Tesla Electric Car - sexy... nice...

[Daruma]

http://www.teslamotors.com

[Michaelious]

Lovely car. Want that!

[dennisthemenace]

Looking forward to it's release.

[cess]

Originally Posted by Michaelious

Lovely car. Want that!

[UniversalPass Pete]

Agreed, this is an electric car I would own!

Great video about the car:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zIFgzx-wJcU

[Minte]

As long as they make it sound like a lambo or a ferrari it will be great.
I'd miss the sounds of the engine.

[pornguy]

How much are they. that is one nice looking machine.

And how long before the government stops the production.

[UniversalPass Pete]

$100K technology costs I guess! that is quite a bit for an electric car.

[Crasy Bitch]

I know one guy who will love this... right babe !?

[Odin]

Originally Posted by Minte

As long as they make it sound like a lambo or a ferrari it will be great.
I'd miss the sounds of the engine.

I thought that to. I watched a couple vids of it, it is really quite at low speed or sitting still, but under power it sounded pretty cool actually. Wasn't quite loud enough maybe for some revheads, but as someone who loves the sound of a big engine, I thought the turbo/whizz sound was pretty cool.

[mrthumbs]

how do you charge a car like that?

[Odin]

Originally Posted by mrthumbs

how do you charge a car like that?

Apparently it comes with a cord that plugs into a regular wall socket. I think that takes 5 hours, however I read somewhere they are also working to build high powered recharging plants, but at the moment the best recharge time was 2-3 hours. I was reading up about their plan, who was behind it (Elon Musk [paypal founder], Larry page, Sergey Brin, etc) and they seem to be a very promising company. I look forward to seeing the release of their planned $50k and than $25k electric family cars over the next few years.

[LiveDose]

Nice curves...

[Machete_]

dont want to drive it in the rain....

[Vitasoy]

Does look pretty slick

[Fizzgig]

That's really nice.

[NoWhErE]

Originally Posted by Crasy Bitch

I know one guy who will love this... right babe !?

Sure we could get it as our weekend car or something

[DatingGold]

I'm surprised it doesn't cost more.

[gecko]

sexy looking ride

[tony286]

great looking car the problem is where do you get it fixed.

[volante]

For people with more money than sense. Buy the Lotus Elise on which it's based and you could spend the $60k you save on fuel and planting trees.

[SlamDesigns]

Originally Posted by volante

For people with more money than sense. Buy the Lotus Elise on which it's based and you could spend the $60k you save on fuel and planting trees.

Yep, my business partner and I were talking about that tonight. We live in an area where the majority of power plants are coal burning. So if everyone around here bought one of those cars, the polution from the cars would decrease, but the polution from the power plants would increase...so it's a no win situation. Plus, $100K for a car....fuck that!

[Odin]

Originally Posted by SlamDesigns

Yep, my business partner and I were talking about that tonight. We live in an area where the majority of power plants are coal burning. So if everyone around here bought one of those cars, the polution from the cars would decrease, but the polution from the power plants would increase...so it's a no win situation. Plus, $100K for a car....fuck that!

Overall, even if every powerplant burnt coal, and all cars converted to electric there would be less pollution. Read the studies on their website, etc. I am kind of interested in this issue, although not worked up too much on one solution or another (i.e. electric over hydrogen or vice verse). But wouldn't be nice to live in a world were we weren't hostage to the Muslim radicals of Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc, where 90% of their populations survive on Government handouts that come directly from our pocket at the pump? It would be a nice big fuck you if we could get real about moving away from oil. And plus, by the time electric or hydrogen cars start hitting the road in huge numbers ITER's 13 billion dollar experimental powerplant will be online and working, and Governments around the world will hopefully start investing in what it has to offer for domestic power supply. Perhaps it is dreaming, but what a combination that could make, a safe, clean, essentially limitless source of electricity, and electric powered cars. I think this is a great first step, when they get down to their $25k electric family car that they have planned I hope it takes off. Plus there are plenty of solutions in the work for the many problems that need to be overcome, such as ultracapacitors that can be fully recharged in 5 minutes or less. This is just the start of a new market I hope, one which will attract alot of investment.

http://www.iter.org/

[$5 submissions]

Will switching to an ALL ELECTRIC vehicle system just switch fossil fuel pollution from the car level to the power plant level?

[Odin]

Originally Posted by $5 submissions

Will switching to an ALL ELECTRIC vehicle system just switch fossil fuel pollution from the car level to the power plant level?

From their FAQ

Don't electric vehicles actually just move pollution to another location? And therefore don't EVs still use oil?
No. Electric power generation in the USA does not use oil. Coal, hydro, nuclear, solar, and natural gas are typical sources for generating electricity. Power generation plants, even coal burning ones, are inherently more efficient and less polluting than vehicles due to economies of scale and the ability to more efficiently remove pollutants from a smaller number of much larger fixed locations.

Also, an electric car is far more efficient than a gasoline car, so the amount of pollution generated by producing the electricity to drive an EV a given distance is much less than the pollution from the gasoline to drive an internal combustion car the same distance.

View more info here:
http://www.teslamotors.com/learn_mor...l_benefits.php

[L-Pink]

I knew there was a catch ... it's a British car ......

[woj]

hot car

[KRL]

First really sharp looking electric car I've seen.

There's a company down in Texas that has developed an incredible new electric motor system with a revolutionary battery mechanism. It completely charges in 5 minutes and can go 500 miles on one charge, about double the distance of most gas engines. It can also drive at high speed and solid torgue just like a regular engine.

Even though the engine will cost more than a combustion engine, the net cost works out to an equivalent of about 45 cents per gallon.

Expected to be out in 2008 and ideal for SUV market.

[Bladewire]

I'm in love

I want her to have my children :D

thanks for introducing us

[madawgz]

can you buy me one

[Odin]

Originally Posted by KRL

First really sharp looking electric car I've seen.

There's a company down in Texas that has developed an incredible new electric motor system with a revolutionary battery mechanism. It completely charges in 5 minutes and can go 500 miles on one charge, about double the distance of most gas engines. It can also drive at high speed and solid torgue just like a regular engine.

Even though the engine will cost more than a combustion engine, the net cost works out to an equivalent of about 45 cents per gallon.

Expected to be out in 2008 and ideal for SUV market.

Well, it's still rumors from what I read. There has been a lot of buzz about the company since it filed its patent for the technology for its ultracapacitor technology. The company has really tried to avoid the spotlight thus far though, and everyone is eagerly waiting to see if they can live up to the claims filed in their patents when Feel Good Cars releases a 2008 model car that is meant to implement its technology. If it lives up to the claims, and the rumors it may prove to be one of the greatest technological breakthroughs in recent times, and it will certainly deliver a close to knockout blow to the complete control petrol fueled cars have on the market. But again, there is also alot of skeptisicm that the product you are talking about can live up to expectations, it seems almost too good to be true, and although a lot of big names and investors are behind the company noone is ready to believe it yet. I read also that Tesla motors is hoping it can move to some sort of ultracapcitor system in its future cars also.

[DirtyDave]

Actually the battery is the new technology and it is known ast the M1 battery and it's already in testing for production around 2008. It's still a lithium ion battery but doesn't explode if crushed, recharges 80% in 5 minutes, runs at a high voltage, and has a 30-80% higher energy density.

All this means it is safer, becomes feasible for fully electric cars as compared to needing hybrids, could be "filled up" at a gas station, would develop more torque, and would allow you do drive further on the same number of batteries.

When applied to cell phones, power tools, and laptops; just imagine.

David.

[Bigfuck]

Put solar cells on your roof to charge it

[Klen]

I think hydrocar is better then this.But yet again soon maybe water will cost more then oil.

[volante]

Originally Posted by Chief

From their FAQ

Don't electric vehicles actually just move pollution to another location? And therefore don't EVs still use oil?
No. Electric power generation in the USA does not use oil. Coal, hydro, nuclear, solar, and natural gas are typical sources for generating electricity. Power generation plants, even coal burning ones, are inherently more efficient and less polluting than vehicles due to economies of scale and the ability to more efficiently remove pollutants from a smaller number of much larger fixed locations.

Also, an electric car is far more efficient than a gasoline car, so the amount of pollution generated by producing the electricity to drive an EV a given distance is much less than the pollution from the gasoline to drive an internal combustion car the same distance.

While the oil use of a car like this is greatly reduced, the energy consumed over the cars lifetime is actually FAR MORE than a normal car. What people don't realise is that it takes more energy to build a car than it will to run it for it's entire life, and cars like this require more energy to build than regular cars - for example, a Toyota Prius will, over it's lifetime, require more energy to build and run than a regular SUV.

Bioethanol might be an option if you want to reduce reliance on oil (Here's a Lotus Exige that runs on the stuff), but it also has problems - fuel efficiency will plummet, it's inefficient to produce (You'd need the equivalent of one and a half gallons of bioethanol to refine a single gallon of bioethanol) and don't expect all cars to be running on it unless you fancy starving to death because there's nowhere left to grow regular crops.

[Daruma]

I certainly hope that the rest of the world gets their act together much like what Brazil is doing:::::

Today, 42 percent of Brazil's energy use comes from renewable sources, compared with 6 percent for OECD countries. Around 90 percent of Brazil's electricity comes from hydropower. Brazil is also the world's largest producer and consumer of fuel ethanol from sugarcane as a transportation fuel, an achievement possible because it is the world's most efficient producer of sugarcane, which accounts for about 60 percent of the cost of ethanol production. The ethanol program in Brazil is saving around 180,000 barrels per day of gasoline, valued at about US$4 billion per year. This means that about 24 million tons less CO2 are added to the atmosphere each year.

[Godsmack]

Looks like a Lotis Elise 2..
but thats a good thing though.. very nice car this is!

[Godsmack]

Originally Posted by Godsmack

Looks like a Lotis Elise 2..
but thats a good thing though.. very nice car this is!

Oops, i just read that it is actualy based on one.. :-)

[rodney25]

I've seen a Japanese video featuring this innovation as well. However, the cars which they feature there were not that classy compared to that one on top. They were simply light and simple--vehicles that are made for practical purposes.

[Spunky]

Pretty slick..sharp looking car

[DateDoc]

Who wants to patent parking meters that take credit cards and have a socket to plug your car into?

[nAtuRaLbEautY]

woo, that's hot!

[reynold]

Nice, however I'm more interested on how it works than how it looks.

[Magix]

nice looking car that is ....

[L-Pink]

Originally Posted by volante

While the oil use of a car like this is greatly reduced, the energy consumed over the cars lifetime is actually FAR MORE than a normal car. What people don't realise is that it takes more energy to build a car than it will to run it for it's entire life, and cars like this require more energy to build than regular cars - for example, a Toyota Prius will, over it's lifetime, require more energy to build and run than a regular SUV.

Educate me, please ......

[donross]

nice car but there's still disadvantages... like charging takes too long..

[Fizzgig]

I'll take three!

[volante]

Originally Posted by L-Pink

Educate me, please ......

The debate over the effectiveness of hybrid-powered vehicles at delivering anything other than lower mileage figures has just heated up. A US marketing company has released research showing that when you take the whole life costs of such a vehicle into account, they're not better for the planet after all.

Hybrid petrol electric vehicle advocates trumpet the environmental benefits of the petrol-electric vehicles, but, according to the results of an exhaustive two year study, the overall energy picture for hybrid vehicles isn’t as favourable as it seems. Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research said that, when the total cost of hybrids to the environment is calculated, including factors like original production and then recycling of batteries and electric motors, into a "dollars per lifetime mile" figure, hybrids come up short against conventional powered vehicles which where thought to consume more of the world’s energy.

"If a consumer is concerned about fuel economy because of family budgets or depleting oil supplies, it is perfectly logical to consider buying high-fuel-economy vehicles," said company boss Art Spinella. "But if the concern is the broader issues such as environmental impact of energy usage taking into account the energy needed to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose of a vehicle from concept to scrappage some high economy vehicles actually cost society more than conventional or even larger models over their lifetime."

CNW’s "Dust to Dust" survey studied hundreds of variables but to make it easy for the consumer to understand, developed an energy cost per mile driven figure. While some of the vehicles referred to aren't sold in the UK or Europe, the overall thrust of the research makes sense.

Topping the league with the most "energy expensive" vehicle from 2005 is the Maybach at $11.58 per mile, VW Phaeton at $11.213 and Rolls-Royce Phantom at $10.660 while the thriftiest is the Scion xB at the bottom of the scale, at $0.48 a mile, ahead of the Ford Escort at $0.568 and Jeep Wrangler at $0.604. However, the research brings into question the whole concept of hybrids as "energy-saving", at least for the planet as a whole.

The industry average of 312 vehicles was $2.281, yet all the hybrids cost more than this. Compact family hybrids like the Toyota Prius ($3.249) and Honda Civic hybrid ($3.238), cost more than a full size SUV Land Rover Discovery ($2.525) or Lincoln Navigator ($2.617). By comparison, America’s best selling car, the mid-size Toyota Camry, cost $1.954 and the similar Nissan Altima only $1.381. Hybrids on the other hand cost more over their lifetime due to the extra complexity and production and recycling costs: the Hybrid Honda Accord has an energy cost per mile of $3.29 while the regular version’s is $2.18. A regular Honda Civic costs $2.420.

"This study is not the end of the energy-usage discussion. We hope to see a dialog begin that puts educated and aware consumers into energy policy decisions," Spinella said. "We undertook this research to see if perceptions were true in the real world."

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/defa...?storyId=13577

[tornell]

awesome, very beautiful and economic

[E$_manager]

Now i think i know everything about hybrid-powered vehicles.