Elon Musk Predicts 1,000km EV Range In Two Years, Autonomous Cars In Three 398
An anonymous reader writes: Speaking with a Danish TV show, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made a couple of interesting statements about Tesla's future. The company's Model S sedan advertises a range of 200-300 miles (322-483 km) depending on variant, average speed, and tires. Musk says the company will produce an electric vehicle capable of breaking the 1,000km (621 mi) mark by "2017 for sure." Later, Musk went even further, saying he expected "full autonomy" for Tesla vehicles to arrive in "approximately three years." He doesn't expect them to be legal at that point, as regulations will take time to catch up.
illegal autonomous cars? (Score:2)
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He was clear in the interview that he thought it would take another 1-3 years before it would be legal, depending on the jurisdiction.
I read a review of the beta Autopilot feature expected to be released next month, and it's also illegal. It lets you take your hands off the steering wheel, which is illegal in some states. (I know you can be cited for it in Massachusetts; a state trooper said he used that to ticket drivers on cell phones if they gestured when he was looking.)
Re:illegal autonomous cars? (Score:5, Insightful)
where do i sign up?
An autonomous car is still useful even if it's not legal for it to operate fully autonomously -- it can prevent you from inadvertently running a red-light and getting T-boned in an intersection, or could keep you from crashing into a bridge pillar when you fall asleep at the wheel.
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Programmers are not infallible, so I say an autonomous car can also cause you to run a red light, or crash into a bridge pillar, whether you're sleeping, or not.
The success of automation in the aviation industry makes me think that autonomous cars will be a *lot* more reliable than human drivers. No technology is perfect, but it's almost certain to be better than people.
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Factor in Musk time dilation factor. When he says 2017, you have to be pretty precise about the gravitational lensing his ego has created in the room that particular day. It's normally around 2071 or so
Beagle anonymous scars (Score:2)
I need more than 300 miles, I live in a very rural, isolated area. Nearest city worthy of the name is 280 miles away (and it's not the one I'd pick as my first choice to visit, either. The air is seriously polluted there. Outright stank.) 600 miles -- more or less what he's talking about -- would be awesome. I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat if it was under $60k.
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Only if you can recharge it for another 300 miles in five minutes or less, like you can gas up a regular car.
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How much will it cost. (Score:4, Interesting)
If the price is right 1,000 km range electric cars will signal the beginning of the end for IC engined cars.
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Re:How much will it cost. (Score:4, Insightful)
For people who want to drive more than 625 miles in a day? That is ridiculous.
You go home, you charge it overnight. It's like starting every day with a full tank of gas.
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Re:How much will it cost. (Score:5, Funny)
640 miles ought to be enough for anyone.
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Completely agree with the reference, of course, but the thing I don't get is why people are hung up on thinking that a single car must fit ALL of their needs. Most American families have two cars. Keep the EV around for day-to-day, in-town commuting, then bust out the old IC when your family does its annual road trip. Not exactly rocket science, and you get to start enjoying the benefits of EVs immediately.
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You're forgetting the loss of freedom there though, which has a cost. Consider a gasoline car with 5 miles fuel remaining. Consider an electric car with 5 miles charge remaining.
How long must either car wait before embarking on a trip? Say, because there is an emergency situation? The gasoline car has maybe a 5 minute delay to refuel the tank to full capacity. The electric - best case maybe is you can get to a car rental place, but that's still probably a 30 minute or more delay and much higher cost.
Tha
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In fact, in some cities, very few people do.
But I'd also imagine those people don't need cars to get to work.
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The size of the parking lots at most apartment complexes in the U.S. would tend to argue the opposite.
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Only if you have a home that can charge it where you are parked.
Not everybody lives in a house. In fact, in some cities, very few people do.
Well then, they don't buy one. Most people that live in those places don't have cars at all.
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For the past year in California, landlords MUST allow tenants to install EV charging stations... It doesn't matter whether you live in a house, condo, apartment, etc., you can plug-in your car.
http://pipedot.org/story/2014-... [pipedot.org]
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For the past year in California, landlords MUST allow tenants to install EV charging stations... It doesn't matter whether you live in a house, condo, apartment, etc., you can plug-in your car.
If the dwelling is rent-controlled or has less than five parking spaces, it's exempt, and the lessee has to maintain a million-dollar insurance policy on the installation... So it matters very much.
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If you live in a 6th floor flat, a $100K+ electric car that goes 650 miles on a charge is not for you, anyway, obviously.
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I don't know about you but 1,000 km is about as far as I care to drive in a day. I can recharge it overnight.
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Not everybody has a power outlet where they park at home.
Why do you keep beating that one? What individual vehicle satisfies 100 percent of people needs or things they don't have? So now Tesla shouldn't be allowed to sell their vehicle because someone in New York City doesn't have a parking space with a charger?? Most people there don't have a parking space at all.
I drive Jeeps because of where and when I drive. A Ferrari won't work for me. But if you want one - have at it.
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I'm not saying they shouldn't be allowed to sell their car, I'm just challenging the notion that a Tesla will ever start to be a contender against IC vehicles when the recharge times are not anything remotely comparable to how long it takes to fill a car with gasoline.
Making it good is the first step. Making it affordable is the second. Making it convenient is the third and final step. Miss any one of them and it won't compete.
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Seriously, then don't get one. Also don't get a Hummer if you live in a crowded city, or any car at all if you live on a small island. That's why there are 100's of car models out there. This was about solving one problem with electric cars, which is limited range.
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Solving limited range is a good thing.... but it's only the first of three steps that are needed to seriously be a contender for the "normal" type of car, which is what the post to which I initially responded suggested.
Making it affordable, which is what the above poster mentioned, is still only the second step. The third step is making it convenient. That means fast recharge time. Once an electric car, whether it is from Tesla or any other manufacturer, provides this, then you will start to see elec
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In fact "convenient" is just as much dependent on the usage as the range (actually, more so). Many people who may live in apartments that make it more difficult to charge at home have *free* chargers at their workplace (mine does). And in fact, plugin chargers mean you can charge it to some extent almost anywhere there is electricity (you can find supermarkets, shopping malls, even restaurants that have charging stations), unlike gasoline cars that make you go to a totally special purpose business - a gas
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Only if you can recharge at least 50% in about the same amount of time as it takes to refill a car with gas.
This is only needed on long trips. For that, just rent a gas car, or rent a booster battery and put it in the trunk.
For day-to-day commuting use, an electric car is more convenient, because you can just recharge at home, at work, or at the mall, etc. So there is no need to go to a gas station at all. Also, there is no oil to change, no transmission to break, no gaskets, no air filter. You don't even need to replace the brake pads, because regenerative braking means they don't wear out.
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It's also needed if you forget to plug in your car one night, where at least with a gasoline car you can make a brief pit stop on the way to work the next morning. 5 minutes to fill up a gasoline vehicle.
People like convenience. Denying that aspect of human nature is only living with blinders on.
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Actually, the Tesla does not have a transmission. Its a simple reduction gear on the motors, and that's it. They did experiment with a 2-speed transmission in the early days of the Roadster, but gave up on it. Transmissions in cars are mostly do deal with the speed/torque curve of internal combustion engines, which isn't really a problem with electric motors.
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Only if you can recharge at least 50% in about the same amount of time as it takes to refill a car with gas.
This is one place where everyone seems to miss the point.
For every day use, as everyone has already said, you charge overnight. The car has enough range for any reasonable day trip. (To all of you who insist that you need to drive round-trip 400 miles every day, uphill to the mountains, while towing a boat... Shut the hell up and stick with your pickup truck. You are not most people.)
For road trips, you don't "wait at a charger for the car to recharge." Everyone, please stop assuming this. Its wrong. Rath
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Range by itself isn't enough. If it takes several hours to recharge, versus give minutes to gas up, it will have a very limited market.
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If the price is right 1,000 km range electric cars will signal the beginning of the end for IC engined cars.
The 1000km number doesn't actually seem that far fetched. The Model S is a hugely heavy performance car. At its best it does 0 to 60mph in 2.8 seconds. If they built a car that still had a lot of batteries but was instead optimized for range rather than performance, I can see how they might accomplish this.
On the other side, Tesla is working on a new version of the Roadster. If they can make a family sedan do 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds, imagine what they can do if they design a pure sports car. It might ha
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I would like to see range figures for a typical commuter.. In summer and winter. Unfortunately they are priced high enough we won't see that.
A range calculator is built into the Tesla website. No idea about its accuracy. You can change outdoor temperature, toggle AC/heating and speed. http://www.teslamotors.com/mod... [teslamotors.com]
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What you're looking for is the Model 3 [wikipedia.org] which does not yet exist, but has been Tesla's goal since inception. Everything we've seen up until now has been primarily done to gain experience and fund development towards the Model 3.
The Model 3 doesn't quite hit your targets - price US$35k, range 320km.
Re: How much will it cost. (Score:4, Insightful)
The Model 3 doesn't quite hit your targets - price US$35k, range 320km.
Over the life of the car, you will easily save at least $10k by using electricity instead of gasoline. If you take that into account, you hit his $25k target.
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that'll be great until the banksters on wall street walk away with your money, your investment is worthless, and then they whine at the government to get compensated a trillion or two for the inconvenience of stealing your money from you.
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but you wouldn't...
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Re: How much will it cost. (Score:5, Insightful)
What you're looking for is the Model 3 [wikipedia.org] which does not yet exist, but has been Tesla's goal since inception. Everything we've seen up until now has been primarily done to gain experience and fund development towards the Model 3.
The Model 3 doesn't quite hit your targets - price US$35k, range 320km.
I have a question though for the naysayers.
Why is the Tesla considered ridiculously overpriced, yet a pickup truck like the 2010 Ford F450 at over 64 thousand, is never mentioned by those who have an aneurysm when they hear the word "Tesla" mentioned? They don't even give a gas milage Here's a nice little list of acceptable and economical vehicles unlike the Tesla:http://www.autobytel.com/top-10-cars/most-expensive-cars/trucks/
35 K is fine - I'm waiting for the 4wd trail rated version.
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Because they are utterly different vehicles for different uses. One is mostly a commuter car that spends the vast majority of its life in a garage or parking lot, and the other is a work vehicle where the owner's job often revolves around it.
Not that the F450 isn't overpriced, anyway. But people on /. don't talk about it because people on /. mostly don't live in the rural Midwest.
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Because they are utterly different vehicles for different uses. One is mostly a commuter car that spends the vast majority of its life in a garage or parking lot, and the other is a work vehicle where the owner's job often revolves around it.
Not that the F450 isn't overpriced, anyway. But people on /. don't talk about it because people on /. mostly don't live in the rural Midwest.
In my work parking lot, there are a lot of Pickups, including dually rears, that have never been off road, nor used for anything more strenuous than grocery shopping.
the trucks that work for a living are mostly stripped down models that cost a whole lot less.
Even then - it's okay that people want to spend a lot of money on a truck. It's their money. I don't care
Same as with a Tesla. Slashdotters seem to really care about the money spent on that however.
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Or, she's fairly normal as a nice neighbor and you're the exception. Possibly because you're a cynical asshole know-it-all and no one wants to associate. Claiming to know what everyone in your office does on their spare time with their vehicles is incredibly pompous.
No one wants to borrow a car, everyone wants to borrow a truck, especially people with big yard projects. Most people I know who have trucks, actually use the trucks, and all of them have helped others with their truck. Of the who guys with
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I see a whole lot of humungous F550 whatchamacallit pick up trucks (what are they picking up? Grand pianos? Elephants?) at the park and ride. I assume thereby that most of them are not serious heavy haul work trucks, but daily commuting vehicles.
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Teslas are also overpriced, and also have other reasons for which I won't buy one.
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No. First, as your parenthesis note, batteries are a big part of the cost of the vehicle, so make that $25k. Second, just as the cost of making a bottle of pill is only a dollar but still costs hundreds, the 'cost' of a vehicle has only partly to do with the cost of the parts that make it up. There is the cost of the factory (all those robots), insurance, salaries (though the robots reduce those), R&D, design, advertising, safety testing, QA, transportation, show rooms, and profit.
Finally, the (cur
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and completely invade your privacy
Since when has loss of privacy every been too high of a price to pay for the smugness of technological superiority?
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The range figures for a typical commuter are mostly irrelevant, since the typical commuter won't even get close to the max range in their daily commute, and they can easily charge overnight.
Re: How much will it cost. (Score:5, Informative)
Charging at home (plugged into a 240V 50A dryer outlet) adds about 30 miles of range for each hour of charging. So, drive 200 miles, come home, plug in and the car is topped back up in under 7 hours. ....
On trips, the supercharger stations (free to use and spaced within range on many interstates) add about 150 miles of range during a 30 minute stop. Superchargers are located next to places to eat and shop.
Driving from SF Bay area to Reno, we stop somewhere in the middle (there are a several choices at various distances) and have lunch. Can't quite make it all the way on one charge
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CURRENTLY free. As a carrot to get people to various locations. When it becomes popular, it'll cease to be free, as it'll be a measurable cost to provide.
Tesla has promised that Superchargers would remain free to Tesla owners indefinitely, so if they renege on that promise to existing owners, there would likely be lawsuits.
Of course they could make charging non-free to people who buy new Teslas in the future, but given Tesla's high-end image, and the relatively low cost of providing the service, they'll probably just keep doing what they do now -- figuring out how much the average Tesla's lifetime use of the Supercharger network is likely to cost them, and b
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And how long it takes to recharge.
Mileage depends on conditions and usage. Recharge time is totally deterministic based on the charge time needed to fill the battery and the charger you use. Statistics are pointless, just do the math.
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I can go 500+ miles in my car, and then do it again 2 minutes later.
You can go for a ride inside your clothes dryer too, but why would you want to do something so unpleasant? Outside of a dire emergency, I can't imagine anyone wanting to do make two 6-hour trips with only a 2-minute break in between.
Here's something to try: find out how much time the average ICE car owner spends driving to gas stations, waiting in line, waiting for his car to refuel, paying for the gas, driving back, etc. Then find out how much time the average electric car owner actually spends waiting
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I can go 500+ miles in my car, and then do it again 2 minutes later.
You can go for a ride inside your clothes dryer too, but why would you want to do something so unpleasant? Outside of a dire emergency, I can't imagine anyone wanting to do make two 6-hour trips with only a 2-minute break in between.
Here's something to try: find out how much time the average ICE car owner spends driving to gas stations, waiting in line, waiting for his car to refuel, paying for the gas, driving back, etc. Then find out how much time the average electric car owner actually spends waiting for his car to recharge. The results may surprise you.
I would think that the average ICE owner is smart enough to choose a convenient gas station along one of their routes not to have to make a special trip to a gas station just for gas so that time would have been spent getting groceries, going to the bank, etc. Also, unless it is a tiny gas station I don't believe that I have ever had to wait in line for the pumps for very long. On the weekends during the summer and holidays along the interstates it can be a bit of a pain at times, but not during the norma
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Pretty much the only time spent is actually at the pumps.
Okay, let's say a smart ICE owner spends 5 minutes a week refueling his gasoline car.
The next part is, how much time does an electric car owner spend per week waiting for his car to recharge? More than 5 minutes per week, or less?
Osborne Effect? (Score:5, Insightful)
If I was Elon Musk, I'm not sure that I would be gloating that the Model S cars that my car company is producing will be completely obsolete just three years from now.
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If the range increase is more from better battery technology rather than just more batteries they can potentially put the better batteries in the Model S and increase its range as well.
No Osborne Effect! (Score:2)
The range increase he has predicted is 5-10% per year. The 1000km number is for hypermilers who figure out the optimal speed and ideal conditions, then drive all day at 22mph or whatever for the bragging rights.
The real maximum range right now is around 300 miles, and in 3 years, it could easily be 350 miles. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bump when the Gigafactory comes online, as they may be able to build more tightly-packed custom batteries to increase density or otherwise incorporate new technol
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no, he's pretty much claiming that he'll have new battery tech that will turn 300 into 600+ DURING NEXT YEAR.
pretty sure he's just talking out of his ass on that one though - or he is going to introduce a model that has the backseat and luggage areas filled with the batteries.
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no, he's pretty much claiming that he'll have new battery tech that will turn 300 into 600+ DURING NEXT YEAR.
pretty sure he's just talking out of his ass on that one though - or he is going to introduce a model that has the backseat and luggage areas filled with the batteries.
Yeah, battery technology, while improving, has been improving incrementally over the last 10 years. It may seem like we have made big jumps because our toys now last longer (i.e. tablets) but what has happened is that the electronics have continued to get smaller leaving more room for the battery, which has gotten bigger. Also, electronics have become more efficient. Perhaps this is where Musk feels that they can make huge improvements, in actually making the cars and engines more efficient.
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If I was Elon Musk, I'm not sure that I would be gloating that the Model S cars that my car company is producing will be completely obsolete just three years from now.
Well, if we take into consideration that Tesla motor upgraded the range of all Tesla Roster for free and got one of the best customer service avalaible, I can safely guess that people that buy model S now will now be left in the dark after that new 1000km model came out.
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They won't be obsolete any more than a Toyota is obsolete when a new Ferrari comes out.
A Tesla with a 600 mile range WILL be a vey expensive car, since it needs a huge battery. The current P90D is well over $100K already, and it only gets 1/2 the range.
and he'll solve world hunger in 4 (Score:4, Informative)
I understand that people need to be visionaries (and shills), however, with respect to autonomous vehicles, all these press releases, CEOs, VPs, and shills are either lying through their teeth or mean a very specific meaning of the word "autonomous" (e.g., drive only on specific streets, be able to take over within 2-5 seconds, don't drive at dusk/dawn due to lighting messing up camera thresholds, drive only in clear weather 'cause water and snow messes up a lot of other sensors, drive for at most 3 years [because they won't maintain the software longer unless you pay them a lot of subscription money], etc.). To date there exists no autonomous vehicle technology that is tested and dependable enough to be put on an arbitrary section of a road in North America under arbitrary driving conditions and that would meet Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) A as required. Period.
Yet, let the public dream of their autonomous vehicles that zip around. It gives you eyeballs and people drooling over it. The fact that they talk about autonomous "cars" and not autonomous freight trucks (for which the safety is much simpler) already shows you that they are just shilling for their company and eyeballs.
To his defense, he said "they *should* have fully autonomy". Yes, they *should* have that already today, but they don't.
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I've been saying for a number of years that semi trucks would be the first thing to convert over to autonomous driving. We'll see it there long before we see it widespread in passenger vehicles. Think of it simply: These are trucks that can (and most already do) drive at night when there are few people on the road, have very well-defined and easily known start and end points (vs. listening to a passenger describe a location or navigate an un-mapped driveway), would benefit in cost savings both from constant
This from the guy who said... (Score:3, Insightful)
Dear Mr Musk... (Score:5, Insightful)
Give us a 300km electric car with 4 seats that has a base model retail of $19,995 and you will freaking change the world overnight.
80% of the american population does not have the income to afford a car that costs more than that. 70% cant afford a car that costs more than $14,995. and with rent at criminal levels along with wages being doubly criminally low..... you need to offer a very low cost economy version for the poor people in the bottom 80%.
Make it charge from 120V 15A outlet only and these same poor people will be able to afford to charge it.
Re:Dear Mr Musk... (Score:5, Interesting)
The median price of a car in the US is $32K. Electric cars are cheaper to fill up and maintain, and so if there's rational economics going on, the median price could effectively go up quite a bit and still cost the same.
There already are $20K 4 seat electric cars (after subsidies) that go 150km, and charge up overnight on a 120V connection, and they're a niche item. 300km would be a definite improvement, but I'm not sure it would change the world overnight.
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Where is this fabled 4 seat $20k electric car with 150km range that charges on a home outlet?? Me and a few million other people are dying to know.
Re:Dear Mr Musk... (Score:5, Informative)
Go on to truecar.com, look up car prices! You can print out a sheet, take it to the dealer, and get it for that price.
Keep in mind that you should take the car price and subtract $7500 for the Federal subsidy (which is given at time of purchase.) Additionally, different states have different subsidy levels - California will subsidize it $2500, it takes na few weeks though).
So after $10,000, truecar.com currently lists:
A Nissan Leaf for $15,000 (that is a seriously fucking good deal)
A Fiat 500e $19,000
An e-Golf for $21,000 (A little over, but it's Motor-trends car of the year.)
They're all 4 seat and will get about 150km.
I have an e-golf, I drive more than an hour a day, and I just charge is on a 120v overnight.
Re:Dear Mr Musk... (Score:4, Interesting)
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The Mitsubishi iMiev comes close to that, but only because of $10K in combined California state and US federal tax credits. About $24K before the credits, net cost after is $14K
Range is closer to 130 km than 150 km
You will need a $500 charger - it doesn't just plug into a regular outlet
A Tesla can plug into a regular 120V 15A US outlet, but it's like filling a swimming pool through a drinking straw. It only adds 3 miles of range for each hour of charging.
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There already are $20K 4 seat electric cars (after subsidies) that go 150km, and charge up overnight on a 120V connection, and they're a niche item. 300km would be a definite improvement, but I'm not sure it would change the world overnight.
150km represents something like a 90 minute round-trip commute at highway speeds. 20% of Americans have commutes of this distance or greater, and if they don't have a charging capability at work, these vehicles are non-starters. I'm one of these people - my commute is on the ragged edge of performance range of electrics right now and I can't risk it. I'd buy a $20k electric with a 300km range in a heartbeat.
Electric cars are a very tight niche now. If you have a short commute, it hardly matters whether you
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This is why workplace charging is so important, but often overlooked in regards to EV tech. The technical challenges of adding charge stations to your destination is a solved problem. Doubling the range of lithium ion batteries is still in the laboratory at this point. Also, with PHEV the more opportunities you have to charge, the less gas you have to burn. So instead of 80% of your trips being in EV mode, you might hit 90% just by having destination charging.
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Mr Musk not only knows this, but changing this world in this way is Mr Musk's declared reason for founding Tesla Motors in the first place. The plan is to produce the Model 3 in a few years, which will have your 300km range, but current price is expected to be US$35k (neglecting government incentives for electric vehicles.)
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You could charge a 300km electric car from a 120V 15A outlet
But to fill the 85kWh battery, it would take 48 hours.
Most of the rest of the world is a little more sane, with standard household outlets being 240V/10A, but that would still take 36 hours.
That's assuming the charger and charging process are near 100% efficient
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Most U.S. homes with garages have 240V service. It's just a matter of adding a new circuit breaker. 50 or 30 amps at 240V is probably enough for overnight charging. So yeah, there is an initial investment there of probably around $1000 for the EVSE and new circuit breaker.
Ha. Let me explain why you're on this page... (Score:5, Informative)
It's because the media is a piece of fucking garbage and take practically every goddamn thing that's said by anyone out of context. Oh, and the folks who run Slashdot do effectively zero checking on anything they post. /rant
Now the explanation: Prior to the answer Musk gave indicating that Teslas would do 1000km on a charge, he was talking about a recently set record where a dude (Casey Spencer) did 500 miles (~800km) in a Tesla Model S, driving at something like 24mph for like 24 hours. In that context, Musk said that similarly, a 1000km could be achieved in a Tesla by 2017, given battery density improvements of 5-10% annually. All that would be necessary would be a 20% improvement on the record by 2017. I might add that the dude who did this was in a 85kWh car going downhill for a decent portion of the drive and took into account weather effects, temps and whatnot to achieve his 500 miles. I wouldn't be surprised if the latest 90kWh Model S as is could do another 100 miles if tightly controlled in the right conditions (high altitude, ideal temp/wind), so really a 5% improvement in both 2016 and 2017 is all that's really being predicted here.
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Figures...I used my last mod point before I came to this page. Thanks for that very informative comment.
1000km range is easy (Score:4, Funny)
Just attach a trailer full of batteries to a model S and you get your 1000km.
OK so long as you can turn it off (Score:2)
In the meantime I propose there be reforms to driver education, driver training, and driver license testing procedures. We can start with doing away with this silly notion that attempting to enter a highway at 45
Others already do it (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that ten years from now, not a single wealthy person under 21 or over 70 will be driving a car. In 20 years, replace "not a single wealthy" with "only very wealthy American", as we flee the dangerous practice of allowing humans to drive on public roads.
News from 2020 (Score:2)
A research team from Kentucky has released their findings from a government-funded study.They have found that the software in Tesla Z vehicles effectively cheats on tests and that performance figures quoted are grossly exaggerated.
LOL (Score:3)
I'd love these California dwelling CEOs to come up to Canada (or even, *gasp* Buffalo) in the middle of February and see how their "self-driving" cars do. Winter is a 6 month reality here and I'm not very interested in a "self-driving" car that works or less than half the year.
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I'd love these California dwelling CEOs to come up to Canada (or even, *gasp* Buffalo) in the middle of February and see how their "self-driving" cars do. Winter is a 6 month reality here and I'm not very interested in a "self-driving" car that works or less than half the year.
6 months?? You wimp! Where I live, summer started last week, and will be over by next week!
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Autopilot doesn't use the network. It uses radar and a camera to track the paint on the road. If the paint is faded, the sun reflects off it wrong, it gets confused with old paint, or whatnot, then it tells you to take control. I would expect to only need to take the wheel for 1% of the driving, but you would need to be ready to do so for 100% of the driving to be safe.
I'm sure there will be people who set out on a lonely highway and go to sleep, only to wake up when the car comes to an emergency stop on
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That would be me. What's the point of buying a self driving car if I have to hover over the steering wheel in case it gets confused? If I can't read or sleep or surf the web I may as well drive.
This! If I have to just sit there, ready to take the wheel if there is an emergency - what the hell is the point? That would be so boring they would probably have to implement one of those buttons you have to press every 20 seconds, or the car will shut down, like they do on that one train line in Australia.
I really don't have a problem with things like assistance to stay in a lane, or radar to stop people tailgating, but if I have to hand over control and just sit there bored , there's not much point, j
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Unless I can sit in the back seat and drink a beer, with zero liability if the thing crashes: then I won't trust autonomous functions at all.
To be fair, I'd be happy with just being able to sit back and let the car steer itself every time I drive 500 miles to visit my girlfriend's parents. Not a lot of traffic, but I have to stay awake so I can steer round a truck every few miles and a bend every hundred miles.
Of course a Tesla would take twice as long to get there, for only three times the price of our Civic. Pretty good deal, or something.
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I know money is fungible and all, but not paying taxes because society is trying to achieve some policy goal is not the same as taking money that you did not earn at all. All of Tesla's competitors are subject to the exact same tax incentives.
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Uphill in the snow? About 0.01 (sitting there with the wheels spinning...)
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I would like to see what the range is in non ideal conditions. With the radio on/ phone charging/ GPS running + heating/cooling the car
The radio, phone, and GPS use a negligible amount of electricity.
The heater and AC use far more power, but still don't affect the range as much as you might think, because they do very little heating/cooling. My wife has a Tesla, and you can barely tell that the AC is even turned on. This isn't a big deal for us, because we live in San Jose, where the weather is perfect 90% of the time.
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I've found with our C-Max Energi the AC will hit about 2.5KW of power usage for maybe the first 10 minutes of running, so it's usually good to pre-condition the car before unplugging it. After it's been running for awhile it tends to maintain a draw of maybe about 500 watts from what I can tell from the dash gauge. This is in 90 degree weather.
The heater electrical usage is ridiculous though. It doesn't use a heat pump so it relies on resistance heating. At that point, I'm probably better off just enabling
Re: Disgusting corporate welfare (Score:5, Informative)
My wife also has a Tesla S85. On the freeway at 65 mph the range is about as advertised, 265+ miles. AC on a very hot day reduces that about 5%.
Around town, stop and go 0-40 mph actually has better range, approaching 350 miles.
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Who's sick of this guy's brainfarts being endlessly repeated & tweeted & written about like they were.... not brainfarts?
You mean "this guy" who has a long-established history of talking about futuristic things, then developing them, then shipping them???