Posted on 06/23/2012 4:39:20 PM PDT by grundle
Of all the new cars unveiled this year, none will be as hotly anticipated as the Model S from Tesla Motors, a luxury sedan doubling as a brash, billion-dollar bet that the era of the electric car has arrived. As the first journalist to test-drive one, I can report the Tesla Model S successfully challenges a century of assumptions about what a great car can be.
Unlike gas engines, electric cars generate their maximum power at start -- and no electric car has ever had as much power as the Model S, whose Performance edition is good for 417 hp. The zero-to-60 mph run ticks by in an impressive 4.4 seconds (5.9 seconds for the 362 hp edition)
the Model S can even do long drives — up to 285 miles in the edition launching today
The revelation of what Tesla has accomplished sunk in when I returned to a gas-powered vehicle. Other luxury cars will keep pace with the Tesla, but after driving the Model S, suddenly you notice the lag between accelerator and power, the exhaust noise, all the energy necessary to keep those parts hurtling forward. It makes a fossil fuel-powered car seem to be working so much harder than necessary. Which is the point.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
Electrical plants themselves are less than 50% efficient, too.
Question: Assuming it has a heater, what effect does, let's say, 20 degree weather have on mileage? How about zero degrees?
How does the coal or oil get to the electric plant? Mining/drilling, trucks, etc. We burn the fuel in our gas cars, the electric car people burn the fuel at the electric plant.
The batteries were said to store 85 KWh, about the same as about 10 cups of gasoline - 2/3 of a gallon. The article didn’t mention what happens when you have to use up a few of those cups of gas to heat, or cool the car.
Certainly, nothing special IMHO.
I drove their concept racer in a parking lot at an investor conference. Scared the bleep out of me and I thought “That’s great but it can’t go far”.
Met Elon and he explained his long term vision with a sedan.
Great idea, very limited market and I ain’t buying.
I drove their concept racer in a parking lot at an investor conference. Scared the bleep out of me and I thought “That’s great but it can’t go far”.
Met Elon and he explained his long term vision with a sedan.
Great idea, very limited market and I ain’t buying.
“It makes a fossil fuel-powered car seem to be working so much harder than necessary.”
Electric cars are fossil fueled. And with much less efficiency if you view the big picture.
Its the reason we used to refer to them (as we did ALL "real cars) back then as "Irons!"
My 4 speed, Posi-Traction, 360 HP, 400 HO, could do 0-60 in about 6.8, not as fast as this model, but I bet mine sounded a lot better and not too sure I couldn't have bested it on the top end.
Would also like to see the stats on its top end as well as how much electric drain there is when one takes off that quickly. There necessarily must be a trade off.
What a load of, um, “Shaving Cream”! ;-)
Quick, drive a stake through it’s “Green” heart.
The author really fancies himself a wordsmith, I am repelled by his trying too hard to be clever, and his obvious bias.
“the thrust from the instant you mash the accelerator pushes back like Alec Baldwin at a paparazzi convention”. Lame, REALLY lame.
“the hints of revolution within the Model S begin with the door handles, which slide out of the body with a motorized purr when you touch them,”
Oh please, could you get any more pretentious? Look forward to these being a high-failure rate item that gets deleted from production pretty damn quick!
“The Model S range will still depend on how you drive it”. Yes, along with how much of that luggage space you use, and how new the batteries are in addition to weather or not you managed to get them fully charged.
This line made me want to punch the author in the nose, it’s far far from true!
“From behind the wheel of the Tesla Model S, you feel you’re driving the future, instead of burning increasingly limited gallons of the past.”
Not too up to date regards our oil situation, unless the Omombie regime finds a way to keep us from accessing it.
But the line will certainly play well with the eco-nut crowd, who ignore reality, such as that these cars will actually run mostly on coal!
I would not have one as a gift for any longer than it took to unload it on some fool.
20,000 sales a year? “at prices between $54,700 up to $105,400”
Resale value of ZERO once the batteries wear out, and the gimmick electronics begin to fail.
So, some one please let me know how I go about cashing in on betting against this company being a success.
Electrics will not really be viable until fast-charge slow-discharge capacitors are perfected.
Do not hold your breath while waiting!
Some of you guys better face it, the battery technology is ever expanding, becoming more efficient, smaller, lighter, without filling the tank at 80 bucks a crack every few days, not to mention not having thousands of moving parts, all of which wear out.
If I could afford one, I'd buy it, just to blow off the Vets, Mercedes/BMWs from light to light, just for kicks. This thing is like driving a full scale slot car. Lightening fast and very quiet.
Increasingly fossil fueled, since the eco-nuts are now taking down hydropower dams!
How do you know what can’t touch what? All drivers are different, all tires are different, and all roads are different. Some days, that V8 Mercedes could probably blow the doors off the Tesla off the line depending on who is driving. Corvettes? They’re still a half-ton lighter than the Tesla; you’re not blowing those away, and a ZO6 will leave you in the dust. Battery technology has not gone anywhere significant in a century, and this latest government-subsidized example literally screams that to the world. Face it.
Facts out of Wikipedia, the encyclopedia any hack author can edit?
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