http://www.teslamotors.com

Today was the unveiling of the new electric car from Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley startup. Availability starting this summer, pricing not yet announced.

 

Hey! I like that. Hope it's not burning a hole in my pocket...forget 911..i'm getting this.

 

i think i read that it's about $80K.

so you can get that, or get a gasoline powered car and spend tens of
thousands on gas and enjoy the sound of a engine... not some shaver.

 

Maybe they have cards in the spokes!
More power to them for making an interesting looking car. Still wouldn't want to replace the battery.

 

80k forget it!

 

I'd buy one if it's price was 25K even if it didn't look that good!

 

They styled it with scoops and vents to make it look like a traditional gasoline car. I can understand that for marketing, but they had an opportunity for something truly new.

 

At 80k I think I'll go for an Exige first.

Handling, power, balance, pedigree, good looks, SC whine, and a fine tuned exahust note; all at less than 80k so I'll still have money left over to go driving with.

They might have a chance if they priced it to compete with a Saturn Sky; and a Civic (or was it Prius) can get over 500 on a tank nowadays so they've still got some work to do, but props on something new in the car industry.

 

Good point! I can understand cooling the motors (not engine), but why the radiator grill and extraction gills? The GM EV1 was very clean.

 

like all new technology, the first adopters must be well heeled.

think of when cell phones, laptops, flat panel tvs, etc. first came out.

prices 10x or more what we pay now, but SOMEBODY has to market the first ones to cover r&d costs.

i've got a feeling (especially out on the left coast) that they will have no problem selling out their first few year's production runs...

 

Definitely!

 

Is that shell manufactured under licence from Lotus?

 

According to this WIRED Magazine article, Lotus designers were heavily utilized, to the point of Tesla being required to sign a "no poaching" agreement.

I LOVE the idea of this car. Pure electric power is so appealing!

Also, check out AC Propulsion's TZero electric sport roadster!

Yeah, just a little better battery performance (extend the range; reduce the recharge time; lower the costs), and we're there...

_Dave_

 

Me and my wife will be testing this puppy. Its pretty funny because I told her that I want it a 911 but she daid that only when they make them electric hse would even buy it herself. HA!!! Not a 911 but she loves the car, so we are gonna try this guy and more than likely buy it. Not only we will help to push this technlogy forward so it becomes more affordable for everyone but also its a clear statement that we do not want to be oil dependant and want a cleaner environment for us, our future kids and everyone now.

 

I read all the stuff on the website. Looks REAL nice. Good acceleration, reasonable range and acceptable recharge times. They're estimating about 100,000 miles before the batteries will need to be exchanged, not an unheard of number for an engine swap.
My problems are these - 250 miles won't get you anywhere but desert from Vegas. I'd need a 400-450 mile range at a minimum. The other problem is that unless you are in their backyard, they want an extra $10k to sell to you.
Where did you see the 80k estimate? The company's website makes no mention of price.
As for the design, trying to sell a car that doesn't look like a car is an uphill battle. I thought the design was really eye-catching. If it's in the $25-30k range, I'd seriously look at one as a fun commuter.

 

It's fantastic! And the size of the motor? It's tiny.... But they didn't list the weight (and with a 1000 lb battery pack they should have). Also, if they'd scrap 250 lbs of battery, and use a small deisle to run a generator, with a small diesle gas tank, you could get much, much better range....

Matt

ps, I told my wife Cheryl about this, and it earned an "Ooooo! That looks nice..." so I'm sure we'll test drive one when we can. Now all I need is a job and money!

 

The weight is 2500 lbs (pretty heavy IMO). Battery tech should continue improving as electric cars start becoming a viable option for the work commute. We've been driving a Honda Insight since 2000 and added an '06 Prius as commuter that's big enough to take on vacation.

It looks like the company who makes the TZero has a tow-behind generator in the works. The problem is that it's a gas burner motorcycle engine that runs at 7k rpm and gets 30-35 mpg on the highway...

 

A price of $89,000 was quoted in The Economist (July 29-August 4). Funny picture showing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the passenger seat with what looks like Larry Page. Even funnier caption about termination.

I too (as others above have exclaimed) thought the design was a missed opportunity. But you have an excellent point about matching people's expectations. Yet if they made it just a bit different--the way Prius is somewhat distinct--it might help promote the notion of high performance motoring from batteries.

Couple more interesting bits from The Economist:

"The grand claims of greenery might sound a bit fishy, given that most electricity is made from fossil fuels, but...Tesla...aims to be even greener...[and] plans to offer optional solar-photoelectric systems, to be set up as a car port at home, that will be able to power the cars for 80km a day without having to draw on the grid. Given that the average driver travels less than this, the idea promises, as Dr Musk puts it, to "make our cars energy positive...

"There was one gripe, though. Some of the petrolheads at Tesla's launch party complained that the silence of the electric motor was too alien. They missed the grunt and growl of an internal-combustion engine. A Tesla engineer nearby came back with an idea: 'We'll program the software to have a variety of engine roars, just like ring tones on mobile phones.'"

Tesla is financed by Elon Musk, founder of Paypal, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google.

 

^^ if you can mass produce it efficiently like Hondas and Toyota's, then
sure it might be environmentally friendly. there's nothing environmentally
friendly or energy efficient about manufaturing a low volume vehicle
using small volume parts. :impatient

plus the people that can afford those things probably live a fuel wasting
lifestyle... like cranking 68F on a 100F day at home and office, etc.

the idea is cool, but at the end of the day, it's still a motor powered
electric car... those should be on train tracks not on the road.
(imo)

 

then what's the problem? Who cares if it has anorxic gerbils on speed or electric motors under the hood, if it can match the general performance and specification envelope of the market it's targeted at it should be fine.

And the people who can afford a $80k+ sports car can afford to make the decision according to any metric they so choose, just like people who buy $20k+ cars can.

I think it's pretty cool, and if they can build this one in small numbers at a sales price of $80k+, it should be able to reach a price point of $60k or less with some maturation of the technology.....

And really, if you look at the torque curve of electric motors, they should be the holy grail of all dragracers!

Matt