Another nail in the coffin of the I.C. Engine??

[Al_The_Man]

If only they can bring the price down
http://teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1
Old Nickolai would be proud.
Al.

[miljnor]

very cool now they need to make it affordable!

[diarmaid]

Nice. How much is it at the moment?....maybe everyone on the zone could chip in and buy one together....of course I'd 'mind' it at my house.

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by diarmaid Nice. How much is it at the moment?..

$100k US$.
Al.

[Geof]

Their website describes the batteries as 2000 Lithium ion cells similar to the type used in electronic equipment. Life could get exciting and short for the occupants of the vehicle if one of the cells near the center of the battery pack decided to burn, like the Sony manufactured cells used in Dell laptops, and put all the surrounding cells in thermal runaway. A tank full of gasoline may be a fire hazard but at least ot has no chance of igniting spontaneously.

Two of the backers of the Tesla are the Google guys.

[miljnor]

battery runnaway isn't that much of a concern if you build them right.

I have been flying R/c for awhile and the batteries we use are getting better every day and I have never had one go thermal on me! Although they can swell if misstreated. Thermal runnaway generally happens from overcharging and since the engineers have that under complete control of the onboard system I would think that it is a very unlikely scenerio.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by miljnor battery runnaway isn't that much of a concern if you build them right......

Tell that to Sony and Dell.

[miljnor]

They tried to cut cost and bought bottom of the barrel. I highly doubt that a high-end auto manufacturing company buys junk batteries.

But hey that’s just me!

I have lawn darted a flying wing that has the battery in front (of course it does!) and accordioned the battery so it measured about 1/2-3/4" shorter than it did when new (which was approximately 1 week earlier )

And this battery still worked for several weeks before going bad. And it just pooched out a little and died. No fire and know runaway.

I actually drove a nail thru the first pack I ever bought just to see if it would go boom.

And yes I had protective gear on, as I read stories! It was also behind a plate of 1/4" aluminum with a hole in it! (Can’t ever be too sure ) STILL no boom!

At this point it was just cheaper to go buy some illegal fireworks and blow them up!

[NC Cams]

A study was conducted into the cradle to grave costs of electric versus IC engine power as well as the overall cost efficiency of one versus the other. This study also included the OVERALL environmental impact of the power system

Interestingly, it was found that the range and power of a tank of gasoline powered contemporary gas car engine far out performed that of electric vehicles, especially when you considered the environmentally not so friedly elements used in the batteries. The effects of the emissions coming out of the power plants also has to be considered which the electric vehicle proponents conveniently forget to mention include.

The article was published in one of the Ward's industry publications that is distributed freely to the suppliers of the auto industy. Sadly I was not permitted to take my copies of the article when I left the employ of an OEM powertrain group 3-4 years ago or else I'd give the total bibliography info.

Yes, an electric car has less mobile source pollution than a corresponding gas one BUT the stationary souce pollutants that come from the power plants where they get their power to recharge their batteries from has to be considered in the overall scheme of things.

Sadly, some tree huggers tend to think and conveniently neglect to consider is that the power that comes to you via wires has NO ramifications on the environment whatsoever. This fallacy couldn't be any farther from the truth.

Believe it or not, the exhaust coming out of some of today's cars operating in the California basin is actually CLEANER than the air going into the engine via the air cleaner.

EDIT

Do not think for a millisecond that the automakers buy only the finest parts. They, too, buy from the lowest cost supplier. This means that they've been known to NOT have the parts perform as well or as long as they had hoped.

END EDIT

[ajl6549]

It looks cool, but what about that cool sports car sound?

[Geof]

Originally Posted by NC Cams ......Yes, an electric car has less mobile source pollution than a corresponding gas one BUT the stationary souce pollutants that come from the power plants where they get their power to recharge their batteries from has to be considered in the overall scheme of things. Sadly, some tree huggers tend to think and conveniently neglect to consider is that the power that comes to you via wires has NO ramifications on the environment whatsoever. This fallacy couldn't be any farther from the truth.....

Not only is the pollution simply moved to another location if the electric generating plant is using a fuel that could be used directly in an ic engine, such as natural gas, the overall energy efficiency can even be lower than simply running the engine on natural gas.

[Al_The_Man]

I am fortunate to get all my electricity from Hydro - virtually no fuel used in generation.
This is an exerpt from the article covering it in Electronic design.

"While electric cars have zero emissions, the power plants that provide their power when they're recharging consume energy and can emit plenty of pollution themselves. So, Tesla Motors conducted a "well-to-wheel" study including these factors and found that the Roadster still has double the energy efficiency of popular hybrid cars while generating a third of the carbon dioxide. Compared to other sports cars, it's six times as efficient while producing a tenth of the pollution."

Here is the link;
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/A...201/13201.html
Al.