Posted on 05/02/2008 8:58:21 PM PDT by kingattax
LOS ANGELES — It's safe to say Jeremy Snyder gets a charge out of the two-seat Tesla Roadster whenever he pulls one off the lot — and not because it's equipped with an all-electric engine.
As he pulled one of the sleek new automobiles down a side street Thursday and put the pedal to the metal, its lithium-ion battery-powered engine didn't give off sparks. It just emitted a powerful hum, something like a much quieter version of a jet taking off.
"Accelerate pretty good?" asked Snyder, head of client services for Tesla, who knew the answer.
"I call it a turbine sound," he said of the sound. "Because it's an electric motor it's got 100 percent torque all the time. So it just pulls you like when you're taking off in an airplane."
After several years of development, the Roadster — with sleek lines like a Ferrari or Porsche and a sticker price of $109,000 — officially moves from the drawing boards to the market next week when Tesla's first store opens. It's near the University of California, Los Angeles, in the city's toney Westwood neighborhood where Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Hollywood practically intersect.
"Because it's Hollywood and glamorous, this is the flagship store," Snyder said.
The next store is to open in a couple of months near Tesla's headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of San Carlos, where the car was developed with venture capital of more than $40 million from such investors as Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. More stores are planned for Chicago, New York and other cities by early next year.
Although a fully loaded model can set a buyer back as much as $124,000, that's still cheap compared with a high-end Ferrari. And its 6,831-cell lithium-ion battery pack gives off no emissions.
The car goes from 0 to 60 mph in just under four seconds and tops out at 125 mph. It goes 225 miles on one charge and can be fully recharged in 3.5 hours, which Tesla officials say should allow most people to drive it to work and back and recharge it at night like a cell phone.
Driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, however, would require stopping in, say, Fresno and plugging its adapter cord into a motel room wall socket.
Some critics have expressed concerns about the durability and safety of the lithium-ion battery pack, which weighs about 1,000 pounds, more than a third of the entire weight of the 2,700-pound Roadster, whose body is made up of carbon fiber materials. Tesla officials respond that the car has passed all required safety tests. They say the battery should last for about 100,000 miles of driving.
The company, formed in 2003, is named for inventor Nikola Tesla, an early pioneer in the field of electricity. The people buying its cars so far, said national sales manager Doreen Allen, are celebrities, early adopters, wealthy people and environmentalists.
Tesla officials say Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, actors George Clooney and Kelsey Grammer and musicians Will.i.am and Flea have each ordered a Roadster.
It will be awhile before anyone can walk in and drive a Tesla home off a lot, however.
"Delivery is running about 15 months," Allen said, adding the company was surprised by the demand.
Tesla began taking orders last year for the 600 Roadsters it planned to produce in 2008 and had sold all of them by October, Allen said. The first ones began rolling off the production line six weeks ago, and Allen said all of the 2008 models should be delivered to their owners by March of next year. The first ones should begin going out the door later this month.
Meanwhile, orders are being taken for 2009 models, with plans calling for production of about 1,500 cars.
Eventually Tesla also plans to produce cheaper, family vehicles.
"There's a model in the works right now, a five-passenger sedan that will be styled comparable to the roadster but a lot roomier to accommodate families, and that is slated for 2010," Snyder said.
The Tesla Roadster, the world's first highway-capable all-electric car available in the United States, is displayed on its production debut in the Tesla Flagship Store on May 1, 2008, in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci: Getty Images
The capacitance battery is a promising technology. I could see dropping one of those in my electric car after the old lithium-ion battery died. However, the cost of these batteries is quite high. You could buy lots of high price gas for the cost of one of them ($25,000). And if you do the math, and treat them as 100,000 miles of gas (their estimated lifetime), that’s over $6.00/gallon gas (equivalent for a gas car getting 25 miles/gallon using $4.00/gallon gas). I didn’t add the cost/mile for using the electricity which I heard was about $.12/mile. The electicity cost may shoot up if everyone is using these rechargable cars.
Another side effect is the production of ozone by these electric motors. Imagine an entire city firing up those electic motors in the morning.
My answer to this transportation headache is more oil drilling followed by the production of biodiesel with algae technology (or some other biochemical process).
There is no free lunch.
Try explaining that to some dimwit liberal, and they think we are crazy. I had an extended argument with a liberal greenie and he thinks these cars all recharge while being driven. Almost like a perpetual motion machine.
Batteries themselves go through a much more abusive test regime than other parts of a vehichle other than the gas tank. They are crushed, detonated, shocked, set on fire, frozen, and a whole host of other testing to find the limits of construction.
I’m disappointed; with a name like “Tesla”, I thought it would be tapping into the aether (universal plasma field) for its power source, not batteries!
< algore>Facts, facts, facts. Why do you use facts and common sense in this argument? We are trying to save the planet. < /algore mode>
I remember reading about that too. Here is another danger of the electric cars. I thought I had seen someone here comment about this, but can't find it now.
If the hybrid vehicle is in an accident, it may be difficult for police and fire department to determine if the vehicle is safe to approach to save accident victims. Using the jaws of life in the wrong place could be deadly.
Since hybrid vehicles utilize a lot of electrical power, a malfunction could cause electric jolts of more than 500 volts, which can be fatal.
The battery pack of a hybrid since it is located in the back of the vehicle can be potential shock hazard as well as a hazardous material problem.
I still don’t understand why bicycle lanes were changed to go WITH traffic, instead of against traffic, as in the old days (50 years ago).
Drive BOTH cars for 200,000 miles using the same EPA drive cycle. At $0.10 per kWH, You'll spend about $4500 in "fuel" costs. But since you still had an $11,500 "purse" left over from the money you saved buying the Tesla over the Porsche (even after the Battery Pack replacement), you still have $7000 left in your pocket.
At $4.00 per gallon and an EPA combined mileage of 18 mpg, you'd spend about $45,000 in fuel costs driving that same $200,000.
So after 200,000 miles if you'd bought the Tesla you'd be ahead $52,000. Yes, facts are very useful things to bring to an argument
I meant to copy you on Post #110. Sorry, I pushed the button too soon.
I know that, which is why I had the
< algore>
and
< /algore>
modes included. Algore would never accept any facts.
That's a point I try to drive home to all those lefties who want to "tax the rich". It is that disposable income that nurtures new technologies to the point that they can be mass produced at prices everyone can afford. Punitively taxing "the rich" amounts to eating your seed corn.
Saturn EV-1. I had a couple friends who leased them. They were never sold to anyone.
I wish Kathleen Sibelius had that understanding. God forbid power generated in Kansas should be sold in others of our states; I guess we should only be raising enough wheat for bread and pasta for the citizens of the state also...her and her gorelackeys reasonings are just wind whistling through their main beams. This is not entirely relevant to this thread but.../end rant
I wonder what the resale value will be on one with, say, 90,000 miles on the odometer.....Nevermind, if you can afford to buy one you can afford any of the costs that go along with it.
I wonder how easy it is to get replacement parts for a Delorean..........
And it's not 1,000 lbs. either.......
Wasn't that one the Rolls-Canardly? Rolls down the hill but can hardly make it back up......
You talking down to me?
Sure the batteries are expensive now, but I do believe that continued R&D will bring those costs down each year.
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