Tesla Model S Hits the Road

[Space Racer]

Not bad!

http://www.teslamotors.com/models

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/216293624734953472

http://www.teslamotors.com/

http://m.motortrend.com/roadtests/al...ive/index.html

[coolperfect]

Yea,a new battery is $25,000 nice!

[Six]

That things a POS. Sorry man but electric cars dont cut it. They've been working on them for about 60 years and they're still junk. Look at top gears critique of the Tesla.

Battery technology is decades away from making them practical and they're NOT a green alternative because mining and manufacturing the batteries causes mass amounts of pollution.

Hydrogen fuel cell is the future, not batteries.

[Space Racer]

Tesla builds their own batteries. I don't think they build them from scratch, though.

Tesla has a $12,000 prepaid battery replacement option, but if you fail to keep it charged and it turns into a "brick," it'll cost you $40,000. There is no insurance available for EV battery replacement. There is no warranty for bricks. A generator would be a good investment.

http://theunderstatement.com/post/18...stating-design

Tesla expects its battery to last seven years. With the $12,000 prepaid battery option, Tesla charges you an extra $2,000 per year under 7 years, and pays you $1,000 per year over 7 years.

Tesla says its battery will retain 70% of its capacity after 7 years. By then, battery technology will have improved quite a bit, and prices will have dropped. A car with a 300-mile range would only go 210 miles. A car with a 230-mile range would go 160 miles. So if you drive 180 miles a day, you would expect to get the 300-mile battery (at an additional cost of $10,000 over the 230-mile battery), you would expect to sell the car in less than four years, or you would try to extend the range by driving slowly and avoiding jackrabbit starts.

EV owners say that with careful driving, the range can be extended as much as 25%. Putting this together, a 300-mile battery pushed to 400 miles and then reduced to 70% means a maximum possible range after 7 years of 280 miles. So a seven year life wouldn't necessitate a great loss off range.

The model S starts at $50,000 for the 160-mile car. With options, it can cost over $100,000.

If you are not rich and you want to step up to an alternate energy car, you would be better off considering a hybrid, a natural gas, or a diesel.

[Space Racer]

Clarification: that's a 25% margin, not markup.

[Punisher]

not to mention the coal u have to burn to produce electricity, or god for bid, fire up a nuclear reactor.
Stupid hippy fantasy.
With out cold fusion, this technology is dead.

[Space Racer]

Ready for Primetime

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/11...s-coty-tippin/

[Space Racer]

Software Update

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/12/tesla-model-s-4-0/

[mattc183]

i didnt even look at the links, but what Six and Punisher said was spot on. Not to mention the disposal aspect of the batteries. Punisher, also brings up a good point many electric plants operate on 40-60 year old technology. Electricity is not nearly as clean to produce with most forms of current production, as people would or are lead to believe.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/env...uestion481.htm Don't forget to factor in the lose from the length of power lines :-)

wish i could find the pic of train cars loaded with coal headed to plants. Most without the scrubbers.

edit: looked at links that car looks sweet

[ga-hvac-tech]

First... would the poster who thinks nuke plants are bad... please explain why? Verifiable details only please.

IMO batteries have a LONG way to go before elec cars will be a viable solution to personal transportation. The need for better laptop and cell phone batteries will drive the need... regardless of EV cars... however IMO do not expect a breakthrough soon (like not for at least a few years).

What I do find interesting is: Every time we have an economic boom, energy seems to get scarce... then we have an economic downturn and energy conservation becomes trendy. Then when the economy starts to tick again we magically have endless energy... anyone see a curious pattern here which should be investigated?

So if this pattern will play out again (as it has in the past), we will see EV cars as not being a viable solution until the next economic boom turns int a bust....

[Space Racer]

Just ran across this:

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/

[mark beiser]

I'm all for electric cars, but we need a number of things to happen before they are viable enough to exist as a significant percentage of the vehicles on the road.
Better batteries.
A better power grid.
A massive expansion in clean, efficient, relatively low cost nuclear power generation.

First... would the poster who thinks nuke plants are bad... please explain why? Verifiable details only please.

As a big fan of nuclear power generation, I'm interested in his response too.

Anyone who believes wind and solar are the answers is grossly ignorant of what it takes to run a power grid.
Also, cold fusion = fantasy land.

If you want cleaner air, cleaner water, and relatively inexpensive and abundant energy, there needs to be a massive expansion of nuclear power generation in the US.

[Cooked]

I took these pics at the Houston Galleria back in December. Tesla has small showroom with a Model S on display. Without getting into the viability and politics of electric cars, the vehicle is impressive. I did a little looking around their website and the base models go for about $90K and the fully loaded Model S around $130K. This is before any tax rebates or incentives.

The engineering is nothing short of remarkable. The drive-train is beautiful in it's simplicity and precision. The actually have a cut away electric motor that you can play with, it's close to 400HP. There is no transmission, just the motor and battery. The interior is on par with a Mercedes and it's just plain cool.

Notice the pics that show the body lifted off the frame. The battery resides there giving the car a low center of gravity and according to Tesla exceptional handling.

If there is one on display near you I urge you go see it and sit inside. While very few people can afford it now, it is very likely the technology of the future.