Tesla Model S Fits Seven, Start's Under $50K and Travels up to 300 Miles

First!

If this article is true, they have an excellent design for this stage of pure electric car development. I still would rather have the Volt, however, because of both price and I would not want to be prevented from travel due to low or insufficient charge.

As stated before, the batteries loose their ability to fully charge over use, so after a year or so does the range significantly reduce?

Looks nice, definitely. Like if you put a scion tc, toyota prius and lexus IS350 (beautiful car, btw) in a blender, this is what would pop out.

Beautiful car, looks Aston-ish. Certainly doesn't look like a 7 seater though. Maybe the 2 kids fit in the back / hatch area? From the tech specs, its sounds amazing compared to what is currently out and even what is coming out in the next few years. I'd like to hear more about that 45 minute charge time, is that from some crazy high voltage and/or amperage outlet? If the battery tech can hold up and the reliability isn't atrocious, this sounds like an amazing vehicle.

I would need independent evaluations before I believe anything Tesla claims. I can't see anyway, a cutting edge sedan car like this would cost less than 100k.

I'm kind of with Cargasm on this one. Curious to see if the "S" hits the road anywhere near that 57K (before tax break) mark.

Since the Roadster is already a reality, i suppose you can go scour the internet to see if the hype and real world results were in the same neighborhood.

Having said this, Tesla's 2'nd generation vehicle may very well be the Microsoft of cars to come. New ideals, manufacturing methods, etc, may be an advantage over the safe and slow progressive growth of the major automakers. Looking forward to following the adventures of this company.

@gm0n3y: 220v is the same line voltage an electric stove or electric clothes dryer uses in the US. I see 110 and 440 listed, but guessing that 220 would be most common for "home" charging.

gotta go with Cargasm and Trooper Bri on this one. Tesla took deposits for their roadster, and came back over a year later to say the price went up, give us more money.

There is no way this car will actually sell for $57k.

It's easy enough to have a 440 wired into your garage from your house's main panel. It'll cost you a little for the electrician, but compared to the car price, it's minimal.

electric powered, plug in design vehicles are a joke.

long live the hydrogen atom.

@Paul and gm0n3ly

How do you get 440 into a home?

As I understood it you had 220 at the mains panel, which was split as two 110's and a neutral. The only time I've seen 440 is in an industrial environment.

I'm not saying the electric company couldn't run it to your house, it's just not a standard thing.

And considering you need 4 hours for a recharge @ 220V, 440 should get your there in roughly an hour. (Double the voltage and probably twice the current, a quarter the time).

And frankly Tesla needs to hire a mechanical engineer to design an actual transmission. It boggles my mind someone can't come up with a usable 2 or 3 speed for an electric system. While it doesn't have to have a tranny, it would seem to put less strain on the motor not having to spin as hard.

Hmmmm, looks like a 4 door Maserati Granturismo.
I like the looks and the ingenuity. As for the tranmission, I am wondering if they should think about a CVT. Surely once up to speed the motor could run at lower revs

Hey Brian:

You are correct about 220v being ran to your home. You will need to have the electric company run a new line from the nearest transformer to your house and possibly install a new transformer. If you are like me, the cables are underground and would have to cross neighbor driveways and such. Given that, this would be an expensive setup just to take a couple hours off the charge time. I would just go with 220v and charge it at night.

As far as the transmission is concerned, why have one. An electric motor is limited in RPM strictly by the balance of the armature and the quality of the end bearings. It would be much simpler and have fewer failure points to have a higher quality motor instead of having a whole gearbox. Internal combustion engines need a gearbox because they have incredibly low torque at 0RPM. An electric motor doesn't have such a limitation because its torque band is nearly flat from 0RPM to max RPM.

FWIW, I am an electrical engineer.

Also, there's no need to lower the rpm, electric motors actually draw less at high rpm (under equivalent load). So Dan's correct, a transmission is really a waste in this situation. I would also support them making something as cheap as possible, from an economic standpoint there's still nothing out there, or in the pipeline, to replace a cheap small car if you're just looking to save money on your commute.

Me smells a deceptive release.
There are two different battery packs listed.
I suspect that they are referencing the larger when talking range and the smaller when citing recharge times and cost.

Also, in order to recharge the smaller of the two battery packs for $4, your electricity must cost less than 10 cents per kilowatt hour even with a 100% efficient charging system. (Last time I checked 10 cent/kW is getting hard to come by, and 100% effeciency is harder.)

Apologies,

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I said it would be easy to add 440 to a home. Somehow I decided that 2 x 220 would be the same thing.

From what we know about Tesla, I wouldn't believe ANYTHING the press release says. The roadster went through a series of cost increases, while the published figures for performance and range got worse and worse as the vehicle neared production.

As far as the charge time, forget getting 480V to most homes. That's 3 phase power, and that's typically not available to most of us residentially. You'll be stuck with 240V, single phase juice, and a 4 hour recharge.

Once again, there is NO market to speak of for electric vehicles. It's just a novelty....something that isn't parctical for the majority of our population....and exactly why you don't see electric cars everywhere on the roads.

Seats 7? I don't think so.

YtsejaM, your right..

"Seating for 5 adults + 2 child seats"

At the same time? Where are you putting the kids? In the rear trunk? I think they mean 5 total, 3 + 2 child seats. One kid and driver in the front, two adults and one kid in the back maybe.

Hella low beams, lol.

Actually, according to the tesla motors website:

"With seating for five adults and two children, plus an additional trunk under the hood, Model S has passenger carrying capacity and versatility rivaling SUVs and minivans. Rear seats fold flat, and the hatch gives way to a roomy opening, so you can stow a mountain bike, 50-inch flat-screen TV, full drum set or futon frame – more than ample for the entire family and their gear."

So it is a 7 seater, just 2 of the seat a shitty small ones in the back.

And @JB, so because you think it will be more expensive that what they state, that means "there is NO market to speak of for electric vehicles". Many people reading and commenting on this article are surprised that the price is so low and were expecting it in the 100k-120k range.

The cost is largely irrelevant to its practicality. The fact that it has a limited range and long recharge times is what makes it impractical.

As I have mentioned many times before, if there was such a huge market for electric vehicles, mainstream auto manufacturers would be building them. It's really that simple. People like to complain about "GM killing off the EV1" (which is ludicrous), but no one has an answer for why Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, or Nissan don't have electric in production. The answer is simple: they wouldn't be able to sell enough of them to recoup the development costs (that's financial speak for "there isn't a market for this product"). Tesla has delivered less than 200 roadsters, and has lost money on most of them.

You have to make a profit sometime.

@JB

Not to mention that battery technology still is limited and expensive too, even if there was high demand..

@ JB

If everyone used your logic (no one is doing it, so it must be unviable) no one would ever try anything new. Technology advances, so what wasn't feasible yesterday might work today. But if you stick with the idea that no one doing it now nullifies any chance of anyone EVER doing it, progress halts.

I don't think EV's are currently at the level that they can replace all IC powered vehicles. On the other hand, I think there are market niches where current EV tech fits. Tesla created such a niche with their Roadster, and I think they've a chance with this Model S.