Test Drove a Tesla Today

NoCoPilot wrote:

If driven sensibly they should last decades.

Why do you say that? Electric motors do wear out, and these are very high powered motors. Slight bearing wear can be disastrous for motors. Heat can kill them.

In the first post, NoCoPilot wrote:

And did it in dead silence.

Where are they getting the batteries? Chinese electrons are known to squeak a lot.

In truth there was some road noise -- tires against the pavement -- and wind against the windows and general rattling of uneven road surfaces. So not COMPLETE silence. Just "luxury car" muted sound.

Is the Tesla battery factory in China?

Sparks Nevada, appropriately enough..

"Sparks"? That doesn't sound good.

You mentioned the silence of the car. That's what one would expect from an electric car, but I'm not sure how much I would like that. I have always enjoyed a nice sounding car engine. Even the wife's Merc sounds good when you crowd it a bit. Of course, I think that the sound of a loud Harley Davidson is the music of the gods.

One of the early EVs (forget which one) came with an optional WAV file of engine noise. It played not only inside the cabin for the entertainment of the driver, but also under the hood for the safety of pedestrians.

WAV files? An expensive car would at least go for FLAC.

FLAC was introduced in 2001.

I believe the car involved was the EV-1, which was produced 1996-1999.

The Tesla feels very out of reach where I am. I imagine even those who are interested in it, many feel the same way. I'm glad someone is working on electric cars but the real answer if you ask me is public transit that is electric or mag lev or something efficient. You will never get all of us to be able to afford electric cars as they are now headed.

Price of electric will come down, and price of gas will go up.

Whether it happens before private transportation becomes a thing of the past is an open question.

As a first important and potentially game-changing step in "the cost of electric coming down," Tesla announces their mass market EV tonight.

If sales are even marginally encouraging, the charging station infrastructure will explode, making the next rollout a gimme. With mass production comes quantity discounting, meaning the next model may be $25,000 instead of $35,000. Once one manufacturer begins penetrating the market sufficiently you can bet the others will follow in short order.

Related:
Was thinking about a Sanders presidency, and his vow to rebuild the nation's highways. This would be the golden opportunity to start embedding something in the roadways to make self-driving cars and/or automated traffic controls a reality.

There are a few electric cars available below or near the price point of the new Tesla model. Teslas have been exceptional because of their performance and luxury, not just because they are electric. If the new model doesn't offer more than cheaper electrics already on the market, it may not do well.

Have you given any thought as to where all of these charging stations will be located after the explosion? The one here in town is in the parking lot of a bank. Consider the hundreds, or thousands, of cars that go through a busy gas station in a day. It would take maybe fifty or a hundred times the real estate to provide charging stations for that number of cars.

NoCoPilot wrote:

This would be the golden opportunity to start embedding something in the roadways to make self-driving cars and/or automated traffic controls a reality.

Yikes! God save us from self-driving cars.

_Howard wrote:

Have you given any thought as to where all of these charging stations will be located after the explosion? The one here in town is in the parking lot of a bank. Consider the hundreds, or thousands, of cars that go through a busy gas station in a day. It would take maybe fifty or a hundred times the real estate to provide charging stations for that number of cars.

Stoplights.

Every intersection should have wireless chargers embedded in the concrete.

Parking lots.

Every mall and office building should have slots assigned for EVs -- close to the doors, like handicapped parking -- which includes wired charging.

Highway rest stops.

Our nation's freeways already have a network of pullouts for weary drivers that offer restrooms, coffee and a place to nap.

_Howard wrote:

If the new model doesn't offer more than cheaper electrics already on the market, it may not do well.

Not just luxury and performance, but Teslas offer 3x the range of most other EVs.  The Model 3 will not have all the bells and whistles of the S or the X (which afterall are excessive), but it will be comparable to a Camry or Focus in quality and ride, and considerably cheaper in cost of ownership.

The existing EVs like Leaf, Volt, Golf, Bolt, Spark, Smart etc are all under 100 mile range, sluggish performance, Yugo-appointed and grim.  They are not mainstream, and not designed to be. They're concept cars.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Stoplights.
Every intersection should have wireless chargers embedded in the concrete.

Really? Who pays for this? And would ten or twenty seconds of charging really be of significant value?

NoCoPilot wrote:

Parking lots.
Every mall and office building should have slots assigned for EVs -- close to the doors, like handicapped parking -- which includes wired charging.

And you know that all of these close-in parking spots would be filled by shoppers' electric cars immediately, whether they needed charging or not.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Highway rest stops.
Our nation's freeways already have a network of pullouts for weary drivers that offer restrooms, coffee and a place to nap.

I can't remember any rest stops between here and Los Angeles, or between here and San Francisco.
Would you want to pull into an isolated rest stop in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, to settle in for a thirty- or sixty-minute recharge?
And again, who would pay for these?

California has something close to thirty million registered vehicles, about half trucks. You think a handful of rest stop and shopping mall chargers would handle a massive conversion to electric vehicles?

Yes.

It's a paradigm shift but I see it as nearly inevitable, in our lifetimes even.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Whether it happens before private transportation becomes a thing of the past is an open question.

Though a little farther down the road -- say, 20-40 years -- I see an even bigger paradigm shift with the end of personal transportation. People will ride mass transit, whether multi-user vehicles or self-driving pods of some sort, removing untrained drivers from the roads.

The move to electric vehicles will be a slow one. You have suggested what I consider micro-solutions for the current and near term. There will be macro problems with the conversion many of which we cannot envision now. Just for example: Consider the problems for owners of gasoline vehicles when the number of electric vehicles reaches a point that causes the closing of many gasoline stations because of low business. Or when the weather is lousy for a long term and solar power is not producing, the demands on the power grid may become untenable when the number of electric vehicles reaches a high enough level. No doubt there will be many major structural problems.

No doubt. But industry is resourceful.

In America, industry is not resourceful - it is regressive. Change is never accepted by extant business. Look at how the electric companies are trying to kill solar energy for an example.

New Tesla 3 was unveiled last night.  No big surprises, and the styling, while nice, was nothing you'd take a doubletake at.  From the ground anyway -- seen from above the roof is all glass.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/31/11335272/tesla-model-3-announced-price-release-date-specs-preorder

$35,000, 215 miles range, 0-60 in 6 seconds, more bells and whistles than expected.  Good safety considerations.  The Tesla is now the safest car on the road.

Elon announced they'd already pre-sold 130,000 of them. That's $4.55 billion right there.

Nice looking car. Better than most small sedans you see today.

I'm not crazy about the glass roof. Overhead beams would enhance the rigidity of the car.

The lack of a front grill left them with a design conundrum -- could have gone with an Avanti front end I suppose -- instead they just left a space. I'm thinking there will be a substantial aftermarket for Rolls Royce-style paste-on plastic grills.

I'm not crazy about the front end treatment, but it's not as ugly as the Avanti. That may have been the ugliest front end on a car since the Stanley Steamer.

About a thousand years ago, there was an Avanti owners gathering in town. One of the cars was having brake trouble and went to a couple of shops that refused to even look at the car. I took it into the shop and pulled a front wheel. I was surprised to see that it had the same brake assembly as my old E-Type. Piece of cake to repair, and the parts were available at the local British car dealer. The owner was very surprised and appreciative ($$) that I was able to fix the car.

I always liked the Avanti tail and profile.  The front end, though, seemed a bit unfinished.