I Think I May Have Found An *eventual* Replacement For The Stagea...

[Grungle]

Tesla Model S

"With a range up to 300 miles and 45-minute QuickCharge, the Model S can carry five adults and two children in quiet comfort – and you can charge it from any outlet, without ever stopping for gas. World's first mass-produced electric vehicle offers performance, efficiency and unrivaled utility for a base price of $49,900*, making it the only car you'll ever need."

• - 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds
  
• - 120 mph top speed
  
• - Sport sedan dynamics
  
• - All-wheel-drive available
  

No idea when they would be available in Oz, but based on those specs... I like it!

Edited April 5, 2009 by Grungle

[Bis-e Bee]

and zero storage space to boot

I would prefer a tricked out Nismo M35 running high octane fuel anyday.. !! (vroom vroom) lol

EDIT

More Cargo space than station wagons <---- according to site?? please explain

EDIT 2

2nd trunk under hood <---- pays not having a nice 2.5L V6 Turbo

Edited April 5, 2009 by Bis-e Bee

[GTR91]

Its got nice rims.

[Punk72]

not a bad looking car, dont understand the whole boot space i guess if you didnt have anyone sitting in the back

but you cant go past the vroom vroom

sorry bis e bee for copying you vroom vrooms but i seems to say it all, maybe i am still drunk from last night

[Bis-e Bee]

not a bad looking car, dont understand the whole boot space i guess if you didnt have anyone sitting in the back

but you cant go past the vroom vroom

sorry bis e bee for copying you vroom vrooms but i seems to say it all, maybe i am still drunk from last night

That's ok you can borrow the vroom vrooms.

The electric sound just doesn't do it for me, it would be like going to Bathurst and watching battery powered Holden's and Ford's battle it out lol It's just NOT natural!

Big night last night eh? Hope you left the Stag at home

I wonder if you can like get the passengers in this car to pedal or something to power the battery so you never need to stop to charge!

[gebba54]

Its got nice rims.

Lorinser, put me down for a set

[zei20l]

you know at first glance i thought it was a DB9 sedan (whatever its called)

looks ok, figures arent startling but pretty good! what milage from a single charge???? and can it be recharged from a single phase outlet?

[Grungle]

i'm all for the vroom vroom, but with power and acceleration figures like that I'm happy to sacrifice the noise. If I miss it that much i'll just get a CD with some ferrari/aston martin sounds and play that wherever i go. with the amount of power on board you could sure make a decent stereo system!

I've been getting into some fairly heated discussions with people on other forums about the new electric dirtbikes, and it amazes me how many people are saying they will "give up" riding dirt bikes if they have to go electric. if people enjoy driving and riding i cant see how making the whole thing quieter will really detract that much from the experience - especially if the electric stuff will outperform their Internal Combustion equivalents! It gets even better with dirtbikes, with so many riding areas being shut downdue to noise concerns.

I think (without knowing much about the exact layout of these cars) that the extra cargo space comes from the lack of transmission, exhaust, fuel tank, diffs etc. take away all that stuff from under the car (admittedly you have to add a large battery pack) and you end up with a lot more room.

from the specs it sounds like you'll get 300 miles (480km) from a single charge (with a choice of smaller range battery packs), and that charging is possible from any outlet - 120V, 240V or 480V. also claims a 5-minute battery swap.

[rtune]

there is a lot of loud haters for these tesla models I see commenting whenever a US web page has an article about them, I think that they are now priced very high makes some people get confused about elitism etc. But to get cheap, they have to start expensive as they build production. It is just economics. Look at the PS2 price, for example, from launch to now.

The other thing nobody believes is how low maintenance they are. Batteries will fail in a year, that kind of rubbish. Prius proves the battery pack when recharging is managed by a computer can last 10 years or more of normal use.

The last point is that an amazing amount of weight and servicing fuss goes away when everything is electric. No fluids, tanks, seals, no heat cycle driven degradation, no mess from oils and vapors. The service places for tesla vehicles are very small, largely just a computer on a crash cart and a clean floor..

It would be nice if australia stopped burning coal to get electric power, but even, even worst case, CO2 output is less per km than nearly all cars.

If I were in the states I'd be on the waiting list for this car, even with all the other exciting choices at $50k. It is just unique and exciting. Not for everyone, for sure, but every year the target market gets larger.

[iamhe77]

I've been getting into some fairly heated discussions with people on other forums about the new electric dirtbikes, and it amazes me how many people are saying they will "give up" riding dirt bikes if they have to go electric. if people enjoy driving and riding i cant see how making the whole thing quieter will really detract that much from the experience - especially if the electric stuff will outperform their Internal Combustion equivalents! It gets even better with dirtbikes, with so many riding areas being shut downdue to noise concerns.

OFF TOPIC: YES! Can someone PLEASE make all dirt bikes electric? Their sound is more annoying than a mozzie buzzing around your ear at night!.. especially at 6am on a Sunday morning. Nothing like wanting to put up some piano wire across the road... right about neck height

As for the Tesla? I think I would prefer a hydrogen car than electric.

Still get the Vroom Vroom

[Raysboostin]

IMO battery powered electric cars are a waste of time as they are very restrictive in the milage you can cover. sure they say u can charge the battery in 45mins, but after playin around with electric RC cars for a couple of years i wouldnt believe that for a second. also mentioned was changing the batteries. how many thousands of batteries are recharging stations gonna need to keep in populated areas? they would need a 10 acre warehouse just to keep them all and try and keep constantly charging them. more so, how bad for the environment are the chemicals that make up batteries?

i think that hydrogen cell electric cars are the way to go (like the honda they had on top gear). no batteries, no waiting to charge, just refill and ur off again. the best thing is its even better for the environment cos there is no harmful battery chemicals to dispose of.

well thats my rant done

[66yostagea]

Just had 3" cat back fitted and S1 has gone from very quiet to a bit too much vroom vroom.

If you go electric and want vroom vroom, just get a HUGE stereo system and some CDs recorded at a Dyno place.

Problem solved.

[iamhe77]

Just had 3" cat back fitted and S1 has gone from very quiet to a bit too much vroom vroom.

If you go electric and want vroom vroom, just get a HUGE stereo system and some CDs recorded at a Dyno place.

Problem solved.

Yeah, nothing like hearing an LP650 at full noise blasting out your speakers while stuck in peak our traffic

[Grungle]

IMO battery powered electric cars are a waste of time as they are very restrictive in the milage you can cover. sure they say u can charge the battery in 45mins, but after playin around with electric RC cars for a couple of years i wouldnt believe that for a second. also mentioned was changing the batteries. how many thousands of batteries are recharging stations gonna need to keep in populated areas? they would need a 10 acre warehouse just to keep them all and try and keep constantly charging them. more so, how bad for the environment are the chemicals that make up batteries?

i think that hydrogen cell electric cars are the way to go (like the honda they had on top gear). no batteries, no waiting to charge, just refill and ur off again. the best thing is its even better for the environment cos there is no harmful battery chemicals to dispose of.

well thats my rant done

If anyone is interested in reading more on this issue, have a look at the link below (I'm guessing some of you might have already seen it). It's only one person's opinion, but it's backed up with facts and is easy to read.

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_111205/article.html

I'm skeptical of the 45 minute charge time too, but if anyone has the technology and expertise to back that claim up it's Tesla. Their whole business relies on these claims being accurate and while it may not be possible now, with the way battery technology is progressing it seems quite likely that it will be possible in 3 or 4 years when this car is released. I can't really comment on the materials used in batteries, but I can't see it being a whole lot worse than oil/petroleum production. The materials used in these things are quite expensive so I assume manufacturers will be looking at recycling old batteries to offset costs - they certainly won't be "disposable".

As for charging - I read an article somewhere recently about Adelaide introducing a "smart" type of controller into peoples homes that would turn off/on certain appliances during times of high power demand to help prevent total blackouts (ie, it would shut off the A/C but leave fans on etc). This technology could easily be adapted to charging an electric car as described in the article above.

If Telsa's claimed range of 300 miles is correct, that's more than enough range for me between charges. I can count on one hand the number of times I have driven more than 300 miles without at least a 45 minute stop - and I've driven all the way around North America!

Hydrogen is promising, but needs a massive amount of work and $$ to get the infrastructure in place. If these electric cars can be charged using existing power infrastructure it seems like a much more logical approach IMO. Hydrogen production is quite power-hungry, but as with electric cars at least it serves to localise the emissions.

[leetom]

sorry off topic but i noticed similar rims on a stagea on yahoo auctions,

[DaveB]

Imagine taking 12+ hours to fill up with fuel...