment is definitely better than in the 80's, but the academics are meh...

 

I was in high school in the 70's. I moved from Canada in 1980 but have not kept up with that.

 

You are way off topic

 

Considering there is very little details released from GM's closed doors presentation, this is more interesting.

 

Mechanical switches need traditional fuses and circuit breakers to protect the wires. The Tesla solid-state switches incorporate the circuit protection. But there are several thousand fuses, non-replacement in the battery pack.

Each cell has a fusible link to the buss bar. A failing cell blows the link to isolate that cell from the battery.

Bob Wilson

 

Am I wrong in understanding that Tesla battery has its cells wired in series? If so, then a fuseable link would create a discontinuity in the battery (not good). What am I missing?

 

It is a fine question. Let me explain that the Model 3 pack is, 47P25S and 47P23S:

• 47P - 47 cells in parallel so failure of any one cell is ~2% loss of capacity
• 25S - the 47 cell parallel groups are in 25 series
• 23S - the 47 cell parallel groups are in 23 series

Source: Tesla Model 3 battery details revealed in partial teardown and analysis

In contrast, the Prius battery cells were all in series. One failed cell and in 3-5 months, the car would 'brick.'

Bob Wilson