Just saw my first Tesla on the road....

I was heading out to the local elementary school for a work party when I saw this orange sports car coming down the street. I pointed it out to my daughter (7) that it looked like a Lotus or perhaps a Ferrari. As it went past, I saw 'Tesla' on the back of the car.

Very excited we pulled up behind it at a stop sign, I killed my engine and rolled down the window. As the Tesla made a left turn at the stop sign, all you could hear was the sound of the tires on the pavement, nary a sound from the car.

Neat.

Later in the day, I was telling my son (8) about the Tesla we saw, as I look up, the same car (with dealer plates) is coming down the street again. I just point and we watch it, silently, go down the street, followed by a noisy, conventional SUV.

Cool car.

Nice car.

It shouldn't be too many years when other manufactures will be able to do the Telsa thing without the $98,000 or several month wait list.

Lets hope it won't be too long from now.

Agreed!

I hate to say it, but I don't think big motor companies will get on the electric car bandwagon. Electric cars are great from a consumer stand point, but GM & Ford think they'll lose money in the long run on electric cars. And they will. Electric cars are almost ZERO maintanence. No oil changes tune ups etc. That's why they are pushing hydrogen down our throat. Assuming they get hydrogen to actually work, it will require more maintanence the gas powered cars. (More profit) I'm saving up for an electric car, and it won't be a Chevy Volt.
My 2 cents

You may be right, and I think that is what companies like Tesla are banking on. For the big3 it will come down to a case of evolve or die. I think the jury is still very much out on which way it will go, but they're not looking so good at the moment.

Rob

I hope they die. They're shipping off so many jobs overseas these days that it won't hurt the economy if either GM or Ford went belly up. Tesla is safe with that huge price tag, but I think that any company that makes a decent electric car for around 40k-50k will get bought out and run into the ground just so GM or ford can say that its just no profit in electric cars. Or they can just say that "you can't get 100 miles a charge". This will probably happen around the same time they market their first hydrogen SUV and name it the Hindenberg.

So, You blame GM (A US based company) for shipping jobs overseas so what makes Toyota or any other motor comapny better? Toyota does the same thing, They're based in Japan but build in the US.

The difference is that GM always uses the Patriotism angle, you know, "Heartbeat of America" and all that horses***

I served in the Army and the Utah Guard. That alone should prove my "patriotism," not a lot of bulls*** armchair quarterbacking by pretending with an empty slogan

As far as the Tesla, this is exactly the sort of car that GM, Ford, Dodge - Toyota especially hint hint - could mass produce one hell of a lot cheaper than $100 G's a pop. I'd love to own one, especially if it was priced under $45 G's

Funny though how Tesla came out with a Volt well before GM did.

Maybe we should just pool our money together..... he dreams.....

ZC1

Not really a fair statement. The Volt was supposed to have been a serial PHEV. The Tesla is an EV. The Volt was supposed to have been a 4-passenger coupe. The Tesla is a two-seat high-performance roadster with enough luggage space for one bag of golf clubs. The Volt was supposed to have been a family car. The Tesla is for wealthy hot-rod aficionados.

And of course GM actually built an EV long before Tesla. But Toyota or Nissan may end up building something functionally equivalent to the Volt around the time that GM finally announces that it's not possible to build the Volt with today's technology after all.

I get to drive it Monday and Tuesday.

No, of course not

GM was never entirely "fair" with their EV program either. Imagine where the EV1 program would be now if GM had kept it up. But, that is water under the bridge - unfortunately

I think it's interesting that Tesla can produce a future car - admittedly a hot rod - but one that if simplified and more practical (Luggage space) could provide primary transportation for a great many urban dwellers

I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla is bought out, though hopefully *not* by GM. I'm sure Toyota could apply their vast engineering knowledge to the Tesla, and create a Yaris to Corolla size EV at a very reasonable entry price

I don't think Toyota needs to buy out Tesla in order to produce an EV, whether it be a sports car or a family sedan. After all, they built the Rav4EV. A bigger fear is that GM buys out Tesla in order to put a stop to its plans for a family sedan at some time down the road.

Agreed

Hi everyone, new to the forum here.

So going back to the sound of the tesla while turning the corner, it was virtually silent? How did it sound while accelerating.

I'm always curious as to how the roadster would sound every time I drive past their west LA dealership.

I rode in one, but I've never heard one driving past. Starting out and going slowly, it's very quiet. But once you've gone far enough or hard enough to get the battery pack warm, the refrigeration unit comes on (to provide liquid cooling to the battery) and than the Roadster is noisier than a Prius running in EV mode. Also there's a real whine with hard acceleration. I had expected it to be as dead quiet as the Prius on battery power, and I was disappointed. When we got out and shut the car off, the refrigerator continued to run (and make noise). It will stay on until the battery cools off enough.

The weird thing is that my low-tech Xebra has a higher-tech battery pack than the Tesla. I think that LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) was not available when they began designing the Tesla, and of course cost was an issue. Even with the refrigerator, the Tesla battery pack is probably cheaper than the same capacity LiFePO4 would be.

The issue for Tesla is energy density, to get good performance and the longest range they want the lightest battery they can get. That's why they stuck with old-skool cobalt.

LiFePO4 cells are safe and cycle well, but only manage about 100 Wh/kg (ie 10 kg battery required per mile of range).

The cobalt based cells in the Tesla are less safe, but manage 180 Wh/kg (ie 5.5 kg battery required per mile of range).

If you were in Pleasanton, it was likely a prototype that you saw. One of the prototypes at the Tesla HQ is the orange color. None of the initial 40 that have been delivered to customers is that color.

There are some Tesla videos on my website (see my signature). We just had a Tesla test drive event in the Seattle region. I was able to drive a "Thunder Grey" Tesla VP #11. (VP = Validation Prototype)

Thanks for those numbers, Clett. I knew the LiFePO4 had lower energy density, but I didn't know how much difference.

I do know that another reason why Tesla chose the batteries it did was cost and availabiliy: The laptop batteries are available in large volume from many different makers, so the buyer benefits from the economy of scale, and at Tesla's volume, there should never be a shortage.