Will you buy a Tesla Model S Sedan?
 

Toyota is investing $50m in Tesla. Tesla is buying Toyota's NUMMI plant in Freemont, CA to produce the cars.

I have to say it is one of the better, if not best looking, electric cars. 300 mile range on a charge make it practical even for those with a long commute and 5+ passenger seating is a bonus. 0-60mph in 5.6 seconds. Est. MSRP $50k.

http://imgur.com/46WTI.jpg

http://imgur.com/pJ1hN.jpg

No I wouldn't. 300 mile range means 250 without worry which means I would need another nice car for any kind of trip.

.

Business opp: A series of tit bars with charging facilities every 150 miles located along interstate highways :1orglaugh

.

it's Fremont, CA

and no.... won't be buying an overpriced electric car any time soon.

if i had 50k to drop, yeah, you bet.

Also, word around here is that Tesla is only going to be using a portion of the NUMMI plant, and of course they are much much smaller than Toyota and will not need nearly as many workers.... so, Tesla may re-employ some of the out-of-work NUMMI workers, but most are stilled just as fucked as before.

On a positive note, it's better than 100% of NUMMI workers being fucked.

I am sure they cannot hire all the workers but if the car takes off, and I think it will do well, it gives them space to grow and hire more people.

Yeah, I'm not against the deal at all... I'm glad they decided to make use of a giant empty plant as well as keeping their manufacturing close to home. But I have family & friends that lost 20+ year careers when NUMMI shut down. Not looking to Tesla to save their jobs. There just aren't enough to go round.

I do love the look of their cars too.... I just think they are outrageously priced.

Hopefully as manufacturing and demand increase the price will drop some.

Yes, in a heart beat. I can't wait to stop buying gas.

looks so cool!

So a nice Camry costs $25,000 and is just slightly slower 0-60. Where did the other $25,000 go ... ?


.

wonder how long it takes to re-charge

That's the 2nd biggest downside to these things. If you take a trip and need to stop to "re-fuel" (recharge), are you going to have to sit in some shit hole town for 8 hours while the fucking car recharges?

Not practical.

looks cool but they are way too expensive.. But I would love to have an electric car in the future.. 300mile range is enough for me

Fuck it, no. Keep driving massively large gas guzzlers and starting illegal wars. Who the FUCK needs an electric car when we can just fight the towelheads until Haliburton can get in and build a pipe to the REAL WORLD!!!

Not practical just yet for the big trips, but if I would still be living in Holland I TOTALLY would have gotten one. Work >> home is only 25 miles.

It looks fucking sweet AND rips MANY new ones in traffic light drag races.

Excellent move Toyota and Tesla!

45 minute quick charge.

I really wish I knew more about the engineering of these things.
Petroleum fueled vehicles have alternators that keep the battery(s) charged. Do these electric vehicles not make use of that basic system? Why do they need to be plugged in and charged at all?

Looks like shit, buy something german instead. They know how to build cars.

Moreover, these cars are actually harming the enviroment more than a similar petrol car.

there won't be any need to recharge...."gas" station will have batteries you could just swap and go.

Swapping batteries is hardly convenient.

They designed it to be done in 5 minutes.

Batteries. It really the most expensive part of the car. You can make a prius all electric also, the kit cost about 11k due to the batteries and you will not get 300 miles out of it...

Looks quite Aston Martin from that angle.

Used to be a lot of roadside cafes/diners and small hotels/restaurants/pubs here (UK) that have mostly closed down now and i'm sure that how easy modern cars make it to do big distances in comfort is part of the reason why. When I was a kid there was no way my dads car could have managed what my car now can in a couple of hours.

Restrictions on range with a charging time before you could carry on would probably help that sort of thing make a comeback.

Swapping batteries is going to the most sensible way of a quick stop. It's only a similar thing to how they used to change horses on horse-drawn carriages.

Still not practical though. You're talking about stations having spare charged batteries for everyone, everywhere. If not, you are restricted as to where you can go, or how fast you can go there. I don't like restrictions like that. I'll be sticking with my 10 mpg lifted Dodge Ram asskicker that goes anywhere.

That's paying upfront for 200,000 miles of gasoline :Oh crap


.

YES... YES.... YEEEEEEESSSSS............... now you talking:thumbsup

But I still like the car :winkwink:

This kind of shit really is amusing to me. You have some people that are like, "Electric cars are the way to go and if you don't you hate the Earth".

How much oil does it take to manufacture these electric cars?
How much oil will it take to produce millions of batteries for them?
How much oil will be burned trucking batteries to stations all over the country?
How much oil will be burned producing electricity to recharge all these millions of batteries?

All you're doing is buying a novelty to make yourself feel better. I don't see oil consumption being reduced by any amount that matters, simply by putting electric cars on the road. Like I've said before, you need a replacement for oil, period. That's when it will make a difference.

50 g's is still WAY outta my price range, but considering the original tesla roadster was like 250,000, i'd actually call that fucker reasonably priced.

YES
In a heartbeat.

yup, it looks very cool :thumbsup

it's a good looking sedan but i don't think the world is ready for full electric cars for the masses

the next model should be even more reasonably priced :2 cents:

great car...

50 million? That's all they invest? That's pretty much peanuts for them. I guess they still are going to bank on their oil guzzlers for a whole while...

people keep forgetting that electric power must be produced too. unless you don't heavily invest in alternative energies like wind, solar or the like electric cars are not any better than a modern diesel. look into something like a VW Jetta TDI - they do like 50 or 60 mpg

It looks sharp but not a huge fan of electric cars.they seem whimpy compared to the gas guzzlers

Best advise yet.


PS ... the new generation diesels are quick.

.

http://www.edmunds.com/pictures/VEHI...87-300x189.jpg

Looks like the Tesla Roadster has just hit Canada....interesting to see that the head of the group is Paypals founder.

Electric Tesla Roadster makes Canadian debut
Fri May 28, 3:45 PM

The electric Tesla Roadster is now available to Canadian drivers with a passion for fast sports cars and a concern for the environment.

The Tesla is billed as the only electric, highway-capable, high-performance vehicle in the world.

The Roadster consumes no gasoline and can accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds. It has a top speed of 200 km/h, no tailpipe emissions, and sells for $125,000.

What makes the Tesla unique, besides its performance, is its range of nearly 400 kilometres on a single charge. The vehicle can be plugged into any standard electrical outlet or also be charged with solar, hydro or wind energy.

The first Canadian customers took delivery of their Tesla Roadsters this week.

The company is planning on opening a dealership in Toronto.

Transport Canada approved the vehicle last fall after ensuring it meets Canadian safety standards.

The company gets its name from Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, who helped develop alternating current (AC) power systems.

Tesla Motors is based in Palo Alto, Calif., and is the dream of a team of entrepreneurs headed by PayPal founder Elon Musk.

Franz von Holzhausen, who was the former director of design for Mazda, designed the Roadster.

The independent automaker offers mobile service technicians known as the "Tesla Rangers," who travel to where the customer is to perform any repairs or upgrades.

Tesla recently teamed up with Toyota to help develop new electric car technologies.

Yeah, save the planet by using electricity produced by gas and coal to power your electric car. :upsidedow

The best part is as demand increases so will the competition to grab the market share which favors the consumer.

Here's an article from my sunday paper about a guy that's going to start production of his car at a small plant near me. You can read the full story here : http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...pe-gas-sipping


" Scaringe says the car will be fun to drive, carry four people, and according to the company's fledgling Web site, get twice the mileage of today's hybrids. That's the only claim I heard during my visit to the company that I question because double a Toyota Prius would be close to 100 miles per gallon.

The Avera will likely be a diesel hybrid. The car will be mid-engined ? meaning the engine is right behind the rear seat ? and rear-wheel-drive, regarded as the optimum drivetrain configuration for performance and handling by companies such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. The basic platform would be "flexible," Scaringe says, meaning that once the Avera sports coupe is under way, the platform could support, say, a two-seat convertible, a small SUV or any number of vehicles.

Price? Around $25,000. "

Let's say that today it takes 1,000 barrels of oil to support the automotive industry. For stuff like building the cars and trucking parts and whatever like you listed above.

Let's say that today 1,000,000 barrels of oil were actually used in operating all the vehicles.

So they perfect an electric car.

Now it still takes 1,000 barrels of oil to support the automotive industry just in a different way and you no longer need to burn 1,000,000 barrels of oil to operate the cars because they are electric.

That's where the cutback in oil consumption comes into play and there is no way we would be using the same amount off oil by going to an electric source as we did with a gasoline engine.

Yeah, I get that. But you're not solving the problem. The problem being, oil. Whether consumption is reduced or not is sort of irrelevant. You still need just as much oil every step of the way, up to and including the "refueling" of an electric car. Electricity isn't made from thin air. You might be reducing the quantity of oil needed by a little bit, but even if everyone on the planet was driving an electric car and there were no more petroleum fueled vehicles at all, we are still just as dependent on oil as before the electric cars. We've changed nothing.

For every 1,000 miles driven how much electricity will be used? Anyone know?


.

I probably would if I had an extra $50k to spend...

I think its a beautiful looking car, but I have a feeling with this the early adopters are going to get screwed.

Kind of like with the latest greatest Apple products, you'll pay a premium to have it first, then 6 months to a year down the road they will come out with a better / sleeker / more efficient model for a fraction of the price.

If it generates enough interest and theuy continue to advance the technology I can see it splitting into a 2dr sportier coupe and a more economical / camry equiv.

that's cool. I would consider one