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62 Comments
- pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36Or if you were blasting the heat and driving on soft sand with a parachute opened behind the car.
- Emaze, on 10/12/2007, -7/+24Someone should have seen this coming....there were signs everywhere.
Signs, signs, everywhere are signs. - jhnewt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17RTFA
"These are the key factors for the revised expectation:
We made a significant number of design changes to maximize safety and durability of the Roadster, both in its chassis and in its battery pack. These changes added several hundred pounds to the weight to our original design.
We deliberately chose lithium ion cells with a slightly lower capacity because they have better long-term durability and higher tolerance for abuse." - niradg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16200 miles is still a lot more than most people drive in a day. As this technology becomes more affordable, electric vehicles will be a realistic alternative for many people, especially for 2 car households.
- 0firefly0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13The hell.. you just agreed with what he said.
All that cocaine, huh? - Ub3rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11If you're dropping 100k on a car, are you really going to be bothered by it?
If you own a 100k sports car, are you really going to be driving more than 200 miles in a stretch?
I'm sure in a year or two they'll be able to upgrade the batteries and get 250 or 300 miles out of it. No big deal. - aidenuncle48, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14200 miles is still hella good for an all-electric vehicle, though I wonder what estimates were off that led to overstating the car's potential range.
- jkleinfeld, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9looking forward to more from tesla motors!
- asimo8, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The same goes for an internal combustion powered car.
- GatorLCA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8You have to understand that even though they haven't hit their mark on the total range, this car is off to a better start than any other all-electric vehicle that made it to the market.
The technology will get there, everyone just needs to be patient. Also keep in mind this is a sports car, not an econo-car - Emaze, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Those that dugg me down weren't born when that song came out.
- CraigJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Hydrogen is in pretty short supply, in usable form, and getting it into usable form uses a fair amount of energy
- ChadKirchner, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11I would imagine, that if you were driving at night, in the rain, with the lights on, using the satellite navigation and stereo that the range would be significantly reduced.
- Ub3rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You put it on a trailer and haul it with your Hummer/Land Rover/other expensive SUV.
If you wanted to take an exotic roadster on vacation, where would you put your luggage? - EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7@republicker
You're an idiot. Do you have any idea how energy intensive (and how inefficient) it is to make hydrogen? It's really just another way of making a battery--you're better off using the electricity directly. In fact it requires nearly four times as much energy to power a hydrogen car as it does an electric vehicle. For more info check out page 15 and 16 here: http://www.apec-conf.org/2006/APEC_2006_Plenary_3.pdf - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It needs a flux capacitor
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Other exciting EV projects out there:
644-horsepower EV, 350 mile range:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/03/19/zap-releases-details-and-drawings-of-their-impending-644-horsepo/
The Phoenix, 10-minute recharge, 250,000 mile battery life:
http://phoenixmotorcars.com/
Imported Chinese cars, will be priced comparable to gas cars, with comparable performance:
http://milesautomotive.com/showroom_xs200.php
Cheap electric cars:
http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car/ - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That makes no sense at all. If you put three people in your Civic, you don't think it'll accelerate more slowly than it does with one?
And... "excelleration is one of the basic features of any electric car"
WTF? - okaroleo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If i remember correctly Teslas can be charged in 10 minutes or so using some high amp system. Can't dig up a reference to it at the moment.
- noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3200 is more than both 30 and 150. This isn't designed to be your long distance travel car. If you routinely travel more than 200 miles a day the car is not for you.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3200 miles is OK! This car is going to triple in value the day you drive it off the lot! WOW! This is truly a CAR, not a glorified golf cart. 100K is a bargain for this car.
- JESUSREAM, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Probably means in the real "real" world it will be around 150 miles. Not bad for city use. But what happens if you want to take it on vacation?
- celeb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My 98 Jeep wrangler gets about 180miles per tank (horrible I know) so < 250miles for an electric sports car would definitely be acceptable to me, and my wallet.
- wolvyne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The city will actually be better as braking slightly charges the battery. Its the long trips that might be a little lower.
- paker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The solution is the EV "pusher". Turn you electric vehicle into an instant hybrid.
http://www.jstraubel.com/EVpusher/EVpusher2.htm - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What about the impact of all this added weight on the highly touted performance (0-60 in four seconds)? Conspicuously absent from this article is any comment on performance, one of the major attractions of this vehicle. Adding several hundred pounds may detract somewhat from range, but it's going to be even worse for acceleration.
Bad news indeed. - pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You fly, or take another car, or a train, or a bus...
But yeah, if you want to take a vacation, you're screwed. - DivisibleByZero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh, it hasn't been anywhere near the (price) range I wanted all along...
- Pimpalicious316, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4i don't know why you are being dugg down. great reference :D
- theojanke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ub3rg33k,
Re-read the first sentence of niradg's comment before saying others have problems with reading comprehension:
"200 miles is still a lot more than most people drive in a day."
ie. Most people drive less than 200 miles in a day.
You are agreeing with him.
Now seriously, step away from the coke. - HonoredMule, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I still want one.
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The accessories in an electric car don't impact the range much. You have to think about this interms of the percentage of the power pack that's needed for conventional accessories. Lights, stereos, and even heaters require a relatively small percentage of the car's large battery pack, compared to what the motor needs. So at worst, you'll decrease the range by a few percentage points.
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm a huge proponent of electric vehicles, but you're overlooking one thing. Your Jeep Wrangler can be gassed up in a few minutes anywhere. An electric vehicle typically takes hours to charge--if you can find an outlet. This can obviously be a problem for long trips. I still think the best short-term solution is plug-in electric hybrids with a pure electric mode for driving around town.
- carpespasm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3even if it can do a charge in 10 min, where are you gonna find a 3 phase 200amp breaker to do that kinda current dumping? most outlets are 20amp single phase circuits.
- Ashex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I drive around 50 miles round trip to work, weekends i hit at least 200. Realistically though, I'd go for an EV, considering how much cheaper it would be to recharge one then to refuel a vehicle.
- jpop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Plus, the fact that your Jeep Wrangler was probably 5 times cheaper than the Tesla...
- pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It wasn't complete. That's why they added 100 pounds.
- cobrabyte, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6@pkulak
Now, that's funny ... I don't care who you are! ;) Thanks for the laugh. - Yancie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just add a mr fusion.
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No, Tesla isn't the one with the 10-minute recharge batteries, that's the Phoenix. Before we can do vacations using fast-charge batteries, service stations have to get on board to install the fast chargers.
BTW, there are cheaper EV solutions out there, if you don't want to spend Tesla money. A conversion can be had for as little as $5k:
http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car/ - smackhero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1they based it off of the body of a lotus exige--an ultra-light supercar with bare-bones frame/body. so if they wanted to make it safer and more durable, it's easily understandable how they could have added a few hundred pounds to a 2000lbs car made out of fiberglass for performance.
- FrankBattaglia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Ub3rg33k, you're an ass *and* an idiot.
What he said: "200 miles is still a lot more than most people drive in a day."
Simplified if all those words are hurting your brain: [200 miles] > [normal day of driving] - alphaterminus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I suspect they switched to lithium phosphate batteries, which do not catastrophically chain react when punctured. They have about 20-30% less capacity, but are environmentally friendly when disposed of, and are more durable. The military uses these to power portable command centers because of their safety and reliability.
Props to Tesla, and if this generation sells well lower priced mass market cars will follow. - apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The way to take EVs on vacation is to use fast-charge batteries, like the Phoenix uses:
http://phoenixmotorcars.com/models/fleet.html
Perhaps Tesla will wind up using these in a future vehicle. They charge in 10 minutes (from a high-power fast charger), and have a 250,000 mile lifetime, so they should last the lifetime of the car. - karel747, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You know, I'm surprised it hasn't come up before, but a lot of people seem to think that the hydrogen used in some cars is just some liquid, much like gas. Hydrogen would NOT be a good source of energy for domestic vehicles, for one main reason: Density. Hydrogen is th smallest atom, and therefor is not dense. I read somewhere you'd need over 20 m^3 to make as much energy as a full gallon of gas, since hydrogen has such a small density. Unless you want to stop every 15 minutes for more H gas, stick to electricity. The only solution would be to carry around liquid hydrogen in your car, which would require an extremely rigid container, and an incredible freezing system to liquefy the hydrogen, which would itself require more energy....It's not worth it. Electricity by itself is enough.
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hydrogen is nothing more than another kind of battery, and an inefficient one at that. Hydrogen is extracted from water, using electricity. Then the fuel cell turns it back into electricity and water. That's a reversible chemical process, exactly what happens inside a battery. The energy came from the electricity. The hydrogen itself is nothing more than a carrier.
Except most batteries are much more efficient, and you don't have to transport or store hydrogen. - turpenine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I bet the performance is still the same (excelleration is one of the basic features of any electric car)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1$100,000? They are gonna sell about 10 of these things to rich wackjobs.
For that price I could rent a limo to take me to work. You arnt going to come anywhere even close to breaking even on gas savings if you drive the thing for 15 years. Remember you still have to pay your electricty bill to charge it up (and yes that adds polution from wherever the power comes from).
This tech is a LONG way off before it will replace gas. If you want to save on gas, get a more efficent car. - okaroleo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@CraigJ
Jeez, what do you put in yours? I have no problems packing my 350z:
1. Bag-o-cash, medium.
2. Bag-o-condoms, medium.
Next to me i park an excuse to go to Vegas and i'm off. - noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1boo hoo
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