Posted on 08/30/2014 11:30:35 AM PDT by ckilmer
One of the hottest clashes in technology pits two pathmakers in the new era of electric cars—Tesla and General Motors. Both are developing pure electrics that cost roughly $35,000, travel 200 miles on a single charge, and appeal to the mass luxury market.
The stakes are enormous. Most electrics have less than 100 miles of range. Experts regard 200 miles as a tipping point, enough to cure many potential electric-car buyers of “range anxiety,” the fear of being stranded when their battery expires. If GM and Tesla crack this, sales of individual electrics could jump from 2,000 or 3,000 vehicles a month to 15 to 20 times that rate, shaking up industries from cars to oil, which were until now certain that large-scale acceptance of electrics was perhaps decades away.
It is a substantial gamble for both companies. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has more or less bet his company on the contest. GM’s existence is not in jeopardy if it loses, but the outcome could still determine its place in the next generation of automaking.
What good is a Tesla charging station when you have to wait hours in line to use it?
“Solar charging works great since the car is in the garage overnight when the sun shines the brightest.
/sarcasm”
But the game changer in this area will be hot swap battery packs, which is also on Tesla’s list of “to do’s.” So your car becomes kinda like your cordless drill!
The real issue IS going to be the availability of electrical energy. Right now, it’s going to be the medium term issue with electric cars. These things aren’t golf carts.
Doable along with freeing ourselves from imported oil controlled by our enemies.
Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
(battery’s do not work well in cold conditions)
..............
agree. Tesla’s are not meant for cold winter places. Likely that’s why their plant and most of their customers are in sunny california.
And we all have a house full of stuff with dead rechargeable batteries.
I don’t think there is a “mass luxury market”. Get the range up, charging time down and a price around $25,000 without govt subsidies and you might have something.
He's "invested" in solar because it is a scam that makes money for him. The tools who put his panels on their roofs get nothing and don't gain any energy independence. OTOH the power that Musk sells from those panels is sold at full retail price whether it is worth that much or not. It is only worth that much on sunny summer afternoons when it can be fed to nearby A/C units. Otherwise we (rate payers) are vastly overpaying for unreliable and off-peak power. In addition to the rate payer subsidies, Musk picks up taxpayer subsidies.
As for charging electric cars with solar, that is ridiculous. The cars are charged at night using coal power from the grid. If you want to charge cars during the day you get 10 Watts per square foot and you need about 100kWh to charge an 85kWh battery with conversion and charging losses. With 4-5 hours of good sun you get 100kWh from 2000 square feet of panels. Unless the commuting destination is near the rooftop solar installations that is not feasible.
Also the idea that taxpayers ought to subsidize wasteful luxury electric cars is completely insane.
Its not only the driving range that leaves them out as an option.
Running heat and defrost would be a massive drain on the batteries, most of the US has winter driving.
Many can only afford one vehicle, that leaves out anyone that tows a boat or camper. A golf cart isn’t going to tow anything.
Where I live in MI everyone drives a truck/SUV with 4x4, you don’t go anywhere in winter without that.
The market is reduced to some rich Peace Queers in CA, and those living in the desert.
It’s like betting it all on a Big and Tall shop in Japan, good luck with that plan.
Can you imagine? Hey mylife, I’m coming up to the shoot, It will be 2 days on the road and require and overnight stay in a motel..
What rubbish.
“Supposedly Tesla is investing in building an infrastructure of charging stations. Their goal is by 2024 to have 98% of the American population within 50 miles of one.”
So you drive over to a charging station, park it overnight, then walk back to get it in the morning?
That is sure to sell!
.
- A frame-off restored ‘55 T-Bird or a ‘59 Corvette is a smart investment
- It will go up in value every month - better than gold or silver
- Retro-Mods can be bought mucho cheaper - with XHD disc brakes, shocks, engine updates to newer more efficient and powerful engines
- Sell them later - oh no - maybe barter/swap them as “relics” for ultra low used car antique sales and yearly property taxes
- The IRS and the DMV can go . . . . . . .
.
you’ll want to elaborate on that.
http://www.angellabsllc.com/mytengine.html <<— website.. all the particulars..
http://www.angellabsllc.com/animation.html <<— animation of the process..
Any that “cares” can research this to death...
However most do not care.. seemingly..
This would make the reciprocal engine OBSOLETE.. (in a GOOD way)..
A 200 mile electric car? I don’t care if it goes 500 miles, if I can’t recharge it in 5 minutes and it’s cheaper than gasoline. Neither of those two are going to happen
Most FReepers, had they been around 100 years ago, would have been laughing at the notion of a horseless buggy. Too slow, not much range, no gas stations, uncomfortable, yada yada yada.
No vision. Heaven help us. Ceding the future to so-called progressives. And it’s not just in this area.
Actually the WINNER will be whatever company (or companies) don’t take the leftist bait and try to build electric cars.
MANY other options available, that are MUCH BETTER, and safer.
Tesla claims that the hot swap facilities will be co-located with the “Supercharger” fast charging stations. The goal is to have 50 batteries charged and ready to go at each station.
The Supercharger charge (50% charge in 20 minutes) will be free, the battery swap will cost about as much as a tank of gas.
And they are using solar power to operate this system?
I don’t see how that can possibly work.
Eventually, they will have to use grid power to do the charges, and that means the “free” part is gone forever.
It’s a great selling point now, but it won’t last.
“Most FReepers, had they been around 100 years ago, would have been laughing at the notion of a horseless buggy. Too slow, not much range, no gas stations, uncomfortable, yada yada yada.”
The electric car was invented over 100 years ago, it wasn’t practical then and it still isn’t.
“That’s likely why Musk is also heavily invested in solar. He’s looking for off grid distributed power generation to handle the load. Might not work. We’ll see.”
LOL...won’t work, but then Musk is not dumb, he knows FULL WELL that most people cannot do the math and figure out that charging stations would need football field sized solar farms (along with 24/7 sunlight) to be able to fast-charge multiple vehicles.
But stick a couple of panels on a charging station and 99% of the people fall for it.
VERY SMART on his part...capitalizing on public ignorance.
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