What the heck is "hydro power"?
Tesla Motors' car is a very nice implementation of a simple idea: Battery-powered electric car, using Li-ion batteries (the same kind used for notebook computers) to store the electricy.
You plug it in and you have the juice to run the electric car.
Energy-wise, very efficient. The downside is they need 1000 lbs of battery, and at approx $250/kwH or more, its pricey. (.11 KwH/km x 400km = 44 kwH = $11,000 or so for the battery pack alone.)
Li-ion takes about 2,000 recharges, and gets about 250 miles per charge, so needs to be replaced after 500,000 miles.
"Hydro" has nothing to do with it.
All the Hollywood elite should love this as an eco-friendly substitute for the Hummer.
All the Hollywood elite should love this as an eco-friendly substitute for the Hummer.
The Tesla car was mentioned only as an example of an electric car in existence. I was trying to push the idea of using hydro to run a generator... but then I just found this example of Stan Meyers Hydrocell Dunebuggy (stan_meyers_bb.wmv). Link was from This bulletin board discussing hydrocells.. The post is about mid-way on the page.
The reporter says it will be about two years before Stans hydrocell is mass produced and will cost around $1,500.