Tesla Roadster. (electric sports car)

[reptilian_storm]

http://www.supercars.net/PicFetch?pic=3528-2.jpg

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (July 19, 2006) - The first performance electric car manufactured by Tesla Motors, the high-performance, zero-emissions Tesla Roadster, was unveiled before a throng of well-wishers, car buffs, and potential customers Wednesday evening during Tesla's Launch event.

The electric-powered Tesla Roadster boasts a top speed of more than 130 mph and a range of 250 miles on a single charge, a combination heretofore unseen in a mass-produced electric vehicle. Its extended range is due to its state-of-the-art lithium-ion Energy Storage System. The Tesla Roadster is capable of accelerating from 0-60 mph in about four seconds.

Here's a video of it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1AdfgcNiQ

They mention a solar version at the end which will just power it's self. "you will generate more miles in electricity than you will use in your daily comute"

Sounds good to me!

http://teslamotors.com/

[RallyeSport]

Electric cars are certainly feasible and could have been produced much earlier, but the oil and automotive industries kept a lid on the battery technologies needed to produce a range that was competitive with petrol cars. With things like cell phones, laptops, and iPods, the automotive industries grip on battery technology was loosened, allowing hobbists and small business to create these vehicles. What needs to be done now is building more eco-friendly power plants, like wind, solar, and, to a lesser extent, hydro-electric and nuclear.

I can definitely see myself buying one.

[EeekiE]

They mention a solar version at the end which will just power it's self. "you will generate more miles in electricity than you will use in your daily comute"

Nah dude, he was on about a partnership with solar panel company so if you buy a Telsa, you get cheap or free solar panels for your house, which will be able to charge car with more power than you'd normally use to get to work, thus your car is free to run, and you're actually contributing/creating energy. Which is like negative MPG

[reptilian_storm]

Nah dude, he was on about a partnership with solar panel company so if you buy a Telsa, you get cheap or free solar panels for your house, which will be able to charge car with more power than you'd normally use to get to work, thus your car is free to run, and you're actually contributing/creating energy. Which is like negative MPG

Crap, i should listen harder.

Still i wouldn't mind an electric car like that. I wonder what sort of motor mods will be available eventually?

[Liberator13]

How much?
*Pulls out checkbook*

[reptilian_storm]

How much?
*Pulls out checkbook*

Pricing for the Tesla Roadster has not been announced, although Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard has speculated that it would "cost between US$85,000 and US$120,000." Eberhard recently revealed that the price would be in the range of a Porsche 911 Carrera S, which has an suggested retail price of approximately US$80,000.

No doubt it will come down eventually.

Some more info here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster

135mpg equivalent :cool:

[Liberator13]

Bah, only $80,000?
Hah, I wish....

[runt262]

it looks like a saturn sky and a lotus elise had sex and produced a red headed kid (the electric engine). red heads can be hot. id buy one


edit:
from wikipedia:
Lotus supplied the basic chassis technology from its Lotus Elise. Tesla engineers designed a new chassis with this technology, lengthening it, lowering the door sills, and adjusting its strength to match the weight of the Tesla Roadster. Besides the chassis, the Roadster appears to share a number of key components with the Elise, such as the windshield, surround, and suspension components. The styling was penned by Barney Hatt at Lotus' design studio with significant input from Tesla. The car will be assembled at the Lotus factory in Hethel, England, with all drivetrain components and body components supplied to the factory by Tesla


so there is the reason there is a look-a-like

edit II:

if you drop the $80,000 at once, and you get some free solar panels to make electricity to charge the car, you would be saving money in the long run from gas, thats unless the maintenance doesnt cost an arm and a leg.

[EeekiE]

Hats off to them though. Hippies are only complaining about petrol cars, and campaigning for electric because they want everyone to be as miserable as they are. If this is what can be expected of future electric cars, then HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

[ThaiTanium22]

$0.02: Generating electric power (batteries) produces more pollution than burning fossil fuels. Electric cars may produce no emissions but making the battery that the car runs on sure did.

[EeekiE]

LOL nice avatar. My heart sank for a second or two till I cottoned on.

Yeah but I think the point is, if all the emissions are moved to one place, something can be done about it, and CO2 can be pumped underground etc. Plus in the long run with recharges it will emit less than a normal car would in same lifetime.

[MinOs]

$0.02: Generating electric power (batteries) produces more pollution than burning fossil fuels. Electric cars may produce no emissions but making the battery that the car runs on sure did.

Once batteries start getting mass produced I am sure they will find a more efficient, enviroment freindly way of making them.

Nice car by the way, finally an electric sports car. And the 135mpg sounds... :boink:

[elliott678]

I don't know about the 3.5 hour charge time though, seems pretty inconvienient in the long run.

Also the batteries will eventually wear out, ususally a Li-ion battery will lose 20% of its charge capacity per year. That means you will have to find some economical way to safely dispose of the batteries. Not to mention the replacement cost of these batteries.

[FatBastard]

i think the biggest problem this car will encounter is the sound... (no, not the biggest. but still. pretty big... or somewhat big? no. it´s big allright)

when i do go from 0-60 i 4 secs, you damn well wanna sound like it too (and hear the sound of the roaring engine!). in this you´ll sound like a super-fast vacuum-cleaner. nice...

[buttsechs]

build a plant that buildss batteries on the moon then send all of are junk onto it like nuclear waste and trash, the moon just sits there we should pollute it too.

[OE800]

build a plant that buildss batteries on the moon then send all of are junk onto it like nuclear waste and trash, the moon just sits there we should pollute it too.


you should be in charge of the EPA.

[EeekiE]

There are new battery techs coming out all the time. Recently they made a virus battery that lasts 3x as long. Plus you got Nuclear Fusion tests going on, and the fuel cell tech being trialled in phones, so who knows what they'll be using in 20/30 years time.

[Duke Dicky]

The one thing that will kill this cars mass market production sales is the recharge time. It's inconvenient and you know what Americans think about that! lol. Other than that, I would buy one. My hat goes off to the companies taking the step to produce these vehicles.

[Skiptomylue]

. I wonder what sort of motor mods will be available eventually?
Easy, upgraded and bigger, better flowing batteries!:lmao:

[EeekiE]

Just up the voltage like we did with my brothers R/C car. It FLEW

[Beldar]

One thing I think about with these electric cars. Eventually you have to stop and charge them. Does chargine take as long as pumping a tank of gas? Or would we have to wait for hours? It would be bad if you were leaving for work then you realize that you dont have enough battery left to get you there.

[Vettribution87]

Just up the voltage like we did with my brothers R/C car. It FLEW
I know that the RC hobbyists with electric cars sometimes replace the stock motor with an aftermarket one with more "winds" and/or less "turns".

I cannot remember the full definition of winds and turns as I went for gas-powered RC cars, but I do know that less turns means a more powerful motor and this power can be increased further more by going for extra winding.

I remember reading in many an RC magazine where someone would change their 15turn single wound motor on their 1/10 scale buggy to a 10turn double or (even triple) wound motor. The buggy would absolutely fly along at unbelievable speed but the battery time was reduced significantly in addition to a tremendous amount of heat build up necessitating the need to let it cool off for a certain number of minutes. This could be scaled to hours on a full sized car.
Heat build-up like this would need to be addressed on a full-sized electric car as electric motors produce more heat then a comparable combustion engine.
A combustion engine is something like 40% efficient (meaning only 40% of the energy generated from combustion is used to propel the car) with the rest being wasted in the form of heat, sound, vibration (or any mechanical motion not productive to the propelling of the vehicle).
Electric motors on the other hand are something like 80% efficient but nearly all of that 20% wasted energy is heat. Therefore, despite being more efficient, it will generate much more heat then a combustion equivalent and I think this will be a MUCH bigger issue with the tuning of full-sized electric cars in the future.

Another possible way of tuning up a full-sized electric car might be to change the electronic speed controller (another method borrowed from RC hobbyists). Changing something like this on a full-sized electric car could be comparable to changing the chip on a combustion engines PROM computer, only with much more significant results.