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Tesla Model S: First drive of the electric sedan that will change the world or die trying
autos.yahoo.com ^ | June 22, 2012 | Justin Hyde

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 ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bloggersandpersonal; cars; green; sourcetitlenoturl; tesla; teslamotors
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To: NavVet

You seem to be a battery/coal powered car fan. I’ll ask you the same question I very much want all the talking heads on TV raving about the Volt or electric cars in general to be made to answer. “How do you like your Volt?” Or Lief or other battery powered car. I dare say that none of them drive one. Perhaps you do.

I’m happy with my 4-cyc PT. I paid $12.5 as a one-year old vehicle. It meets my needs, gets good mileage and I can drive it for 20 hours in a day if ever the need arises.


61 posted on 06/23/2012 7:52:44 PM PDT by citizen (Obomo blames:Arab Spring,Banks,Big Oil,Bush,Ceos,Coal,Euro Zone,FNC,Jpn Tsunami,T Party,Wall St,You)
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To: Olog-hai
Some days, that V8 Mercedes could probably blow the doors off the Tesla off the line depending on who is driving.

I suggest you look up the specs from 0-60 mph.

62 posted on 06/23/2012 8:05:55 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: grundle

Failure from inception. Let’s quit subsidizing this crap. Sure, it can be done, but for what purpose? It won’t save energy, it won’t replace the internal combustion engine and it is waste of money


63 posted on 06/23/2012 8:06:04 PM PDT by Figment
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To: grundle
Last week, a young man told me he wanted a Chevy Volt. I asked him how many miles he would get on one charge. He said he heard they got 500. I told him to divide by ten. Most pure electric cars get about 50 to the charge, if you don't use any extras like the radio, the lights, the heater or the AC.

Then I asked him how many miles a similar gasoline powered car got per gallon. He shrugged and said maybe 30. I said that, for the sake of argument, we should say a compact car gets 50 miles to the gallon.

Then I asked him how long it takes to charge the batteries of an electric car. He said maybe 12 hours. I explained that based on our agreed benchmarks. His electric car would take about 12 hours to deliver the equivalent of one gallon of gasoline.

He argued that you could have a set up where you could swap out batteries. I commented that rechargeables hold a little less each time you charge them and the battery is the most expensive part of an electric car. You might swap your brand new battery for an old used up piece of crap. I asked him if he ever swapped propane tanks. He replied that only an idiot would do that. They never seem to give you anything as good as the one you turn in.

...and that's when the light turned on in his head.

64 posted on 06/23/2012 8:10:59 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse
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To: dragnet2

You still have a problem with comprehension? “Specs” are not set in stone; they are operator-dependent as well as traction-dependent. (Yes, they are that variable.) And the internal-combustion-engine cars are not government-subsidized as the Tesla is.


65 posted on 06/23/2012 8:16:56 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: NavVet

Off the line ain’t exactly the finish line. Electric motors suck bigtime in vehicles. There is no accelerator feedback for one thing. You’ll be rear ending the guy in front of you at the redlight


66 posted on 06/23/2012 8:23:32 PM PDT by Figment
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To: dragnet2

I’m holding out for the model powered by moon beams and unicorn farts.


67 posted on 06/23/2012 8:25:32 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse
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To: grundle

Kind of want one.


68 posted on 06/23/2012 8:28:42 PM PDT by commonguymd (Freedom is a myth anymore it seems)
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To: grundle

How will people be able to afford to charge their electric cars when electricity rates necessarily skyrocket according to Obama?


69 posted on 06/23/2012 8:30:00 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Olog-hai

OK, you win, the Detroit cars as faster than the S, from 1-60 mph.

In your dreams.


70 posted on 06/23/2012 8:39:48 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: dragnet2

OK, you win, the Detroit cars as faster than the S, from 1-60 mph.


How about a cross country marathon?


71 posted on 06/23/2012 8:41:37 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse
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To: NavVet

The problem with electric vehicles is that the battery becomes less efficient over time. The more charge/discharge cycles, the fewer miles the battery can produce before having to be recharged...IOW more energy is required to get the same mileage over time. This decline in efficiency of the battery increases with the number of cycles, and of course the battery ultimately has to be replaced.

If you add all that up, plus the amount of energy required to pay for and replace the old battery, there’s no way an electric car can be more efficient than an ICE, which will get approximately the same gas mileage over the life of the engine.

BTW...none of this includes the amount of energy that is lost from a battery that is just sitting. A battery is either charging or discharging, nothing in between. When you park that cool looking electric car, the battery discharges. May not be much (of course this also will increase over time), but it does discharge none the less. Gas powered cars don’t do that.


72 posted on 06/23/2012 8:42:33 PM PDT by rottndog (Political Correctness KILLS...)
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To: Reaganez

Yes, the working poor/lower middle class pay payroll taxes but not income taxes..

The wealthy pay income taxes.

You’re full of crap with that comment. You were ok with the poor part, but the middle class pays dearly


73 posted on 06/23/2012 8:42:49 PM PDT by Figment
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts

The electricity to run these vehicles is free, it comes off the trees or something.


74 posted on 06/23/2012 8:42:57 PM PDT by Figment
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

The only logical justification in this century is to stop importing oil from middle east tyrants.

Saw in the news in the past few days that Gulf Coast refineries will no longer import light sweet crude oil. We are supporting our own needs domestically for fuel.If the Gov will back off, we may not need to import any oil


75 posted on 06/23/2012 8:43:11 PM PDT by Figment
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To: dragnet2
You get lost on the way to DU or something . . . ? OK fine; magazine-reported times for Corvette ZO6 (several titles) are 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and quarter-mile 11.4 seconds with a factory-claimed top speed of 196 mph. Bye-bye, Tesla Model S . . .
76 posted on 06/23/2012 8:44:47 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse
How about a cross country marathon?

Get yourself a jeep or 550.

77 posted on 06/23/2012 8:45:17 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Olog-hai
You get lost on the way to DU or something

Ya pal, I'm a leftist for saying battery technology is making great advancements, lighter, more effective etc.

You work for the A-rabs? Mobil?

78 posted on 06/23/2012 8:47:47 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Olog-hai

Corvette ZO6 105,000?

And ya have to fill the tank every other day.


79 posted on 06/23/2012 8:50:55 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: grundle

How many years does the battery last? And how much does it costs to replace?


80 posted on 06/23/2012 8:50:55 PM PDT by GOPJ (The 'doting court eunuchs' of the MSM fail to notice...)
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