Posted on 07/07/2013 9:36:14 AM PDT by ckilmer
Tesla Motors unveiled a system that will let drivers swap out the battery in a Model S in about 90 seconds,
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
What if you're in a hurry, and can't wait 90 seconds?
Until they get these things ironed out, I won't buy an electric.
Ford Motor Co. (F)’s expansion of hybrid and plug-in models and demand for Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)’s luxury battery sedans helped U.S. first-half sales of electric-drive cars and trucks increase faster than even surging pickups.
U.S. sales of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-only autos rose at least 23 percent to more than 287,000, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. Deliveries of full-size pickups climbed 22 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-05/ford-tesla-push-first-half-battery-car-growth-rate.html
Wonder if the Insurance people are charging extra for these cr** cars. I want to hear the roar of the engine...it’s important.
I’m not buying an electric car any time soon either.
But its helpful to know the trends. These are very big growth rates.
These growth rates will cause the price of electric cars to come down and also the price of gas to come down.
This is a very very big deal.
In 5-10 years we are coming up on one of the very sweetest of sweet spots in world economic history.
I have a Mariner hybrid, and it’s so cool moving along with no sound.
When you pull up at alight and you sit there for several minutes, and your car is off and everyone else is sitting there burning gas, it puts a smile on your face.
I have enjoyed the sounds of great engines in my vehicles of the past. Today I don’t need it anymore. If people do, I have not problem with it.
I’ve seen the Tesla S in person. It is an absolutely beautiful vehicle. If I could afford one I’d have one.
I want to hear the roar of the engine...it’s important.
..............
I want cheap gas prices. fracked oil & gas, pickens plan trucks, and now Electric/hybrid cars, will make this possible.
I was reading in AutoWeek that Tesla plans enough 20-minute “supercharge” stations that soon you can drive NY-LA and charge all along the way.
Hoopty friggin’ do. And if a power outage crashes a station or two along the way? Motel 6 time.
” Drivers who opt for the swap will have to eventually return to the station to get their original battery back, and they’ll have to pay for the service once again.
If they don’t return, they can pay to have the 1,000-pound battery shipped back to the service center nearest their home, or they can keep the new battery they’ve had installed”
Riiiiiiiiiight.
So, in other words, this whole cockamamie battery-swapping scheme is nothing but a sick joke and a ridiculous publicity stunt.
At a half mil per station, I can only assume that Elon is expecting uncle sugar daddy Obama to “loan” him the money to build the stations.
I test drove an Audi A6 that was perfectly quiet, and the engine automatically stopped and started at stoplights (no perseptive change to the driver). It was not a hybrid.
Mentioned on another thread that if I am in a position to, I’ll be buying the Cadillac ELR late this year or early next year.
I do a lot within twenty miles of home. That car will work just fine for me.
My hybrid has been one of the most fun vehicles I’ve owned, and I expect the electric to be the same type of vehicle.
You find yourself competing with yourself to get the best mileage or range you can.
I’m a gadget freak, and these are the ultimate in that for me these days.
If they make sense for you, I’m all for it. If they don’t, they don’t, and I’m all for that too.
$60,000 car...
...replacement batteries: $8,000 for the 40-kWh battery, $10,000 for the 60-kWh and $12,000 for the 85-kWh pack (160, 230, and 300 mile range capability) which Tesla sets out at 7 years/100,000 miles...
I’ll keep my truck. $100/week to fill up at the current Obama prices but I can still haul my stuff.
One start-up that also planned to offer battery swapping for electric vehicles, Better Place, recently filed for bankruptcy and halted its operations. Chowdhry said that company’s plans were based on the flawed assumption that all the different electric vehicles would use interchangeable batteries.
Actually THIS is the problem with electrics. Until you can pull into a station and get a generic battery swap what’s the point? All these electrics have proprietary battery systems.
Doesn’t seem like having two (or more) battery sets to swap out is a particularly economical means of providing motive power. Those battery packs can’t be cheap, by any means, and the machinery to carry out the swap has to be of almost industrial-grade fork lift variety.
Plus the charging station....
It still makes more sense to have an on-board hydrogen fuel cell for the generation of electricity to provide motive power.
current Tesla batteries for the 60k S class model go about 280 miles per charge http://www.teslamotors.com/goelectric#range
A Tesla battery holds the energy equivalent of 1 gallon of gas. I can put 2 gallons in my car in well under 90 seconds and it only costs $7.
>>When you pull up at alight and you sit there for several minutes, and your car is off and everyone else is sitting there burning gas, it puts a smile on your face.
A Ram 1500 with a Hemi will do that too while towing a 25’ boat! A lot of cars have engines that shut off at stop lights now.
My hybrid is a smaller SUV. In it I have gotten as much as 34.34 MPG on a long trip. My wife and I had a Mountaineer, and that sucked gas down quickly. The best we ever achieved was in the 18-20 MPG range. Generally around town, it was around 13 MPG.
Here's a look at the Mariner...
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