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Tesla Announces Dual Motors, 'Autopilot' For the Model S
SchrodingerZ writes: Nine days after Elon Musk hinted about a new project, Tesla Motors has unveiled the P85D Sedan. This is Tesla's latest car design, capable of feats not yet seen in electric vehicles. The four door luxury car is able to go from zero to 60 miles per hour in a mere 3.2 seconds, an acceleration similar to the McLaren F1 super car. While the exterior remains the same build as the standard Model S, the interior will have a second motor in the front of the car to complement the rear motor. The D models will also have a slightly greater range of 275 miles on a single charge, 10 miles more than the 85 and P85 cars. Safety features have also been enhanced, adding "adaptive cruise control and the ability to read speed limit signs, stop itself if a crash is imminent, stay in its lane, and even park itself in a street spot or in your garage." Musk explains at the inaugural event, "this car is nuts. It's like taking off from a carrier deck. It's just bananas." The "D" version is available for the 60kWh, 80kWh, and P85 cars, and are expected to start shipping in December of this year.
So, 0 to 60 miles in 3.2 seconds... a range of 275 miles... So, it has less than 15 seconds of autonomy.
Let's hope it doesn't take much longer than that to recharge.
It wasn't my fault officer, the car say the highway sign and thought that I-95 meant 95mph
It is easy to make cool expensive stuff. Now when they get one down to say 50k loaded we can talk.
Or to steal an old idea from Jack Tramiel. We need electric cars for the masses not the classes.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
This is how electric will win. Performance.
When I was in High-school I raced RC cars for fun, and I remembered by gear head friends giving me crap about working on "Toy cars" until I challenged one of them to a drag race, against his real, full sized muscle car, and won hands down. The torque from an electric motor is just monstrous. So much so, that I suspect if they continue to build electric sports cars, the gforce alone will become a safety issue. My drag car would pull 100amps off the starting line and could melt battery cables, and the thing only weighed 2lbs. It'd be doing the scale equivalent of over 1000mph when I got to the end of the track. Yes, yes, I know at full scale wind resistance is different and such, but still. I had a hunk of carbon fiber doing 100mph in a few feet for Christs sake.
The sorts of people that hate electric because it's a "hippie thing" will embrace it because the fact of the matter is that, in the end, it just performs better. Can't have hippies beating your Cudda with a Prius.
Random video I found on youtube as a demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Maybe it includes the top 1% of the financially irresponsible demographic.
I would argue that a middle classer who bought a car that costs more than a year's salary has piss poor money management.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
It is easy to make cool expensive stuff. Now when they get one down to say 50k loaded we can talk. Or to steal an old idea from Jack Tramiel. We need electric cars for the masses not the classes.
It's a supercar. It does have the unique position among the supercars that there are very few people arguing that McLaren needs to make a F1 for the masses
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Each of the three versions of the Model S will come as a D model. The price of the 60kWh battery model will go from $71,070 to $75,070 for the dual motor system. The 85 kWh car goes from $81,070 to $85,070, and the P85 jumps from $105,570 to $120,170.
No indication in this article if you can get the adaptive cruise control and other fun high-tech add-ons that come with the "D" (dual motor) version without paying for the D upgrade.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
And because it is an electric car, we get 73% of the purchase price back here (Netherlands), because of tax related stuff. So this car effectively costs a quarter of the listed price. Not bad.
I would complain about Tesla's marketing to people who can't afford their cars, but ... I can't recall any marketing done by them other than their blog and videos on YouTube.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
You don't need to make 100k/year to afford a Tesla. The stock P85 is around ~1300/month which is only about 1/3rd of what is the median income in the US.
Most middle classer's cannot afford a car greater than or equal to their income for a year.
Then they have pretty piss poor money management if true.
1/3 of your income for the monthly payment on a depreciating asset? That's just crazy. The payments on my family's TWO cars comes to less than 10% of my gross income, and I think that's too high.
Good money management does not mean figuring out a way squeak by while squandering your family income on something you don't actually need.
A $70k car, with a 5 year note at 5.5% interest is a monthly payment of $1337.
A head house hold primary earner of family of 4 with a $100k annual salary is probably looking at ~80k after taxes.
A $250k mortgage, +PMI, +Homeowners insurance, +Property Tax is going to be ~1500 a month: 62k.
Health insurance, assuming they have a job with benefits is probably $600 a month (give or take depending on amorting the deductible over the year and out of pocket expenses), 55k.
Groceries are ~250 a week, 42k.
Electric/Gas/Water/Sewage/Home maintenance is another $500 a month, 36k.
Depending on your driving history/age/location, insurance is going to be between 1500 and 5000 a year, 34k.
Cable/Phone/Internet, pick your poison, you're likely out ~120 a month, 32k.
Add on that $1337/month car payment and you're down to $16k.
Note that at this point, you still need to buy clothes (especially for 2 growing kids) likely have a 2nd car, with insurance, a fuel bill, and maintenance (possibly even another loan), maybe student loans, heaven forbid either of your kids need braces, or your water heater dies.
So yes, an upper-middle income individual /could/ in theory do it. But it would mean living extremely modestly and surviving basically paycheck to paycheck. Any significant disruption would lead to immediate financial stability concerns.
That individual would be dramatically better off putting that 16k a year into a 401k and IRA or college funds for the kids. Buying a 70k car isn't an investment, even if it retains its value better than other vehicles, you're still losing out big time between depreciation and interest payments.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I don't understand why people want to buy things they can't afford.
I don't think that you understand: the car goes really fast and looks really cool , and I want one.
Note that this is different than:
I don't understand why people do buy things they can't afford.
Give us model E, the 40 K sedan. The rich people have paid enough money and you have built the credibility. Continuing to make play things too expensive for the masses is not how you are going to have long term impact or create disruptive technologies.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I don't think you know what inflation does...
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
where can I watch the hole event and not just some clips?
I dunno, try searching for 'courtney love' on Youtube.
Found this video on YouTube...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
60 mph is 26.8224 meters per second. At 3.2 seconds, that's 8.382 mps2 / gravity (9.8 mps2) = 0.85G. I'll bet it's even higher off the line.
When Tesla recently announced their certified used program, people were asking, "What would someone trading in a Model S buy? Another Model S?" Now we have an answer to that question.