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Ready To Go Electric?

Rabid

By Rabid,
in General Automotive Discussion

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Rabid Enthusiast

Rabid

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Heres a little bit on an American car company called Tesla. They will be making electric cars starting with a Roadster this year and including a sedan and an economy model by 2011. The Roadster is around $90k american, The sedan is expected to be $30k, and the economy car in the $10k range. Currently the Roadster gets 250 miles per charge, sedan is expected at 400-500miles. They are estimating about 500 full charges per battery, which means the roadster should hit 125k miles before it needs new AA's. Theres only 1 schedualed maintainence period every 150k miles. These cars have 0 emissions, and the engine only has 1 moving part. The Roadster does 0-60mph in 4.1sec, it's fast as f**k. It runs with a 2-speed manu-matic tranny. 13,500rpm redline with max torque from 0-7000rpm. 130mph top speed. It's based on the Lotus Elise chasis, but its a little longer because it needs to carry a battery. Still technically a mid-engine rear drive car. Weighs in at about 1300kg. Anyways heres some pics.

tesla_1.jpg1_2.jpg

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Rabid Enthusiast

Rabid

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Here's a couple video's for anyone who is actually interested in seeing them.

not to shabby if u have $90k US to spend on an electric go kart....

An electric go-kart will make your skyline look stupid, and only costs 1cent per mile to run.

Rabid Enthusiast

Rabid

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yeah not to bad, although i wonder how much the AA's (batteries) cost???

The batteries are the expensive part right now. It's also the main reason why the $30k sedan wont be out till 2009. I'm guessing that by the time you see some of these cars on the road, the batteries will be affordable enough to replace. The Roadster price is expected to come down by then as well. It will be someplace in the $50k price range.

Edited by Rabid
Macross Enthusiast

Macross

Posted
Posted (edited)
If it produces 0 emissons, I am interested to know where the power comes from in the first place to charge it up.
yeah. replace oil and fuel consumption with burning even more fossil fuels which is a leading cause of global warming.

top work.

the question is.. which is worse?

If Australians had any intelligence the power would come from nuclear power plants... :yes:

Edited by Macross
Rabid Enthusiast

Rabid

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yeah. replace oil and fuel consumption with burning even more fossil fuels which is a leading cause of global warming.

top work.

the question is.. which is worse?

If every car was electric, and we needed X more powerplants that burn say, coal, to power them. We would still be letting out 50% less CO2 emissions than we do right now. So it's cleaner than what we have currently. And as powerplants become more efficient at making electricity, those numbers will go down even more.

I'd much rather have a decent late model low-kay Lotus Elise (which the Tesla is based on) for somewhere between a 1/4 and a 1/3 the price.

The point I'm trying to make is that someday (soon), there just isn't going to be any gasoline. It's never a bad time to think about what type of alternative fuel your interested in. Electric cars are just one of the many options, but since most of you here are interested in performance, not just gas mileage, electric is probably what your going to want to keep your eyes on. Also like I said before, the Roadster is going to drop down to about $50k which is only a fraction more than the Elise's that are running the Toyota motors in them.

Theres also another company (who's name I can't remember at the moment) who is going to produce an electric 7 seater crossover sport utility (also with help from lotus). It's expected to get 350 miles per charge. Also it is AWD and runs a high 4sec 0-60. The best part about this car though, is they claim it will only take 10min to get a full charge. That's about how long it takes to fill up on gas and get a drink right now. Not bad at all. The other thing is, batteries are getting about 8% more powerful every year. So if this trend keeps up (and it is expected to) a car that gets 400 miles per charge now, in 6 years will get 600 miles per charge. In 12 years it will get 900, in 18 it will be close to 1400. Also the batteries are recyclable.

scathing Grand Master

scathing

Posted
Posted (edited)

$90K American would put the car at around AUD$300K or so, once you factor the usual raping we get when cars are imported (they're estimating under USD$70K for the GT-R in the USA, and about AUD$180K Down Under).

The Australian government isn't particularly interested in cutting us some slack when it comes to "green" cars (we don't get concessions on hybrids like the Prius), and on such a niche vehicle there won't be much by way of economies of scale.

If one were affordable, I'd buy one. Amazing off-idle torque and high speed, and I want an Elise. The only thing I'd miss is the sound of an engine...but since the Elise is a 4 banger and all 4 bangers sound like shit, I'd not missing that much.

Edited by scathing
Rabid Enthusiast

Rabid

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Currently the Tesla takes about 4 hours for a full charge. But like I said theres another company out there that claims it has a car that will be good for 350 miles on a 10min charge. That car is called the Zap-X and its a 644hp AWD, 4.8sec 0-60, 155mph top speed, 7 passenger SUV. The Technology will only get better as time goes on and since mass production of electric cars of any sort is still a few years off its very likely that charge times will improve significantly.

Here is the ZAP-X lotus_apx_concept-01.jpg

MoogLe Community Regular

MoogLe

Posted
Posted (edited)

i cant imagine drifting in one of those things and instead of hearing the engine and exhaust roar, you'll be hearing whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr like a little r/c car....

that alone is going to suck!

i hope gasoline doesn't run out in my lifetime :)

and 1 more thing,

is it even possible to mod electrical engines?

Edited by MoogLe
Lachlan33 Community Regular

Lachlan33

Posted
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While it all sounds very impressive I thnk the general public is going to fail to realise that the power to charge it up is still a result of burning fossil fuels. So you plug it into a wall socket to refill it with juice, where do people think that power comes from?

I agree with what someone else said, Nuclear power is the way to go in Australia. They are SO much more efficent than coal burning power plants. Crap like wind and solar power is all well and good in THEORY but the fact is that it doesn't produce NEARLY as much power as required, and look at the fossil fuels burnt by the factories making all the panels and what not.

Call me an Ecoterroist but I plan to hold onto a petrol car as long as possible. Sure electric cars might be awesome for a nice quiet luxury car but your not going to impress anyone by revving your little electric motor at the lights now are you :D

Rabid Enthusiast

Rabid

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While it all sounds very impressive I thnk the general public is going to fail to realise that the power to charge it up is still a result of burning fossil fuels. So you plug it into a wall socket to refill it with juice, where do people think that power comes from?

Already answered that question.

mokompri Community Regular

mokompri

Posted
Posted
is it even possible to mod electrical engines?

easily. double the voltage to the motor and you get a theoretical doubling of power (although this never happens due to increasing thermal losses). some wiring changes to the effect of running more batteries in series then parallel, you could achieve a *close* to doubling in power, but also halving in mileage per charge. The only addon you would need is extra cooling for the motor for all the extra heat. of course you could just add more batteries and keep your mileage the same..

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