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How is that meaningless? It's what determines a large portion of the price of the car and it's range. You don't think it's helpful to know that the Leaf has a 2

by pkulak 15y ago

How is that meaningless? It's what determines a large portion of the price of the car and it's range. You don't think it's helpful to know that the Leaf has a 24 kwh battery and the low end Tesla has 40? I'd say the range "estimates" are the useless number. The range is 90% determined by the battery capacity. The range estimates are whatever number marketing pulls out of its ass. This is nothing like megapixels and megahertz.

ansy 15y ago
Yes. It is meaningless to know the Leaf has a 24 kWh battery and the Tesla has 40 kWh. Completely and utterly useless. Range is determined by engine, weight, aerodynamics, and, yes, battery. The Leaf could, hypothetically, weigh half as much as the Tesla Roadster S, have a better coefficient of friction, a smaller engine, and get BETTER range with a smaller battery. It's like telling people how big the gas tank is on a car. There's a hell of a lot more you need to know to figure out the range. To give an extreme example, just because my passenger van has a 30 gallon tank and my civic has a 11 gallon tank doesn't mean the van is going to win an endurance race. Edit: Another concrete example, the Volkswagen 1L. It has a 1.7 gallon gas tank and gets a 400 mile range. [1] Your average Toyota might have a 50 mile range on the same amount of gas. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car
- dhbanes 15y ago
  Yeah, but what if I'm buying a Tesla Model S... so all else is held equal? I don't understand how you don't see this as useful information when comparing options within a single line of vehicles.
- ericd 15y ago
  Two important aspects that are covered by battery capacity but not range are cost to recharge and lower bound on time to recharge given a certain wiring capacity in your home.
lelf 15y ago
So how many mA⋅h in your laptop's battery?

by pkulak 15y ago

ansy 15y ago

Yes. It is meaningless to know the Leaf has a 24 kWh battery and the Tesla has 40 kWh. Completely and utterly useless. Range is determined by engine, weight, aerodynamics, and, yes, battery. The Leaf could, hypothetically, weigh half as much as the Tesla Roadster S, have a better coefficient of friction, a smaller engine, and get BETTER range with a smaller battery. It's like telling people how big the gas tank is on a car. There's a hell of a lot more you need to know to figure out the range. To give an extreme example, just because my passenger van has a 30 gallon tank and my civic has a 11 gallon tank doesn't mean the van is going to win an endurance race. Edit: Another concrete example, the Volkswagen 1L. It has a 1.7 gallon gas tank and gets a 400 mile range. [1] Your average Toyota might have a 50 mile range on the same amount of gas. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car

dhbanes 15y ago
Yeah, but what if I'm buying a Tesla Model S... so all else is held equal? I don't understand how you don't see this as useful information when comparing options within a single line of vehicles.
ericd 15y ago
Two important aspects that are covered by battery capacity but not range are cost to recharge and lower bound on time to recharge given a certain wiring capacity in your home.

lelf 15y ago

So how many mA⋅h in your laptop's battery?