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Tesla can be recharged to 50% in 20 minutes if you are using their supercharger.

Looking up the site's claims, it's '50% in 20 minutes', I'm taking that as +50%, not TO 50%. IE if you start at 20%, you'll be 70% when you're done. If you're really close to 0% you might get a touch more, if you're close to 50% you might get a bit less. Given that Tesla sets their battery's '100%' to more like 80% of true capacity for longevity purposes, you shouldn't run into the problem where the last 5% takes as long as the first 50%.

Stopping for 20-30 minutes every 100-150 miles is not practical.

Well, it's a good thing that the range is 265 for a model S. You might be able to Ironman driving, but I like to sit down and have a good meal every so often. That's without getting into a number of different possibilities:
1. The proposed on-road charging, which should enable you to finish a drive with most of the charge you left with, even if it doesn't enable charging the battery at all.
2. Even more increased battery capacity - we saw an article about lithium-sulfur batteries not long ago. Even if it only 'doubles' the range - that's 530 miles of range, or 8 hours of driving at 65 mph. You want lunch, right? If you utilize a high speed charger for an hour during that, you should be able to hit 14-16 hours of driving easy.
3. Generator trailer: I LOVE this concept. When people are on long trips is generally when they want to haul the most stuff. Make a small trailer incorporating a 5 gallon tank and a 15-20 kw generator in addition to some extra storage. The Tesla model S should use ~21kw@65, but if you're supplying 75% of the energy, you should be able to travel 1k miles before exhausting the battery, and just let it keep running for a bit if you're camping to charge the batteries back up. A 20kw version shouldn't cost more than $13k. See #4 for the idea of simply renting the trailer when you need it. If it runs the full size price, you're still looking at 65 weeks of renting it to make it cheaper to buy.
4. Week long rental costing 10% of the cost of a car? What kind of cheap-ass cars are you looking at? I see $45-65/day, $315-455, $3-4.5k doesn't generally get you a car I'd trust on a highway. Heck, Enterprise, checking a non-airport location, gives me a rental price for a full size at $200 for a week. You can get a 'intermediate SUV' for $320.

If you've got a way to receive and watch over the air media during a power outage, I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

These usually get you by for short periods: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=234&name=UPS%20Battery%20Backup%20700VA%20and%20more

These work well for a interim solution or if you are in a suburbant area: http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/style/gasoline-generators.php?source=goog&keyword=gas%20generator&gclid=CLr-oNanoaQCFVVx5Qod-Ce27Q

And these for areas where you need to worry about extended periods: http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/stories/38-How-to-Pick-the-Perfect-Whole-House-Generator.html

Of course you could also have solar panels or other means of producing electricity as well. I'll make sure to contact you if I ever start a news letter. ;-)

If you've got a way to receive and watch over the air media during a power outage, I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

These usually get you by for short periods: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=234&name=UPS%20Battery%20Backup%20700VA%20and%20more

These work well for a interim solution or if you are in a suburbant area: http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/style/gasoline-generators.php?source=goog&keyword=gas%20generator&gclid=CLr-oNanoaQCFVVx5Qod-Ce27Q

And these for areas where you need to worry about extended periods: http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/stories/38-How-to-Pick-the-Perfect-Whole-House-Generator.html

Of course you could also have solar panels or other means of producing electricity as well. I'll make sure to contact you if I ever start a news letter. ;-)

Here's a Kohler 30kw generator with a claimed load transfer time of 10 seconds, $10k list so figure $20k installed with ATS. It's natural gas which is actually much easier at 30kw (my 100, 250, and 500kw sets are too big for the gas lines in our commercial park to handle so we use diesel).

Where does this "grid tied" stuff come from?

I may be mistaken but what you're describing is EXACTLY what a transfer panel is meant to correct.

They're not "sophisticated" or even particularly expensive. A 100 amp indoor rated manual panel can be purchased for roughly $140!

http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/accessories/transfer-panels.php

Electric Generators Direct: http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/

'Nuff Said.

I agree with JoshJ, I usually equate natural disaster with terrible weather conditions. As you said "...rather than running a 8-10kw generator..." why not something MUCH smaller? http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/ModelDetail.asp ?ModelName=eu1000i Or Perhaps? http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/catalog/pr oduct_info.php?cPath=36_139_44_173&products_id=438 (I really hope these links work, I am new to this)

I would say your right to an extent... but no matter how you slice it the 4 grand plus price tag seems to be the biggest barrier to acceptance for the segway.

If they could reach down to the level of the higher end micro bikes that are selling like hotcakes they would probably find that people would actually buy them.

In the end I think segway is facing the same limitation that all electrical transport is facing and has faced since its inception... the inability to package enough power in a lightweight compact form on the level of a gas tank . Hell if they could just reach a quarter or half the capacity at the same weight as a 15-20 gallon tank of gas witha reasonable re-fuling time they could relegate the internal combustion engine to history for personal cars.

You know as much as they are for environmentaly friendly I wonder what could be done with this bad boy if instead of a battery pack you utilized a small generator like

http://electricgeneratorsdirect.com/catalog/produc t_info.php?cPath=36_139_44&products_id=157&osCsid= e07b54a796f652e8a262a11273cca19d

While it would add to the weight it would make for a usefull range and solve the recharge problem... would also be a hybrid vehicle. While it polluted it would still be more friendly than an ATV and would likely have a comperable range.