INQUISITR.COM / Science & Tech

Tesla Owner Builds A Functional Life-Size Supercharger For His Model S In His Garage– Here’s How You Can Too

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 07:20 PST, Nov 4, 2017

An innovative Tesla Model S owner has built a giant supercharger for his vehicle in his garage and it’s all on video. Erik Strait, who’s also known as DÆrik on Youtube, says that the ambitious project was something he has wanted to do ever since he bought his Tesla. As you can imagine, this isn’t your average DIY automotive project. In the video, Strait admits that he spent several months working on his creation. Luckily, he captured most of his process on 40 to 50 hours of raw video which he edited down to an 11-minute clip.

The first step was getting all the measurements he needed. To do so, he went to an actual supercharger station near his home. After all of that data was collected, he started doing research into the materials he would need to build a mold of the unit. He then chose to hand-carve a life-size mold of the supercharger out of glued together pieces of foam. After coating the mold with epoxy, he applied a layer of mold paste that had been cured.

Then he added layers of fiberglass to the mold to create a shell of the charger. After waiting for the resin to harden, he removed the shell from the mold and painted it to make it look like an actual Tesla Supercharger. Erik then placed the shell onto a wall-mounted connector more commonly known as an HPWC. As a finishing touch, he added a mold for a Tesla cable organizer to the unit, making the project look even more like a product made by the premium electric car company.

Expect to spend a lot of time working on this if you plan to do it yourself.

“The time invested was ridiculous,” Strait said to Teslerati. “Mainly because it was the first time I have ever done anything of this complexity and some things had to be done several times over from trial and error to produce an outcome I liked.”

If you’re thinking of hiring Straight to make one for you, prepare to shell out $8,000 to $10,000. He told Teslerati that this is how much he would charge, although he doesn’t plan on making more for other Tesla owners.

According to Electrek, as of October 3, the Tesla supercharger network consists of 1,000 Supercharger stations worldwide and now Erik could probably add his garage to that list. No stranger to seemingly insurmountable goals, Tesla plans to increase the number of chargers in the network to 10,000 by the end of the year.

[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Image]

Share this article: Tesla Owner Builds A Functional Life-Size Supercharger For His Model S In His Garage– Here’s How You Can Too
tesla
More from Inquisitr