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Elon Musk: The new Tesla Roadster can travel some 400 miles on a single charge
The Washington Post's The Switch Blog ^ | December 26, 2014 | Brian Fung

Posted on 12/26/2014 7:07:15 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Car nerds, you just got an extra present under the tree.

Tesla announced Friday an upgrade for its Roadster, the electric car company’s convertible model, and said that the new features significantly boost its range -- beyond what many traditional cars can get on a tank of gasoline.

The company is installing three retrofits for the vehicle. First up is a battery upgrade that marks a 31 percent increase in capacity. Next is an “aero kit” that’ll alter the car’s profile slightly, producing a 15 percent reduction in wind drag. Finally, the Roadster will be getting new, more efficient tires.

The result is an electric vehicle that can reliably travel about 350 miles before needing a recharge, and possibly more in ideal conditions. That’s pretty similar — or even better — than many conventional gasoline-powered cars. The University of Michigan estimates that the average fuel economy of a new car in 2014 was about 25 miles per gallon. With a 12- or 13-gallon tank, that gets you about 325 miles on a single fill-up....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society; Travel
KEYWORDS: automobiles; automotive; tesla
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

Grow up. I’m not responsible for whatever subsidies Elon Musk got. The Tesla is a brilliant piece of engineering. I’ve 2 friends who own them. They didn’t buy them because they were Green. They bought them because they liked how they looked, liked how they performed, and they could afford them.

I can’t believe how many people on this thread are behaving like children because someone produced an electric car whose look and performance is on par with the world’s best supercars....


61 posted on 12/26/2014 10:24:37 PM PST by freebilly (How about this-- we stop trying to elect the unelectable)
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To: az_gila

You’re correct— the current Supercharging systems for Teslas deliver up to 120 kW. To charge one in 10-15 minutes is going to require approx 720 kW. Cable size & heat are huge problems..., now. I’m not an engineer, so I really don’t know what the ultimate solution will be. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to partition the battery in 6 sections so that recharging becomes manageable....


62 posted on 12/26/2014 10:49:30 PM PST by freebilly (How about this-- we stop trying to elect the unelectable)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Doubt it....


63 posted on 12/26/2014 10:50:29 PM PST by freebilly (How about this-- we stop trying to elect the unelectable)
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To: cableguymn
If you presume, as a given, that ALL liberals are mentally challenged, in effect, located on the IQ bell curve somewhere between zero and the mean, you can explain their behavior. They are bone deep, effing stupid, and at best, only capable of imitating intelligence. Hence their fascination with electric cars, anti-gravity machines, global warming, Bigfoot, and communism.

I offer this as an explanation: The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias wherein unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than is accurate. Look it up.

64 posted on 12/26/2014 11:23:32 PM PST by jonascord (It's sarcasm unless otherwise noted...)
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To: freebilly
There are already quick charging stations that can bring an electric car to 80% charge in 25-30 minutes.


But for smaller batteries. This is one example -

http://evsolutions.avinc.com/products/public_charging/public_charging_b

It's 50 KW, and would take over an hour on the Tesla 85 KW battery.

65 posted on 12/27/2014 12:08:42 AM PST by az_gila
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To: freebilly
You are ducking The Question. When your friends plug this toy in, where is the power coming from?

Coal?
Natural gas from a fractured well?
A massive dam that is filling up with sediment behind the spillway and blocking some inch long fish that was dying out anyway from breeding?
A super expensive and wildly inefficient birdie blender? (It slices, it dices, it makes thousands of pigeon fries!)
A nuclear plant that some fed inspector is requiring to run dry to test the operator?

Look at all the cars on the way to work on Monday. Where are all these amps supposed to appear from? The dimension next door? Perhaps you could ask DU for some...

Don't be a democrat. Think things thru.

66 posted on 12/27/2014 12:27:43 AM PST by jonascord (It's sarcasm unless otherwise noted...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I see these cars DAILY. How do people MAKE all this money?????


67 posted on 12/27/2014 12:35:54 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: freebilly
Too many Freepers are unable to separate the technological virtues from the politics promoted by many (most) proponents of electric cars. The Tesla cars really are marvels.

Tesla Model S, Fully Tuned: Saleen ST

Tesla Model S Gets AWD and Autopilot | Consumer Reports

Saleen and Consumer Reports - opposite ends of the automotive spectrum.

Tesla Model S - Battery Swap

Tesla Model S - Winter Driving Redefined

68 posted on 12/27/2014 4:29:20 AM PST by BwanaNdege
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

Or us apartment dwellers. Everyone doesn’t have a garage.


69 posted on 12/27/2014 5:27:56 AM PST by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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To: jonascord

I have always wondered how much it cost to fully charge an electric car. Anybody know?


70 posted on 12/27/2014 5:37:06 AM PST by Ditter
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To: R. Scott

Or us apartment dwellers. Everyone doesn’t have a garage.


Haven’t you figured it out, R. Scott?

The end game is for EVERYBODY to be an urban dweller.

The glorified golf-carts will be playthings for your benevolent rulers.

You won’t need a dirty gas powered vehicle because you’ll have government managed eco-friendly mass transit (busses and trains). If your route doesn’t go there you won’t NEED to go there.


71 posted on 12/27/2014 7:11:25 AM PST by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: freebilly

What’s that Mr Watermelon?

How do your golf-carts do in a Montana or North Dakota Winter? What’s the life expectancy of your battery packs in an extremely hot, humid Louisiana Summer?

Oh yeah, you guys keep saying “the technology is coming soon!”

You sound like another “progressive” BS artist.


72 posted on 12/27/2014 7:14:33 AM PST by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: catnipman; freebilly

He pretty much repeated John Kerry’s political speeches during the 2004 election.

You know liberals have no argument when they call you “stupid.”


73 posted on 12/27/2014 7:16:42 AM PST by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: jonascord; freebilly

You are ducking The Question. When your friends plug this toy in, where is the power coming from?


Happy thoughts and unicorn farts.


74 posted on 12/27/2014 7:17:53 AM PST by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: bray

Range isn’t the only part of the problem with electric cars...that lengthy charging time is a real issue. Imagine packing the family into your Tesla (fat chance it will ever be big enough) and heading out on vacation to the South Dakota Black Hills. By the time you get to Wall Drug you better plan on spending the night waiting in line for for the next available charger as each “fill up” takes hours. Driving across the desert or in frozen north, don’t count on getting that 400 mile range as your air conditioning, wipers, heater, defroster, lights and electronic gizmos are are running off that same battery.


75 posted on 12/27/2014 7:26:20 AM PST by The Great RJ (Pants up...Don't loot!)
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To: Ditter

At 10 cents / K-W Hr it is usually much cheaper than an equivalent fill up of gas. The issue is time. A fill up takes 5 minutes a charge 8 hours.


76 posted on 12/27/2014 7:28:31 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: ziravan

77 posted on 12/27/2014 7:36:06 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: cableguymn

Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. 707hp, just over $57,000.

78 posted on 12/27/2014 7:40:04 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We recommend charging from a 240 volt outlet rather than a 110 volt outlet. A 240 volt outlet provides a lot more power than a standard outlet and will charge your car faster.
29 mile of range per hour of charge from the tesla website
3000 miles from coast to coast is..... 103 hours add 48 for drive time gives 151 or about 6 days. horse and buggy isn’t much slower. bike is over 10 days


79 posted on 12/27/2014 8:33:42 AM PST by kvanbrunt2 (civil law: commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong Blackstone Commentaries I p44)
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To: kvanbrunt2

The BMW i8, in the same general price range, is also a plug-in but has a nice 3 cylinder engine so you don’t have to stop and recharge. Have you seen it?


80 posted on 12/27/2014 8:38:26 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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