Volt goes 1,000 miles between fill-ups, says GM

[Mr. dB]

It's called the Tesla Roadster. All electric, and gets 250 miles per charge. Granted they are $90k, but how can an independent company already have developed the technology, and the "Big 3" along with Japanese manufacturers can only muster 45-60 miles per charge???

It's one thing for Tesla to develop an electric drive system and drop it into an existing car, which is what they did with the roadster. It's a Lotus Elise with a body kit and the electric stuff. Let's see them develop a whole car.

BTW, the Roadster is a sports car, and if you drive it like one, the range is less than 100 miles. To get anywhere close to the claimed 250 mile range you have to drive like a granny.

 

[lartinos]

If I still commuted to work these gas prices would piss me off. So many people are effected by this.

 

[SPEKTOR-AAA]

If I still commuted to work these gas prices would piss me off. So many people are effected by this.

Lol


.....via DROID

 

[Mr. dB]

If I still commuted to work these gas prices would piss me off. So many people are effected by this.

Or you could just downsize from the Escalade with 26s to something a bit more reasonable...

 

[miplank]

For the average person gas prices shouldn't make a shit bit of difference. People just like to bitch about shit.

 

[RottenWillow]

It's one thing for Tesla to develop an electric drive system and drop it into an existing car, which is what they did with the roadster. It's a Lotus Elise with a body kit and the electric stuff. Let's see them develop a whole car.

BTW, the Roadster is a sports car, and if you drive it like one, the range is less than 100 miles. To get anywhere close to the claimed 250 mile range you have to drive like a granny.

I suspect you actually don't know a lot about the Tesla.

Firstly, it's not a body "kit". It's an auto manufacturer grade auto body. You should know there's a fundamental difference in quality between the two.

Secondly, the "electric stuff" is probably at least as sophisticated as what GM developed for the Volt. Tesla holds over 100 patents on their battery pack tech, and it's good enough for both Mercedes and Toyota to both currently be paying licensing fees to Tesla to use it. They also developed their own electronics and liquid cooling system for the battery pack.

Regarding the range, the EPA estimate is 245 miles. Those aren't Tesla's claimed numbers, so we can't shoot holes in the manufacturer's outrageous claims of battery efficiency. BTW, one owner famously got 313 miles on a charge in the new model.

As for developing a car from the ground up, that would be a stupid business plan. The car would have to sell for 500k instead of 102k. Sure it would impress the naysayers, but the car would amount to nothing more than a halo model rather than a money maker in itself.

 

[Mr. dB]

I suspect you actually don't know a lot about the Tesla.

Firstly, it's not a body "kit". It's an auto manufacturer grade auto body. You should know there's a fundamental difference in quality between the two.

Secondly, the "electric stuff" is probably at least as sophisticated as what GM developed for the Volt. Tesla holds over 100 patents on their battery pack tech, and it's good enough for both Mercedes and Toyota to both currently be paying licensing fees to Tesla to use it. They also developed their own electronics and liquid cooling system for the battery pack.

Regarding the range, the EPA estimate is 245 miles. Those aren't Tesla's claimed numbers, so we can't shoot holes in the manufacturer's outrageous claims of battery efficiency. BTW, one owner famously got 313 miles on a charge in the new model.

As for developing a car from the ground up, that would be a stupid business plan. The car would have to sell for 500k instead of 102k. Sure it would impress the naysayers, but the car would amount to nothing more than a halo model rather than a money maker in itself.

Yawn. I oversimplified for effect. Of course all the exterior panels are changed for the Roadster.

Was developing the Elise from the ground up (apart from its Toyota engine) a stupid business plan for Lotus?

I was responding to jester72's quote:

If Tesla could produce multiple models in the $17K-$30k range, I'd bet EVERY manufacturer would play catch up REALLY quick, or be out of business all together.

Tesla certainly couldn't do anything like that if they had to buy in a partially-completed car from another manufacturer and then just add their own drive technology and a body kit.

If they expect to become a credible auto manufacturer, they'll someday have to be able to develop a car. Otherwise, I think they'd be better off selling the electric drive technology as engineered "kits" to other car manufacturers.

As for range, Top Gear and some of the magazines "famously" got about 90 miles on a charge when driving it on the test track.

 

[PICK3]

For the average person gas prices shouldn't make a shit bit of difference. People just like to bitch about shit.

I wake up in the morning pissed off

 

[miplank]

I wake up in the morning pissed off

better than pissed on

 

[RottenWillow]

Yawn. I oversimplified for effect. Of course all the exterior panels are changed for the Roadster.

Was developing the Elise from the ground up (apart from its Toyota engine) a stupid business plan for Lotus?

I was responding to jester72's quote:



Tesla certainly couldn't do anything like that if they had to buy in a partially-completed car from another manufacturer and then just add their own drive technology and a body kit.

If they expect to become a credible auto manufacturer, they'll someday have to be able to develop a car. Otherwise, I think they'd be better off selling the electric drive technology as engineered "kits" to other car manufacturers.

As for range, Top Gear and some of the magazines "famously" got about 90 miles on a charge when driving it on the test track.

So you're comparing a well established auto manufacturer with 30+ years of building road cars at the time, which incidentally was very well funded at the time of development of the car by both GM and Proton, to a brand new completely unknown company with absolutely no manufacturing infrastructure. Because certainly those slight differences wouldn't have an impact on the retail price point of the car.

and Top Gear has no history of ridiculous expectations of sports cars they test

and RUF is still not a credible auto manufacturer because they use Porsche door panels, dashes, frames, engine blocks. Someone tell the Germans to revoke their auto manufacturer status.