Live data from Hacker News

Tesla Roadster

tesla.com

201–210 of 729 posts

Re: Tesla Roadster

#201
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are less than 10 commercially available cars models that can do 0-60 mph within 2s.

There are zero. Roadster is the first and only.

There are still zero for now, one in planned production.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#202
post #80
post #17

The Tesla roadster specs are insane! No exotic carmaker will be able to match it (taking price as a consideration). (no Ferrari, or Lambo, can get that close. This is Formula 1 acceleration speeds). Plus 620 miles of range, and it is a 4 seater. Expensive as hell, but this is exotic car territory. Base Specs Acceleration 0-60 mph1.9 sec Acceleration 0-100 mph4.2 sec Acceleration 1/4 mile8.8 sec Top SpeedOver 250 mph…

Too bad it can’t maintain that performance for any extended period of time. Battery is known to overheat if you drive it too hard.

If you look at Teslas, they have a grill in the front that sends air to a radiator that's shared by the battery cooling system and the cabin air conditioning.

For S and X and 3, it's not beefy enough to handle an extended period of time. Also, the engine has to radiate heat.

So, you're boldly predicting that Tesla, which understands basic physics well enough that their existing cars accelerate well and don't burst into flames because of heat issues, is going to be unable to do any better cooling the battery and motors of a future car?

Re: Tesla Roadster

#203
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economy version is the ultimate goal, along with industrial applications like the Semi. But high end cars make headlines, make people believe and make people excited about the future. That’s more important than you’d think in getting the economy version to be a reality. Though I do understand the concerns about constant hype and not fully delivering on it, I think that’s infinitely better than the alternative whe…

I could be wrong, and this play could totally pan out. But their current Model S, X, and 3 aren't exactly flooding the market either.

There’s certainly chances for failure, but I’m inspired by the fact they try anyway.

I see at least one Model S everyday. Tesla have objectively made an impact, and in my books that’s a good thing.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#204
post #80
post #17

The Tesla roadster specs are insane! No exotic carmaker will be able to match it (taking price as a consideration). (no Ferrari, or Lambo, can get that close. This is Formula 1 acceleration speeds). Plus 620 miles of range, and it is a 4 seater. Expensive as hell, but this is exotic car territory. Base Specs Acceleration 0-60 mph1.9 sec Acceleration 0-100 mph4.2 sec Acceleration 1/4 mile8.8 sec Top SpeedOver 250 mph…

Too bad it can’t maintain that performance for any extended period of time. Battery is known to overheat if you drive it too hard.

It uses 3 motors (2 in the back) and has a 200 kWh battery pack. The reason for such a large battery is so that they can draw more total current without overheating, theoretically twice as much as the Model S P100DL which only has two motors (1 in the back). Having more motors means you are spreading out the current/heat. The 600+ mile range is mostly a side effect of this engineering approach to performance.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wheel torque is not the same thing as engine torque. I'm pretty sure the confusion is intentional, since it's the first time I see wheel torque advertised for any car.

I always wondered why engine torque was put on the spec sheet. Since geering can turn that engine torque into any number you want at the wheels. Wheel torque seems much more relevant.

Wheel torque isn’t really that important since you don’t know what speed it’s being delivered at. The only thing that really matters is horsepower since you can gear for torque and you can assume the engineers did a decent job with the transmission.

That being said, peak torque is a good indicator of low rpm horsepower on internal combustion engines. Low rpm horsepower is good for sustainable work (like towing) or street power.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#206
post #68

Close up video of Tesla Roadster launching from zero: https://twitter.com/DavidHodge/status/931391188065705984

Hey folks. I was the one that took that video. let me know if you have any questions.

What is that sound that you can hear right when the car starts accelerating? Is it the tires slipping?

Re: Tesla Roadster

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this thing has torque vectoring and does a 9 second 1/4 mile, it's going to drop at wave 2. But wave 3 is already here - a lot of smaller companies are talking about making their own electric vehicles. If batteries become commodities, it's going to reduce the R&D cost of making a road legal car by an order of magnitude. We're just waiting on the batteries.

I wonder if GM (or Tesla) will sell crate batteries the way they sell crate engines? Everyone will be drooling over the next big battery they release the way motor heads drool over crate engines. They'll need a reasonably standard size/configuration to be successful, and they could sell the motor, power management and PCM to go with it.

GM doesn't make batteries, the Bolt is almost a LG car.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#208
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad it can’t maintain that performance for any extended period of time. Battery is known to overheat if you drive it too hard.

The Porsche Mission-E will handle continuous top-speed just fine without overheating, so I figure Tesla will come up with a competitive cooling solution until 2020 as well.

Porsche has hundreds of millions of dollars of R&D poured into the 919 hybrid Le Mans Prototype, which I imagine will translate to the Mission E. Tesla has no such experience.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Tesla Model S owner, you really don't need to fill your car in minutes. It's a totally different (but not bad) mindset. Every morning my car is full, because I plug it in in my garage. So if I don't go more than 260 miles that day, it's plugged in the next night. It doesn't matter that it takes a few hours. My gas car was just sitting in the garage each night anyway doing nothing. How many hours does your car si…

I've never had a private garage, much less a locked one I could rewire. If Tesla wants to go mainstream they need to handle apartment parking.

Here in Norway it's common for apartment buildings that have parking spots to have electric chargers outside and that seems to be working fine.
Post reply on HN