Tesla S

[Topcat]

Today the Tesla S debuts.

Tesla plant is here in Fremont where I live. At least U.S. jobs are making a U.S. built car.
Hope they succeed.

Green exotic cars are coming.
Fiskar was another recent one.

http://www.teslamotors.com/models/

[ragtopdodge]

Beautiful car.  I hope they are profitable.



Guess they need an SUV now.

[ragtopdodge]

Hah!  I guess they DO got an SUV in the works:

[TinCuda]

IMO electric cars are our future.  As soon as someone gets a battery figured out that makes these things as practical as burning gas, I am in!  I have been preaching electric motors for years.  Instant power, lots of torque.  The electric motor it's self has a much greater power to weight ratio than an internal combustion engine.  The only problem in any electric car is the batteries.


.,

[ChallengerHK]

They're saying it has a 265 mile average range, which is respectable. 80% charge in 45 minutes is also pretty good.

Agreed with TinCuda, the battery is the weak point, as with all electrics at the moment. They're going to be relegated to "drive it around town" cars until they can decrease the charge time by orders of magnitude. For $50-100k, though, I'd get a Leaf to bop around town in.

[ViperMan]

They're saying it has a 265 mile average range, which is respectable. 80% charge in 45 minutes is also pretty good.

Yeah but what does it take to get that kind of charge?  That's not from a 110 outlet...

I don't remember if it was Top Gear or what show I was watching where they said that to get those manufacturer-advertised charging speeds, you need something like a 400-volt outlet in your house, which of course means having an electrician visit to make all the changes.  Plus, for that amount of electricity, you WILL see an increase in your electric bill, especially if doing it daily.

Me personally I still say Hydrogen fuel cells is the future.  I think electric cars are a stepping stone to something more practical.  But that's just me.

[brads70]

  I think electric cars are a stepping stone to something more practical.  But that's just me.

Ya I agree , that's my "hunch"  as well?

[Chryco Psycho]

I would love an electric car , the acceleration is much faster , think slot cars !!
 the big problem is charging them , at this point they pollute far more than a gas car as there is zero emmissions regulations or controls for Coal plants making electricity .

[06Daytona]

I just did a little reading on it and didn't see anything about dynamic braking. My wife's hybrid has a dynamic braking system that charges the battery when she applies the brakes, the harder she hits it, the better it charges. I wonder if a system like that would increase or decrease the range.
What they need are a couple of propellers behind the grille hooked up to some generators that could charge the battery while you're driving. Since it wouldn't be hooked to the engine, it wouldn't create any drag and it would give a minor range increase as well.
All you'd need are a couple of speakers behind the rear valance hooked to an ipod that played a hemi at cruising speed on a continuous loop and you'd be good to go.

[hpe600rt]

cool car

[spamtank]

I just did a little reading on it and didn't see anything about dynamic braking. My wife's hybrid has a dynamic braking system that charges the battery when she applies the brakes, the harder she hits it, the better it charges. I wonder if a system like that would increase or decrease the range.
What they need are a couple of propellers behind the grille hooked up to some generators that could charge the battery while you're driving. Since it wouldn't be hooked to the engine, it wouldn't create any drag and it would give a minor range increase as well.
All you'd need are a couple of speakers behind the rear valance hooked to an ipod that played a hemi at cruising speed on a continuous loop and you'd be good to go.

I believe you mean this: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/05/16/chinese-farmer-invents-wind-powered-car/   

Truth is, you don't get anything for nothing.  What with the laws of Entropy and all... 

[06Daytona]

If it gave the car a little more range by charging the battery with little windmills it would help the range. I wouldn't expect it to fully charge the battery just give it a little help.

[ViperMan]

I would love an electric car , the acceleration is much faster , think slot cars !!
 the big problem is charging them , at this point they pollute far more than a gas car as there is zero emmissions regulations or controls for Coal plants making electricity .

Do you mean in Panama??  'Cause in the US there are TONS of regulations on coal burning plants.  In fact, it's one of the reasons my company is thriving!  We are building a half-dozen facilities across the north-east just to help further reduce the emissions from coal plants.  We did nearly a dozen plants last year.  I've also helped manage half-BILLION dollar projects to build MASSIVE facilities at two particular power plants that basically reduce the emissions of a plant to nothing more than steam and synthetic gypsum (wall-board material.)

Now, the big pollutant in an electric (and hybrid) car is the battery itself.  Those things are TERRIBLE, not to mention being incredibly expensive to replace.  If you own a hybrid car for more than 10 years, you'll spend more on it - including gas - than you will a regular, fuel-efficient gasoline car.

I could find articles to back that up (have seen them in car and driver, popular mechanics, etc) but I'm too lazy. 

[ragtopdodge]

A gasoline engine is about 20-25% efficient as far as the energy used vs energy output.

New, modern coal-fired power plants are much more efficient.  Probably 50-70%??  Natural gas even better.  And of course, where I live, hydro power is way up there.

So it depends on where you live.  Electricity costs a bit more in the central/eastern U.S. where it gets it from coal mainly.

But still, better to get our energy domestically than from foreign terrorist countries like Nigeria and saudi Arabia.  Even Canada, that oil up there is retrieved from gross tar sands which is VERY INefficient.

Battery costs a lot for sure, but it will get cheaper.  Remember VCRs when it came out?  Like $1500!  Plus, with recycling of batteries, shouldn't go into the landfills.

[HP_Cuda]

For electric motors max torque is at 0 rpm!!!!

As said before battery technology has been lagging for years, with the introduction of lithium cells gives Tesla the ability to setup many many many cells in a storage grid in a parallel and serial method to provide both the voltage and capacity the car needs to run. Remember each of these li-on cells produced by A123 only run a voltage of 3.6 discharge down to 2.5 (past 2.5 not much left), as well I believe they only have a capacity of 2300mah with a 30C rating.  So they must have quite a few, estimating like 55 cells just to hit the voltage level but not capacity (~200V) . Most likely they have somewhere around 400 of these cells in their battery blackbox config to run the Roadster (best guess).

Anyway, without better battery technology I think the electric car will be very limited and I don't see major breakthroughs coming (sadly). Lithium technology came on the scene in the late 90's and has been perfected by raising the C ratings of the batteries (the ability to deliver more amperage without voltage sag). Some say the "C" ratings have been manipulated to sell more batteries as a marketing ploy but I digress.

I think there still are a bunch of coal fired plants and I agree with Chryco about we are robbing peter to pay paul because if you plug your car in and think you are doing the earth a favor you are wrong. Unless we start converting all our power plants to CNG and or Nuclear our carbon problem will continue to plague the human species.