171–180 of 284 posts
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The pack is 53kWh according to wikipedia and discharges in 11 weeks from full according to the article. Unless I botched a decimal place, that is a 29 watt idle load. (53000 watt hours / (11 weeks * 7 days/week * 24 hours/day) ). In perspective, that is about the same as 4 night lights. Clearly there is about 20 times that much power available at the end of a 100 foot extension cord in a standard household outlet. Fa…
You forgot "Owner made up story"
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> Tesla are a sideshow and we desperately need to stop talking about them, because they're harming efforts to improve energy efficiency. Completely disagree. Tesla is, I think, unquestionably the most impactful company in the game, including GE and Nissan. For two reasons. First, before Tesla people thought of electric vehicles as ridiculous DIY golf carts driven by treehuggers. They were utterly uncool and stupid. P…
> First, before Tesla people thought of electric vehicles as ridiculous DIY golf carts driven by treehuggers. They were utterly uncool and stupid. Post-Tesla, electric cars are among the very coolest cars in the world. GE didn't do that. Nissan didn't do that. Toyota didn't do that. Tesla did. I think fundamentally changing people's perceptions of what an electric car is and what it can do is the single most impactfu…
You're wondering about Tesla's commercial success, which is an interesting but very different question.
Tesla are a sideshow and we desperately need to stop talking about them, because they're harming efforts to improve energy efficiency. Nissan are now in full production of the Leaf, a practical electric car that's half the price of the Model S. Renault have the Fluence ZE on sale in Israel and ready to go internationally this year. Mitsubishi are selling the i-MiEV in quantity in Hong Kong and Japan. All of these big…
I think you and Tesla are not having the same conversation. They are doing it The Wrong Way if the conversation is efficient commuter/city cars. But tanks are doing it The Wrong Way if you're talking about space launch vehicles too. Tesla doesn't market or really care about efficiency -- and Tesla buyers don't really care about efficiency (or at least not as their #1 priority, if they did there are plenty of high eff…
They have to create a totally new production chain and make high quality cars. This is impossible with low margins, there is no way they can compete on price against this gigantic industry.
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Who said that electric cars have to be about energy efficiency? To me the primary reason to move to electric are to ditch petroleum and its associated problems (pollution, oil spills, foreign energy dependence). The way to the future is to convince people that new technology is better for them. If the message instead is "you need to give up things you like for the greater good," people will oppose you at every move,…
> The way to the future is to convince people that new technology is better for them. If the message instead is "you need to give up things you like for the greater good," people will oppose you at every move, and rightly so; While I agree in principle, ... > do you really want to live in a world where computer screens are just barely bright enough to see, where buildings are sweltering on hot days, freezing on cold…
Do you know what happens when an ICE engine is left to sit for months? First the oil runs out to the pain and slowly evaporates. The cylinders might suffer some sticktion and possibly rust. And you've probably got small animals that have made a home in your engine block. The rubber in the tires will have deformed and even if you get it running it will be a very bumpy ride to the tire shop. Also the gas tank absorbs water if you live in a humid region like Florida.
All of this is covered in the manual of every car I've ever owned. Drive it 5 minutes, at least, every few weeks to keep the lubricants lubricating or you end up with a very expensive rebuild.
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Euro testing cycles are more generous, MPG figures are quoted in Imperial gallons (which are larger), and probably because of less dense cities they tend to be more tolerant of smog belching diesels. Diesels are fuel efficient but it's expensive to make them pollution efficient enough to pass American regulations. Many cars are the same in both countries. There isn't anything about America that makes them less effici…
Euro testing cycles are more generous, MPG figures are quoted in Imperial gallons I have never seen a MPG notation anywhere in Europe (possibly in the UK, but certainly nowhere else). Car efficiency is quoted by liters / 100 km just about everywhere around here. Or am I missing something?
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> First, before Tesla people thought of electric vehicles as ridiculous DIY golf carts driven by treehuggers. They were utterly uncool and stupid. Post-Tesla, electric cars are among the very coolest cars in the world. GE didn't do that. Nissan didn't do that. Toyota didn't do that. Tesla did. I think fundamentally changing people's perceptions of what an electric car is and what it can do is the single most impactfu…
And that's the genius of it. You are not paying to change the narrative - but lots of other people are . Even if Tesla ends up a footnote in the history of automotives, their impact will be felt for decades, just like Sun. Whatever happens to Elon Musk's company, we are all better off, and for that I wouldn't consider the money wasted. And I don't think Tesla's death is really that certain. Remember that Apple pionee…
Wow, I don't know if that is a good comparison. It's not like they were $5k-$10k laptops or anything. "Ludicrously priced" seems a bit strong here..
Tesla are a sideshow and we desperately need to stop talking about them, because they're harming efforts to improve energy efficiency. Nissan are now in full production of the Leaf, a practical electric car that's half the price of the Model S. Renault have the Fluence ZE on sale in Israel and ready to go internationally this year. Mitsubishi are selling the i-MiEV in quantity in Hong Kong and Japan. All of these big…
> Tesla are a sideshow and we desperately need to stop talking about them, because they're harming efforts to improve energy efficiency. Completely disagree. Tesla is, I think, unquestionably the most impactful company in the game, including GE and Nissan. For two reasons. First, before Tesla people thought of electric vehicles as ridiculous DIY golf carts driven by treehuggers. They were utterly uncool and stupid. P…
vs
As to the article proper: it seems to me that running down your car is a pretty simple problem to engineer away.
So, on the one hand you say that their battery technology is in advance of everyone else... and on the other hand, you say that these fine engineering minds... haven't been able to come up with a 'pretty simple' solution yet.
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> The way to the future is to convince people that new technology is better for them. If the message instead is "you need to give up things you like for the greater good," people will oppose you at every move, and rightly so; While I agree in principle, ... > do you really want to live in a world where computer screens are just barely bright enough to see, where buildings are sweltering on hot days, freezing on cold…
I might have to read that at some point. Offhand, it would seem that carpeting Sahara and comparable areas would give quite sufficient yields of solar energy, especially combined with nuclear. Feasibility is another matter, naturally.
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Could this really not be prevented by a $10 microcontroller and a big-ass relay to just disconnect the battery if it reaches a certain discharge state? Not necessarily. This might help, but the battery will also have self-discharge, meaning that it can lose charge without being connected to any load at all. If you get the charge down low enough, and then wait long enough, then even a full disconnect from the system w…
So set the cutoff higher? Small portable gadgets using LiPoly batteries (which I assume the Tesla is using) can be left for months or years without charging, and then nursed back to life. If sufficient charge is left in them, and the circuitry is smart enough to recognise that the battery's about to die, the time before complete discharge could be extended to a much larger period of time. The solution could even be a…
Jermy Clarkson must be pissing himself laughing over this