Tesla, Can We Drive Your Car?

Here we are driving a slightly more slowly accelerating Ford moving van, complete with Lo-Hi dual transmission. But the basic principle is the same!

So the makers of the electro-rocketcar are opening a Seattle Tesla-emporium on Westlake. The Tesla Roadster is said to hit 60 in under four seconds and tops out at 125 mph (some kinda rev limiter). It goes over 200 miles on a charge.

We are totally ready to test drive one of these suckers on the grounds that 1) one of our older brothers used to own a Corvette, 2) as a teenager, we once got a 1972 Opel GT up to 110+, and 3) at a much younger age we tried to start an electrical outlet with a car key.

There are certain things you're born to do, and test driving a Tesla is all us. No Magic 8-Ball necessary. However, we are a tiny bit short on the $500,000 or whatever you're charging, so by "test drive" what we mean is that you'd be letting us screw around with your immensely valuable car for the fun of it. Call us! We'll bicycle right on over.

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By MvB in News on May 21, 2009 4:25 PM

Comments [rss]

Troy Morris

Hydrogen is a pipe dream, so far the best way to convert hydrogen that actually uses less energy is nuclear power.

Also, habits are easy to form, hard to break. I'm fairly certain that you can do it if you leave the adapter in your driveway. Also, they're thinking about putting in charging stations along roads and buildings. You could plug it in at work too!

LarryB

Oh, and of course energy is lost in separating hydrogen. Net-net, fossil fuels involve energy loss too, only the energy involved was stored in their chemical structures ages ago and we're just releasing it now.

Troy Morris

I can see how fuel cells and hydro are attractive, but it's just not viable for at least another decade and we need to act now.

Any new fuel technology will require an overhaul of the infrastructure. Unlike with petroleum whose infrastructure grew with the popularity of cars, any new technology will be expensive to invest in. However, electricity offers the easiest as the cities are already wired and just need to re-route the electrical traffic.

However, you do prove a good point about the short trips and the "last mile." There are many possibilities on how we could ween ourselves off of oil, but what Tesla is doing here is getting towards that suburban market of 15-30 mile each way commuters.

LarryB

What about people who don't have private parking?

Electric cars really do require a new infrastructure, and a mindset that cars are for the city, which is really where they're least valuable. I'd rather see the money spent good transit, like they have in most European cities, and remove lots of cars from the short-trip mix.

I also don't believe that hydrogen is a pipe dream. Fuel cell technology is probably more viable long-term than hybrids or electrics which require batteries filled with toxic heavy metals.

LarryB

I have a hard enough time remembering to plug in my phone, and someday I may have to remember to plug in my car?

Electric cars my be great for some people (those with better memories and no lust for road trips), but I'll stick with gas until we switch to hydrogen.

Troy Morris

WAIT!

In 2012, they'll have a 4-door sedan with much the same specs for 45k. They have three battery options: 150 mile, 225 mile and 300 mile. They also developed a method that changes the batteries in 5 minutes so they're thinking about renting out (from the dealership) the larger batteries for folks who need more juice for road trips.

Also, using a 220v (washer/dryer, fridge, etc) charges in 45 minutes.

Hot damn! I was planning on buying one. They also have a 17 inch touch screen in the dash that controls all that shits.

The store later this year, I read on their site last month. I don't think Portland gets one until 2011? Maybe not at all.