Tesla Motors Finally Turns a Profit

[KyleSTL]

It is not faster than a "Porsche". Porsches can go up to 200 mph. Even the Boxter goes 186 mph. I believe the Tesla goes 160 mph. I would still prefer it to a Porsche, but since I can afford neither, I guess thats a moot point. Actually, you said it is faster than a "Porcshe" so you may be right. Never heard of that car

Top speed is not the only way a car is fast, I believe the Tesla has a better 0-60 than most road-going Porsches, however, I too would prefer a Cayman or Cayman S over these.

 

[dark_lord69]

[citation][nom]Greg_77[/nom]It is not faster than a "Porsche". Porsches can go up to 200 mph. Even the Boxter goes 186 mph. I believe the Tesla goes 160 mph. I would still prefer it to a Porsche, but since I can afford neither, I guess thats a moot point. Actually, you said it is faster than a "Porcshe" so you may be right. Never heard of that car[/citation]

I believe they were refering to the acceleration not the speed.
These this take off like a bullet launching out of a barrel the only vehicle with faster acceleration is a 1 million dollar Farrari. (I forget what it's called)

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]agentjon[/nom]Yeah, but you do know that your power coems from coal or nuclear fuels right?[/citation]
[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]I believe they were refering to the acceleration not the speed.These this take off like a bullet launching out of a barrel the only vehicle with faster acceleration is a 1 million dollar Farrari. (I forget what it's called)[/citation]

True, but that power is generally more efficient than your car. So the equivalent MPG is much higher than even hybrids.

 

[dark_lord69]

I'd also like to say I'll be waiting for the car AFTER the model S. Which according to the owners' plan for the company; will cost 1/2 as much as the model S and I'm guessing the design won't be as awesome but oh well. It's not like my current car is stylin'. A $25,000 fully electric car that still kicks would be worth it.

 

[pocketdrummer]

The funny thing is that I'm more excited about how these cars will change the public's perception of electric cars. They see them now as slow, ugly, useless cars that are inferior to vehicles that run off gas. The second people start seeing an electric car beat high-dollar consumer vehicles and even super-cars, people will begin to change their views.

This means that larger companies will put more funding into research and development. With enough momentum, we may even remove the need for gasoline altogether one day.

 

[Guest]

I still think Zap motors (zero air pollution) is the better deal. I think they have real potential. http/www.zapworld.com/

 

[chuenl]

Twice as energy efficient as a Prius, and more than 4 times the price of a Prius.

 

[grieve]

There are still three huge flaws with this car…

First - The Roadster has a range of about 244 miles per charge. Then what? Pull into McD’s grab a Big Mac, wait 5 hrs for it to recharge?

Second – It has 2 seats and is totally unpractical.

Third – It is 100k American !!!!!!!

If I had 100k to blow on a NON-practical car, this would NOT likely be the one. I would go for a 2010 Nissan GT-R, Viper or perhaps a ZR-1.
But let’s face it… You can buy a loaded Car for 60% the price which is equally is nice. And you can buy a MORE than sufficient vehicle for $30,000 easily.

 

[shiftstealth]

you do realize how far 244 miles is right? + a full recharge is 45 mins bro.

 

[zipzoomflyhigh]

Even if everyone had one of these, they still have to be charged right? Where do you think the power comes from? You guessed it, coal and fossil fuel.

 

[Dave_69]

I'm currently on a waiting list for the model S.

 

[bootleghooch]

[citation][nom]zipzoomflyhigh[/nom]Even if everyone had one of these, they still have to be charged right? Where do you think the power comes from? You guessed it, coal and fossil fuel.[/citation]

Depends on where you live.

 

[blackened144]

[citation][nom]zipzoomflyhigh[/nom]Even if everyone had one of these, they still have to be charged right? Where do you think the power comes from? You guessed it, coal and fossil fuel.[/citation]
Sounds like a good reason to go nuclear.. again..

 

[reddozen]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Electric comes from power stations.Power stations produce more pollutants per mile than even a 10 year old internal combustion engine by several factors.Electric cars will only ever be "green" when power stations produce less emissions per mile, or they break nuclear fusion and we can switch off all the old power stations.The key phrase here is, "use electric cars, destroy the Earth 10 times faster"[/citation]

Lets do some math...

17000 watts
10000 miles per year / 200 miles per charge = 50 charges of 17,000 watts.
850000 watts of power per year.
850 kW-h / 2.0 kW-h/kg = 425 kg coal produced electricity.

2.93 kg of CO2 are produced from each kg of coal burned.

That's 1245.25 kg of CO2 released into the atmosphere per year for a Tesla.
A car that averages 36 miles per gallon will release about 2948.35 kg.

In a purely coal burning country, the Tesla would be about 2 times more efficient than gasoline.

In the USA where our coal burning plants make up about 50% of the power we produce, it would be about 5 times more efficient than gasoline.

We're on the right track with this kind of technology, but we need to be looking at electricity production now too.

Have to also keep in mind that this does not include the other toxins released from burning coal or gasoline... only the CO2.

So while I can agree that they need to clean up electricity production methods, it's still a lot less pollutant than gasoline (2~5 times less).

 

[Kaiser_25]

An unnamed govt facility has made some recent break-throughs in cold fusion, hopefully it wont get canned for oil money reasons. but if it takes off...could be a new era.

 

[Guest]

"use electric cars, destroy the Earth 10 times faster"
wrong,we can destroy all the life as we know it but we can't destroy the earth

 

[grieve]

[citation][nom]shiftstealth[/nom]you do realize how far 244 miles is right? + a full recharge is 45 mins bro.[/citation]
I am in Canada 244 miles = 392.68 KM's

so every 3.5 hrs of hwy driving you have to take a 45min break to recharge IF you can find a plug! thats OK with you?

Going for any kind of decent distance like 1200km... add an extra 3hrs of looking for a plug and recharge time.

so 10hr drive is now 13...

 

[SamanuelMC]

Oil and gas are not pollution free either, the extraction, refining, and production of the gas we put in our cars produces as much or more than what it takes to produce a battery for an electric car. On top of that once the fuel is in the car we pollute again by burning it. Don't you think taking the pollution out of the car is a step in the right direction? It would allow us to focus more on reducing the production costs and pollution for the battery and the car.

 

[grieve]

[citation][nom]shiftstealth[/nom]you do realize how far 244 miles is right? + a full recharge is 45 mins bro.[/citation]

As a matter of Fact lets look at this recharge time in a longer term.

I have had my present car for 4 years and have 130000 KM on it. If i had to charge this POS for 45mins every 392km in the last 4 years my car would have been charging for 249 hours!! over 10 days of charging... I got better things to do.

 

[etrnl_frost]

[citation][nom]Greg_77[/nom]It is not faster than a "Porsche". [/citation]
As some people have mentioned, this is probably faster than a Porsche off the line, 0-60. However, with all those batteries, it doesn't take to turns very well at all, so around the track this would be a mess (please see the Top Gear review, for example). Also, someone mentioned that this was the fastest 0-60 you can get in a vehicle - someone who hasn't been on a motorcycle, apparently.