[yib]

I was wondering what everyone thought about the all electric vehicles that are being produced by Tesla Motors (www.teslamotors.com). As gas prices are remaining fairly expensive, these Tesla cars are looking pretty good. I mean, I'm no environmentalist by any means but I think that electric cars are the way to go in terms of performance, efficiency, etc... I don't see any downsides. Of course I won't be able to afford Tesla's $90,000 roadsters at the moment but I heard they will be introducing a sedan version priced at around $25k or so.

And for those who haven't heard about it:
They are run on some hefty Li-ion batteries that power a 3-phase induction motor which produces about 185kW of power. I think thats equivalent to around 250hp? Torque produced is around 200 foot pounds. I think those are fairly awesome numbers especially coming from a watermelon sized motor that weighs only 70 pounds. They also claim 0-60mph times to be around 4 seconds. The batteries need to be recharged every 250 miles and it takes 2-4 hours to recharge. One can recharge at home and they claim that the electrical cost to cover the recharge of the batteries is equivalent to 1 cent per mile.

Yeah, I still like my gas guzzling trucks and SUVs especially since I'm always doing something outdoorsy but the Tesla cars are quite tempting. I hope they come out with an all electric truck! What do you guys think?

[papabear]

Tesla is a company that will be put out of business, sooner or later, if current trends continue.
(The same holds true of the manufacturers of conventional autos.)

If one has an hour to kill, one can watch The End of Suburbia

Mexico Tries to Save A Big, Fading Oil Field
David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal

Peak coal by 2025 say researchers
by Dr. Werner Zittel and Jörg Schindler

[Wayves]

Cool car. It's a bit pricey, but if the technology works, someone will find a way to put it into more affordable vehicles.

[awdark]

Two words...
Lithium Ion.

Lithium ion is GREAT... TONS of power in light weight package. But the problem lies in TONS of energy and the tendency for it to ummm degrade over time.
Seems like replacing lithium battery packs every 2 years or 10,000 miles (honestly don't know how much people drive in 2 years) will be part of the regular maintenance. Im sure the batteries would be expensive as well Oh, and lithium ion batteries do catch fire easily.. *think exploding laptop batteries*

Nothing against the idea... heck I want a hybrid because its such a neat idea... forget the idea that it saves gas... as a geeky tech dude, its cool like that

[v8subie]

hold on...let me bust out my plutonium and flux capacitor.

[yib]

Tesla is a company that will be put out of business, sooner or later, if current trends continue.
(The same holds true of the manufacturers of conventional autos.)

If one has an hour to kill, one can watch The End of Suburbia

Mexico Tries to Save A Big, Fading Oil Field
David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal

Peak coal by 2025 say researchers
by Dr. Werner Zittel and Jörg Schindler

I didn't watch the video yet but maybe you can summarize what happens? I don't understand why current trends will cause Tesla to go out of business. Currently they seem to be doing very well. They are sold out of their roadsters and just to get in the waiting list, one has to pay $50,000.

hold on...let me bust out my plutonium and flux capacitor.

I'll bring the guns just in case we go back to the wild wild west. I'll show em whos boss with my AR15 against their revolvers!

Two words...
Lithium Ion.

Lithium ion is GREAT... TONS of power in light weight package. But the problem lies in TONS of energy and the tendency for it to ummm degrade over time.
Seems like replacing lithium battery packs every 2 years or 10,000 miles (honestly don't know how much people drive in 2 years) will be part of the regular maintenance. Im sure the batteries would be expensive as well Oh, and lithium ion batteries do catch fire easily.. *think exploding laptop batteries*

Nothing against the idea... heck I want a hybrid because its such a neat idea... forget the idea that it saves gas... as a geeky tech dude, its cool like that

As a fellow geeky tech dude, I agree these electric vehicles are cool!

Also, I don't think Li-ion batteries are any more of a fire hazard than the gasoline we run currently, right?

[Gackt]

I only remember Bowie as the magician Tesla...XD