Tesla: amazing car...with one teensy drawback...

[zilo]

Originally Posted by DAZZLR

Run roh you sure showed him Mr multi quote

Would you like a pointer to the shpellink checker?

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by zilo

No more than in your Falcon.
At leasdt with the Tesla there isnt the ongoing petrol distribution and off shore oil drilling to obtain the fuel etc,

People in glass houses etc.

[mik]

Originally Posted by zilo

No more than in your Falcon.
At leasdt with the Tesla there isnt the ongoing petrol distribution and off shore oil drilling to obtain the fuel etc,



Or maybe they were produced in a factory using hydro electric power.
One guess is as good as another...
(highly doubtful)
,,

Nope I installed it all myself...so that blows that theory

didnt use any fossil fuels to do it ?



Recycled plastics probably, you haven't considered that one?



The word you are looking for is Lithium,

I haven't heard of a lithium mine polluting the Gulf of Mexico, or an Exxon Valdez scal disaster incident with Lithium...but nice try mate



Dunno what you think you have uncovered there but extrapolating one guess with a bigger guess means you end up with...a Guess...



Maybe they are delivered to site with electric powered vehicles?
Again your guess is a s good as mine.

In the bigger picture..duzzen madder



The numbers add up with the cost savings.
Cause when you're not charging the car you are charging the house.




You are guessing/hoping it's not true me thinks.

But yes young man, they really do get that much out of it.



If it was half price would you buy one?

(cause half the cost in Australia is tax)



I can't think of anything I would tow regularly enough to justify a 2 ton SUV as a daily rider.

Wait a while till fuel is back to $2 a litre...150 bucks to fill a Falcon coming to a servo near you.



At the end of the day you can't afford one and hence your criticisms of it.
No sweat I can't either....but the price will come down.



My V8 turbo Landcruiser will need 20 grand for a motor in 20 years so I can't see the problem there.

The batteries won't be 20k in 20 years...tech prices always come down.

Nice grouping of your retorts young man

im not going to bother replying to all of them except to say , for me they just do not stack up,
yes nice car, but they cost a **** load of money, and they do still have limitations,

and as i mentioned earlier i do not believe they are near as wonderful regarding pollution when you look at the big picture.
as for plastic recycling , you will find a lot of plastics do not get recycled, they go straight to land fill , because it costs more to recycle than than to just dump it, this is fact.



and my bank balance has nothing whatever to do my reasoning, im not cashed up for GT or a prius , i would love a GT , and i would have a prius as a commuter, the base model is cheapish and there are no mileage concerns.

As for Lithium young man ;)

apparently there is a lot of graphite in it...... a little article for you too look at.
graphite rain and polluted water supplies(graphite).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...-rain-to-china

Green Batteries’ Graphite Adds to China Pollution
Don't Miss Out — Follow us on: Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube
by Elisabeth Behrmann
8:48 AM AEST
May 1, 2014

Graphite
Each electric car contains about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of graphite. Hybrid cars use about 10 kilograms, e-bikes 1 kilogram, laptops about 100 grams and mobile phones about 15 grams, according to Anthony Pandolfo from Monash University’s department of materials engineering. Source: De Agostini/Getty Images

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(Corrects headline of story published March 14 to insert industry context.)
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- As more environmentally conscious Americans do their bit to help clear the air by paying up for an eco-friendly Prius or a sporty Tesla, a damaging form of polluted rain is falling in China.
The link is graphite, a vital component in batteries used in Tesla’s Model S, Toyota’s plug-in Prius and other electric cars, as well as in electronic gadgets including iPhones. It’s mostly mined and processed in China where graphite pollution has fouled air and water, damaged crops and raised health concerns. Now, in response, Chinese authorities are closing dozens of graphite mines and processors in a bid for cleaner air even as global demand for the commodity is surging.
“There’s little question that the Chinese are between a rock and a hard place environmentally,” said Josh Landess, an advanced transportation analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “There’s an obvious irony that the disruption it’s causing is within the clean vehicle and transportation industry.”
The graphite outcry is the latest among environmental flashpoints in China that have ranged from lead poisoning to acid spills and “unbearable smog” in big cities. And while the clampdown may help improve the quality of China’s environment, it could also affect as much as a third of worldwide production.
Analysts disagree about the impact of a sharp decline of graphite supplies. Simon Moores, a London-based senior analyst at Industrial Minerals Data sees China’s tougher stance pushing graphite prices up as much as 30 percent this year. Others say even that rise would have an only minimal impact on the overall price of electric cars though it could slow the expected long-term decline of battery prices.
Supply Critical
The market for hybrid and electric cars such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid and Tesla Motor Inc.’s fully electric Model S as well as for e-bikes is forecast to surge this decade, propelled by demand for greener vehicles.
To keep up with demand, Tesla plans to invest $5 billion building a factory to produce battery packs for its luxury electric cars, it said last month. The project, dubbed the “gigafactory,” would be the world’s largest such operation, according to Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.
Each electric car contains about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of graphite. Hybrid cars use about 10 kilograms, e-bikes 1 kilogram, laptops about 100 grams and mobile phones about 15 grams, according to Anthony Pandolfo from Monash University’s department of materials engineering. The growth and diversity of electronic devices will propel demand for rechargeable batteries, according to Lux Research.
Double Demand
Tesla’s factory alone could double demand for graphite in batteries, requiring the equivalent of six new mines to come into production, according to Industrial Minerals’ Moores. Battery makers include Sony Corp., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and NEC Corp.
Instead, China is cutting back production as it battles more damaging environmental issues stemming from its reliance on coal for electricity and conventional automobiles.
As many as 55 graphite operations were suspended in Shandong province, which controls 10 percent of global supply, in December last year on a range of environmental breaches. The government intervention could easily extend to other poorly-run producers in Heilongjiang Province, said Credit Suisse Group AG analyst Michael Slifirski.
More damaging than the graphite rain, the silver dust that falls from carelessly managed mines, is the hydrochloric acid used in China to process raw graphite into a usable form. The acid is highly corrosive and when released untreated as waste water into the environment is harmful to all forms of life.
New Mines
No significant new mines have been added outside China since the 1980s, according to Industrial Minerals. That’s about to change. Concern about diminished supply from China is prompting a rush to secure other sources, including the Uley graphite mine in Australia that’s due to re-open this month after being shuttered for more than two decades because of rising output from China that depressed prices.
The demand for lithium-ion batteries, which use graphite, will drive up the total value of the rechargeable battery market by 52 percent to $41 billion by 2018, according to Cosmin Laslau, a Boston-based analyst at Lux Research Inc.
The lion’s share of growth will come from products such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle, as well as smart phones, Laslau said in a presentation.
A spokesman for Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, said in an e-mail that it is “important to maintain a stable supply of any raw material, and we work with our suppliers to do so.”
Tesla, Apple, Panasonic and Sony declined to comment on the potential effect of higher graphite prices for its batteries and production practices in China.
Supply Security
Seiichiro Toda, a Tokyo-based spokesman for NEC, said prices hadn’t increased at this point. Samsung said it didn’t expect an impact from capacity closures in Shandong province.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG last month said it had 11,000 orders for its fully electric four-door i3 car, while BYD Co., the Chinese automaker backed by investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is preparing to begin U.S. production of electric buses in March.
China’s graphite pollution crackdown is raising concern among battery makers over supply security, according to Chris Darby, chief executive officer of Valence Industries Ltd., the developer of the Uley in South Australia. The company already has commitments for initial output from stockpiles, he said.
“They can see demand growing,” Darby said. “They want certainty of supply, and they’re uncertain about the supply that’s coming out of China, or any of the other regions around the world.”
A 30-percent increase in graphite prices could increase the price of battery packs for electric vehicles by as much as 5 percent, according to Brian Warshay, a New York-based analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
“It would slow the expected decline in battery prices,” he said in an interview.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elisabeth Behrmann in Sydney at ebehrmann1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net; Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net Keith Gosman, Rick Schine



As for internal combustion engine replacement, if you could not buy a good second hand one for the landcruiser of which there's heaps of them.......for $1500 or 3k will probably get you a front cut, i see no reason to spend 20 k on a power unit ........ unless its a battery pack,

from the look of that article battery prices may climb, but time will tell.


i would not be surprised, on the other hand the land cruiser motor if its anything like my xr6 motor with a head gasget and some valve stem seals....... it will keep going and going ,
or like my 20 year old 4.0 l qaud cam v8 ls400 that still runs like a top and will still balance a glass of water on it, oh the joy of the ICE

at the end of the day we will not see eye to on this one , and that's fair enough, enjoy your Tesla.

[Davehoos]

E bikes. a relation has a bike shop in Germany.
telling us at a family gathering that E bikes had been a flop and commercial 3 wheelers that have big demand have had to be mass produced to lower the production showroom cost.

Had sold numbers of E bikes over the last few years now they are a liability, when they fail they are not repairable or serviceable, few failures are costing more than the sales profit.

On top of that new bike purchasers want E bike option so his regular bike sales has dropped.

[zilo]

Sorry Mik, your cut and paste is too boring to read.

[mik]

I get it ;).

[burnz]

Originally Posted by jpblue1000

So after 118 posts and plenty of time since the original post
Does anyone still think the tesla cant be charged with a standard home power supply?

JP

easily considering it only needs 18 amps at "full tilt"..

you could use 2~5 amp if you trickle charge..

fast charge , slow charge depends on when you need the car.

[GT2]

My understanding is that there is charging station at Star City Casino for patrons using the valet parking service.

[Grunter]

Pretty cool that significant features can be added via wi-fi software updates. Way of the future with a good portion of vehicles having wi-fi built in as standard these days.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/02/te...drives-itself/

Tesla Model S 6.1 Australian Hands On: New Software Means This Car Practically Drives Itself

Luke Hopewell



The best feature of the Tesla Model S isn’t what you think it would be. It’s not the insane acceleration, the luxurious interior or even that massive screen it’s packing. It’s the fact that if you buy one, you’re driving a rolling piece of tech that can be updated and made better with new software over time. I test drove the new software last weekend, which includes the funky Autopilot feature. The result? A Model S that essentially drives itself.

So, what is Tesla Autopilot? It’s a series of ultrasonic sensors (12 to be exact) attached to the car which can see everything within five metres of the vehicle in all directions. There’s also a forward-facing radar and a forward-facing camera to sense traffic in front of you and lock onto it. You also get a new smart braking system to stop you in your tracks if anything goes wrong in front. What it does is give you the ability to follow traffic around at any speed for a smooth auto-acceleration and auto-braking experience. You still have to steer, of course, but that’s to be expected.

In Layman’s terms? It’s cruise control 2.0.

We’ve experienced something similar on Audi vehicles before, but it’s never been as smooth or easy to use as it is on the Model S.



To activate the Autopilot, there’s a stalk on the left hand side of the steering wheel, underneath the indicator stalk. Push it down once and it keeps you at your current speed. Flicking the stalk up while the Autopilot is active increases your speed by 5km/h per flick, while depressing the stalk reduces it by the same amount. Activating Autopilot sees the car’s network of sensors fire up to track your location on the road, and more importantly, the location of other cars around you. It then “locks on” to the car in front and matches speed, acceleration and deceleration so you always maintain a consistent distance from its back bumper.

You can tell the system to keep a distance of anything from one car length up to seven car lengths. I imagine you’d only need seven car lengths if you were covertly surveilling someone, and if that’s the case, get a less conspicuous car.

Unlike other laser-guided cruise systems we’ve driven, the radar-guided, sensor-enabled Tesla Autopilot feature “sees” further ahead and almost anticipates the movement of traffic at speed.



For example, I jumped on the freeway and set the cruise to 120km/h (sorry, officer). That automatically triggers the Autopilot, which I told to lock-on to and follow the car in front, leaving a single car-length gap for safety. Not only did the Model S leave the required single car length, it also added a small cushioning distance which would be required to stop the car at that speed should something go wrong. It’s smart, and knows it’s going to take you longer to stop at 120km/h than it is at 60km/h, and adjusts the experience accordingly. It’s smarter, safer and more intelligent than you are.

It works at any speed, as well. While other cruise control systems shut off at under 40km/h, the Autopilot system stays locked on to its surroundings even at 2km/h crawling through Sydney’s notorious morning traffic. When you come to a stop, the Autopilot holds you in place so you don’t roll back or forward, and politely signals you when it notices that the forward car it’s tracking starts consistently moving away. “Tap accelerator pedal to resume”, it dings. Single tap and you’re back on the road, moving as fast or as slow as the traffic ahead.



It’s not a self-driving car, it’s a smarter car. It’s a feature that takes you from a full-time driver to an enthusiast. You can let the car accelerate and brake itself in boring traffic, while also taking over on the faster, bendier, more fun roads.

The only real issue we found with it was when the car in front of you started to decelerate in order to merge into a turning lane. The car tracks it all the way through to the turning lane, and triggers a pretty rapid deceleration in some circumstances which means you might have to take over so as not to slow the flow of traffic behind you. It’s not an issue unique to the Model S Autopilot, but one worth noting all the same.

Other features in software update 6.1 include a power consumption calculator, which allows you to set a destination in your GPS navigation software and know how much battery you’ll have left when you get there. It tells you if you won’t make it on your single charge, or if you need to slip into a more economical driving style along the way to save power. For someone like me who freaks out about charge level when my phone drops below 60 per cent battery, it’s a must-have and must-use feature.



Improvements continue right through to a better in-dash entertainment experience through TuneIn Radio and a better reversing camera system that measures objects around you to a distance of 25cm so you can get really close when moving into tight parking spaces.

Tesla is 100 per cent delivering on the promise of a driving experience that gets better over time with the Model S, and I can’t wait to see what’s next from this bonkers car.

[DBourne]

Went and saw a mate's Tesla on the weekend. Absolutely amazing piece of kit, and really requires an entirely new mindset when approaching it. I don't think I could leave behind the world of petrol and manual gearboxes, but you have to tip your hat to it, it is amazing!

Tesla (21 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

Show us the eng... oh.. wait..

Tesla (22 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

Tesla (9 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

Having an App on your phone that can control and monitor every aspect of the car, its location, live data etc is just mind blowing as well.

Tesla (1 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

Centre screen is massive, and once again, the information displayed, and the customisation available is out of this world.

Tesla (53 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

Tesla (17 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

LCD where the gauge cluster would normally be can show a multitude of screens, as you'd expect.

Tesla (18 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

Pop out door handles are a nice touch, and feel nice and solid. They sit flush with the body work when the car is locked, or you're driving along.

Tesla (27 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

Tesla (15 of 62) by SgtBourne, on Flickr

[GasoLane]

Nice pics (as always) Bourney

[DBourne]

Thanks mate.