New "Google" electric car has range of almost 400 km

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0-100 km/h in 4 secs. Top speed 210 km/h. 185 kW motor.

The Tesla’s main investors include Sergy Brin and Larry Page.

http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=c6975f33-07c1-4dec-a3d2-6aec526e1a03

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Tesla_Motors,_Inc.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

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Dont be at yourself

Rumour is it may ship with a 'temporary transmission' as they have yet to find one that wont fail after a few thousand miles due to the high levels of torque. This 'temporary transmission' will then be replaced by a long-term one as and when it comes available.

edit: link: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/200048219/

Akrasia

NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

Rumour is it may ship with a 'temporary transmission' as they have yet to find one that wont fail after a few thousand miles due to the high levels of torque. This 'temporary transmission' will then be replaced by a long-term one as and when it comes available.

edit: link: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/200048219/

I dont know about this at all. It's powered by thousands of Lithium Ion batteries,and as anyone with a laptop knows, the life span of these batteries is 2-3 years at best and the range of the car would drop the older the car gets (400km the first week, 200 km 2 years later)

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NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

Rumour is it may ship with a 'temporary transmission' as they have yet to find one that wont fail after a few thousand miles due to the high levels of torque. This 'temporary transmission' will then be replaced by a long-term one as and when it comes available.

edit: link: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/200048219/

I don't know why they need gear changes at all. The Venturi Fetish has only one gear - 9,58:1.

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zod

still in beta from what i heard

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Akrasia wrote: »

I dont know about this at all. It's powered by thousands of Lithium Ion batteries,and as anyone with a laptop knows, the life span of these batteries is 2-3 years at best and the range of the car would drop the older the car gets (400km the first week, 200 km 2 years later)

According to the company website, one can expect to get about 160.000 km out of the battery before it starts to go into decline. That is about 10 years of average driving. Even if they only lasted five or six years, one suspects that batteries will be much cheaper in 2014. A written undertaking from the manufacturer to make replacement batteries available over the expected life of the car would be nice. Of course, they can then charge you whatever they like for the replacement.

Perhaps it would be useful if the EU defined basic standard specs for batteries - in the same way as the GSM mobile network specification was defined. The standard did not stop technological development - but it made mobile phones and SIM cards and signalling protocols interchangeable - facilitating roaming between networks and giving one a large choice of phone brands. When it came to replacing the battery one could then shop around among several battery manufacturers and suppliers for any brand of car. It would promote competition in the battery business.

It would also allow batteries to be provided as a service rather than having to buy them. i.e. you pull into an energy station, and an automated car-wash type robotic thing slides out your existing battery and slots in a replacement unit which is fully charged. This would eliminate the 1hr coffee stop while performing an en-route charge.

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zod wrote: »

still in beta from what i heard

So is Windows Server 2008.

The first Tesla shop is going up on Santa Monica Bvd in LA. Map - in case you are interesting in having a look:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Santa+Monica+Boulevard&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.495626,58.447266&ie=UTF8&ll=34.048028,-118.444977&spn=0.007183,0.015986&z=17&om=1

http://jalopnik.com/cars/news/tesla-store-being-built-in-los-angeles-332159.php

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djmc

After looking at these electric cars with a few days i found that any cars that look anyway cool that can break the speed limit are wayyyyy out of my price bracket 100k +
anything I can afford G-whizz etc. looks like a smart car that got squased between two big buses and got fixed up using parts of old minnes and the van from only fools and horses
and if thats not bad enough I could pass them out a top speed with my push bike
battery range is also poor at least if someone steels it they wont get far
that said I like the running costs 2cent per mile and free tax
wonder if I can convert my own car:eek:

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Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRd7ER7u-KU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOl_1S10jTk

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djmc

new battery technoligy could make electric cars travel a lot further and faster in the future 2000kms on a charge
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/january9/nanowire-010908.html

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.com/

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/12/toshiba-launche.html

Toshiba Corporation announced the commercial launch of the SCiB—the Super Charge ion Battery—a fast-charging battery that offers excellent safety and a long-life cycle of over 10 years, even under conditions of constant rapid charging. The safety characteristics of SCiB allow recharge with a current as large as 50 amperes (A), allowing the SCiB Cell and SCiB Standard Module to recharge to 90% of full capacity in only five minutes, according to Toshiba.
...
Capacity loss after 3,000 cycles of rapid charge and discharge is less than 10%. SCiB is able to repeat the charge-discharge cycle over 5,000 times (more than 10 years with a once-a-day cycle). SCiB operates well in temperature extremes, with sufficient discharge at temperatures as low as -30°C.

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probe wrote: »

0-100 km/h in 4 secs. Top speed 210 km/h. 185 kW motor.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

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Road test of the Tesla: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/01/28/abg-first-drive-hitting-the-road-in-the-tesla-roadster/
(with videos)

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Run_to_da_hills

Akrasia wrote: »

I dont know about this at all. It's powered by thousands of Lithium Ion batteries,and as anyone with a laptop knows, the life span of these batteries is 2-3 years at best and the range of the car would drop the older the car gets (400km the first week, 200 km 2 years later)

So you could be driving a potential time bomb, who would make these Lithium Ion cells? Sony :eek:

Capt'n Midnight

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

So you could be driving a potential time bomb, who would make these Lithium Ion cells? Sony :eek:

any form of energy store is potentially dangerous. The more concentrated the worse the consequences of all that energy being released all at once.