Test drove a Tesla today....

[Matthew]

I just got an invite today to a Tesla event to drive one. I think I'll go.

See if it has "insane mode":

(NSFW - language)

https://youtu.be/LpaLgF1uLB8

 

[Swampfox201]

Salesman said the next model will have "Ludicrous mode" which is one step higher than "Insane mode". I think they'll run out of adjectives.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kayoh190]

Salesman said the next model will have "Ludicrous mode" which is one step higher than "Insane mode".

 

[flyingron]

Never play this part again.

 

[Henning]

Sure, we can make the move towards other sources of electricity generation. But for now, coal is king:

https://flowcharts.llnl.gov

The part I'm surprised by, and I probably shouldn't be, is the amount of rejected (lost) energy.

Exactly, and that rejected energy is heat that should be distilling water. Don't forget that your petroleum burning vehicle is rejecting 72% of its energy as heat as well.

 

[peppy]

Salesman said the next model will have "Ludicrous mode" which is one step higher than "Insane mode". I think they'll run out of adjectives.

Musk said that in four years there will be a new roadster that will have plaid mode.

If you have an S with air suspension you can touch the T and enter 007 on the screen that comes up. Then the graphic for the air suspension shows the James Bond Lotus submarine (bought by Musk) and air suspension settings are in leagues.

Volume for the sound system goes to 11 for you Spinal Tap fans.

 

[peppy]

Sure, we can make the move towards other sources of electricity generation. But for now, coal is king:

https://flowcharts.llnl.gov

The part I'm surprised by, and I probably shouldn't be, is the amount of rejected (lost) energy.

True but it is changing. Here is information on new resources. There is a lot of natural gas with coal fired plants being retired.

 

[peppy]

Here is a video on the coming disruption in transportation and power generation. A little optimistic in my opinion but only off by a couple of years.

As examples of disruption, the iPad is 5 years old. Paper charts are history. The iPhone is 8 years old. Two years ago there were only 10 Superchargers. Today there are 492. Go here and click on CHARTS for a nice graph.

 

[Matthew]

True but it is changing. Here is information on new resources. There is a lot of natural gas with coal fired plants being retired.

NG plants are getting more numerous. The US is like the Middle East of natural gas.

Here is where you can find the State charts, as well as charts going back to 2010. I haven't looked closely at them to see if they are starting to show a trend away from coal yet.

https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/commodities/energy

 

[Matthew]

I just saw this article today:

Electric car charging stations aren't fair.

Wall Street Journal is one of those subscriber things that lets you get around it through Google. Click on the first link found to read it:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Electric+Car-Aid+Acid+Test

 

[flyingcheesehead]

But a Tesla, to me, seems like the equivalent of a BMW. Yeah, you can use it as a grocery getter, yeah, you can use it to take the dog to the vet, but you really want it for other reasons. One reason might be for a long road trip. And that's where I wonder about EVs: I'd be worried about getting stranded between charging stations, or having to spend a long time at a charging station instead of a couple minutes at a gas pump.

The Superchargers will charge the battery to 80% in 20 minutes. That's good for over 200 miles. Stretch your legs, pee, grab a snack, go.

By the way, something I've wondered: how much juice do they use for heat/defrost?

Depends on the system, but the general answer is "a lot".

if you discount all the negatives of EVs (mostly cost, weight, range, and slow re-fuel), theoretically there are a lot of attractions.

1. Thermodynamically, it is far more efficient.
2. Dead simple drive: Way less maintenance and reliability issues
3. Faster(can be)
4. Cheaper fuel(for the moment anyway)
5. Easier upgrades and more integrated system(I may not like that much, but lots of people do)

Probably a few more things that I'm missing.

6. Super quiet
7. Smooth
8. Fun! Full torque is available from 0mph.
9. Electric power rates don't fluctuate the way gas prices do. Here in the midwest, our gas prices just jumped around 75c/gal this week because of a refinery shutdown. With my PHEV I'll be able to wait for prices to come down to buy my next tank - My last tank of gas went over 2000 miles and I averaged 159 mpg on it.
10. No more standing outside freezing your ass off gassing up the car in the winter.
11. Speaking of which - Preconditioning. You tell the car what time you're going to leave and what temp you want the cabin at, and it runs the heat or AC as appropriate off the power coming through the plug. I tell ya what, it is AWESOME on a cold winter day to have my car at 72ºF when I leave for work in the morning. Likewise when I leave the office this afternoon, my black car with black interior sitting in the sun all day will be at 72ºF too.

I have a plug-in hybrid right now because I wanted to take the first step and the only BEV with sufficient range for my needs is the (not-so-affordable) Tesla, but I've gotten so spoiled on electric driving that my next car will likely be purely electric.

A very humorous look at it from the other side of things: http://teslaclubsweden.se/test-drive-of-a-petrol-car/

Probably none for heat and not a lot for defrost. Batteries require cooling, so the car is liquid cooled and my guess has a heater core like a normal car.

Heating, AC and accessories do not affect EVs all that much.. it really is peanut power use compared to moving 4-5000lb vehicle at 60mph or so

I wish it were so. Some EVs have liquid-cooled batteries, but I don't think any of them generate so much heat that they're used for cabin heating. In fact, in my car it's the other way around - I have an air-cooled battery and it uses air FROM the cabin to cool the battery!

In my car, heat uses about 5kW and AC uses about 3.8 at first when it's hot. For comparison, I accelerate at about 20kW and cruise in the 10-20kW range normally.

Since I have a PHEV and not a BEV, my car has a normal coolant loop from the engine going through a heater core so it can use the engine for heat if it's running. However, there's an extra piece of the loop like so:

|---------Heater Core------------|
| |
|--------Electric Heater----------|
| |
|----------Engine----------------|

When the engine isn't running, the electric heater heats coolant and it's routed through the heater core to heat the cabin. When the engine starts, the electric heater helps the engine warm up faster.

My bad, I read a news article from a widely distributed news source, I assumed it was correct.

That was your first mistake. Read what one of them says about GA sometime...

Musk said that in four years there will be a new roadster that will have plaid mode.

If you have an S with air suspension you can touch the T and enter 007 on the screen that comes up. Then the graphic for the air suspension shows the James Bond Lotus submarine (bought by Musk) and air suspension settings are in leagues.

Volume for the sound system goes to 11 for you Spinal Tap fans.

Heh... Gotta love a company with a sense of humor!

 

[Palmpilot]

8. Fun! Full torque is available from 0mph.

Yeah, I drive a Civic Hybrid with manual shift. If I'm too rambunctious with the throttle and clutch, the front (drive) wheels can screech a little when they cross the crosswalk lines. One time when that happened, I had to laugh when a bicyclist said "wow," probably associating that kind of thing with muscle cars, which a Civic Hybrid most definitely is not!