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Tesla Test Drive on Tape

What I don't understand about Tesla, is why they didn't put a secondary power source in the car like the Chevy Volt has planned. When this thing is out of power, it had better be somewhere near a 120V plug, otherwise you are SOL. I think the design of the Volt is far superior because it includes a small genset to allow the vehicle to charge itself when needed. I hope GM survives long enough to actually sell the Volt.
 
I personally see the Tesla design as far, far superior.

There have been solar cell developments (3d, ultra violet etc) in the last year or two that, when coupled with Tesla's design, will make this car drive forever.

Every single peice of technology to make a 4 door, camry-type design car that is a solar/battery electric, not only exists but can be brought down in price very easily.

The problem: Oil companies have a LOT of pull. More than people tend to want to think about. They are very powerful organizations with the ability and the drive to squelch almost all public knowledge of these innovations.
 
DrVal said:
I personally see the Tesla design as far, far superior.

There have been solar cell developments (3d, ultra violet etc) in the last year or two that, when coupled with Tesla's design, will make this car drive forever.

Every single peice of technology to make a 4 door, camry-type design car that is a solar/battery electric, not only exists but can be brought down in price very easily.

The problem: Oil companies have a LOT of pull. More than people tend to want to think about. They are very powerful organizations with the ability and the drive to squelch almost all public knowledge of these innovations.
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So let me see if I understand correctly, the Tesla design is far superior because of technology that is under development by someone else, which is not included in the Tesla desgin, nor do we have any indication that it ever will be? I'm not sure I follow.
 
heh would have been nice to see em driving it in something other than city street traffic at the end. :p
 
JethroXP said:
What I don't understand about Tesla, is why they didn't put a secondary power source in the car like the Chevy Volt has planned. When this thing is out of power, it had better be somewhere near a 120V plug, otherwise you are SOL. I think the design of the Volt is far superior because it includes a small genset to allow the vehicle to charge itself when needed. I hope GM survives long enough to actually sell the Volt.
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I don't think Tesla expects people to do their daily commutes or road trips in this thing. It would kind of be like complaining that a Ferrari doesn't have much trunk space - the people buying it really don't care about such things ;)
 
kllrnohj said:
I don't think Tesla expects people to do their daily commutes or road trips in this thing. It would kind of be like complaining that a Ferrari doesn't have much trunk space - the people buying it really don't care about such things ;)
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Daily Commute, I agree, but no road trips? What do you suppose they expect you'll do with it? Drive around the city in mid-day traffic making a youtube video?
 
To hell with the Tesla, when are they going to make an electirc muscle car? If it's not a battery powered General Lee or battery powered BigFoot, I dun care >:p

Seriously though, I wanna see a Dodge Viper equivelent elec car :D Nothing like going from 0 - 200 then back to 0 in less than 6 seconds cause u needa recharge the batteries for 4 hours ROTFL.
 
JethroXP said:
Daily Commute, I agree, but no road trips? What do you suppose they expect you'll do with it? Drive around the city in mid-day traffic making a youtube video?
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I was thinking more weekend outings or perhaps track use. I could be mistaken, but I don't think exotics make very good road trip cars - they tend to sacrifice ride quality for handing and speed :D
 
kllrnohj said:
I was thinking more weekend outings or perhaps track use. I could be mistaken, but I don't think exotics make very good road trip cars - they tend to sacrifice ride quality for handing and speed :D
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Yeah, I wasn't really thinking L.A. to New York, but more L.A. to San Francisco, via the Pacific Coast Highway. It's a beautiful drive, but this car would get less than half way before needing to be plugged in overnight. Hell, you couldn't even do Seattle Portland with it.

My major problem with the Telsa is that once you deplete the battery, your only option is an 8-hour wait within proximity of a 120V outlet. The Chevy Volt is planned to have less than 20% of the battery range of the Tesla (40 miles vs. 220), but at least it won't leave you stranded when the battery is drained because it has a gas powered genset onboard to recharge itself.

It just seems that in their effort to be purists, they crippled this car into being nothing more than an expensive novelty, when with a little more practical engineering it could have been a real milestone in automotive history.
 
that guy obviously loves the sound of his own voice... that was painful to watch... im like when are they showing us the car? when are they showing us the car? get those two ugly pricks off the screen and show us the goddamn card!!
 
All talk, no show. Where we supposed to see the car in that clip? You know, inside cam, seeing a 0-60 run, the sound of the electric engine....

That video is crap... painful.
 
Truckweb said:
All talk, no show. Where we supposed to see the car in that clip? You know, inside cam, seeing a 0-60 run, the sound of the electric engine....

That video is crap... painful.
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Seriously.
Less crap please.
 
I like the Volt idea as something for the near future. Battery technology still sucks to bad to make a 100% electric car.

I'd rather a car that can run 100% on the battery and have a small gas tank (maybe 5 gallons with ability to get 30mpg on) and a small engine (3 cyl would do).

The battery has to get at least 100 miles to the charge. Once the batter is depleated the engine and kick in and drive the car and start charging the batter. So you are talking a really good distance on battery and an even better distance on both. Heck even if you emptied the 5 gallon tank the battery will have charged enough to get you another 25 miles or whatever. So you are talking close to 300 miles. It works for commuters and for distance.

The Volt only get like 40 miles to the battery which is crap. I can barely commute to work one way on that. If there is an accident and traffic slows to a crawl then what? Just like gas, I sit there and waste power.

Volt is a gimmik just like the Tesla, only hollywood and tree huggers will jump on them to say they are all for the planet and what not then complain when they have to pay for electricity to charge it everyday or cry thier hearts out when AAA can't come give them a power boost when they run out on the side of the highway.
 
Bigbacon said:
The Volt only get like 40 miles to the battery which is crap. I can barely commute to work one way on that. If there is an accident and traffic slows to a crawl then what? Just like gas, I sit there and waste power.
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Most people dont commute that far.
And no, you dont burn alot of electricity sitting in traffic. Seriously? :rolleyes:

Volt is a gimmik just like the Tesla, only hollywood and tree huggers will jump on them to say they are all for the planet and what not then complain when they have to pay for electricity to charge it everyday or cry thier hearts out when AAA can't come give them a power boost when they run out on the side of the highway.
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The volt is a hybrid, it has a gas burning motor to charge the battery. A dead battery wont leave you stranded.

If youre gonna shit on a product, try to understand how it works first, so you dont like a mouth breathing moron.
 
Bigbacon said:
I like the Volt idea as something for the near future. Battery technology still sucks to bad to make a 100% electric car.

I'd rather a car that can run 100% on the battery and have a small gas tank (maybe 5 gallons with ability to get 30mpg on) and a small engine (3 cyl would do).

The battery has to get at least 100 miles to the charge. Once the batter is depleated the engine and kick in and drive the car and start charging the batter. So you are talking a really good distance on battery and an even better distance on both. Heck even if you emptied the 5 gallon tank the battery will have charged enough to get you another 25 miles or whatever. So you are talking close to 300 miles. It works for commuters and for distance.

The Volt only get like 40 miles to the battery which is crap. I can barely commute to work one way on that. If there is an accident and traffic slows to a crawl then what? Just like gas, I sit there and waste power.

Volt is a gimmik just like the Tesla, only hollywood and tree huggers will jump on them to say they are all for the planet and what not then complain when they have to pay for electricity to charge it everyday or cry thier hearts out when AAA can't come give them a power boost when they run out on the side of the highway.
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An electric doesn't use any power when not moving, unless you're trying to push a pair of 10" alpines or something...

The Volt is garbage. The Karma is a nice model (google it). The Tesla is splendid. The batteries are at least 40% the end cost of the car. If oil companies didn't impede Nihm production and technology we would have gotten here a lot sooner. The Tesla of course uses a Li-Ion or Li-Poly (not sure) which are (significantly) more expensive.

We need to cut oil completely out.
 
Where's my edit button?

Sorry for the double post, I meant to qualify "The Volt is garbage". By adding a gasoline generator on the car, Detroit has engineered an element to break, ensuring people have to buy another in 5-10 years. It also exponentially increases the number of moving mechanical elements and kills efficiency of the car. Auto manufacturers get on my nerves.

An electric you will have to swap out the batteries (with lighter, more efficient, cheaper to produce ones) in a decade or so. All other maintenance is almost eliminated with the exception of wheels, steering.
 
So all hybrids are garbage?
Insight, Pious, all garbage because they wont leave you stranded if your batteries run out of charge?
Gasoline engine technology is very refined and reliable technology, hardly garbage.

Hybrid cars also dont cost $100K either.
 
RonindeBeatrice said:
We need to cut oil completely out.
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Haha I was an idealist in high school, but after college (+ few years working) it dawns on you just how hard it is to change ANYTHING. Cutting oil out completely? That is not gonna sit well with Big Oil. You might have noticed Exxon or Chevron frolicking around their ideas of "alternative ideas" (yeah right) or Chevron talking about "human energy". Both companies are still oil at heart, and would love to continue going down that route.

The second the US gov't makes a legitimate move to go completely away from oil, the whine from the oil lobby will grow to a crescendo. Mind you that whine is theoretical b/c our entire transportation industry, top to bottom, is still oil-based. Air travel takes a boatload of oil, if people haven't been paying attention.
 
JethroXP said:
What I don't understand about Tesla, is why they didn't put a secondary power source in the car like the Chevy Volt has planned. When this thing is out of power, it had better be somewhere near a 120V plug, otherwise you are SOL. I think the design of the Volt is far superior because it includes a small genset to allow the vehicle to charge itself when needed. I hope GM survives long enough to actually sell the Volt.
Click to expand...

I can fix this problem easily, keep a little portable generator in your trunk. Walla! :p
 
Monkey God said:
So all hybrids are garbage?
Insight, Pious, all garbage because they wont leave you stranded if your batteries run out of charge?
Gasoline engine technology is very refined and reliable technology, hardly garbage.

Hybrid cars also dont cost $100K either.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the bias and the lack of compassion for the hybrids. They're not the devil by any means, but they are a ruse by the industry. Hybrids were developed to appease the hippies. Models with efficiencies rivaling the Prius (for example) could have been accomplished by engineers with only gasoline if it was in the interest of the industry to do so. Gasoline engines are remarkably better than they were 20 years ago, yet we've stalled at 30mpg.

By creating hybrids, the auto manufacturers are only delaying the adoption of pure electrics and trying to keep people coming to their showrooms every few years.

Pure electrics are expensive now because the batteries are red taped up the wazoo.

There is no such thing as a reliable gasoline engine.
 
Also...

Who would be "stranded if your batteries run out of charge"? Likely the same people that would "run their tank out of gas". You won't attempt to drive your car if you aren't an ape.
 
RonindeBeatrice said:
Show me one that doesn't need to be oiled and will run indefinitely without external cooling methods and without terrible efficiency losses at every stage.
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you said reliable, not efficient. all mechanical things needs maintenance, even pure electric cars that cost 100K.

I have haven't been stranded by one of my vehicles in over 20 years. Hows that for reliability?

And whats this about cooling? take your heatsinks off your voltage/power regulators on your electric cars, then cry about cooling.
 
RonindeBeatrice said:
Where's my edit button?

Sorry for the double post, I meant to qualify "The Volt is garbage". By adding a gasoline generator on the car, Detroit has engineered an element to break, ensuring people have to buy another in 5-10 years. It also exponentially increases the number of moving mechanical elements and kills efficiency of the car. Auto manufacturers get on my nerves.

An electric you will have to swap out the batteries (with lighter, more efficient, cheaper to produce ones) in a decade or so. All other maintenance is almost eliminated with the exception of wheels, steering.
Click to expand...

Adding a gasoline engine to the Volt doesn't reduce it's lifespan, it increases it. GM is striving to ensure that the batteries on the Volt last for 10 years, meaning that they retain 80% of their charge capacity for 10 years. Tesla's own website states that "Our testing and modeling indicate that a typical Tesla Roadster owner who drives 50,000 miles over five years should have about 70 percent of initial performance levels available." 5 years vs. 10 and you think GM is planning for early obsolescence? Also, with current EPA testing standards for hybrids, the Volt would actually be the first hybrid ever certified by the EPA with a fuel efficiency in excess of 100 MPG, how is that killing efficiency?

The average American commutes 32 miles per day (16 miles each way). GM designed the Volt for those drivers. I'm one of them, I commute 20 miles per day. I could potentially drive this car for a year without ever needing to rely on the gas engine, but it is very comforting to know that if I had to, I could drive several hundred miles or indefinitely, by simply refueling with gasoline as cars normally do.
 
Monkey God said:
And whats this about cooling? take your heatsinks off your voltage/power regulators on your electric cars, then cry about cooling.
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Heatsinks are far removed from a complicated cooling system necessitating dozens more moving parts.

JethroXP said:
Adding a gasoline engine to the Volt doesn't reduce it's lifespan, it increases it. GM is striving to ensure that the batteries on the Volt last for 10 years, meaning that they retain 80% of their charge capacity for 10 years. Tesla's own website states that "Our testing and modeling indicate that a typical Tesla Roadster owner who drives 50,000 miles over five years should have about 70 percent of initial performance levels available." 5 years vs. 10 and you think GM is planning for early obsolescence? Also, with current EPA testing standards for hybrids, the Volt would actually be the first hybrid ever certified by the EPA with a fuel efficiency in excess of 100 MPG, how is that killing efficiency?
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Perhaps I haven't given the volt a fair shake. I was not completely familiar with it. I maintain that a pure electric vehicle has 1/100th of the moving parts which to wear down/replace and the heat losses of any ICE don't aid efficiency at all. The Volt also, does not represent a serious vehicle from Detroit. They're going to produce a handful of these things, again, to appease people. The Volt's acclaimed 100+ MPG is in fact a misuse of current EPA fuel efficiency tests which approximates cheating..
 
RonindeBeatrice said:
Heatsinks are far removed from a complicated cooling system necessitating dozens more moving parts.
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Dozens of moving parts? Do you know anything about cars at all?
Debating with you is pointless since you have such a limited understanding/experience with cars and have an axe to grind apparently.
 
RonindeBeatrice said:
Heatsinks are far removed from a complicated cooling system necessitating dozens more moving parts.



Perhaps I haven't given the volt a fair shake. I was not completely familiar with it. I maintain that a pure electric vehicle has 1/100th of the moving parts which to wear down/replace and the heat losses of any ICE don't aid efficiency at all. The Volt also, does not represent a serious vehicle from Detroit. They're going to produce a handful of these things, again, to appease people. The Volt's acclaimed 100+ MPG is in fact a misuse of current EPA fuel efficiency tests which approximates cheating..
Click to expand...

A handful? GM is literally betting the future of their company on the success of the Volt. I would agree, you aren't very familiar with it. I'd suggest spending a few minutes with your favorite search engine, you might be surprised by what you learn.
 
JethroXP said:
A handful? GM is literally betting the future of their company on the success of the Volt. I would agree, you aren't very familiar with it. I'd suggest spending a few minutes with your favorite search engine, you might be surprised by what you learn.
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Last time I read that they are pumping these things off by the tens of thousands. Hardly a handfull :)
 
The car looks great, and getting >200 miles per charge makes it finally viable, IMO. I'm not a huge fan of the Volt, personally--the "40 miles on the batteries" makes it only marginally better than other hybrids, even if it's significantly different under the hood. Yes, I classify it as a hybrid, even if the wheels are powered purely off the electric motor.

Now, when do we get to see a hatchback tesla?
 
Mohonri said:
The car looks great, and getting >200 miles per charge makes it finally viable, IMO. I'm not a huge fan of the Volt, personally--the "40 miles on the batteries" makes it only marginally better than other hybrids, even if it's significantly different under the hood. Yes, I classify it as a hybrid, even if the wheels are powered purely off the electric motor.

Now, when do we get to see a hatchback tesla?
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There are a couple key differences though. The Tesla uses a battery that is 3x larger than the one in the Volt, roughly 1000lbs vs. 335lbs. As a result, the Tesla has much greater battery range, along with much greater cost, also roughly 3x (we don't know final price of the Volt but it's estimated to be about $32K). However, the Volt actually has greater overall range because of it's onboard generator. The last specs I saw said the Volt would have a 12 gallon gas tank, and achieve about 50 mpg when running on the generator. That's a range in excess of 500 miles, more than double the Tesla, and to keep going it takes just a couple minutes to add more gas, the Tesla would need at least a 4 hour pit stop to recharge after 240 miles. Yes, I realize that driving cross country in the Volt using gasoline defeats the purpose, however you could if wanted (or needed) to. Tesla doesn't give you the option. Plus, most of us will never be able to afford a Tesla, however most of us will be able to afford a Volt, which is really what matters. Cool technology isn't any good if only very few get to benefit from it.
 
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