Tesla Motors: All American, All Electric

[TheOneNo20]

I'll wait for a fuel cell car. This is just stop gap technology, *yawn*.

[nhsplayer07]

This is when a lotus elise had sex with nissan leaf

[SladkaPritomnost]

What do you think how long Tesla batteries would last? I mean for everyday use? Would it be the same as notebook cells?

3 or 5yrs?

[toyotaprius79]

@SladkaPritomnost Lithium batteries last for over +10 years which is recommended by manufacturers, but even the earliest mobile phones with early staged lithium batteries (around 2001-2) are barely ten years old yet, so we're not sure. But what is certain is that Nickel-ion batteries have been proven to last over 14 years, car or phone alike, and they are guaranteed to have less battery life than Lithium.

[cintro13]

Named by Nikola TESLA - MADE IN YUGOSLAVIA - like it ;)

[TheMichaelmard]

@cintro13

Slovakia: Tesla Natasha Nicola was from Slovakia 

[pryan37bb]

Can't wait for that Model S to come out

[johnc19750]

@pryan37bb i cant wait either

[gibb1991]

I would absolutely LOVE to have a Tesla Motors car. They get what Americans want in an electric car, good asthetics. The electric cars on the market today just don't appeal to American asthetics, something like this will sell very well on the market. I can't afford it right now, though.

[gabotolo9]

esto no es nada nuevo tesla lo invento hace muchos años

[MowgliX]

All American? The Tesla Roadster's body is built in Britain by Lotus!

[Demmrir]

@MowgliX Yeah, they're trying that whole 'made in America' spin, though, which is always bullshit.

Also, I don't think anyone would mind having their body built by Lotus.

[SladkaPritomnost]

@MowgliX

Who cares btw?

66% (2 of 3) of all world's oil is pumped out from middle east.

Think about that when you go to gas station or watching F1.

[realistromeo]

Sign me up when an affordable moderatly stylish (CASH SAVING) alternative to the ugly oil gussling air poluting monsters we drive today comes into market.

something around $20-25 thousand, with Honda/mitubishi feel to it.

A nice comuter car, mass produce those puppies NOW!

plus with it being electric, you have more options in the design and of the vehicle, some designs unheard of with the current cars.

[malgacho]

Next time give us more car, less lady.

[fireofenergy]

Just make NiMH batteries about ten times cheaper...

Problem solved!

Now, why don't the oil company do that? Cause there would be (almost) no maintenance market, (almost) no need for continued drilling, etc.

At 324v and 150 Ah Tesla would need about 17,600 NiMH AA batteries. I can get em for $1 ea on Ebay (and they have been lighting my solar light for almost a year, no problem now).

Major business players could get that price down by at least half b4 automated battery plants are built!

[CMRage]

@fireofenergy Solid state batteries are going to change all this. 300% more capacity. Can be charged faster and from very efficient sources.. from maybe small solar panels or air intake turbines. SSBs can't leak, they are a solid matrix. They have a virtually zero drain in a standing state. They are lighter, heat and shock resistant. They never get charge "memory". Best is they cost 75% less that standard batteries to manufacture. They will last pretty much forever.

[mikiowned]

did you know the tesla has the chassis from lotus so technically it isnt all american

[giorgio200791]

they dont have the chasis from lotus but it's lotus tecnollogy

[emforty2]

the oil companies which made windfall profits could invest and buy all the sources of Lithium in the world which are extremely few

then they own Lithium sources now what ?

[ratryu]

Lithium isn't the only battery out there. Why aren't you able to see the various possibilities? Stop living under a rock.

[NoiteraD]

I wonder how it feels to push the pedal down really hard...since it uses an electrical engine (and they can only give 100% or 0% of what you give to them) i guess its pretty much fun...

[proverb311031]

I look foward to Tesla third model car, it should be far more afordable to all of us! And unlike many of the cars coming out today they do not look like kit cars!

[isko38ca]

even if the body is lotus its still all american?????????

[dieper2dieper]

why do the us claim him todaywhile they refused/sabotaged his ideas back then?

the US whasted one of the most brilliant scientists of it's day's.

tesla and his fabulous ideas for ALL mankind were destroyed by the US for short term profit

of a few greedy pirates.

(do you see a pattern emerging) ?

he never should have gone there.

the biggest mistake in his life.

and now claim him as an example of american exellence ?

it makes me laugh, very hard.

very very hard indeed.

[dieper2dieper]

still, tesla was from austria !!!

(present day kroatia)

you know, were hitler came from ?

he was almost 30 before moving to the us.

learned most his knowledge in europe,

building opon ideas of preavious european teachers and scientist.

even all the nazi party scientist went to the US

after the war.

(and that makes lot's of sense today)

[593OLYMPUS]

They are going to have an up-hill struggle convincing the world biggest polluting country ( USA ) to take these on board. I hope they do - I just can't see it in the near future.

Coca Cola USA are converting some of their trucks to electric power now ( I'm talking the really large trucks, not the tiny local delivery stuff ). Makes sense all round - the Goverment should give everyone a financial incentive to buy these for enviromental reasons alone. Not to mention new jobs it should bring.

[dieper2dieper]

obviously mr. tesla was italian.

like von braun was a nazi party member

from nazigermany and not a american.

but then, they did work for the US, so that makes them america's finest ?

what about treeorists living in the states,

are they your people too ?

i'll bet you are real prowd of them ?

stupid americans think thay can claim everything as if they invented it themselfs.

fact is, they can only steal it from others.

[alagogo]

i certinaly wouldn't steal you from aruba.

but i'm sure when one of thoes nutball, third world dictatiorships invade your island, you will come swimming up to florida begging for freedon , and like the stupid people you say we are ,we will let you stay. if it was up to me i'd turn your plywood boat around and send your ass back!

[rrobertafran]

Oooh..Realy And what about the other great inventers of U.S.A that where born there like.Edison, Ford,Franklin.Gates for that matter ..ETc. ETc,

[dieper2dieper]

ford ? you meen lee iaccoca ?

ford are crap cars anyway.

and edison didn't realy invent that much,

just patented lots of stolen ideas.

why don't you mention von braun as well ?

but of course i'm wrong,

all great ideas must originate form american people, the rest of the world is retarded anyway,

right ?

[0453567]

Who built the computer you wrote that comment on. Who designed 90% of it's hardware? What nationality do they come from? Who designed, programmed and produced the operating system you're running to post that post on. Unless you're running a very, very rare system I'm guessing the vast majority of those were American... No we didn't invent everything. We did invent a hellofalot though... we're the richest country in the world and we have the third largest population... What do you expect?

[0453567]

I will concede in a second that America is pretty screwed up these days and has been very poor for scientific progress and overall innovation in many fields as of late. It's just annoying, whiny, elitist people like you annoy me.

[dieper2dieper]

you have a point there,

but the richest country ? roflmao !!

why don't they pay back their loans then ?

the us is in debt so high,

they can't pay it back no more.

and computers ? everybody knows the best electronics come from asia.

mine says it's made in malaysia.

and that isn't even near the us.

i wouldn't buy it if it was american produced anyway.

name 3 great products from the us that can't be made better and cheaper elsewhere.

[0453567]

America is hardly the richest government in the world because they overspend and refuse to raise taxes enough.

By GDP though (Gross Domestic Product) it's still the highest.

Well I would saw OSX and Windows, being still produced in America are good examples although one would claim that Linux has surpassed them lol (and it's cheaper too XD)

Not sure if I can get to 3 off the top of my head but even Europe doesn't do most of their own manufacturing. They outsource too.

[dieper2dieper]

GDP just mean they move a lot of borrowed money around but produce/earn nothing.

GDP is also measured by the amount of money loaned that makes the economy grow ?

(no real growth of course)

windows managed to hold out so long because it had a very unsympathetic monopoly, not because it was the best OS

but it's a good example. 2 to go.

and yes, europe outsources too,

but we were talking about how fantastic , great and wonderfull the states was.

[0453567]

You're warping my point to prove I'm wrong. "I will concede in a second that America is pretty screwed up these days and has been very poor for scientific progress and overall innovation in many fields as of late." But the notion that nothing good has come of America and America has never really accomplished anything is just stupid immaturity. I wouldn't say that about any country and I certainly don't think America is superior to other countries. I just don't like elitism etc...

[dieper2dieper]

sorry 0453567, didn't mean to warp or ridicule

your statements.

didn'r mean to say america never amounted to anything. there were times the us was the shining example for many of us.

i guess it's hard to see our heroes in the gutter

and doing the shit they do today.

u r right, i shouldn't jump on the bandwagon.

i got better things to do.

[0453567]

whoa, someone reasonable on youtube? I may have to go re-evaluate my life... lol, but yah that's how I see it a bit. Although mostly I'm just tired of flame wars going on about this country is better than this one and US Cars suck or US cars are the only way to go.

[dieper2dieper]

resonable ? who ? me ? rofl.

however, the flame wars do seem to centre a lot

around american subjects.

can it have something to do with the majority of the us people thinking they are better than the rest while looting poor people with exessive force ?

good thing there are resonable people

like you who bring a faint glimmer of hope

that they are not all retarded fatasses

and maybe america will rise out of the dumps someday.

so, when is the US going to rehab ?

[Jurassic0Al]

When will your country start teaching decent English classes? Your command of our language is poor enough that it is difficult, even for one who has spoken English all his life, to understand what you're saying. The people who think America is a 'dump', that it is filled with 'retard fatasses' are just as ignorant as they claim all of us are.

[Tra1n3rfromH3ll]

Five Stars; unfortunately, 99% of Americans don't know what the hell is actually going on.

[dr5ar]

Car by USA,Body by UK,Name by Serb !!!

[jackooboy1]

Tesla will be around when GM and Chrysler are gone.

[Jurassic0Al]

Chrysler is outta gas, circling the drain, it's finished! Tesla Motors is the future- for one thing, they don't use gas. I bet OPEC hates Martin Eberhard's very DNA.

[Tra1n3rfromH3ll]

OPEC stands for Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries; the United States is a member of OPEC. The only reason we aren't driving electric cars (like they had in the '80's -for like 9 months), is because it isn't....monetarily beneficial to certain people. You could order one of these cars...for a lot of freaking money; however, id bet 300 to 1 that the people who sell these guys are trading stock w/ natural resource (oil, gas) companies daily.

[Jurassic0Al]

Whatever. When folks say OPEC, they mean the oil-rich nations of the Middle East that hate America but love to take our money as they sell us oil. Who sells who what? I seriously doubt TM's management is holding stocks in oil and gas companies, especially since one co-founder has spoken out against our dependency on them.

[Tra1n3rfromH3ll]

We get less than 1/3 of our oil from the Middle East; most of it, we get from Canada. I know, that's why our last president was trying to get to drill on Alaska's nature reserves...natural resources over biology. They spoke out against our dependency on them? shit, i wonder who else is speaking out on that topic...every politician who wants to win...id lie too to keep making a few cool million every year. 'our dependency on oil is toxic' what were people saying about coke in the 80's?

[Tra1n3rfromH3ll]

the drug reference was just that, a reference point. even Republicans are backing that bit. hell, i could own stock in Tesla AND Exxon Mobil in the next two minutes if I had 500 bucks lying around...it doesn't matter what stock you own. It only matters that they don't have to tell us, the people,...yeah, the Saudis are the least of our worries....if we figure out how to make free electricity (Nikola Tesla already did that about 70 years ago)..then we're fucked...cause our bosses are screwed.

[Jurassic0Al]

I am seriously not following you on this at all. I don't care one way or another where the oil 'really' comes from, and I cannot see how it has one Goddamn thing to do with the fact that we can't go on chugging oil forever. I believe Tesla Motors to be the wave of the future, very much the kind of company Preston Tucker would be proud of. But you seem to disagree. If you can't see a single thing wrong with America's dependence on oil, then sure, go on saying Tesla is in bed with Exxon.

[Tra1n3rfromH3ll]

my points were: a)every politician, business or otherwise, who deals with natural resources in ANY way, wil say 'we need to stop' it is an empty, vain and iterated statement.

b)Tesla was the future two decades ago; my point was that business for a few is put before the biological benefit of others.

c) our dependency on oil isn't the problem; it's our economy's dependency on natural resources as a whole-it's our Duracell if you will.

[Jurassic0Al]

One of the co-founders of Tesla Motors believes our dependence on natural resources, specifically for fuel and power, needs to be minimalism or ended, but he started an electric car company to that effect. He hasn't just stood there talking. He's walking the walk, too. And the biological benefits that Tesla Motors can offer will become available to the many when they come out with a lower-priced car that the public can afford. Right now, Teslas are in BMW territory.

[Jurassic0Al]

Thank you for stating your points a little more clearly- it seems we have some common ground. I see Tesla Motors as futuristic and innovative, two things it has in common with Preston Tucker's company. Tesla Motors proves that electric cars can be fast, fun, and comfortable, and will forever make things like oil changes a part of the past. What do you think of TM and co-founder Martin Eberhard?

[Tra1n3rfromH3ll]

no problem-thank you for giving me room to do so. I see electrical car technology as a suppressed form of transportation because it would have threatened a lot of business if it were to have been allowed on the road. Unless their cars are as dynamic as the computer was to our world, I heavily doubt that it will change the economical-business landscape as much as it would need in order to make oil part of 'the past'.

[Tra1n3rfromH3ll]

I still think they're a business and that if they're going to be successful with a still-petroleum-relient economy they're going to have to deal with the devils [the owners and CEO's of these companies] so that they're still getting air at all. I'd also bet my tuition payments is that the only reason their cars are at BMW price level, is because they've been having to reinvent the electric car, after watching too many patents being bought up for business. im not a pessimist, that's just busness

[tincoffin]

Body by Lotus - UK

[LukaInternational]

Great car and great name.

[filip737]

All American?!? Ha,not even close..! A Tesla car,meaning it's named after Nikola Tesla,who's a Serb!

[abergethirty]

First point. He was an American Citizen, not born here, but still an American.

Second Point. Is the Porche Daytona an American Car because they named it after an American City? No! It's still an Italian Car!

[filip737]

Being a citizen of a country means you only live there,not that you share their beliefs or anything else. if you knew what you were talking about you would know he was an ethnic SERB, and the only connection he had with the US was his lab, workmen and funding.

And your other point is simply laughable, since you are comparing different variables

[abergethirty]

Get over it. He moved here when he was young man and became a citizen because he wanted to be an American. This is part of the oath. "I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic"

[0453567]

Blink... Blink... no... I'm pretty sure it's German actually...

[DarkosChannel]

Yes of Course is Tesla a Serb !

We Serbs are proud of that !

[SerbiaNina]

tesla...the serbian man...from croatia...

it´s nice...

[LukaInternational]

I was right all the time.

[mysterioso2006]

I saw that in person!

[proverb311031]

It's funny how the nasty little people from the big three come on here to put down Tesla Motors

[Jurassic0Al]

They tried to do the same to Preston Tucker... except now, they're at the bottom of the hill instead of the top, and companies like Tesla Motors are stepping up to make cars the world really wants and needs, true innovators just like Preston Tucker was. Tesla Motors is the future- the Big Three are the past.

[proverb311031]

Very true! The American people are starting to not listen to the people and companies that have held our country back for far too long, We as a country and a as world should have been out in space 20 years ago. But because a few who have have held the riegns on energy we are many years behind where we should be! Anything that we imagine as a people we can complete, just as it said in the Bible!

[Jurassic0Al]

Thank you. Detroit had the power to stop Preston Tucker in 1948 as hard as that man fought against them, but their power has waned greatly since then. They can't stop Martin Eberhard and Tesla Motors, who are making the cars we should have had years ago. When Tesla cars become more and more common and other companies start to make all-electric cars, gas pumps and oil changes will finally become a thing of the past.

[proverb311031]

A man to that!

[skysrb]

TESLA IS SERBIAN MEN  :)

[DeLorean4]

All American? The car's based on a Lotus chassis and the rear end is virtually unchanged.

[abergethirty]

They are going to make money selling the Sedan, not the sports car. The sports car is just to get people excited about the technology. They don't care about selling an electric supercar. All of their development is going towards the design of the sedan.

[DeLorean4]

The comments I made date back to before the Model S was released... I'm so psyched about the sedan! I'm in total agreement with you, and I hope that the Obama administration decides to give Tesla a stimulus package of some sort. Afterall, Tesla and Aptera are the two most deserving automakers in the USA, especially given their limited resources.

[guitaristwagner]

funny thing about these cars and any hybrid with the exception of hydrogen cars. is that their not any more environmental friendly then gasoline engines. like this car you plug into your outlet at home, and where does that energy come from?? power plant lol and to mine the batteries or any battery is very uneconomical most people dont realize that, although i support hydrogen all the way!

[treborbass86]

very true but anyone who could afford this car could certainly afford and i seriously hope would invest in some solar panels to charge it, although a lot of rich assholes out there probably think electricity is produced out of thin air and overlook that fact.

[DeLorean4]

uhh... where does hydrogen come from? electrolysis, and what do you need for electrolysis? much more electricity than directly plugging in a car.

[guitaristwagner]

why dont u try water buddy lol

[DeLorean4]

You take water and you make it undergo electrolysis. The transformation from liquid to hydrogen gas isn't done but itself.

[guitaristwagner]

so your saying that the honda car that has hydrogen has an extra set of batteries onboard to make the water into hydrogen?

[DeLorean4]

If you're trying to waste my time, please tell me now, if you're asking that question out of honestly, I'd be glad to answer it.

[guitaristwagner]

i'm being for real yo, i'm still trying to figure this whole hydrogen powered car thing out

[DeLorean4]

Sorry I forgot guitarist. Goma seems to have answered in my place.

[goma3]

Actually most of the hydrogen made nowadays is made from complex hydrocarbons, mostly from oil. that's why hydrogen fuel cells is a runaway technology that just won't die. A massive consumption of hydrogen would still spark a huge demand for oil since most H commercially produced comes from it through a process called "steam cracking". Hydrogen cells are a joke and being pushed hard by oil companies to disguise the fact that oil will still be heavily consumed.

[abergethirty]

No, its made primarily from Natural Gas, another on product from the oil companies.

[woodyrimshot]

I guess being practical is outdated huh? Why does desire tend always be a car companies main selling point? No wonder society is becoming more and more diluted with every passing year. Oh and practical shouldn't cost more than most people make in a year. The name of the car company is, in my opinion, only used for the association factor. I don't know for sure but I don't think this is what Tesla had in mind.

[shakaama]

hey genius. i'd like to see you start a car company from scratch with your own money? oh wait, maybe you'd sell $2,000 cars that took 20 million for the first prototype to build? And set up another $100 mill for the parts contract from worldwide distributors?

Oh wait you're talking out the side of your butt. You want mcdonald prices and health food store nutrition.

Go run a multimillion dollar company you built from the ground up then come back and talk.

[oilhammer04]

Plug in hybrids are more realistic for most climates.

[guitaristwagner]

your not accomplishing anything

[oilhammer04]

By posting this or by driving a hybrid? I do understand the pollution problem in the manufacturing of a hybrid. But, they do implement some good ideas, such as: regenerative braking, shutting the engine down while stopped at a stop light. Also, the electric motor has great torque. Hybrids aren't so good for highway driving, but they do make sense for driving in town.

[guitaristwagner]

yes the pollution problem, the whole point of a hybrid is to be more earth friendly and reality their not.

[FranklinParkIL]

Nice body design! Is it a pancake engine like on Aurora HO slot cars? I'll bet it is smooth and powerful.

This car uses different fuels.

Atomic

Hydro

Coal

Solar (most expensive)

Tidal

Farm Blend (Windmill fuel)

Fill 'er up!