Its the reason we used to refer to them (as we did ALL "real cars) back then as "Irons!"
My 4 speed, Posi-Traction, 360 HP, 400 HO, could do 0-60 in about 6.8, not as fast as this model, but I bet mine sounded a lot better and not too sure I couldn't have bested it on the top end.
Would also like to see the stats on its top end as well as how much electric drain there is when one takes off that quickly. There necessarily must be a trade off.
What a load of, um, “Shaving Cream”! ;-)
Quick, drive a stake through it’s “Green” heart.
The author really fancies himself a wordsmith, I am repelled by his trying too hard to be clever, and his obvious bias.
“the thrust from the instant you mash the accelerator pushes back like Alec Baldwin at a paparazzi convention”. Lame, REALLY lame.
“the hints of revolution within the Model S begin with the door handles, which slide out of the body with a motorized purr when you touch them,”
Oh please, could you get any more pretentious? Look forward to these being a high-failure rate item that gets deleted from production pretty damn quick!
“The Model S range will still depend on how you drive it”. Yes, along with how much of that luggage space you use, and how new the batteries are in addition to weather or not you managed to get them fully charged.
This line made me want to punch the author in the nose, it’s far far from true!
“From behind the wheel of the Tesla Model S, you feel you’re driving the future, instead of burning increasingly limited gallons of the past.”
Not too up to date regards our oil situation, unless the Omombie regime finds a way to keep us from accessing it.
But the line will certainly play well with the eco-nut crowd, who ignore reality, such as that these cars will actually run mostly on coal!
I would not have one as a gift for any longer than it took to unload it on some fool.
20,000 sales a year? “at prices between $54,700 up to $105,400”
Resale value of ZERO once the batteries wear out, and the gimmick electronics begin to fail.
So, some one please let me know how I go about cashing in on betting against this company being a success.
Failure from inception. Let’s quit subsidizing this crap. Sure, it can be done, but for what purpose? It won’t save energy, it won’t replace the internal combustion engine and it is waste of money
Then I asked him how many miles a similar gasoline powered car got per gallon. He shrugged and said maybe 30. I said that, for the sake of argument, we should say a compact car gets 50 miles to the gallon.
Then I asked him how long it takes to charge the batteries of an electric car. He said maybe 12 hours. I explained that based on our agreed benchmarks. His electric car would take about 12 hours to deliver the equivalent of one gallon of gasoline.
He argued that you could have a set up where you could swap out batteries. I commented that rechargeables hold a little less each time you charge them and the battery is the most expensive part of an electric car. You might swap your brand new battery for an old used up piece of crap. I asked him if he ever swapped propane tanks. He replied that only an idiot would do that. They never seem to give you anything as good as the one you turn in.
...and that's when the light turned on in his head.
Kind of want one.
How will people be able to afford to charge their electric cars when electricity rates necessarily skyrocket according to Obama?
How many years does the battery last? And how much does it costs to replace?
The efficiency of the batteries will be significantly lower than that of the motors in real world applications. When Lithium-ion cells are brand new they might perform at up to 80% to 90% efficiency with carefully controlled charge and discharge rates. Neither the charge rate or the discharge rate in this application is going to be anywhere near the optimum range more than a fraction of the time. It is doubtful whether these batteries will achieve 80% average efficiency even when new.
It would be optimistic to expect 20% energy loss from the motors and an additional 25% loss from the batteries. There are also energy losses at the power plants that produce the power and even greater losses in the power lines, transformers and then the wiring in our homes and “charging stations”. In our country there is probably a 50% loss of energy on average from the source of power to our wall outlets. So overall... the efficiency of electric vehicles most which will get their electricity from coal, natural gas, or in remote areas diesel powered sources is in most likely less than that of traditional gasoline powered vehicles.
This is not to mention that the Obama administration has hampered the development of electric power generation and transmission at every possible avenue. If it weren't for the failing economy we would already be experiencing brown outs and other problems from our country's aging electrical utility system. We may not have the infastructure to support a large number of electrical vehicles on the road.
I first realized the author of the article was repeating crap as fact when he said that the batteries were assembled with “7,000 AA-sized lithium-ion cells”. They are actually assembled with 18650 cells which have over twice the volume of AA-sized cells.
I have always had an interest in electric powered vehicles and even constructed an electric powered bicycle. The bicycle had a 20 mile range on flat terrain and would average about 25 mph. I considered it a success and it was an economical and quiet way to get around. Unfortunately, the motor and batteries added about 50 lbs to the bike which made it significntly more unwieldy. When the weather is nice... it is not a bad way to get around. I sold it because I can ride almost as fast on a road bike.
Except that electric cars are, for the most part, driven by fossil fuels.