New Tesla.

[Dieselman]

Very interesting Tesla S.

Electric supersaloon for less than a conventional one.

Tesla model S.


the firm claims 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds and a top speed of 120mph.

Buyers will be able to choose from three battery packs, with ranges of 160 miles, 230 miles and 300 miles. Tesla says that the battery can be partially recharged in just 45 minutes.

While the two-seater Roadster costs around £90,000, the Model S is said to be much cheaper with the entry-level 160-mile model potentially costing less than £40,000

Anyone.?

 

[mattc]

me likey!

 

[AANDYY]

I like these cars! even being a petrol head (drives a diesel).
I'm quite open to any different propulsion of cars. These cars certainly do shift, if you don't wanna go far .

That model S, they've deffo taken cues of Astons!

 

[wemorgan]

Electric supercars makes sense to me. How many supercars do more than a short sunny afternoon outing? Come to think of it, not many people do more than 100miles/day anyway, so as long as the battery can be fully recharged overnight then electric vehicles makes sense for some people.

 

[Dieselman]

Come to think of it, not many people do more than 100miles/day anyway,

Isn't it that something like 90% of car journeys are under 5 miles in the UK.?

Personally I'd need the 300 mile range as my daily journeys can vary between 50-250 miles, only doing short journeys as required for work.

 

[wemorgan]

The 'public' are diffuclt people to understand at times

We like to support British products but buy German.
We like to support British farmers but buy New Zealand lamb.

In the Tesla I'd like to know more about where the components are made. I don't know if any eco credentials are being attached to it, but if the batteries are made in Brazil, inverters in Japan, steel from Germany and assembled in the USA, then it will be less eco than customers expect.

 

[jpskiller]

how much capacity will the batteries lose per year, and what are the replacement costs going to be when it becomes unusable..

 

[Ted]

I like the idea, but I have to say they seem to be testing out theories - electric chairs and dynamos, dressed to kill, they're killing me but heaven knows their recipe.

 

[grober]

Electric cars are probably the future at least in the medium term. What I worry about is whether the country's power generation capability could cope if we all went electric. What sort of load would be placed on the national grid system and its associated generating stations if the entire nation plugged their TESLA into the mains at 6 oclock at night for an over night charge??? People underestimate the huge chemical energy contained in a litre of petrol. Batteries don't come close or hydrogen for that matter.
Advocates of public transport tend to forget that if the entire nation abandoned their cars overnight the present infrastructure couldn't cope. I think the same might apply to electric cars unless a national infrastructure is developed to cope with this new method of propulsion and I see no sign of that at the moment. We are still humming and hawing about nuclear and renewables and time is running out.

 

[Dieselman]

Electric cars are probably the future at least in the medium term. What I worry about is whether the country's power generation capability could cope if we all went electric. What sort of load would be placed on the national grid system and its associated generating stations if the entire nation plugged their TESLA into the mains at 6 oclock at night for an over night charge??? People underestimate the huge chemical energy contained in a litre of petrol.

But don't forget nearly all the energy in petrol is wasted, very little is turned into motive power, so an electric car uses a lot less energy anyway, even for a given output, and 100% less when stationary so the load on the grid would be less significant.
Add to that that the grid has masses of excess capacity overnight, I really doubt that even when charging every electric car in the land, there would be anything like the daytime requirement for power.

 

[grober]

You may well be correct efficiency may be the key factor but we would have to import/extract/transport perhaps twice as much fuel to the power stations to do it and half their projected lifespan ??. There would be taxation implications also- I guess road tolls in some shape or form- or individual car monitoring?? Don't think the chancellor will let us escape that one.

 

[Mudster]

What a nice looking car, looks like the lovechild of a Jag XF and an Aston Vantage.

 

[rf065]

Did Top Gear not test a couple of them?
I seem to remember them both on the track with flat batteries, i.e., drive it like a sports car & the batteries run down quicker than the manufacturer claims?

Russ

 

[wemorgan]

I didn't see the program but can well imagine that to be true. The duty cycle of an engine/motor is crutial to its effeciency. Even a petrol engine Porsche with a combined fuel effeciency of 30mpg will get <10mpg on a race track.

 

[Dryce]

so the load on the grid would be less significant.
Add to that that the grid has masses of excess capacity overnight, I really doubt that even when charging every electric car in the land, there would be anything like the daytime requirement for power.

And I quote from the Wikipedia entry:

A full recharge of the battery system requires 3½ hours using the High Power Connector which supplies 70 amp, 240 volt
​

Now not everybody would charge at that rate per day.

But realistically if a lot of people had these sorts of overnight requirements then it changes the economics of overnight cheap tariffs. It also changes the economics of nuclear and pump storage generation.

* At say 12p inc VAT per unit (prices vary quite a bit depending on leccy deals and your area) then that's about £30/fill. *

Edited: Got this wrong. It's actually only about £7.50/fill.

How many miles does a Tesla go for that money compare with an Elise with the same value of petrol. (Or even a diesel Elise if there was such a thing with the same value of Diesel).

 

[st4]

Handsome car isn't it.

Seriously though, Lithium Ion batteries are no good in the very long run, they do not last well (my laptop now half a decade old can only run for 10mins on battery, before it could do 3hrs). Any one fancy the idea of a car that when bough new could do 100 miles on a tenners of a petrol to find 5 years on that tenner got them 3 miles. Even Gordy cloon cannot beat that with his taxes....

A fuel cell system, diesel electric drive train would have made more sense.A diesel engine acting as a generator for an electic drive train the most suitable for todays roads, a fuel cell system too fururistic but an insight into it....

 

[Ted]

£7.35, a refill surely? (assuming 100% efficiency)

 

[rf065]

Handsome car isn't it.

Seriously though, Lithium Ion batteries are no good in the very long run, they do not last well (my laptop now half a decade old can only run for 10mins on battery, before it could do 3hrs).

If I remember correctly, the handling was not very good either because of the weight distribution of all those batteries in the Tesla.

Russ

 

[Dryce]

£7.35, a refill surely? (assuming 100% efficiency)

I was using ballparks because none of this is exact.

It may also be that the charging curve of the batteries means that the charging current peaks at 70A but the average is lower.

 

[Howard]

Does no one else like the 'noise' that sportscars make ? thats half of what it's about surely ?

They are fast granted , but all in silence ...

Whos hairs don't stand up on the back of their neck when a Lamborghini goes past at full chat ?