tesla roadster

[rapidblue]

uhhhm.... you don't know much about electricity, do you? Stick to commenting about something you're familiar with.

boy you sure are a farking a$$hole aren't you.

If you just here to cause dodo, go troll somewhere else. If you think I'm wrong them show some info to prove me wrong and I'll learn something.

If not, do the world a favor and stick you wenis in a blender.

[black mariah]

Name one thing I said above that is not true.

You didn't say anything at all, you "lightbulb". All you did was call us stupid and run away.

I think Tesla Roadster shows that electric car is a viable alternative. 250 mile range is *more than enough* for commuting and taking short trips (which is what people do 99% of the time). Obviously it will not take you cross country, but you can rent a gasoline car for that.

It wouldn't even take you a third of the way across this state. Do you really think people want to buy a car then be forced to rent a car if they want to drive more than a half a day from their house? Not bloody likely.

Unlike any other alternative, electric car *does not need* any new infrastructure. Electricity is already delivered to your house, so all you have to do is plug your car in at night. Tesla is exactly right: people charge their cell phones over night without even thinking how long it takes, so 3.5 hours charge time is a non-issue.

You, like everyone else that loves the electric car, are falling victim to the idea that electric cars have no need for new infrastructure. They do. Chiefly, that electricity has to come from somewhere. Do you REALLY want to be putting that much more strain on our already fragile power infrastructure? Do you have any idea how much more electricity it would take if even one tenth of all cars on the road were electric powered?

Making it into a sports car is smart. Electric motors have one very desirable property (besides very high efficiency): they delvier 100% torque at 0 RPM. This is what allows the roadster to achive 4 second 0-60 acceleration. Not bad even by sport car standards. This should put to rest the notion that electic cars are weak and underpowered. High margines of the high-end car market will also allow the company to recoup the R&D investment and hopefully come up with a mass-market car a few years down the road. I see this car as a loss-leader: obviously only the rich will buy it now (it's $80+ grand), but I fully expect the R&D to tricle down to the mass market so that we will see a $20K electric car a few years from now. And *that* is something I want and can afford to buy.

HAHAHAHAAHAH! HAAAAAAHAHHAHAAH! BWAHAHAHAHA ! HA FRIGGIN HA! A loss leader? Kind of like how the EV1 lost GM a billion bucks, right?

Actually they don't use it for biodiesel, they make ethanol out of it. But that's not the point. The point is that Brazilians are doing something *today* about the energy problem. What are you doing? Just shouting "th4t sux0rs!!!!"?

I misspoke. Lick Dave. And lick the Brazilians too. The Brazilians are doing what they're doing because it makes economic sense, plain and simple. They had the ability to end their reliance on imported oil and they pushed for it. We here in the US don't have that option. If you think they did it purely for environmental reasons, you're as delusional as you are dumb.

[black mariah]

Easy. Just sit back and wait for gasoline prices to pick up. And *pay no heed* to the "ZOMG!!!111 It COSTS ME $100 TO FILL UP MY SUBURBAN!!!!!!111" crowd. Let the market forces do their thing, and you'll be surprised how quickly the buying patterns will shift. Already sales of SUVs are down 40% in Canada. Think about it: 40% and we are still nowhere near $10/gallon levels. (I believe we'll get there by the end of the decade).

I ran into idiots like you all the time when I was in Portland... you wouldn't happen to be from Oregon, would you?

[dieziege]

Unlike any other alternative, electric car *does not need* any new infrastructure. Electricity is already delivered to your house, so all you have to do is plug your car in at night. Tesla is exactly right: people charge their cell phones over night without even thinking how long it takes, so 3.5 hours charge time is a non-issue.

I wish that was true. Fact is that our electric grid can't handle the drains that are already attached... even when you count off-peak hour usage there simply isn't enough capacity available to provide for charging all the cars people are driving.

On top of that, the grids are highly unreliable. Look at Manhattan and St. Louis right now... no power. It is very difficult to truck in electricity.

Now...
According to the people whose car started this thread, their vehicle runs 250 miles on the energy equivalent of 1.5 gallons of gasoline. That means that if you put a small (5hp) diesel generator in it and fill it up with maybe 4 gallons, should be able to charge its batteries. There's your 65MPG hybrid car that doesn't blow up the power grid. Small diesel generators of that size range weigh about 120lbs. Doesn't seem out of line to me.

But you still have the problem of $70,000 worth of batteries to push a $20K car... and the fact that those batteries will cycle maybe 1000 times before they are shot so it is a $70,000 every five years. And they are heat sensitive. And they are ALWAYS "hot" so they are extremely dangerous to emergency crews in accidents (one of our EMS/fire trained people can probably comment on the new training material being passed around on how to deal with hybrids... this problem is a LOT worse).

I'm not a naysayer... I just think the answer is to change expectations. Think of how much fuel could be saved if the people whose jobs allowed them to telecommute (such as me) were actually allowed to do so by their employers. That would save me 120+ miles a day of driving/riding right there. Think of how much would be saved if people simply said "zero to 60 in 10 seconds is good enough" when they went to buy their next car. Or said "a bike will do fine" be it a motorcycle or bicycle for that matter. I have friends that will get in their car to go across a parking lot... and no matter how I harass them for doing such stupid stuff.

I went out and bought a car that got 50MPG... and most people looked at me oddly and asked "why"?

[CNF2002]

Everyone knows ethanol cannot be used in cars. If so, Doc and Marty would have been back to the future easily when they poured whiskey into their Delorean. Instead the engine blew up and they had to use a train. I don't want to push my car with a train, so I'll stick to gas.



As you can see, ethanol is not a viable alternative fuel source.

I rest my case.

[rapidblue]

replacing the batteries every 100000 miles is sure better than changing oil every 5000 miles.

sorry my bad it's actually 6800 batteries. On their site it say that their batteries will only last 500 charge discharge cycles. 500*250miles.

Sure it equals 125000 miles but you not going to go exactly 250 miles on every charge. You migh get 200 miles out of every charge, because you sure as hell don't want to get somewhere and have your batteries die.


So lets assume I can do an oil chage for 25 bucks, thats 20 oil changes in 100,000 miles. 20*$25 is only 500 buck. I'm sure the batteries for that bad boy are going to cost a wee bit more that 500 dollars.

That depends on how far the battery has been discharged and what source is being used to charge the batteries. A full charge using the home system can be achieved in as little as 3.5 hours.

However, an electric car is a bit like a cell phone: it does not matter how long it takes to charge as long as a charge lasts all day. You plug it in when you get home, and unplug it when you leave in the morning.

this makes me believe what I said earlier but maybe I'm wrong...

[rapidblue]

Everyone knows ethanol cannot be used in cars. If so, Doc and Marty would have been back to the future easily when they poured whiskey into their Delorean. Instead the engine blew up and they had to use a train. I don't want to push my car with a train, so I'll stick to gas.



As you can see, ethanol is not a viable alternative fuel source.

I rest my case.

hahahahaha

[ninja79]

You didn't say anything at all, you "lightbulb". All you did was call us stupid and run away.

Are you struggling with reading comprehension?

It wouldn't even take you a third of the way across this state. Do you really think people want to buy a car then be forced to rent a car if they want to drive more than a half a day from their house? Not bloody likely.

Speak for yourself. I'd buy it. $0.01c/mile more than pays for occasional car rental.

You, like everyone else that loves the electric car, are falling victim to the idea that electric cars have no need for new infrastructure. They do. Chiefly, that electricity has to come from somewhere. Do you REALLY want to be putting that much more strain on our already fragile power infrastructure? Do you have any idea how much more electricity it would take if even one tenth of all cars on the road were electric powered?

That doesn't change the fact that this is the right solution. Electric cars are much more efficient than gasoline cars, so switching to electric would save an enormous amount of energy.

HAHAHAHAAHAH! HAAAAAAHAHHAHAAH! BWAHAHAHAHA ! HA FRIGGIN HA! A loss leader? Kind of like how the EV1 lost GM a billion bucks, right?

Correction: GM lost $1 billion of US taxpayers' money. Your money. They refused to sell EV1's (lease only), refused to extend the leases, and made you jump through hoops to even get an EV1. Despite that, people showed interest in EV1, but GM took them all back when the leases ran out, *crushed them* and dumped them in a junk yard, rather than sell them to people! Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EV1

[ninja79]

If you just here to cause dodo, go troll somewhere else. If you think I'm wrong them show some info to prove me wrong and I'll learn something.
.

If it takes 3.5 hours to charge a cell phone in europe (220V), do you think it will take 7 hours in US (110V) ???

Besides, if you read the website you'll see that this is a US company and the car will be released in California first.

[black mariah]

Besides, if you read the website you'll see that this is a US company and the car will be released in California first.

And how, exactly, does that keep it from being a 220v plug?

Go on, say it...