Friday, Aug 29, 2008
Time to kiss goodbye to the oil crisis ...
Tesla Motors: Reducing Dependence on Foreign Oil
A Peaceful Solution to Oil Wars - You need only open the morning paper to understand the importance — and urgency — of America‘s reduced reliance on foreign oil. The instability of the Middle East makes our 58% dependence on foreign oil a dangerous and costly proposition.
0 - 60 mph in 3.9 seconds.
256 mpg, with 220 miles per charge, 8 minutes to charge on 3-phase (3.5hrs single phase with special connector).
Posted by fahrenheit451 @ 12:07 PM (959 views) Add Comment
24 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. Fahrenheit451 said...
Makes you think why we need to be reliant on Middle East or Russian oil.
Fine, we keep using oil for the time being, but this research was squashed whilst it was in the VI's interest to develop oil production, but if the oil producers are being silly, we just move the goal posts, after all there is more than one way to produce electricity, and plenty of renewable way to o it as well.
And after last nights bit of oratory by Obama, we do not have to guess exactly what is going to move the USA into a “Green” future. Protectionism is back, we have the technology and sufficient reserves to sort ourselves out, AND fight an “Economic Cold War”.
2. Jayk said...
Yes. Tesla Motors will end the house price boom.
3. str 2007 said...
Looks good to me, a bit pricey at over £50k, didn't have time to read all the details.
A bit embarrassed that it's not being built here in Blighty.
This is the kind of thing we should be leading the world with.
And if we all had this technology we could justifiably tarmac over the railways and park up those dirty polluting buses.
4. shipbuilder said...
There's really nothing new here other than a well-engineered electric car, which most big manufacturers are researching anyway.
5. drewster said...
According to the Times, the Tesla electric car costs £92,000. Even if petrol were £3 a litre you'd still be better off driving a Golf.
A VW Golf costs £17,000. With the £75,000 change from not buying the Tesla, and with petrol at £3 a litre, you'd get 25,000 litres. The Golf does 40mpg so you'd get 220,000 miles with those 25,000 litres. The average person drives 11,000 miles a year, so that's 20 years of driving until you reach break-even time. Volkswagen cars are reputed for their reliability and longevity. American-built cars are not.
6. James said...
Relevance to HPC - minimal. Coolness - maximal.
Drewster - It's not meant to be compared to the golf. This thing does 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. It's a sportscar and I challenge you to claim that it's less economical than an Enzo/911 GT3/Vanquish, which are better comparators.
The ethos behind developing a performance car first is that this is how technology generally advances. The first LCD / plasma screens were expensive things for the top end of the market and the technology has gradually trickled down to the high street. Tesla plan to do the same with their roadcars.
7. Carefix said...
Built by lotus (=proton? ) here in the UK except for the powertrain it is rather costly at about £60K. Most manufacturers of electric vehichles are making the same mistake: They try and emulate sports car range and performance when they should be aiming for the "second car" market. Bung a cut down powertrain (50kg Li / ion battery) in a fiat uno (or whatever) with a top speed of sixty and a range of 50 miles. Ideal shopping trolley and school run vehicle.
8. str 2007 said...
Agree James (although I think I'd compare it to an economical Elise/Exige rather than an Enzo)
Drewster you're comparing Apples with Pears. I know what you're getting at but you could also say this cars rubbish because it's only got 2 seats and a Golf has got 5.
The price on the website I briefly glanced at was $100,000.
9. drewster said...
James,
I agree with the trickle-down principle of technology. However at least a high-end LCD screen has many discernable advantages over a classic CRT telly - flatness, smaller rear, lighter weight, lower power usage, less glare, sharper images. These attributes made them popular - if they were just more expensive but not technically superior, they would never have gained popularity.
By contrast the Tesla's only advantages over a Porsche 911 are its quieter engine, and of course the lower refuelling costs. However if you have £92,000 to spare then you probably aren't worried about fuel costs.
My point is, we're still a very long way from "kissing goodbye to the oil crisis", as the original poster wrote.
10. Tomj said...
So when they make these power units hot swappable at local retail outlets these cars will simply motor on, no need for 3.5hrs down time for full recharge.
Like garlic bread, tis the future !
11. drewster said...
str 2007, re the price:
12. Zr_seanie said...
that car is very nice looking, lets hope this paves the way for more electric cars, maybe a solar charer in the garden to save on costs who knows roll on
13. Maihem said...
As I understand it, the batteries used in the Tesla roadster cannot be charged in 8 minutes even on a 3-phase supply. The 8-minute charge batteries are available from ABAT and Altairnano but only have a 110 mile range for the same vehicle. These batteries are 3.5 hours for a full charge no matter what. Hopefully the newer batteries will have an improved specific energy and energy density - then we'll see some really impressive electric vehicles.
14. Madashell said...
There's no point comparing it to a conventional car with an internal combustion engine. The objective is sustainable individual transport. The manufacturers would have been forced to introduce the technology as a premium product to get a maximum return on the development costs. Trickle down and gradually more practical vehicles ought to follow. I'd settle for 0to60 in 15 seconds, 250mile range and a cruising speed of 70 but I'd need somewhere for my shopping.
Interesting this should pop-up that day after Obama's '10 years til energy security' speech. The US has all the resources it needs, the knowledge, the technolgy and perhaps we'll now see some progress if Mr Obama can resist the opposition of the big oil companies. Remember the early 60s determination for space exploration? If Obama can summon up that level of motivation he may be able to propel us all towards a cleaner and more secure future. Just hope he does not get stuck in all that Utah oil shale.
15. last_days_of_disco said...
You've got to love competitive capitalism... The next thing will be the low end competitors making the Model T.
This really is good news. Making the batteries lighter is the critical issue for getting things to be cheaper.
16. debtfree said...
How about the big bang machine, particle accelerator in switzerland ?
This machine will hopefully give mankind a greater understanding of energy by 2010.
Colliding two beams of particles travelling in opposite directions at 0.999999991 times the speed of light will no doubt open the book of gravity and make the price of oil almost meaningless.
17. enuii said...
All well and good but you still need to charge the things, if they take off the UK does not currently have the generating capacity, conventional, nuclear, green or otherwise to deal with the demand if even 5% of motorists switch to electric vehicles.
18. James said...
drewster - you mean CERN. It's rather a complicated beasty and it doesn't seem like you understand what it does and what the implications of that are from what you've written. I'm afraid it's a very cool bit of lab equipment rather than anything that's going to 'make the price of oil meaningless'.
To properly understand it, you need a doctorate in particle physics and years and years of academic practice and research. I don't have this, but I know someone who does. For an introduction, though, try the youtube rap (seriously) in this link...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29cernrap.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
19. James said...
debtfree - also see:
http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/Spotlight/SpotlightAandD-en.html
"antimatter is certainly not able to solve our energy problems. First of all, you need energy to make antimatter (E=mc2) and unfortunately you do not get the same amount of energy back out of it. (See above, the loss factors are enormous.)
Furthermore, the conversion from energy to matter and antimatter particles follows certain laws of nature, which also allow the production of many other, but very short-lived particles and antiparticles (e.g. muons, pions, neutrinos). These particles decay rapidly during the production process, and their energy is lost.
Antimatter could only become a source of energy if you happened to find a large amount of antimatter lying around somewhere (e.g. in a distant galaxy), in the same way we find oil and oxygen lying around on Earth. But as far as we can see (billions of light years), the universe is entirely made of normal matter, and antimatter has to be painstakingly created."
20. last_days_of_disco said...
@12 enuii
You are right of course. But I suppose that's the glory of being British, we always do this. Dither until its too late and then make a mad dash.
21. Alwayshammered said...
$109,000 from Tesla website. (imo) £60K for a car with that performance stats is fair value.
We'll just have to wait and see if the product lives up to the hype.
22. Lolcatz said...
I think one of the main touted reasons for buying this car was avoiding the London congestion charge. The Prius manages this at a far lower price.
23. Time To Raise Petrol Prices said...
To str 2007:
Erm, it IS being built here in Britain, though sadly not for consumption by the UK market. Being constructed by Lotus, I believe.
24. drewster said...
Here are a couple of nice graphs to consider while discussing oil and gas:
