Tesla electric sports car ready to hum onto highways

Associated Press ^ | 5-2-08 | JOHN ROGERS

[Rembrandt]

“I want one!!”
—
And when you’re driving thru Butte, Montana and forward motion stops due to mechanical issues, you will....

[Our man in washington]

Central energy generation is a lot more efficient than energy generated in your car. And when you plug in your socket, it’s highly like the raw material for that energy came from inside the U.S.A.

[wolfpat]

If they really wanted to be true to the Tesla name, they’d have the car powered by the magnetic field coming off the roadside power lines.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Tesla may begin delivering Roadsters with temporary transmissions[will fail in a few thousand miles]
Monday December 24, 08:01:39 GMT-0800 2007 · by grundle · 25 replies · 6+ views
autoblog.com ^ | Dec 13th 2007 | John Neff
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1943844/posts

[Nowhere Man]

Like a typical journalist, the reporter neglects my first question: How many kilowatt-hours does it suck up in those 3.5 hours?

Well, I remember they asked this question back in the 1970s in an old "Elementary Electronics" magazine where the answer would have been that you would need a large gauge wires to handle all the electricity needed to recharge such a car in short a time. Of course, the higher the voltage, the lower the amps you needs, so maybe, just MAYBE, you can do it on a 220/240 VAC outlet, we need the specs to be sure. Don't forget, you will not always have to go top speed all the time, so you might need only a small percentage of battery power to get around town if one drives like a normal person. So if you have say a 75 kw hour battery pack and the motor requires 150 kw hour top speed, your range will go down the toilet but if you drive it at street to common highway speeds, you might need only 20 or 30 kw hours and that will last much longer. Don't forget you will need more electric plants if we make these cars and unless we build more atomic power stations, all we are doing is transferring the burden from one place to another for these cars.

Pinging RCA2000, we've talked about electric cars before.

[umgud]

You have battery acid in your car already. I think that would be the least of your worries.

Yeah........ but I've only got one battery. Just a concern. Other than that I'd like to have one of these things.

[JoeSixPack1]

I’m not exactly sure how it works but don’t we need fuel for electricity?

Cindy, you can get yourself a hand operated generator, it will charge the batteries.

Most people will plug it into a powered outlet and depending on their power resource, it could be nuclear, diesel, jet engine, coal, wind or hydro, etc. that will charge the batteries. So unless you can change the laws of physics, YES, one form of energy or another will be converted to electricity.

[MadelineZapeezda]

Nikola Tesla, an early pioneer in the field of electricity

Nikola Tesla, a pure genius, he invented tomorrow!

[DB]

Call AAA...

[CindyDawg]

I have an ER radio with all the lights and whistles that I crank:’) My question was though...would we be decreasing our dependence on foreign oil. Solar, water, wind, etc, I just want to be able to tell these guys to take their high priced oil and go pound sand.

[CindyDawg]

What do you drive?. I though everyone has at least two batteries on their truck? :’)

[BigCinBigD]

I like the whole concept, and if I could afford it I would buy one tomorrow. I would like to see the charging time down to about 30 minutes so that cross country trips would be convenient. And a SUV version. Possibly some enterprising company could build rest/charging stops along our nations highways.

[DB]

Lithium-ion batteries don't have liquid acid like typical car batteries (I believe). It is more like goo...

Lithium burns when exposed to oxygen...

If you crash and short/rupture your battery pack it isn't likely going to be pretty, so to speak...

[Dimples]

It has a 50kWH Battery Pack that recharges from a home charging station from 240V at a 70A.

[umgud]

What do you drive?. I though everyone has at least two batteries on their truck? :’)

'07 Chevy Silverado 4x4 crew cab.........., but only one battery way up front.

[ConservaTexan]

Man outta time!

[Daaave]

Have they fixed the transmission?

Tesla’s Chairman and New CEO Talk Transmission Snags and Raising Another $40M

December 21st, 2007

They’ve set a goal of getting the company’s first vehicle -– the Roadster -– to a limited amount of customers in the first quarter of 2008. To meet that deadline they are overcoming a technology snag: the transmission.

Two suppliers failed to make Tesla’s transmission up to snuff, the executives say, and the company is now working with new companies in the hopes of figuring out a fix fast. The first cars they ship will actually have an interim, one-speed transmission, which the company will swap out for a two-speed transmission.

earth2tech.com

[Eagles6]

Well, see, the hollywood libs don't think that far out of their own little reality. You just plug it in and it has no emissions. The fact that you must burn coal or gas or use nuclear to produce the electricity doesn't enter the picture.

There is no free lunch.

[umgud]

Yup......... my luck would be to have the batts blow up on me.

[Myrddin]

A back of the hand calculation indicates that the 225 mile trip over 3.5 hours with a couple 150 lb passengers will eat up about 395 kw-hr. I don't expect anyone is going to hand you that electricity for free. There will be metered outlets where you can connect and pay the cost of the electricity. That electricity is going to be priced according to what the local utility charges per kw-hr plus a service fee for allowing you to occupy and use the charging equipment.