The Fisker Karma was their 2012 Automobile of the Year. In 2011 it was the Volt.
2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
81–90 of 286 posts
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
If room-temperature superconducting ever becomes a reality, then each car will be loaded with a SMES unit ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy... ) that charges instantly.
Why do you say that? Do SMES have better energy density?
Superconductors have the ability to transfer electrical energy extremely quickly. Which is an ideal characteristic for a battery. I don't know enough about SMESes to say whether they are a good storage solution (assuming we could eventually develop a room temperature one).
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an electric car owner, I haven't found a need for swapping batteries. Consider this: if a refueling station offered battery swapping they would also need to exhaustively test your batteries to determine that they were not abused and to determine how much credit to offer for their current capacity. How does that save much time from just using a quick-charge station? Because the batteries wouldn't have to be tested…
I think this "electric grid can't handle it" is another piece of anti-EV FUD that is not representative of the situation in reality. Right now, peak electricity usage times are during the day. This is why in most urban areas electricity is cheaper at night: they want to encourage you to distribute your usage more evenly throughout the day. The NEMA 14-50 (a.k.a. standard appliance outlet that most people plug their d…
The grid is not a big bucket. The local conditions matter.
Your local neighborhood transformer might be serving only 5 houses. If one or two of them decide to charge an EV every night, the transformer may not get a chance to ever cool down, like it is designed to do.
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Model S is a revolutionary car, but I really hope the the big touch display without physical buttons doesn't become the norm. I really prefer the feedback you get from them while keeping your eyes on the road, especially for common functions like the temperature and basic stereo control. People will disagree with me, but I have really grown to like the current iDrive system which lets me keep my looking up high w…
I prefer tactile response as well, however I'd guess that good voice activated controls will be introduced soon enough.
I don't want a touch screen OR voice controls. I want knobs and buttons.
I can use a physical control without looking. It isn't confused by wind noise if my window is down. It doesn't bother a sleeping passenger.
The only disadvantage to physical controls is mapping them to an ever-larger number of functions. The early iPods did that well with their scroll wheels and single button, but there are limits.
Then again, maybe the large number of functions is the problem, not the controls.
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#85Even if Tesla do not survive, ten years from now every new electric car will be a descendant of the Model S in all the major ways - floor-mounted battery pack, lack of physical buttons, etc.
The Model S is a revolutionary car, but I really hope the the big touch display without physical buttons doesn't become the norm. I really prefer the feedback you get from them while keeping your eyes on the road, especially for common functions like the temperature and basic stereo control. People will disagree with me, but I have really grown to like the current iDrive system which lets me keep my looking up high w…
I believe the new display being (been?) developed by Cadillac has got tactile feedback.
Otherwise, yes, I agree with you. Touchscreen displays are as dangerous as texting while driving.
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#86The Tesla Model S is a great-looking car but, unlike some, I still don't see electric cars as being the future. Batteries are still too heavy, take too long to charge, are too expensive and require materials that in widespread use will probably become far more of a problem than fossil fuels in terms of scarcity. Of course, there can be and no doubt will be technological innovation in this space but (IMHO) the future…
Internal combustion engines are not at all simple. Sleek animations might make it seem like that, but when you are blowing stuff up, that tends to complicate things.
In comparison, electrical motors are extremely simple and maintenance-free. All while being on a level of efficiency that just can't be reached with a combustion engine.
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
If room-temperature superconducting ever becomes a reality, then each car will be loaded with a SMES unit ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy... ) that charges instantly.
Why do you say that? Do SMES have better energy density?
They probably don't. Just as there is a critical temperature, Tc, at which superconductors stop superconducting, there is a critical current density, Ic, at which they stop superconducting. That places a limit on the amount of energy you can store in a superconducting loop. Then there is also the consideration that Ic scales as approximately 1/Tc, so high-temperature superconductors have a lower critical current density than low-temperature ones.
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#88Is that why TSLA stock is up today?
I would guess a mix of the positive jobs report and short covering from margin calls is at fault. Right-leaning investors have seemed to want the company to fail for months, but Tesla is looking resilient with their good backlog and a strong economy. They're paying back their DOE loan early.
>Right-leaning investors have seemed to want the company to fail for months, but Tesla is looking resilient with their good backlog and a strong economy. They're paying back their DOE loan early.
Seriously? You think people are prepared to lose money to make a political point?
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#89The Tesla Model S is a great-looking car but, unlike some, I still don't see electric cars as being the future. Batteries are still too heavy, take too long to charge, are too expensive and require materials that in widespread use will probably become far more of a problem than fossil fuels in terms of scarcity. Of course, there can be and no doubt will be technological innovation in this space but (IMHO) the future…
> Portable fuel supplies are just too convenient. The relative simplicity of the internal combustion engine (or some derivation thereof) is just too advantageous compared to even optimistic long-term alternatives.
We've spent way too long ignoring the externalities of our fossil-fuel energy supplies. Besides, moving to electric is a great common platform for future energy sources. It makes a whole lot of sense, for example, separating the power plant (ie, gas engine vs. remote nuke plant charging your batteries) from the propulsion mechanism (motors).
Re: 2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
The battery on Model S IS swappable, in fact quick-swappable, at least per Reuters ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/18/idUS24518959652011... )
That's cool for replacement, but the weight of these things is in the X00 kilos range. This is not swappable like a laptop battery. It may weigh up to a quarter ton. =/
It would be great if the batteries were hot-swappable in a user-serviceable fashion and accessible via opening the front and rear car doors to reveal a panel at the bottom with battery bays. The batteries could be approximately the width of a hard drive with the depth of the battery being half the width of the vehicle. You would have perhaps 8 such battery bays accessible from behind each door, for 32 hot-swappable bays in total. A quick search shows that the batteries in a Tesla S weigh about 600 pounds, meaning each one would be 20 pounds; easy for just about anybody to change.