I put my deposit on a Tesla S, Now sit and wait Options

[burton73]

I don't know what batteries are in the Tesla, but the latest batteries in my hobby (giant scale radio control aircraft), A123 batteries are extremely durable, can be charged very very fast, and the voltage does not fall off untill it's around 90-95% depleted. Those are also the batteries that fuel the killacycle. Unlike Li-Po batteries, they can be charged and discharged at somewhere around 50-80C, they have about 2000 useable cycles in them, and they should be/come down in price as they are used more and more. DeWalt used them in a 36V packs (10 cells) for some of their tools and we picked these units up for $100.00 on evilbay, so $10/batt was/is not bad. They are 3.6V/2300mAh. If you had ten in series, you can charge them by connexting them to three 12V car batteries in series, that's how durable they are. No real heat to speak of, no fear of explosion and burning (like Li-Pos). I am sure these batteries and further developments of them are used in industrial machines, including heavy, in large numbers these days.

Oh, and congrats on the outlook to owning one of those cars, it does look to be a very nice and sound investment.

There are three levels of batteries packs you can buy. 120 up to 300 miles. All packs are water-cooled. All the problems so far with the batteries ideas have been overheating. This has been worked out. This is why this will work. Toyota should have been the first car to market with a full electric though they will have a plug in Hybrid soon. I love my GX450H Lexus. It gets good mileage at 30 plus on the frwy and 16 in town. I jam on it all the time! The in town mileage on Hybrid is a not true. My wife has a Lexus RX400Hybrid and she has the same story with her mileage a far as freeway mileage as better. My Daley driver is super fast for heavy 6 with 0 to 60 as fast as my Carrera 3.2 230 HP As far as A/C -- Electric. Just like my Lexus

I think only the 120 mile pack can charge in 45 minuets.

Bob


Bob

[burton73]

The seating is 5 big people and 2 children in jump seats. But at least they are there for some families. And -duc like all my nice non P cars I let them sit outside and get bird shit on them. That is why I get pearl white ones. The new house will have spots for 9 in the garages

Bob

[jimkelly]

i did not even know this model existed - $50k with great stats.

might be the begining of the end for fossil fuel powerplants?

good luck with it!

[charliew]

The immediate torque of the ev is really impressive on a dragstrip. I am excited about a new battery technology. I love gas powered hot rods but pure power of anykind is still lots of fun.

[Drums66]

The first electric car I ever saw was on display at a High school
that I worked at. it was a chevy small car model the name escapes me
at the moment it was back in 1994 or 95 it was an experimental model
but I remember the battery packs for the car were silly expensive and
had a life of maybe 3 years. I know they have made vast improvement's
over the years............so your"s should be fantastic.....I hope you enjoy
It! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[TonyAKAVW]

I thought I had read something about Tesla leasing the batteries rather than selling them outright on this model. Is that correct?

[Gene]

Good to hear they are getting their sedan model out. Tesla currently uses A123 batteries and creates their own battery pack with the individual batteries. I think they use something like 2000 of the small ones if I recall correctly. To make that same 300 mile battery pack would cost about $10-15k and then another $2k for battery and charge controllers.

And you can charge the car in 45 min if you use a larger voltage/amp outlet and not just a 120volt 10 amp. Some of most interesting aspects of the Tesla is the electronics in it that control charging and extend the batteries' life for as long as possible.

The holy grail for electric cars is going to be when someone designs a supercapacitor that can hold large amounts of electricity (15 to 30KW) and is the size of a breadbox. (supposedly there is a company that has done this using carbon nanotube tech but no proof yet). Can you imagine charging your car in a minute or two and having a 1000 mile range with it being lighter than current gas tech.

[burton73]

I thought I had read something about Tesla leasing the batteries rather than selling them outright on this model. Is that correct?

No lease. You buy. You buy the 120 mile pack or for more you can buy a mid range pack or a 300 mile pack. Just more more money. Lots more money and I take it time to charge but who cares. The 120 is fine for me.

In the future we will be on a grid and the power company will pull back some power when they need it in the peak times during the day in a power crunch so there are no brown outs. This will all work out for a world of electric cars or 25% EV cars.

[KaptKaos]

http://gawker.com/5189513/is-elon-musk-gua...sits-yes-and-no

I hope it turns out well for you.

[boxstr]

okay..

[carr914]

Seats 7? Where?

Silly Todd, the kids go in the trunk with the water-cooled batteries. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif)

[dkjens]

I just looked at the Tesla website and at the Tesla S,- I sure hope they are better at designing and building cars than they are at producing their promotional material. I do work with a graphic designer in my department, although I am more in communications, but he is starting to call me "art damaged" he he.

When downloading their "Spec Sheet" for the S, there are mistakes in the images that are so obvious even somebody without an edutcation in the graphic design field pics out in five seconds.

Top picture: Shows a right hand drive model, plug cap on right side of vehicle, wheels designed so that when vehicle moves forward, they have an effect of sucking air from under car, pushing it out and away.

Bottom picture: Shows left hand drive car, no plug cap on right side, wheels, although still on right side of car, now mirrored from the top picture, they will have to run backwards to have the same effect.

DOESN'T ANYBODY CARE about image correctness? If not, who's to say the claims are anywhere near reality?

[turboman808]

Thats a good looking car. For 50 grand and will cost alot less to operate that is a wonderful choice for a daily driver.

[dkjens]

Put a Honda EU1000 generator in the trunk, you'll never get stuck he he.

[dlo914]

Bump...

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2009/03/tesla...first-live.html

Live video of test drive.

Notice the large LCD center console...although it's really nice. The brightness at night would be tiresome on the eyes and there's prolly a dimming function that would solve that problem.

[richardL]

If anyone is interested - I just saw that Model S prototype in the Tesla dealership in Menlo Park/Palo Alto.

Its only the outside of the car - inside is basically just a mock-up, but its really gorgeous.

There were also around 40 Roadsters in and around the place - very impressive

[HCRDAN]

There were also around 40 Roadsters in and around the place - very impressive

Ouch, I assume you mean 40 Roadsters for sale... I hope for their sake that they are able to stay in business. I really want to root for the underdog and I think the S is really attractive. At the same time, I am not a big fan of Elon Musk. http://valleywag.gawker.com/5213238/sarah-...was-looking-for

I saw my first Roadster in Chicago yesterday at the valet stand at Carluci's in Rosemont where I had a business lunch. When we were coming out of the restaurant, one of my colleagues said "look at the Ferrari". I could not see the whole car, only the front end and the rear end but my reaction was to say "no, its a Lotus" but as I got closer, it just did not jive as a Lotus either. It started to pull away and there was no noise and at that same time I saw the "Tesla" letters across the rear end.

[richardL]

Ouch, I assume you mean 40 Roadsters for sale...

No - all the roadsters are pre-sold - there is a two year waiting list I believe. The Roadsters are built in the UK by Lotus and are delivered here, then they are prepped and delivered. So most of the cars there still had the protective wrap on them and they were being worked on prior to delivery.

There are three or four in the display room, plus a chassis to show the components

[Zundfolge]

Once small ultracapacitors are perfected, these things will take off like gangbusters.

Until then I'll stick with my evil stinky IC engine thankyouverymuch (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

But do keep us up to date with how the Tesla works for you once it arrives.

[smontanaro]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_bump.gif) Any further word on your Model S?