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Supracentral said:
The Tesla is just an Elise with an electric motor. The gas powered Elise is half as much money. You don't get that kind of car if you're looking for creature comforts, but it's still cool nonetheless.
Joel W. said:
Yeah, I know. Do you know what it's quarter mile time is? I'm curious if the Tesla can keep it up after 60 mph. You can turbocharge the Elise for around $8-10k, giving it near 300 hp.
bonus12 said:
$40k is a lot of money to make up. Also, the Elise gets very good gas mileage (26/38 mpg according to the site Joel linked to. In my opinion I don't think gas will reach $6/gal in the near future, but that's irrelevant. Let's do some math:
26mpg minimum at $6 per gallon comes to 4.333 miles per dollar.
$40k will equate to 173,333 city miles worth of gas.
If you drive 25k miles a year (which would be a lot for a car with few ammenities like the Elise) it would be 7 years before you'd be up to the cost of the Tesla. It would be even longer if gas didn't go up as much, you didn't drive as many miles, and/or if you did highway driving at all. This is also without adding the cost of charging the Tesla. Also keep in mind that in general an $80k car will depreciate a lot more than a $40k car. Note, I'm ignoring insurance and maintenance, as you'd have to pay for those on the Tesla as well.
In the article I read, Lotus is actually assembling the Tesla. The similarities between the Tesla and the Elise are most apparent when you compare interior pictures:
Elise:
Tesla:
[edit] Heh, bonus12, you changed your post... too late though, I already quoted it [/edit]
Batt powered cars is the real way to go, but... I will not be done becouse there is a lot of oil to be exploited yet and its a multi billion industrie and they have total power on the Goberns of every country, so forget about electric cars in the very near future , theres a documental called "what happend to the electric car" you will see
SacoMan said:
SacoMan, it's time to realize global warming is real. it is time to make the necessary changes and get our sorry asses off our seats. we can't keep using oil at the current trend; in fact, we must lower our emissions by 60% by 2050.
In urban areas, carbon emissions from cars account for more than 80% of total emission. Thus, it is time for electric cars. NOW. Yes, in the VERY near future. ASAP. read the rest of this thread to see what i mean.
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Far from new technology. Still pretty neat though!
While each individual vehicle isn't burning fuel itself you have to consider where the electricity comes from. Most of it comes from coal, natural gas, and hydro. Shifting even a low percentage (say 10%) of current petroleum consumption to electric (coal, NG, hydro) would require a major increase in generation capacity. That means a lot of new coal mines and coal fired power plants (generally speaking). Not exactly clean or efficient. You'd pretty much just shift demand from oil wells to coal mines. There are pros and cons to that of course. Coal isn't as energy-dense as crude either and there is a large percentage of loss from digging the coal up to charging your battery. You lose a lot through batteries as well, even with the newest tech.
I think things like hybrids, GDI (gasoline direct injection), and even bio fuels are significant steps in the right direction but there are no catch all solutions like going pure electric. There are always trade-offs.
While each individual vehicle isn't burning fuel itself you have to consider where the electricity comes from. Most of it comes from coal, natural gas, and hydro. Shifting even a low percentage (say 10%) of current petroleum consumption to electric (coal, NG, hydro) would require a major increase in generation capacity. That means a lot of new coal mines and coal fired power plants (generally speaking). Not exactly clean or efficient. You'd pretty much just shift demand from oil wells to coal mines. There are pros and cons to that of course. Coal isn't as energy-dense as crude either and there is a large percentage of loss from digging the coal up to charging your battery. You lose a lot through batteries as well, even with the newest tech.
I think things like hybrids, GDI (gasoline direct injection), and even bio fuels are significant steps in the right direction but there are no catch all solutions like going pure electric. There are always trade-offs.
^no, the power would not come from coal, etc. A bill that is going through congress right now (but will not likely pass in its first session because of the current administration), calls for a 15% emission reduction by 2015 and a 60% by 2050. Achieving these kinds of numbers will call for renewable energy sources, including but not limited to hydro, solar and geothermal power.
As far as i am concerned, coal mines, oil drilling, nuclear, etc. need to be phased out as soon as possible. There are better energy sources available today that don't cause global warming. The old ones are no longer necesarry, afterall.
As far as i am concerned, coal mines, oil drilling, nuclear, etc. need to be phased out as soon as possible. There are better energy sources available today that don't cause global warming. The old ones are no longer necesarry, afterall.
bonus12 said:
You're probably right about the legislation but I don't think it would be very effective anyway.
I agree with trading coal, oil, nuclear...oops, I mean nookular
for sustainable/renewable sources but there is no way solar, wind, tidal, etc. combined could meet current energy consumption. It will have to be a slow transition with a gradual drawdown of our energy consumption. I briefly got all freaked out about "global warming" a couple of years ago. Now I'm not too worried about it. I do think the earth is warming but I don't see a reason to panic or take the blame. The theory that makes the most sense to me is that the earth goes through cooling and warming cycles (effected by the sun's output mostly) and we're at the tail end of the last cooling cycle. Also, even a half assed study of human history shows that there are always plenty of fools and a few that are there to gladly take advantage.
Joel W. said:
Nothing new to me. I think you should go through a few physics books from the library. Energy is neither created nor detroyed. It just gets moved around. We use oil because it's energy dense, there's a quite a bit of it, and all we have to do is pump it out of the ground and burn it. For us it's a net gain because the energy we get from it far exceeds what we waste to get it, transport it, and refine it.
JustAnotherVictim
Supramania Contributor
Boostedstr8six said:
I prefer updated/current information, Thanks
(I have my own copies anyways...)