1) When aren't I going to be home for 4 straight hours (time needed to charge the Tesla Roadster).
2) If I'm not at home, I'm probably at the office. I'm sure I'll be there for at least 4 hours at a stretch.
Ok, so that leaves road trips. You'd be an idiot to think you could drive an EV across the country. But than again, how often do you drive cross country? Rent a damn ICE-based car for that, or train/fly it. Use the EV around town.
The battery pack in the Roadster gets you 220 miles/charge, not 60. Also, the pack only takes 4 hours to charge from a 220V circuit (8 hours from a 120V circuit). Whooptydo. Didn't stop me from ordering one.
What are your thoughts on the feasibility of replacing the battery pack in the Roadster with a custom pack that delivers the same power requirements, but uses more up-to-date Lithium technologies?
I see you and I always shoving a bunch of relevant EV information into these threads on Slashdot (even marked you as a friend). If you're interested, I'd be up for grabbing a beer sometime to chat (I believe you mentioned you were an EV engineer) as I'm a PHEV/EV enthusiast whose waiting for my damn Roadster to get here.
Dual-clutch paddle shifter transmission in higher-end sports cars and some luxury cars don't have a clutch and can shift within a third of a second, faster than any human could wrangle the stickshift between gears.
Of course Tesla wants to sell solar panels for your house. Tesla investor Elon Musk (who has sunk almost $50 million into Tesa) also owns a company in California (SolarCity) that does solar panel installations. Note that this isn't a bad thing.
New Zealand have nice weather? I'd love to come out there from the states for a year and set up a non-profit/coop fiber concern to provide high speed access.
The electric motor is fairly simple in the Roadster, and only weighs 70 pounds (also about the size of a watermelon, can be installed/removed by one person). If you're intelligent enough to be on Slashdot, you'll be able to read error codes from the Canbus on an electric car, and fix the motor if it's something simple, or replace it and send the old one back if it's a more complex problem (unlike traditional ICEs).
I'll have to dig for the link, but there was a DOE report stating that 70% of current vehicle energy use could be shifted from oil to electricity if charging was done at night, due to the huge amounts of nighttime excess base load capacity.
Why don't you cruise over to A123System's website and check out the spec sheet on their cells, and see how fast they can soak a charge up. You could charge a car in under 4 hours (which isn't a big deal if you charge at home every night, or at work during the day).
Depends. Biofules such as corn-based ethanol are carbon-positive. It's quite natural-gas intensive. Sugar cane ethanol gets a pass, as plant waste is used to fuel the heat process needed to make it. Just because it grows in the ground and we can turn around and burn it doesn't make it carbon-neutral.
So what you're saying is that the sound a vehicle makes is more important than significantly less maintenance, higher performance, and amazing efficiency?
Hopefully you'll be able to get a Ford Mustang for a steal when Ford goes bankrupt in the next few years.
New transmission in the roadster (transmission ver1.5) is 1 speed. To make up for that shortcoming, the PEM and motor have been upgraded. It's now more efficient that if it had a 2 speed transmission.
I traded in my Mercedes '05 SLK 350 and put money down on a roadster. With the way a Mercedes holds up now a days (like shit), a roadster is a significant improvement I would think (less things to break), plus no more gas. Well worth it.
You bring up good points, but just like fiber, a factory has a maximum capacity. Once you've reached that capacity, that's the total production capacity you can spread your fixed costs out upon.
Any capacity not fully utilized is wasted. Example: A factory costs X billion dollars. It costs you X dollars a minute to own that factory. You make the most back on your investment by running the factory 24/7 with 3 shifts, so the factory is constantly running.
I was just in Italy (and France and Spain) for my honeymoon about a month ago (I live in the states). Honestly, Italy was the worst out of every place. The people were rude, the police rarely enforced laws from what I could see (mind you, I was only there two days, but most police I saw simply sat around), and a lot of the cities were dirty.
On the other hand, France was beautiful and clean and everyone was very nice. I would live in France for a couple of months if I could.
Slashdot Mirror
2) If I'm not at home, I'm probably at the office. I'm sure I'll be there for at least 4 hours at a stretch.
Ok, so that leaves road trips. You'd be an idiot to think you could drive an EV across the country. But than again, how often do you drive cross country? Rent a damn ICE-based car for that, or train/fly it. Use the EV around town.
The battery pack in the Roadster gets you 220 miles/charge, not 60. Also, the pack only takes 4 hours to charge from a 220V circuit (8 hours from a 120V circuit). Whooptydo. Didn't stop me from ordering one.
What are your thoughts on the feasibility of replacing the battery pack in the Roadster with a custom pack that delivers the same power requirements, but uses more up-to-date Lithium technologies?
I see you and I always shoving a bunch of relevant EV information into these threads on Slashdot (even marked you as a friend). If you're interested, I'd be up for grabbing a beer sometime to chat (I believe you mentioned you were an EV engineer) as I'm a PHEV/EV enthusiast whose waiting for my damn Roadster to get here.
Dual-clutch paddle shifter transmission in higher-end sports cars and some luxury cars don't have a clutch and can shift within a third of a second, faster than any human could wrangle the stickshift between gears.
Of course Tesla wants to sell solar panels for your house. Tesla investor Elon Musk (who has sunk almost $50 million into Tesa) also owns a company in California (SolarCity) that does solar panel installations. Note that this isn't a bad thing.
http://www.google.com/search?q=municipal+fiber&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t
New Zealand have nice weather? I'd love to come out there from the states for a year and set up a non-profit/coop fiber concern to provide high speed access.
New CCD sensor + lots of UAVs = always current Google Earth/Maps aerial views
The electric motor is fairly simple in the Roadster, and only weighs 70 pounds (also about the size of a watermelon, can be installed/removed by one person). If you're intelligent enough to be on Slashdot, you'll be able to read error codes from the Canbus on an electric car, and fix the motor if it's something simple, or replace it and send the old one back if it's a more complex problem (unlike traditional ICEs).
Thanks for the link. I wasn't aware of how complex and intelligent the ESS was.
I'll have to dig for the link, but there was a DOE report stating that 70% of current vehicle energy use could be shifted from oil to electricity if charging was done at night, due to the huge amounts of nighttime excess base load capacity.
The tesla roadster draws 70amps at 220V to charge within 4 hours. An 8 hour charge can be done from a 120V circuit.
Why don't you cruise over to A123System's website and check out the spec sheet on their cells, and see how fast they can soak a charge up. You could charge a car in under 4 hours (which isn't a big deal if you charge at home every night, or at work during the day).
Hah. I want lambo doors on a lambo tractor.
Depends. Biofules such as corn-based ethanol are carbon-positive. It's quite natural-gas intensive. Sugar cane ethanol gets a pass, as plant waste is used to fuel the heat process needed to make it. Just because it grows in the ground and we can turn around and burn it doesn't make it carbon-neutral.
Hopefully you'll be able to get a Ford Mustang for a steal when Ford goes bankrupt in the next few years.
Battery technology my friend. Almost $30K of the $109K sticker price of a Tesla Roadster is the battery pack.
New transmission in the roadster (transmission ver1.5) is 1 speed. To make up for that shortcoming, the PEM and motor have been upgraded. It's now more efficient that if it had a 2 speed transmission.
I'll be able to go, what, almost 230 miles on a charge in my roadster? That's only a couple of bucks at 7 cents kWh.
I traded in my Mercedes '05 SLK 350 and put money down on a roadster. With the way a Mercedes holds up now a days (like shit), a roadster is a significant improvement I would think (less things to break), plus no more gas. Well worth it.
You bring up good points, but just like fiber, a factory has a maximum capacity. Once you've reached that capacity, that's the total production capacity you can spread your fixed costs out upon.
Any capacity not fully utilized is wasted. Example: A factory costs X billion dollars. It costs you X dollars a minute to own that factory. You make the most back on your investment by running the factory 24/7 with 3 shifts, so the factory is constantly running.
On the other hand, France was beautiful and clean and everyone was very nice. I would live in France for a couple of months if I could.
As the poster you replied to, I'm extremely pleased to hear this (that things are changing for the better).