Posted on 09/27/2008 10:23:17 AM PDT by Reaganesque
September 27, 2008 The Tesla Brand of luxury electric vehicles is certainly capturing a lot of the limelight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limelight as the era of the EV dawns. The company has announced a state-of-the-art US$250(sic) assembly facility in the heart of Silicon Valley Silicon Valley 
. The facility will build a new US$60,000 five-passenger luxury sedan with exceptional perfroamnce and a lithium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium -ion battery pack capable of delivering 240 miles per charge. The first sedans are likely to roll off the assembly line in late 2010.
The new plant will be able to produce at least 15,000 sedans – up to 30,000 with the addition of a second shift. About half of the production vehicles will be slated for sale in Europe. Tesla has not yet started taking deposits on the Model S, but executives anticipate extremely strong demand in the EU and USA.
In mid-September Tesla ramped up production of the Roadster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadster , which is produced in collaboration with Lotus Group at Tesla UK in Hethel. About 10 Roadsters start down the assembly line each week, and that number will increase to about 40 per week in early 2009. About 1,200 customers have put down deposits on the Roadster, and Tesla will begin shipping to customers in Europe starting in May.
About Tesla Motors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors
Incorporated in 2003 in California’s Silicon Valley, Tesla Motors Inc. develops and manufactures electric vehicles with exceptional design, performance and efficiency, while conforming to all US and EU safety, environmental and durability standards. The Roadster is a zero-emission, all-electric two-seater for sale now in the United States and Europe. With a 0-to-60 mph acceleration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleration of 3.9 seconds, a 14,000 rpm redline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redline , and the fastest top-gear acceleration of any production car tested by Car & Driver magazine last year, the Roadster is unique in providing super car performance, zero emissions and extraordinary efficiency.
The only thing this stupid company mass produces is Press Releases and fundraising BS.
Completely agree
The man who funded this (founded PayPal) also is funding a solar company in the area that is totally full of themselves and doesnt care a WHIT about the clients
They are all press releases and BS
If this company gets liberal ninnies to part from their money then I think this company has merit.
The car will burn real pretty when all those lithium ion batteries catch fire.
Seat belt on-check
turn key to on-check
Pooof
Wow. Ebenezer Scrooge lives! BAH-HUMBUG!! Have some confidence in free markets, gentlemen. As history has shown, it can, and has on innumerable occasions, create miracles. Every breakthrough that has ever been made has faced such quick and dismissive condemnation from somebody. Your derision is a time honored tradition and about as valuable as those who opined that airplanes would never fly and that “you’ll sail right off the edge of the world!” So, save the harrumphing and give it half a chance. No one truly knows where the next breakthrough will come from so, why not Tesla? Jeez.
Interestingly, even the venerable Motor Trend goes along with the hoopla just so they can get a test ride.
Read this report from August and pay attention to the writer’s last paragraph on the battery pack.
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/alternative/112_0803_2008_tesla_roadster/index.html
The battery pack is supposedly water-cooled to prevent overheating but with 6,831 individual D cells they need to be wired in series/parallel for operable voltages below 400V; their volume must be about two cubic feet in any case and their weight likely to be >500 pounds; do you want to try troubleshooting a single open or shorted cell?
Reportedly these batteries are available for around $20,000 or $3.00 per cell.
The keeper of the Universal Laws is not easily amused.
Not cars. Build the product and sell it and let it speak for itself. That is what American engineering is.
A scaled up electric RC racer is fine, and obviously technologically an interesting toy. Maybe it's even a development vehicle. Great! So do it and shut up with the frikkin press releases.
What is wrong is parading as a technical innovator when you're primarily working at hyping investments in a marketing PR group.
Besides, these are big-boy, boutique toys. 10 a week? 500 units a year after YEARS of hype? BFD.
The Volt is at least an attempt constrained to building a SERIAL HYBRID that can be mass produced and actually DO SOMETHING to get REAL SOLUTIONS into the real world....not pampered collectors' showroom floors.
It's the difference between hard, real engineering vs. toys and tinkering.
And in the hot, humid summers, NO way a battery car can propel the car and still have enough electricity for air conditioner, AND the fan to blow the cold air all around, and still have power for headlights, GPS,stereo, T.V. /entertainment center, windshield wipers,etc.etc.
Thanks for the link. Here’s another one for y’all.
http://teslafounders.wordpress.com/
I had no idea so many of the founders of Tesla had been fired. Apparently to make room for the press release writers.
According to the specs, recharge time is 3.5hrs with 220@70A.
That’s about 50kWh. 70hp for an hour?
So how many 0-60mph in 3.9s tire burners is that?
Even the EV-1 had an optional generator trailer to bring along! =D
Why would anyone want to burn piles of money for a tiny cost savings per mile, and then be stranded if you run out of charge in a rural area?
A 'hillbilly hybred.'
One could ask a similar question of any other 'brilliant' idea from the left. None of it makes any sense.
A solution without a problem; what a dilemma!
Good way for rich retards to spend their money.
And your expertise comes from where?
Reaganesque: “And your expertise comes from where?”
Certainly.
20+years of actual electrical engineering, building real products for real everyday customers.
For example, every laptop built since about ‘96 has a small part of logic designed by me and two other guys in it from a big company back then. Tiny part. Just one small part of millions of contributions to computer architecture over the years.
I’m just like thousands of other engineers whose effort over time gets snowballed together in the REAL products that quietly bubble into ubiquity.
Engineering and technology does not progress via press releases, it is the REAL application of scientific theory to everyday problems.
Be it civil or architectural or mechanical or electrical, engineers all share this common understanding of how easy it is to make something work in a controlled environment, and how hard it is to make things work on a massive scale, reliably in everyday life.
Tesla is not inventing anything. There’s no new battery or powertrain or power science.
The world’s challenge for the past 100 years has been to *engineer* electric cars into reliable, efficient—ubiquitous—transportation. Anyone can build a flaky, unreliable boutique electric car!
It’s lots of time in the lab developing a new implementation of the theory, doing failure analysis, and predicting how to fix something or prevent it from breaking next time.
As much as I’ve read about this particular company going all-out to develop a fancy Lotus based sexy body to sell cars without spending the required resources on solving real problems in the drivetrain repulses me.
I can tell that you have your heart in the right place and I respect that you are eager to see technology move forward. I just wish people like you would focus that fervor on real companies doing real work, not a marketing facade like Tesla.
What GM is trying to do with the Volt is a lot harder than what Tesla claims they want to do if they ever actually do any of it. And the Volt has a HVAC system that works. =)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.