New electric sports car

[Hemi-Cuda]

http://www.teslamotors.com/

seems almost too good to be true. if they start releasing more models and target the economy car market they could become the guaranteed car of the future

[Table 5]

that's a pretty sweet looking car...i wonder how much it will go for.

[Bobblehead]

The Wired article mentions that it will go for around $70K-80K, around where other luxury sports cars are priced.

It uses Li-ion batteries. I wonder how much those suckers will cost to replace - my laptop batteries are expensive as hell, and after 18 months won't hold near as much charge anymore.

[ken0042]

One of the answers to FAQ sounds a little presumptuous. The question is "How long does it take to recharge?" Which to me is a fair question. Part of the answer is:

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.

There have been days where I have put 400 km on my car and still stayed within the city. Or what if I want to take a trip to Banff for the day?

It is a fair question, and it is quite possible that somebody might want to recharge it during the day.

I still say the future of the electric car is to have easily replacable battery packs, and you would pull into a "gas station" and swap your batteries on the fly. You really wouldn't own the batteries in your car.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by ken0042

One of the answers to FAQ sounds a little presumptuous. The question is "How long does it take to recharge?" Which to me is a fair question. Part of the answer is:


There have been days where I have put 400 km on my car and still stayed within the city. Or what if I want to take a trip to Banff for the day?

It is a fair question, and it is quite possible that somebody might want to recharge it during the day.

I still say the future of the electric car is to have easily replacable battery packs, and you would pull into a "gas station" and swap your batteries on the fly. You really wouldn't own the batteries in your car.

3.5 hours for a full charge was the answer in a different section.

3.5 hours/250 miles would work pretty well for most people's commutes. I'm sure 400 mile/day drivers are not in their initial target, nor are people who'd want to use it for long road trips. Although battery switching stations would be a cool idea.

Aren't Li-ion batteries pretty famous for losing their charge over a few days of non-use? That could be a potential PIA if you left it somewhere unplugged while on vacation or whatever.

[J pold]

I hope this comes out, this reminds me of that new documentary “who killed the electric car?” from what I have read and seen from the trailers its about how electric cars have been around for years but big Oil companies repeatedly shut down there production

[monkeyman]

The one thing I don’t get, and maybe someone here can explain it to me. We still have to generate electricity to run them, how do we get it, I think most of our electricity is still generated by burning coal, isn’t it? What is the over-all impact of running electric cars compared to gasoline?

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

3.5 hours/250 miles would work pretty well for most people's commutes. I'm sure 400 mile/day drivers are not in their initial target

Just to be clear, I said 400 km, not 400 miles.

400 km is about 250 miles. I'm just saying that the car seems to have quite a narrow useage.

[Looger]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

The one thing I don’t get, and maybe someone here can explain it to me. We still have to generate electricity to run them, how do we get it, I think most of our electricity is still generated by burning coal, isn’t it? What is the over-all impact of running electric cars compared to gasoline?

bingo!

what's really nuts is that you lose up to 2/3 of your energy in the lines, and the big oil-burning stacks - a major component of US energy - is way worse per joule of energy than modern engines for the environment.

it is totally insane to use electric cars when fossil fuels represent such a massive amount of electrical generation.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Looger

bingo!

what's really nuts is that you lose up to 2/3 of your energy in the lines, and the big oil-burning stacks - a major component of US energy - is way worse per joule of energy than modern engines for the environment.

it is totally insane to use electric cars when fossil fuels represent such a massive amount of electrical generation.

Don't know who to believe, but here is this companies answer to this question:

Don't electric vehicles actually just move pollution to another location? And therefore don't EVs still use oil?
Electric power generation in the USA does not use oil. Coal, hydro, nuclear, solar, and natural gas are typical sources for generating electricity. Power generation plants, even coal burning ones, are inherently more efficient and less polluting than vehicles due to economies of scale and the ability to more efficiently remove pollutants from a smaller number of much larger fixed locations.
Also, an electric car is far more efficient than a gasoline car, so the amount of pollution generated by producing the electricity to drive an EV a given distance is much less than the pollution from the gasoline to drive an internal combustion car the same distance.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Don't know who to believe, but here is this companies answer to this question:

Also, an electric car is far more efficient than a gasoline car, so the amount of pollution generated by producing the electricity to drive an EV a given distance is much less than the pollution from the gasoline to drive an internal combustion car the same distance.

Efficient yes, but from what I've heard and read, it cost a lot more energy to create the car and maintain the batteries on a an electric / hybrid car than it costs for a comparable size internal combustion car.

[CalgaryCowboy]

The specs look too good to be true. The 0-60 and 250 range don't jive with other electic cars I have read about. I wonder if this is like the new 95 trans am I had once. On the highway at 130km/h and in 6th gear it got 35 mpg. On deerfoot at 230km/h you could literally see the gas gauge move. I would be impressed if the 250 range is with "typical" sports car driving. The big problem with alot of electic cars is longer range=more batteries=more weight.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Efficient yes, but from what I've heard and read, it cost a lot more energy to create the car and maintain the batteries on a an electric / hybrid car than it costs for a comparable size internal combustion car.

http://wired.com/news/wiredmag/0,714...?tw=wn_index_1

Interesting note in there:

Meanwhile, automakers had been dismantling some of the biggest barriers to entering the business. To lower production costs, the Big Three had outsourced much of their parts manufacturing over the past 25 years. An upstart could buy just about everything it needed to mass-produce a car from independent suppliers. A fledgling electric car company had other advantages, too: Tighter emissions standards have raised the cost of developing gas-powered cars, and buyers of low-emission vehicles are lured by big tax break

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

http://wired.com/news/wiredmag/0,714...?tw=wn_index_1

Interesting note in there:

Interesting to see the backers here too.

PayPal cofounder Elon Musk, Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and ex-eBay chief Jeff Skoll,

That's a lot of money behind them. Probably a richer and more powerful group these days than any of the big 3 auto makers.

[Ironhorse]

Meanwhile, automakers had been dismantling some of the biggest barriers to entering the business. To lower production costs, the Big Three had outsourced much of their parts manufacturing over the past 25 years. An upstart could buy just about everything it needed to mass-produce a car from independent suppliers. A fledgling electric car company had other advantages, too: Tighter emissions standards have raised the cost of developing gas-powered cars, and buyers of low-emission vehicles are lured by big tax break

I will agree with that. But my point is, how much energy is used to create the electric motors and the 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, and what is the life expectancy of those batteries?

Its a nice looking car, BTW.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

I will agree with that. But my point is, how much energy is used to create the electric motors and the 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, and what is the life expectancy of those batteries?

Its a nice looking car, BTW.

The batteries are the problem. That's why they went Li-Ion - they figure PC makers are spending big money to improve them and they will just use the R&D of the Toshiba/Sony/Dell/IBM.

Electric motors are everywhere, and can probably be made to spec without too much cost.