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First Ride in Tesla Model S
- channelmeter 15y agoAnother video from the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NltAGcvubA4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NltAGcvubA4
- jfb 15y agoI badly want one of these, as much as that defines me as a "mark". Actually, I want the M5 competing Model S Sport, which is even more of a "take my money, please!" proposition. Still. just look at the torque curve ...
- sliverstorm 15y agoI am crossing my fingers that a more affordable "non-luxury" option presents itself in the near future.
- Empact 15y agoIn his reddit IAMA he says the plan has always been for the 3rd-generation (post-S) car to be a high-volume, low-price car. Based on the time between the Roadster and S releases, it will probably be a few years before they get around to that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K8NkJpUei4#t=14m59s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K8NkJpUei4#t=14m59s
- cloudwalking 15y agoElon says there are a couple years of Model S, then the Model X (SUV), then a ~$30k "widespread consumer" model.
- ericd 15y agoHas that hit the mainstream press very hard at all? My jaw dropped when I heard those 0-60 times. That it's for a car with 7 seats at a price comparable or less than the M5 is unbelievable. And it's so simple mechanically, it almost feels like going from a spinning hard drive to an SSD. I really, really want one.
- jfb 15y agoNo transmission. Gotta love that.
- boucher 15y agoSome photos I took from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossboucher/sets/72157627812097410/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossboucher/sets/72157627812097...
- cloudwalking 15y agoHere are pics I took of the factory: https://plus.google.com/photos/117116621786089717494/albums/5659120224507196033 https://plus.google.com/photos/117116621786089717494/albums/...
- rdl 15y agoI'm going to get one of these, or a Karma. I think for daily use around the Bay Area, having a white HOV sticker would be enough of a benefit to make this an ideal choice; keep an older, gasoline or diesel car for long road trips, which also keeps depreciation off the more expensive new car.
- steve8918 15y agoI thought they stopped distributing those HOV stickers for hybrids years ago. Can you still get them these days?
- macrael 15y agoTesla makes all-electric cars; no gas involved. HOV stickers are for all-electric cars only, now. I've seen them on Nissan Leafs.
- rdl 15y agoThe problem is the leaf doesn't have enough practical range to go from SF to Mountain View and back, and certainly not enough to do a full day of driving around the Bay Area. A roadster does, and a model s probably does, at least with the larger battery packs.
- rdl 15y agoThe yellow ones were for hybrids. The white ones are for CNG, plug-in hybrid, or battery electric, and are good until the end of the world (or 2015, whichever comes first)
- socialmediaking 15y agoI drove the Karma last month and it was pretty awesome. I'm big on electric cars, but the downfall of 100% electric is a term called Range Anxiety. Which as the name implies, is being anxious about how far you can go. A car like the karma has a gas tank that allows it to go up to 250 miles more after the 50 miles of battery are up. That is the main difference I learned between the electric vs hybrid cars, and to me an important distinction...
- fletchowns 15y agoI wish every gas station in the world turned into a battery exchange facility overnight. Or if there was some mass produced battery that charges instantly. Throw in some massive clean energy projects for generating all that power. So many problems facing this country would be eliminated. I hope that day comes soon.
- hristov 15y agoIt is interesting you should mention that. There is actually a standard that the Japanese are developing for fast charging cars. It provides for high current charging with the charge station communicating with the car to ensure it does not blow the batteries. Supposedly you can get a decent charge for 10 min or so. However the previous Tesla (the roadster) did not support that standard. Lets hope this one does.
- illumen 15y agoSo many independant stations are struggling trying to sell gas. If there was a market, and an easy system for someone to buy then it would do really well.
- cloudwalking 15y agoIt's not the batteries, it's the power grid. The Model S charges in less than an hour at ~90kW. [http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/breaking-tesla-making-faster-2012-model-s-0-60-in-under-45-seconds.php http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/breaking-tesla-...]
- fletchowns 15y agoAn hour is a lot longer than it takes to fill a tank of gas though. It's gotta be either cheaper or more convenient for most people to consider switching.
- Iv 15y agoIn France they are building batteries-switching facilities every 200 kilometers along a major highway axis. However their main target is trucks.
- scrrr 15y agoI was ignorant towards this issue and don't know much about electric cars. But the electricity has to be produced somewhere, right? Transporting electricity isn't free either. What about building batteries? Would we have less emissions if all cars switched to electric? What about other technologies like for example hydrogen?
- pyre 15y agoOne of the arguments is that by switching the power source to electricity, we can focus on improving our methods of generating electricity, and everything dependent on it will benefit. For example, if we were able to create cars that could got 1000 miles on a gallon of gas, how long would it take to phase out all existing cars?
- modeless 15y agoElectric cars can run on power from hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, tidal, solar, and nuclear sources, which is enough benefit by itself to switch from ICEs. But even if every power plant burned the same gas we put in our cars, switching would still lower emissions because power plants are more efficient than car engines and transporting electricity is more efficient than transporting gas. Hydrogen is a dead end IMHO. Fuel cells are expensive and have many limitations, plus containment and transfer are still unsolved problems. Batteries are improving fast enough now (notwithstanding popular sentiment from people wanting Moore's Law speeds) that hydrogen will never catch up.
- bgarbiak 15y agoOne of the most exciting technologies in electric cars is regenerative braking or KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). As the name says: breaking fuels the batteries (some of the solutions don't even use the batteries but are totally mechanical-based, which make them even more 'pure' - there's a Porsche model using that). In hybrid cars the energy could be recovered from the combustion engine heat, exhaust gases heat, etc. I suppose, in future, we'll be able to extract/recover some energy from almost everything (like radio or A/C) making the cars super efficient.
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- ck2 15y agoLooks really nice! Hope it does well and I hope Top Gear gives it an honest review. Did their price point stay on target?
- kevingadd 15y agoIIRC the original price-point target was $55k. Their listed price of $50k is after a $7.5k federal tax rebate - so depending on how you measure it, they're either slightly above the target or well below it.
- maxklein 15y agoTesla is going to be one of the first indicators the bubble burst. The tesla cars are overpriced, inconvenient, and they do not look particularly nicer than other cars in their segment. Tesla is just a game for financial speculators to make a lot of money of the tech bubble.
- kristofferR 15y agoLuxury is not a bubble. Actually, in some countries, like Norway, Tesla Model S is actually really cheap compared to similar fuel drinking cars because of the way lower taxes.
- maxklein 15y agoTesla is not luxury. It's an expensive car that does not look good and needs many hours to recharge. It's not faster or better than other cars, it's just needs longer to recharge. If you are paying $80k for a car, you don't care about fuel taxes.
- lsc 15y ago>It's an expensive car that does not look good ... It's not faster or better than other cars Sounds like a luxury car to me.
- fr0sty 15y ago> an expensive car that does not look good Seriously? What cars, in your opinion, do look good? > It's not faster or better than other cars 0-60 in 5.5sec 400Nm torque Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at. Yes it is expensive. It is a low-volume exotic all-electric car. what are you expecting?
- true_religion 15y ago5.5 seconds isn't that great for the class of car it's in. The Roadster is a sports car. It's 30k more than a 911 Carerra and slower in 0-60. That said its torque curve is amazing which means you don't have to stamp on the gas pedal, and handle the transmission like a race car driver to get that 0-60 time.
- rodh257 15y agoIs there any legislation proposed to ensure cars make at least a certain amount of noise while driving, for safety reasons? The new Prius will have a noise generated so that blind people/distracted people will be aware of the car coming around the corner, is there any plans to require this sort of thing by law? Seems to me that once these types of almost silent cars start to become popular we'll see an increase in pedestrian injuries. This may be a little off-topic, and it's not a dig at the Tesla which looks like a great car, I was just struck by how silent it was (I haven't seen a fully electric car in person here in Australia yet)
- robterrell 15y agoI was walking past Moscone a few days ago just as, for some reason, they were driving a Model S and Roadster inside the Oracle show. (I have no idea why they were at the Oracle show, but I was happy to have the chance to snap some pictures.) They were perfectly silent. I was admiring the Model S when the Roadster came up behind me and I had no idea it was even there until someone said something. It was moving slowly, but I've heard golf carts that were louder at the same speed. I once got to drive an EV1. It included an electronic noisemaker for exactly that purpose, to keep pedestrians alive. Expect government regulations if Tesla doesn't do something first.
- chadgeidel 15y agoI honestly don't understand the need. It is the driver's responsibility to be aware of pedestrians, and the pedestrian's responsibility to not jaywalk. Look both ways and all that. We need less noise pollution.