Tesla Motors Begins Regular Production of 2008 Tesla Roadster
Regular production of the 2008 Tesla Roadster commenced today, marking an historical milestone for Tesla Motors and a watershed in the development of clean, zero-emissions vehicles.

First unveiled as a prototype on July 19th, 2006, the revolutionary Tesla Roadster generated an extraordinary response from people everywhere who were inspired by the vision that beautiful, high performance cars could generate zero-emissions and burn no oil.

Less than 2 years later, this vision has become a reality as Tesla Motors begins production of this breakthrough electric vehicle. The 2008 model year is sold out and Tesla is currently taking reservations for the 2009 model year Tesla Roadster. To date, over 900 Tesla Roadsters have been reserved in total.


http://www.teslamotors.com/media/press_room.php?id=841

That is fantastic....

We need some serious research in to battery design for ultra high density, and capacity types.

Finally! been waiting on the Tesla 2007 :D Anyways hope they fixed that transmission problem. See sport cars need to accelerate real fast and drive fast to do this even with an electric motor requires 2 gears (one for accelerating from 0-60 in under 4 sec, and the other for going 130+ mpg) but tesla's 2-speed transmission was giving them a whole lot of problems, I'll put a bet that Tesla's next generation Sudan and Mini will have a simpler fixed single speed transmission or even in-wheel motors and just give up on a transmission at all.

As for the next generation of batteries, Probably lithium-sulfur cells (twice the energy density of todays lithium-ion). I would love to see metal-air batteries but for some reason there almost no research into that. And Aluminum or Magnesium paste power EV would have a practical energy density of 1200-1600Wh/kg (compared to <350WH/kg for Lithium ion), the paste is cheap to store and could be refuel rapidly rather then recharged slowly: the used aluminum paste is "recharged" either in the car or at a recycling/recharging station and then fill'er up. A Al/Mg air cell would not need expensive metals like lithium, manganese, or platinum like lithium ion or PEM fuel cells do. The paste could be made of non-flammable solvent (fluoridized-hydrocarbons) and would be safer to handle then gasoline. The only problem with this amazing fuel option is the lack of development research to make a nano-metal particles in paste formula.

I do not understand why companies do not design motor in the wheel systems. If you can standardize wheel size and a 35 HP to 50 HP motor per wheel...then that would be plenty of power as needed and one can sell 2 motor or 4 motor design to price accordingly....or the car can come with two motor and then one can add two motors if need arises. Adding sometype of superconductor or even a silver alloy wiring, the motor size can be made small....

Tesla and their roadster can kiss my ass right in the crack until they can make it cost the same as something like an S2000, WRX or a 350z.
It's a nice car though.

Tesla and their roadster can kiss my ass right in the crack until they can make it cost the same as something like an S2000, WRX or a 350z.
It's a nice car though.

They make it cost the same or less then what it competes with: Porsche GT2, BMW Z8, Jaguar XKR, etc.

I do not understand why companies do not design motor in the wheel systems. If you can standardize wheel size and a 35 HP to 50 HP motor per wheel...then that would be plenty of power as needed and one can sell 2 motor or 4 motor design to price accordingly.
I assume it's cheaper and/or lighter to have a single motor and a drive train than 2 or 4 motors...
Adding sometype of superconductor or even a silver alloy wiring, the motor size can be made small....
Yeah, but then you would need to constantly add liquid helium and liquid nitrogen to keep the superconductors cool...which would be a big pain, and probably end up adding more weight than you save.

I do not understand why companies do not design motor in the wheel systems. If you can standardize wheel size and a 35 HP to 50 HP motor per wheel...then that would be plenty of power as needed and one can sell 2 motor or 4 motor design to price accordingly....or the car can come with two motor and then one can add two motors if need arises. Adding sometype of superconductor or even a silver alloy wiring, the motor size can be made small....

There are such things. They are big in the motorized bicycle industry, and some scooters use them. The drawback is rotating and sprung weight. Then if you are going to put the things inboard, you might as well combine their functions into one or two.

There are such things. They are big in the motorized bicycle industry, and some scooters use them. The drawback is rotating and sprung weight. Then if you are going to put the things inboard, you might as well combine their functions into one or two.
Yeah, not to mention that a clutchless two speed tranny has (I am willing to bet here) less parasitic loss than a good performance trans like a Tremec T6.

This is good news.

There are several car companies working on in-wheel motors, the advantages of space savings, efficiency, standardization, AWD, and maybe the ability to do a 360 or move sideways is just to cool to pass up.

They make it cost the same or less then what it competes with: Porsche GT2, BMW Z8, Jaguar XKR, etc.

You do realize that the Subaru WRX/STi and Mitsubishi Evolution DO perform very very close to what the vehicles you mentioned and they both cost less than $40K, don't you? :bugeye: And with a few thousand dollars worth of mods, will outperform them.
Do let me know when the GT2, Z8, etc. starts costing around $40K.

I stand by my original statement.

You do realize that the Subaru WRX/STi and Mitsubishi Evolution DO perform very very close to what the vehicles you mentioned and they both cost less than $40K, don't you? :bugeye: And with a few thousand dollars worth of mods, will outperform them.
Do let me know when the GT2, Z8, etc. starts costing around $40K.

I stand by my original statement.

Hey you need to ask people that buy a 100k+ sports car over a 40K sports car, why they do that.

Hey you need to ask people that buy a 100k+ sports car over a 40K sports car, why they do that.
Maybe I should ask you why you totally missed my point.
My point was that if they can't make it affordable, then AFAIC, they can fuckin stick it. Most people can't afford a 100K sports car.
Besides, there's no better feeling that making some jackass Porsche owner look stupid in your car that cost a fraction of his. I have an '05 STi btw.
Oh, and people buy 100K sports cars because they're really not true performance enthusiasts. They just buy one for a status symbol and probably never drive them. My STi is daily driveable too. Ferraris and Lambos aren't. Sad really.
I'd have an STi even if I was filthy rich.

Here is the car

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezwebin_site/storage/images/news/car_news/2008_tesla_roadster_car_news/2006_tesla_roadster_upfront/mp_tesla_image_002/833864-1-eng-US/mp_tesla_image_0021_gallery_image_large.jpg

Maybe I should ask you why you totally missed my point.
My point was that if they can't make it affordable, then AFAIC, they can fuckin stick it. Most people can't afford a 100K sports car.
Besides, there's no better feeling that making some jackass Porsche owner look stupid in your car that cost a fraction of his. I have an '05 STi btw.
Oh, and people buy 100K sports cars because they're really not true performance enthusiasts. They just buy one for a status symbol and probably never drive them. My STi is daily driveable too. Ferraris and Lambos aren't. Sad really.
I'd have an STi even if I was filthy rich.

By that logic 100K plus sports cars would not sale, but someone buys those things not matter how stupid it is. Your asking for an affordable EV and I could not agree with you more, but until battery production jumps up several fold these things are going to be expensive, and until these things sell battery production is going to be lack luster and limited to laptops and cordless drills, so it is a Catch 22! So now what is better: A) Don't sell them at all and thus don't put any demand on the battery market leaving EVs to be non-existent forever or B) Sell them at high prices to rich idiots so that battery factors can be financed and the price can be dropped to be in financial range for us all.

Slick looking car. Expensive though. Not really a viable way to help reduce overall levels of emissions, even if it does reportedly get 135 miles per gallon. I just read an article recently where Shell hosted some kind of marathon for automotive engineers, perhaps for the general public, and one vehicle traveled over 7,000 miles on a tank of fuel. I believe it was gasoline. Ah... here's a couple of related articles:


http://www.gizmag.com/go/2946/
"The Shell Eco-Marathon is an annual fuel economy competition held in the UK with competitors ranging from 11 year-old students through to senior university academics and semi professional independent teams."
...
"Overall results:
1st - Microjoule (France): 9737mpg
2nd - Team Callo (France): 6952mpg
3rd - BSMM (Finland): 5667mpg"


http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/361/7-000-mpg-car-wins-eco-marathon.html
"The team from the French technical school St. Joseph La Joliverie went 7,148 miles on a single gallon of fuel. The Shell website is quick to point out that that's "almost ten miles per teaspoon."


I know that these aren't the sleekest and most comfortable designs ever created, but with a bit of refinement, surely it's possible to shatter the current averages of <100mpg.

... the revolutionary Tesla Roadster generated an extraordinary response from people everywhere who were inspired by the vision that beautiful, high performance cars could generate zero-emissions and burn no oil. ..

Is it solar powered then? Oh no, it's recharged from the mains, so has solved nothing, it's just displaced the problem back down the line to power stations that belch out emissions instead.

Plus I'd love to know what environmental impact the creation and disposal of the batteries has.

This makes much more sense;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2281011.stm

Because in France, 80% of the electricity that would drive the compressor, comes from Nuclear power, so a far lesser carbon footprint. OK, it's not sexy, but then does saving the planet have to be?

Is it solar powered then? Oh no, it's recharged from the mains, so has solved nothing, it's just displaced the problem back down the line to power stations that belch out emissions instead.

Plus I'd love to know what environmental impact the creation and disposal of the batteries has.

This makes much more sense;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2281011.stm

Because in France, 80% of the electricity that would drive the compressor, comes from Nuclear power, so a far lesser carbon footprint. OK, it's not sexy, but then does saving the planet have to be?

- Even using Coal power the roadster pollutes less then the average car (using goal it has the same CO2 emission as a prius) using combine cycle natural gas or gasifying coal power plant and its CO2 emissions are half that of a prius, using solar, wind or nuclear on the grid and its CO2 emission approach non-existent. Oh and they are making a solar panel option for the car.

- Lithium batteries are recyclable, by necessity, lithium is not cheap.

- Compressed Air is by its nature a battery, though much cheaper then electrochemical batteries it has lower energy density, limiting it to urban driving.

Because in France, 80% of the electricity that would drive the compressor, comes from Nuclear power, so a far lesser carbon footprint. OK, it's not sexy, but then does saving the planet have to be?

But the radioactive waste won't degrade forever! What do people in the future do when they dig up the contaminated waste and don't know what it is because they have been using solar power for thousands of years and forgot what radioactive waste was! :eek:

But the radioactive waste won't degrade forever! What do people in the future do when they dig up the contaminated waste and don't know what it is because they have been using solar power for thousands of years and forgot what radioactive waste was! :eek:

First of all it will degrade someday, second of all people in the future will have (heck we could have them now) will have accelerator driven reactors that run on todays nuclear waste because we ran out of U235, so todays nuclear waste is tomorrows nuclear fuel, after that the final waste product is only radioactive for a few decades instead of an eon.

- Even using Coal power the roadster pollutes less then the average car (using goal it has the same CO2 emission as a prius)

I'll have to go with yout figures 'cos the Tesla web site is really slow at the moment, but the Tesla costs five times that of a basic Prius, has half the seats, and limited range, therefore limited appeal, and it's not going to save the planet by supplanting regular vehicles. It's a nice concept car, but I doubt the application will see many useful variants.

Oh and they are making a solar panel option for the car.

I'd love to know how long that will take to recharge the car. Solar panels are great for trickle charge, but really not up to the job to keep a car running. Not for a reasonable cost, at any rate, and I doubt the Tesla has enough surface area, so it would have to be a recharge option at home.

On compressed air, that car linked to is only 20km behind the Tesla, and it could be recharged with air much faster than the Tesla's batteries could be recharged. I'm betting on air as the future, .....

I'll have to go with yout figures 'cos the Tesla web site is really slow at the moment, but the Tesla costs five times that of a basic Prius, has half the seats, and limited range, therefore limited appeal, and it's not going to save the planet by supplanting regular vehicles. It's a nice concept car, but I doubt the application will see many useful variants.

The Roadster is not designed to compete with the prius, its competes with the Porsche GT2, BMW Z8, Jaguar XKR, and other high price sports cars, which have half the seats of a prius, have limited range due to a gas inhaling 8-12mpg, and yet are not concept cars. The Roadster is a start, you and me want an end, but you cant get an end without a start.

I'd love to know how long that will take to recharge the car. Solar panels are great for trickle charge, but really not up to the job to keep a car running. Not for a reasonable cost, at any rate, and I doubt the Tesla has enough surface area, so it would have to be a recharge option at home.

Image never having to go to gas station: ever time you get home you plug your car in and then unplug it in the morning. With V2G and smart grids EVs can replace ~80 of small cars without the need for any new power plants: http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20061211.105149&time=11%2005%20PST&year=2006&public=0


On compressed air, that car linked to is only 20km behind the Tesla, and it could be recharged with air much faster than the Tesla's batteries could be recharged. I'm betting on air as the future, .....

The Roadster has 220 mile range, the air car has 200km, need to convert miles to km. Although Tesla relies on older battery technology newer A123/Nanosafe Lithium polymers can be charged in under 10min. I don't have a problem with air cars they are the same type of solution to the problem: take power off the grid, put it in cars. Air engines though have the problems of lower energy density, lower efficiency (1/3 of a Lithium Battery EV), and adiabatic expansion (the engine gets ice cold and needs to be heated), with the advantage of much cheaper manufacturing cost.

Is it solar powered then? Oh no, it's recharged from the mains, so has solved nothing, it's just displaced the problem back down the line to power stations that belch out emissions instead.
This is always a good point to consider, but EVs that charge from the grid will remove the localized and concentrated pollution associated with heavy traffic that makes the Los Angeles valley fill with smog on sunny windless days. By displacing the load, the emissions can be relocated, diversified, and reduced.

And of course in the future we'll probably be getting more of our electricity from zero-emission base sources like our friend the atom, at which point everything else is gravy anyway.