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Posted on 09/25/2007 6:46:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
Tesla Motors has set a production goal of 50 electric Roadsters in the first quarter of 2008, followed by an additional 600 cars for the remainder of the year.
Tesla is currently engaged in intensive durability and validation testing of the final prototype cars. As part of this final testing, a Tesla Roadster ran for 245 miles on the combined EPA cycle on a single charge (236 on the EPA highway cycle, 255 on the EPA city cycle).
In an announcement earlier this year, Tesla notified customers that the EPA range of the car was not likely to reach the original goal of 250, and instead would be closer to 200 miles based on progress at that time. Since then, Tesla engineers have worked diligently to improve on this.
Separately, a validation prototype Tesla Roadster successfully passed static and dynamic side-intrusion crash tests, the only tests that were not passed in the earlier prototype phase.
In other performance testing, a validation prototype Tesla Roadster accelerated consistently from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds.
Tesla will stop taking reservations for 2008 Roadsters in the near future and initiate a traditional waiting list. Customers who sign up for the waiting list will pay $5,000 for their place in line for additional 2008 Roadsters if and when an increase in production is announced. Alternatively, customers on the waiting list will be first in line for the 2009 model year Roadster (pricing and specifications for 2009 Roadsters is not yet announced.)
Resources: Where the Rubber Meets the Road (Tesla engineer post on range and performance testing.) http://www.teslamotors.com
“Would people who spend 100k on a car seriously be worried about saving $1.50/gallon on gas?”
no, but like every other burgeoning technology, the price will come down.
NICE. Thanks.
I’d hope so.....if you sell 50/quarter at $100k, your revenue would be $20mil/year. I have no idea what their expenses are, so I wouldn’t know what they clear in profit or investment income. I apologize for posting several of my negative thoughts about Tesla...I’d love to see the tech grow. I’m just kind of PO’d about the 5k waiting list, then $100k price tag. $20mil/year is a pretty small company in the general scheme of things, and is microscopic in the automotive realm. At that rate, it seems like it might take quite a long time for them to grow into affordability/practicality.
Not to mention it’s a misprint. According to the site I was directed to by several here, that should be $50,000!
$50,000 will assure you go to the next place in line, and only $30,000 will get you in line, but pushed one place down by anyone willing to go $50,000...
Calculate again... That should be $50K, not $5K. The article left off a zero, according to the web site offered by the FReepers above.
The finest in coal-powerd roadsters.
Yeah, but it might drive the price of gas down
So, a vehicle that gets 20 mpg traveling 60 miles will burn 3 gallons of gasoline that produces 405,000 BTUs of heat energy. That is the same energy as 118.7 KWH of electricity.
Now we get into the murky area of relative efficiency, because the auto uses, what, about 20-25% of its heat energy to move the vehicle and the rest is just dumped out via the radiator. But electric vehicles are not 100% efficient either, for at the very least there is energy lost in the recharge cycle.
In any case, it is useful to work through a real-world example to get to the point were it is shown what immense amount of energy it takes to move a vehicle. No matter how we provide that energy, it is not a trivial issue. Our energy needs cannot be met by a pair of D cells, no matter what environmentalists from a parallel universe believe.
CHANGES, TIMES MAKING CHANGES IN MY LIFE!
Opps Wrong Tesla!
Let me quickly add that since 52% of our electricity is generated by burning coal, we must also talk about the efficiency and environmental costs of generating the energy we use to recharge the battery in our efficient electric car.
Stop using reason, it takes out all the fun..
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
cool article. thanks
Yes, bisexual rocker David Bowie.
You’d be better off buying a small generator to burn gas and charge the car.
I know a gas is only somewhere about 25-30% efficient in creating mechanical energy in an internal combustion engine. I wonder what the efficiency would be using the gas to run a generator, charge batteries and drive the motors.
There is a reason we pledge and swear to secrecy!
Uh, I thought I wanted one until I reached into my pocket and pulled out the lining.
Exactly. Interestingly enough, if you wanted to put that much energy back into a battery in an 8 hour charge, at 220 volts, it would require 67 amps for the full 8 hours. Thats more than your electric stove outlet can provide. (And thats only three gallons of gasoline).
Yeah. You and me both. I guess I’ll have to settle for a sub-six second 0-60 time. I think I can swing that.
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