Tesla Motors unveiled their uber-chic Roadster, a supercharged electric vehicle that looks, feels and drives like many other high-end sports cars Wednesday night. The main difference is the noise. Powered by a 3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor, the Roadster can go 130 mph and does 0-60 in about 4 seconds, all completely silent.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/07/20/tesla-roadster-unveiled-in-santa-monica/

a supercharged electric vehicle

my brain hurts

Thats brilliant. Now make more?

a supercharged electric vehicle

my brain hurts

haha, good point.

all completely silent

sweet, no engine noise to interfere with my subw000faaaah

That, and the hari krishnas will never hear you coming.

Needs more Jetsons pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi vehicle sound

I'd buy one if I had the money - it has SEAT WARMERS!@#! But seriously, they said it can go 260 miles on one charge... doesn't that blow what maxe was saying out of the water?

260 miles (or 420 kilometres) is a pretty damn good range for whom the car is targeted towards, people driving around the city. You would never use current technology electric cars for longer distances.

haha even the governator makes an appearance.

i am also wondering how you apply the term 'supercharged' to an electric engine :P

This shizzle really is the future ~ Hybrids are such a waste of f***ing time.

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1799/teslaseethrumk6.jpg

doesn't that blow what maxe was saying out of the water?

only thing I remember saying about electric cars is that I hope they can go sidwahz at Top Speed

You're thinking of nf

EDIT: Wasnt there a thread on here like 2 day ago about telsa inventing some magic powered car back in the day? Was it from the same site?

last edited by maxe at 12:42:26 26/Jul/06

I think they might have used supercharged in a marketing sense of the word, looks like even on the site they have removed the reference.

hmm, interesting, but how does the car look from a carbon lifecycle perspective?

lol why did they take out the supercharged word from that link/
?

because it was probably confusing? they probably meant supercharged in the superconductor type of way rather than forced induction. As in the batteries are charged to super capacity relative to past battery technology?
Note: I haven't read the article so if what I said isn't the case then they're just dumb for calling it supercharged.

Range depends on driving style and conditions. On the EPA highway driving cycle we expect 250 miles on a charge.

i expect this is bulls***.

theres nothing special about this car, it uses li-ion batteries and they cost a fortune and die surprisingly quickly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery

That link has a wealth of info on the batteries so thanks nF.
It isnt all bad though as you suggest and if treated correctly the batteries are far better than other types.

The question is how cheap can they manufacture them in the future when a s***load of cars are to start to use them much like how petrol became far more comparatively cheaper as more and more people used it *not in recent years though with greedy karnts sucking us dry*.

A battery that lasts 2 years and costs a couple grand + electricity would still be cheaper than buying petrol at the pump for a heavy user of the car.

I fear though that the city commuter gains little from these batteries as they die just as fast while sitting in a parking garage as being in use.
As long as there were outlets for the batteries to be charged at along a highway at gas stations these would be perfect for runnin mass freight transport like trucks and such.

"In February 2005, Altair NanoTechnology, a small firm based in Reno, Nevada, announced a new kind of lithium-ion battery. Its prototype has three times the capacity of existing batteries and can be fully charged in six minutes."

Not bad... the tech is advancing all the time it seems.

last edited by Xy at 00:05:06 27/Jul/06

A battery that lasts 2 years and costs a couple grand + electricity would still be cheaper than buying petrol at the pump for a heavy user of the car.

except a heavy user of a car can't afford to have it charging after a hundred or so kilometres.

thats fuking awesome!

tho i reckon silent cars would cause a s***load more accidents, mainly with pedestrians and cyclists.

tho i reckon silent cars would cause a s***load more accidents, mainly with pedestrians and cyclists.

Playing cards cloths pegged to the wheels.

Spokey Dokeys!

Car looks great, more please. I hate going to the petrol station, I want to park my car and just plug it in.

I'm convinced that nF works for an oil company.

Sure, maybe he works for one of the many oil companies Renewable energy sections?

PS was that "who killed the electic car" video just a load of crap or what?

Isn't 420km roughly the same distance people can get on a full tank in an average petrol using car? Either way it's a damn impressive distance.

when you see the word 'tesla' attached to a new product you can bet your bottom dollar that the company doesn't give a s*** about the enviroment or sustainable energy... they are after massive profits & will go a long way to get that east coast american 'conservative' wealth.

burn rubber, not gasoline!

yeh coz the enviroment loves burnt rubber! :P~ the production of lithium ion batteries isn't that good for the enviroment either! :P

Yeh nF seems hell bent on ruining the awesomeness of this for everyone. Unfortunately I think he's standing on shaky ground:p

Yeah demon, we've got enough dead li-ion batteries floating around as is from all the mobile phones and s*** :/
Also a pretty large quantity of oil and clean water is consumed in creating a car, so switching everyone from combustion to electric would consume a massive amount of both.

I'd find a cheaper and more efficient battery system of greater interest than a new electric car based on old battery technologies.


last edited by icewyrm at 14:23:34 31/Jul/06

Apparently, the Lith-ion batteries can be recycled/repacked. Also they are land fill safe. It's on the Tesla website ... if you read further.