New electric car....freakin awesome!

[theHawk]

Found this on the "other" forum :tng:

0-60mph in 4 seconds
Zero gasoline needed!

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1

Now thats an electric car I would love to have for a daily driver!

 

[Hagbard Celine]

I heard about this on NPR the other day. It's exciting! 0-60 in 4 seconds on electricity! Gas companies are going to put a hit out on the guy who invented this.

 

[theHawk]

Heh yea, or they could wise up and realize we won't be using gas forever. They need to start supplying alternative fuels. All-electric cars won't become feasible until they find a way to recharge them quickly. Hopefully they'll find out a way to dump more juice into such batteries. It may actually be easier to move towards all electric cars than hydrogen since you really don't need to build a new infrastructure for it---every building gets electricity as it is.

 

[5stringJeff]

I wonder what the price will be.

 

[cgd75]

They are taking orders right now. The MSRP is $100,000.

I'm getting two.

 

[CockySOB]

Found this on the "other" forum :tng:

0-60mph in 4 seconds
Zero gasoline needed!

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1

Now thats an electric car I would love to have for a daily driver!

FUCK ME!!!! Daddy likes!!!

And I love the idea of piping custom MP3's to change the engine "sound" to mess with other motorists....

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

The lithium batteries are probably capable of taking more charge. The problem is the circuit breaker at your house. It can only flow so much current. For fast charging you'd have to either have A) an industrial power supply, or B) a whopping big battery in your garage that slowly charges up at night and dumps quickly into car batteries.

What's really cool is, I'm pretty sure these are the old, conventional lithiums. Which means that better batteries are due soon--faster chargups (depending on the source obviously), higher energy density, better durability, longer lifetimes, and best of all, cheaper cost.

http://www.a123systems.com/html/home.html (these just went on sale in DeWalt 36V tools...they are cordless, yet MORE powerful than the corded versions!)
http://fireflyenergy.com/
http://www.altairnano.com/
http://www.feelgoodcars.com/media/images_media/TorontoStar_EEStor.pdf
www.europositron.com

If these are all they are cracked up to be, we might see even better cars really soon. Maybe a Tesla 2.0, with 400+ mile range, Corvette price point, faster chargup (with the right equipment), and a battery pack that can withstand literally decades of use. Even if the price is twice that of a gasoline car, think of how much you'd save on maintenance with an electric car. You don't necessarily have to have a transmission, differential, or even mechanical brakes. Imagine tires and shocks being the only routine wear items.

 

[Redhots]

FUCK ME!!!! Daddy likes!!!

And I love the idea of piping custom MP3's to change the engine "sound" to mess with other motorists....

Where did you see that?

 

[CockySOB]

Where did you see that?

I followed the links at the link in the OP to the Wired article.

IIRC, it was in the article summary, page three.

 

[Harmageddon]

HELL YEAH!!

That is what I'm talking about. . . PROGRESSIVE SCIENCE!!

No way I'm waiting around for a rapture to relieve me of my miserable life :wank:
I'll be buzzing across the highway in one of these, happy as a child!

"power up the engines! Warp 3!"

 

[theHawk]

They don't know the pricing yet, somewhere between 85k-100k. But the its new technology so of course its way overpriced. I'm just hoping it catches on and more car companies see this and follow suit, comeptition = lower prices.

It wouldnt be a bad idea to add an on-board generator as well. A small gasoline/diesel engine (or alternative fuel engine!) could be used to power the electric generator that would charge the battery the electric motor sucks its power from. That would allow long distance travel with using very little fuel.

 

[theHawk]

That is what I'm talking about. . . PROGRESSIVE SCIENCE!!

Its CONSERVATIVE SCIENCE!! :halo:

 

[5stringJeff]

In about 10 years, electric cars with comparable ranges and performance will be half the price, I'm sure. So, a quick cost analysis:

A car that doesn't require gas saves you having to fill up. If one assumes that one drives 15,000 miles a year and gets 20 MPG, they'll use 750 gallons of gas. At $3/gal, that's $2,250 each year in gas. If you own a car for 5 years, that's $11,250 spent on gas. Of course, there's other costs you'll lose out on, like oil changes, but some additional costs, namely your electric bill. But let's assume that those cancel each other out. So, it would be cost effective to purchase the car if it were up to $11,250 more than a comparable gas-powered car. The average new car costs about $22,000 (depending on body style, features, etc.), so when comparable electric-only cars fall in price to about $33,000 (again, depending on features), they will be economical to buy.

 

[Harmageddon]

Its CONSERVATIVE SCIENCE!! :halo:

GRIN.
Ok, fair enough, Tesla's stuff is relatively old (though still very cool).

But it's conservative theory with a progressively practical sauce :halo:

 

[fuzzykitten99]

Found this on the "other" forum :tng:

0-60mph in 4 seconds
Zero gasoline needed!

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1

Now thats an electric car I would love to have for a daily driver!

Eh...nice looking, but I'll only be impressed when it can COMFORTABLY fit 2 averave size adults, 2 kids in car seats, a week's worth of groceries, and a stroller. My daily driver does that no problem.

 

[Nienna]

In about 10 years, electric cars with comparable ranges and performance will be half the price, I'm sure. So, a quick cost analysis:

A car that doesn't require gas saves you having to fill up. If one assumes that one drives 15,000 miles a year and gets 20 MPG, they'll use 750 gallons of gas. At $3/gal, that's $2,250 each year in gas. If you own a car for 5 years, that's $11,250 spent on gas. Of course, there's other costs you'll lose out on, like oil changes, but some additional costs, namely your electric bill. But let's assume that those cancel each other out. So, it would be cost effective to purchase the car if it were up to $11,250 more than a comparable gas-powered car. The average new car costs about $22,000 (depending on body style, features, etc.), so when comparable electric-only cars fall in price to about $33,000 (again, depending on features), they will be economical to buy.

Great break-down, Jeff!

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

In about 10 years, electric cars with comparable ranges and performance will be half the price, I'm sure. So, a quick cost analysis:

A car that doesn't require gas saves you having to fill up. If one assumes that one drives 15,000 miles a year and gets 20 MPG, they'll use 750 gallons of gas. At $3/gal, that's $2,250 each year in gas. If you own a car for 5 years, that's $11,250 spent on gas. Of course, there's other costs you'll lose out on, like oil changes, but some additional costs, namely your electric bill. But let's assume that those cancel each other out. So, it would be cost effective to purchase the car if it were up to $11,250 more than a comparable gas-powered car. The average new car costs about $22,000 (depending on body style, features, etc.), so when comparable electric-only cars fall in price to about $33,000 (again, depending on features), they will be economical to buy.

The cost of electricity right now is generally $.75~$1 equivalent. So, $3750 in your example. That's still a nice $7500 difference over five years.

But the difference in maintence costs is potentially huge. In your example, you are assuming 15k miles per year. So that's 5 oil changes at...$30 a pop? It's been a long time since I paid for oil changes, so I don't know. That would be $750 over 5 years. No air filters to change, so that's more money saved. Your car note might be $100 a month higher, but your associated costs could easily be $150 a month lower, almost immediately.

As the car grows older, the electric can potentially have far fewer repairs. An electric car may have a transmission, but it's not an absolute necessity. Mitsubishi will be building electric cars with in-wheel motors. So no more transmission flushes and no clutch replacements. No differential fluids either. You can make an AWD car without a transfer case, 2 differentials, and all the maintence headaches. If a motor goes out, you can keep on driving. Go to the dealer, and he can swap out the bad motor by simply unbolting the wheel and unplugging the motor. And motors can be rebuilt with much greater ease than engines.

And since we've got four electric motors, we don't even really need mechanical brakes--no more brake pads and rotors, and no more brake fluid changes. (Actually most proposed EV's still have brakes, but with regenerative braking, you'd use them less.) No more power steering fluid changes, because an electric car will almost certainly use a motor for power steering. Really, your only maintence items would be tires, alignment, A/C, and shocks. Oh yeah and let's not forget: instantly hot heaters!

This is assuming that the newest batteries coming out will be as long-lived as they say. The Tesla will need a new pack at 100k miles, and it won't be cheap. Newer battery tech will last for decades. I can imagine carmakers adopting 10 year warranties as standard.

And then there will be the performance benefits. Batteries will be spread out along the floorpan or along the backbone of the car. Motors are smaller and more compact than engines. EV's will have an incredibly low center of gravity, for awesome handling. Plus the ease of having (or adding later on, if you want) AWD. The Tesla roadster is only the beginning of what's possible with better batteries. EV's will beat the pants off today's supercars, without the huge maintence bills. They will also have far greater flexibility in designing the body style, without a bulky engine and transmission to work around. A Miata-sized car could probably have room for four people.

 

[5stringJeff]

Great post, BVB!

When they build an electric car that I can afford the monthly payments on that has preformance similar to a gas-powered car, I'm in.