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Tesla Roadster Breaks Distance Record For Electric Car
An anonymous reader writes "The CEO of an Australian ISP has driven his Tesla Roadster into the record books, completing 501km on a single electric charge in the 2009 Global Green Challenge — beating the Roadster's official specifications, which rate the all-electric sports car as being capable of a maximum of 390km per charge. The previous record was held by another Roadster in the 387km Rallye Monte Carlo d'Energies Alternatives in April this year. In a race specifically designed for alternative energy vehicles (such as hydrogen and electricity), the Roadster was the only vehicle to complete the entire course. Though to be fair, that race course was a mixture of twists, turns and hills."
To be fair, these cars were expected to turn, and go up and down hills. Something no mere mortal car would dare perform...
What the summary fails to mention is also that the average speed was at about 55 km/h, which is pretty decent...
Regards, Boyan
313 miles is almost exactly the range of my '99 Subaru Outback Legacy (15-gallon tank), which is worth about $2500 now. Except I can easily refuel that and keep going. The trip to my folks' house is 365 miles.
I had assumed that with all the talk of new technology Tesla was going to be comparable with the hybrids. This article helps re-adjust my expectations, but it also gives me hope that by time they're generally affordable the range will be there too.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
501km = 311 miles, about the range most gasoline vehicles get on a tank of gas. If it was affordable, this would definitely make a viable replacement for a petroleum fueled vehicle. Now, if we could just do something about the cost of the batteries so that average people could buy one...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The tesla has hundreds of laptop batteries in it, each with the energy of a hand grenade. What if something goes wrong...?
No sig today...
So what's your solution? Extinction?
Well, the $109,000 car costs Colorado residents a mere $65,000 with their substantial tax break for hybrid and electric vehicles. That's downright affordable! Makes me wonder how much the rebate is for a Prius, both there and in my home state...
Though to be fair, that race course was a mixture of twists, turns and hills
So what? You say that like they SHOULDN'T be required to handle it. Who wants a car that can't handle turns or climb hills?
TFS is comparing the performance of Roadsters in different races. While this Roadster set a new record, the course that it set the record is sufficiently different from the course where the previous record was set. Hence the "to be fair" comment: the earlier course "was a mixture of twists, turns and hills", so you can't really compare the two records as an apple-to-apple comparison.
Yes they are. Even the most inefficient plants are still vastly more efficient than a car's engine, with transmission losses accounted for.
Batteries are very recyclable, and are designed to last the life of the car.
Even if there was 0% coming from clean power, the efficiency rate of electric cars is such that fewer emissions are put out per mile from a coal power plant fueled electric car than a gas burning regular car. The sad fact is that gasoline combustion engines are not very efficient with their fuel, whereas electric are much more so.
Also, do you just think that suddenly in 1 year everyone will just be driving electrics with no chance for the grid to adapt? It is these "lets take todays infrastructure and apply some hypothetical load to it" guesses that just drive me nuts. As people switch to electric, obviously the grid will be expanded to handle the new load.
The statistic was that even after manufacturing costs and other hidden energy consumption... the electric car is still less of an enviromental impact. the dirty energy you speak of is still cleaner than even the most finely tuned fossil fuel engine. The net effect over the life of the car is a decrease in pollution.
"Infecting minds with my own memetic virus, one post at a time." Ultimape
You are right ... screw improvements until we can find perfection!
What is really cool is that I am home almost 12 hours every night, and I drive well under 300 miles a day. Now, this wouldn't work for my vacation trips, but as an every day commuter this would suit me perfectly ( if I could afford it).
sack of sugar
"Yes, there are zero emissions from the tailpipe, but the electricity has to come from somewhere."
True.
But even if the volts are coming from coal, it's coal burning happening in one place where it would/should be easier to capture. Instead of burning gas all over the place where it might be hard to capture.
i wish we weren't so afraid of the n word. Not *that* n word, the other.
i've been saying for a long time that there won't be a silver bullet for energy. i'd like to see more efficient cars, more hybrids, some fuel cell cars, some pneumatic, more nuclear power, more geo, more this more that. Use as many sources as possible as efficiently as possible. And build worthwhile public transport.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
Good luck putting 53kWh of energy into a battery in "a matter of minutes".
Technically, Lithium batteries can be charged to 80% capacity in only a half hour. The main reason for the Roadster's slow charging is that household plugs can't output more than 1800 Watts for a standard socket, at that rate it would take 30 hours to charge the Roadster.
If you wanted to charge it within 1 hour, you would need a 53000W power source, that's about 240Amps@220Volt, 480Amps@110Volts. Considering that the main circuit breaker to my house is rated 200Amps, I could never charge the Tesla at my house in 1 hour, even if it had super capacitors or whatever else you wanted.
If you want to charge it in "a matter of minutes", say 10 minutes, you would need a 318000Watt power source. If you wanted to charge your car in 3 minutes, you would need a megawatt power supply... for that you'd need a dedicated power station to supply this kind of power otherwise the whole city would have a brownout every time some prick decides to recharge his Tesla. I don't know about where you live, but there aren't dedicated electric stations that can supply a megawatt of power anywhere near my house.
So: batteries? supercapacitors? ultracapacitors? it doesn't matter the least bit if you don't have the power infrastructure to charge it.
horsepower fortnight
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy, off-peak capacity of the grid could satisfy the charging needs of a car fleet that is more than 70 percent plug-in hybrids. So what is this "massive costs needed to upgrade the aginging energy grid" you speak of?
Hold on. Where do you get your statistics, sir? How can you assume the majority of electricity comes from coal, oil and nuclear?
Oh yeah, the USA is everybody! I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but there are many countries where greener sources are the main source of energy. Around here, over 90% of our electricity comes from dams. In France, around 75% of the electricity comes from nuclear powerplants with 16% from hydroelectricity (meaning around 90% comes from much cleaner sources than coal and oil). I'm sure there are many other cases where this also holds true.
Point is, it's not because the US is using antiquated, pollution-heavy sources of energy that everyone on the damn planet is. Neither does it mean the US can't change. All it does is eliminate one hurdle to a cleaner future: now we only have to fix powerplants and cars will be fixed at the same time. I call that a great improvement.
And before anyone asks, nuclear is cleaner than coal and oil by miles. There is waste, but it's ridiculously smaller than the impact oil/coal have.
Does a car have to be nuclear to get people excited around here? I'm not even hearing any new arguments. Until it can be instantly recharged and cost less than an average car few people are interested and most are outright hostile? If any one is interested check out "Who Killed The Electric Car". Every person that got their hands on one loved it and they did no more than 50 miles per charge, the Tesla can do around 240 with normal driving. The real joke is what they seemed to like most WAS the convenience. They loved the fact you didn't have to stop by a gas station just plug it in when you got home.
"Gee they are only for the rich." Well I've got a shocker for you when calculators first came out they were large and cost around $400, more like a $1000 in adjusted dollars. Also all they did was basic math. Within ten years they were under $10 and you could soon after that find them built into pens. You won't find that radical a change with batteries but they will come down. I'm more concerned with the weight since that is hurting performance. The battery weight is all that is keeping a Tesla from blowing away a $200,000 sports car. Basically they have the potential to blow away a car twice the price and can already do it in the straightway. Just imagine the weight cut in half and the mileage doubled?
"But once a year we drive to Grandma's house". Man am I tired of that argument. How many drivers drive more than 200 miles a day? Damn few. Here's a shocker, how many people that could aford an electric car are single car families? Near zero. Point being if the thought of not being able to take a long drive makes you hyperventilate then make one car gasoline or hybrid.
Christ I've even seen blind people complain because of the LACK of noise. They do make sound just not as obnoxious as cars and trucks do. Picture this, once the prices start to match regular cars you can fill up for a $1 to $3. And it's a myth that we'll each have to have our own nuclear plant. The average house could charge one daily just by switching their existing bulbs to compact florescents. Once LEDs get as cheap the savings would be enough to charge two cars. We won't have to build a single coal plant and if you just took the gas savings and put solar panels on the roof then there would be no increase you'd actually drive for free once the panels were paid off.
Last century saw the end of horse drawn carriages let's make this the century we get rid of gas guzzlers. They are starting to look as primitive as carriages.
A) how many accidents have you been in?
B) There are several perfectly safe non gas guzzlers.
Really, you are just afraid of change for some reason..possible due to your small penis.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
... because the lightweight frame will fold like a piece of tissue.
You WANT the frame to fold. Ever hear of crumple zones?
Which is why I won't buy one of these things until the frame is a carbon fiber composite stronger than steel or titanium. Expensive.
The advantage of CF is weight, it is not much stronger than steel (if at all, depending on application). So while more and more components of mainstream vehicles will be made using CF, the main reason is for better fuel economy (less weight = less fuel needed).
In the meantime, I plan to continue to drive a gas guzzling heavy framed car that keeps me safe from the dimwitted morons on the road.
Your heavy and inefficient vehicle is not only a danger to others, but to yourself as well. You equate a heavy and inflexible frame with improved safety, but this is not reality, and (if you haven't noticed) the exact opposite direction that car manufacturers have taken ever since safety standards were put in place.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2009/09/iihs-crash-chevy-malibu-bel-air.html
Guys, thanks to both of you. This really is useful information I didn't know.
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FYI, I drive a Toyota Tacoma Two seater truck and have survived numerous accidents in it (Apparently, many drunk people think Stop signs are for other people), so strictly speaking, I do have some evidence to support your contention. I always assumed it was just luck.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
The obama administration is talking about a "smart power" rewiring of the electric power lines. They plan on being able to remotely control when you can run your dishwasher.
Now, with these worries about the limited power concerns, where do all these electric cars fit in?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
For those who are interested, the blog for this internode entry, detailing the event so far is at;
http://blog.internode.on.net/
Simon and Emilis are experienced glider pilots too, and credit the experience they have from glider energy management as one of the factors in acheiving the record.
MOst amazing thing is the article spelt Emilis surname correctly!