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Tesla Updates Model S With New Front-End, Air Filtration System, Faster Charging (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Model S has received several new features and improvements to help it stay relevant with the newer Model X crossover and recently released Model 3 electric vehicles from Tesla. It has a new-look fascia and adaptive LED headlights that hew closely to the design found on the Model X crossover which debuted late last year. In addition to a couple new interior finish choices, the Model S is receiving a version of the Model X's cabin air filtration system as an option, which promises to filter out "99.7 percent of particulate exhaust pollution and effectively all allergens, bacteria and other contaminants from cabin air." The Model S now has a 48-amp charger standard -- up from 40 amps -- which Tesla says will enable faster charging when connected to higher-amp outlets. Tesla's design language is trending toward a grille-less front end, possibly in an effort to squeeze as much aerodynamic efficiency out of the car as possible. What's missing in the update is the rumored 100kWh battery, which would improve the vehicle's range.
Telsa's happy days with the media will soon be coming to an end. Traditional car manufacturers are some of the biggest advertisers in pretty all forms of traditional media. They will soon do what Toyota did with the acceleration problem. They told the various outlets, keep blaming our shit software and we will stop advertising in your publication.
Now that Tesla is competing with products such as the Ford Fusion mid level products they aren't going to let Tesla continue with the free press. There will come a day when pretty much every old media article we read will be about a Tesla battery fire, or Telsa recall, or anyone killed in a Tesla will somehow be national news.
The good thing is that old media doesn't really matter as much anymore. The average age of a newspaper reader is advancing nearly 5 years for every year of real time. That is huge, 5 years is a massive demographic who just downed their newspapers.
This assumed ability they think they have to warp public perception won't change all the 20-30 somethings who are going to be driving their Teslas in 2 years.
Time for me to throw my older model S in the trash! I can't be seen with an older model! People will think I don't care about the environment enough!
If Elon is looking for a low coefficient of drag, why don't we drop the side mirrors in favor of high resolution wide angle cameras? I've always thought we could replace the center mirror with a long full car width LED display monitor showing a 180 degree view behind and sides fed by 2 wide angle cameras on the back or sides.
It also greatly reduces the number of configurations you have to support, both mechanically and software side of things. If everything is ala carte, you quickly run in to tens of thousands of configurations, which you have to test for. Multiply that by recalled and unrecalled cars, different model years, etc and testing to avoid serious failures quickly reach nightmare levels.
moox. for a new generation.
A Tesla charged with electricity solely generated by coal is still cleaner than a petrol car. However, average electricity from coal in the US is only 33% (and dropping) so not an issue.
Tesla has already solved your four challenges with battery recycling, supercharging, longer runtime. I can drive my Tesla anywhere with stops at convenient superchargers.
There is already sufficient electric infrastructure to charge more electric cars than will be produced in the next 5 years. Electric utilities currently have a problem with too much electricity at night (in Texas they give away free electricity at night)... precisely the time when most people charge their electric cars. This may change in 5-10 years but that's plenty of time to make the necessary investments.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
No, actually that is incorrect. As of 2015, 31% of all electrical power generated in the USA was generated by zero emission sources (nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, and geothermal). Another 33% was from natural gas, which generates very little particulate emissions, substantially reduced CO2, and reduced NOX. Only 34% was from coal and petroleum.
Petroleum's share is actually down to a minuscule 1%, and coal is shrinking all the time.
So gas and particulate emissions are greatly cut for every car converted from gasoline or diesel to battery-electric.
Decent starting point, but you stopped thinking far too quickly.
Centralizing power generation (moving from millions of small gasoline engines to hundreds of big oil/coal turbine generators) allows for greater efficiency. Most things work better at scale - you get more power extracted per unit fuel. And it allows you to cost-effectively install better pollution-reducing devices - big scrubbers on the exhaust, to keep particulates and such down. So even if the power grid were 100% fossil fuels, it would still be a gain.
But the grid isn't 100% fossil fuels. In some places those are a minority already - where hydro or geothermal or nuclear dominate. And it decouples the generators from the infrastructure - if all cars ran off batteries, we could switch over to whatever new power method works best, as we invent it. If we had cheap, efficient, clean nuclear fusion, switching to it would be easy if we were on electric cars. Switching from gasoline/diesel engines to fusion engines would require a lot more change to the infrastructure - new fueling stations built, new pipelines for deuterium run, new mechanics trained on new engine types.