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Test Driving the Tesla Roadster
stacybro writes "Wired has an article about the Tesla Roadster. It is similar to other electric cars that we have seen in that the electric engine's serious torque will allow it to do 0-60mph in about 3 seconds. Part of what is different about this is that they are using over 6,831 laptop-type lithium-ion batteries. They are claiming the range is about 250 miles. As the battery tech for laptops improves, so will the range of these cars. The car will run about $80,000, which is about par for an exotic two-seater. So who is doing the poll on which tech CEO will be seen driving one first? My guess is one of the Google or E-Bay guys, since they are investors. It is nice to see more companies serious about helping to getting rid of our oil dependency. It is odd that the big car companies aren't more on this track!"
60 mph is about 100 km/h, or 27m/s. G is 9.8 m/s. So 0-60 in 3 sec is about 1G. Street tires don't do that.
But the 0-60 in 3 is McLuhanesque's fantasy. What the article says is 0-60-0 in "about 9 seconds." So let's say that "about 9" is really 10. 0-60 in 6 secs is about half-a-G, which is strong acceleration, and 60-0 in the remaining 4 secs is still most-of-a-G.
Why inflate damned good performance into a preposterous claim?
Some one said: You want to know why pure-electric cars are incredibly unlikely to become popular? Answer: it's not possible to get a full battery charge in 2 minutes. When you run out of gas, you can fill up again in 2 minutes. Traveling cross-country, it simply is *not* acceptable to have to sit around for 3 hours at the gas station waiting for your car to get enough juice to continue. Nor is it likely to be possible to improve on this, until someone invents some radically new battery technology - no existing battery technology will allow charging at this kind of speed without the batteries exploding. So we need a new battery technology which will, at which point Exxon-Mobil and their battery won't matter a damn. The world and their brother is working on that, because everyone knows that whoever gets better tech is going to be in the money big-time. Trouble is that nothing's coming along - the best bet so far is fuel cells, and we're back to fossil fuels again (or hydrogen, which will be produced and distributed by the same folks anyway). But this is easy to solve, capacitors!!!1! Caps are quick to charge/drain but you could "trickle" energy back into the batteries and don't forget you could always upgrade the alternator so that it generates more electricity..... Basically I don't know anything about cars or electrons and i got that one. I remember reading somewhere that caps will one day replace batteries. if someone else has read that and knows a url please post, I'd google but i'm lazy (-1 something or rather) (My English is bad please forgive, i am a product of Los Angeles public schools ;) )