The sleek and stylish stations use Tesla’s proprietary technology to charge the EV at 90 kW, allowing EV travelers to replenish three hours of driving at 60 mph in about half an hour.

Tesla has taken the wraps off its much-hyped Supercharger network, and revealed the locations of the first six secretly-constructed Supercharger stations in California. The sleek and stylish stations use Tesla’s proprietary technology to charge the EV at 90 kW, allowing EV travelers to replenish three hours of driving at 60 mph in about half an hour, which Tesla figures is just the right timing to stop and have a coffee or a soda.

Some of the stations generate energy from a solar carport system provided by SolarCity (another of Elon Musk’s companies), and, for now at least, charging is free to Model S owners. Each solar system is designed to generate more energy than is consumed by vehicles, resulting in a slight net positive transfer of power back to the electrical grid. Not only does this save energy (and money), but it’s good marketing for EVs in general, as it addresses the common misunderstanding that charging EVs simply pushes carbon emissions to the power plant (for more details, check out the Union of Concerned Scientists’ report on the subject), and gets people thinking about installing their own home solar systems.

“Tesla’s Supercharger network is a game changer for electric vehicles, providing long distance travel that has a level of convenience equivalent to gasoline cars for all practical purposes. However, by making electric long distance travel at no cost, an impossibility for gasoline cars, Tesla is demonstrating just how fundamentally better electric transport can be,” said Elon Musk. “We are giving Model S the ability to drive almost anywhere for free on pure sunlight.”

Also today, Tesla announced a follow-on offering of 4,344,930 shares of its common stock. The company intends to use the net proceeds for “general corporate purposes.”

Image: Telsa