I am very fond of the Tesla car and have been watching this company for some time. I also intend to buy one of these cars when the prices drop and the technology improves. That said i will agree that big business and the Government have control over battery technology. I say this because Nicola Tesla built an all electric car using a 31 Pierce Arrow that would do almost 100mph. When Nicola passed away what thoughts and idea's he did right down were all confinscated by the Government within hours of his death. Most thoughts and idea's Nicola kept in his head. This man was born way before his time and his designs/patents and idea's are used world wide every day. Everyone credits Thomas Edison for being the master of electricity, Nicola Tesla was the true genius and Edison could not hold a candle to this man. Scientist and inventors are still working on some of his idea's and are finally getting somewhere with them. We have all heard of teh Tesla coil and how it can transmit electricity through the air. This was one of Tesla's big dreams was to power homes and cars with no wiring. http://electricandhybridcars.com/index.php/pages/1931teslaautomobile.html
They look VERY nice in person. Pictures do not do these cars justice. One of the doctors at my hospital has one and half the people I have heard making comments about it are not even aware of it being an electric car. They think its just a really nice looking car. Seriously if you get the chance to get really close to one the fit and finish is excellent.
I really don't see why building an electric car that would do 100 mph is a big deal. Building one that will reliably run 250 miles and was affordable would be a breakthrough. BTW: It was the Westinghouse AC power grid that won out over Edison's DC system. Edison had some flops too.
The Westinghouse AC power grid was designed by Nicola Tesla. After Edison screwed Tesla out of a bunch of money he owed him, Tesla left Edison and went to work for Westinghouse. I was at a cruise-in a couple of weeks ago and this really cool looking car came through. Really quiet, too. It was a Tesla! First one I have seen in person. Apparently, there is at least one in Alabama...
I like the discussion, the cars, and do own stock in the company. I ran across this one in our parking lot yesterday. I am not sure that NO FUEL is correct though.
We are not there yet with the technology.. First off, forget batteries.. too heavy, limited capacity, toxic materials issues in both production and disposal. Sure, you can build some Volts and Leaf's, and a few exotics for the wealthy, but as was stated, the current electrical grid could in no way handle millions of electric cars all charging up at the same time. It would takes billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements, and new, efficient ways to produce electricity. As was touched on, to revolutionize the transport industry in this country, it will require a vehicle that converts energy from a cheap, easily obtainable source.. Let's look at history: The auto was invented in the late 1800's, and several different fuels were used.. everyone was searching for the answer at the time. Steam was well understood, but range was limited, and they were too complex and dangerous for the masses to operate. This relegated cars as toys for the ultra rich. Along came the introduction of the internal combustion engine, or should I really say.. the refinement of it. It converted cheap, easily handled energy (Petroleum based fuels) into heat energy, that was used to create motion. Henry Ford figured out how to build one for everybody, by inventing the assembly line. For the next revolution to happen, the technology to create electrical energy from an inert, easily obtainable (and hopefully renewable) fuel source has to be developed. In short, think of the "MR Fusion" on the time machine Delorean in Back to the Future II. They stuff organic matter into it to create energy. A fantasy in that movie, but fuel cell technology is most likely the answer, the issue is that you have to power it with something less toxic and hard to handle than the current fuels. I believe it will happen, but not in the lifetime of most of us reading this.
As he recharges using electricity generated mostly from fossil fuels... Not to mention all the oil consumed in building that car and every ounce of plastic in it...
The one I saw at the cruise-in in Fultondale was a metallic orange/red color. It could have been more orange than red... Did you go to this cruise-in two weeks ago?
While the the irony may or may not be lost on the owner, I still think it was a great plate to have made for an electric car. I don't think the majority of those that can drop $100k on a Tesla are buying them because they think they are environmentally green. More that they are a cool toy. As Jim mentioned, there is development going on with Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, which may be the answer to many of the drawbacks to battery powered electric vehicles. http://www.businessinsider.com/pro-con-future-of-hydrogen-fuel-cell-electric-vehicles-fcev-2013-4
The Roadmaster was down with leaky rear wheel cylinders. I hope to have it going to the Hoover Krispy Kreme cruise in Saturday I'll miss the evening cruise at Alabaster, I have a wedding party to chauffeur,
Just as the article states, or rather kind of skims, is it takes a crap ton of electricity to split the hydrogen out of water, the only truely economical source of vast quantities of hydrogen. IMO, the ultimate solution would be to replace most fuel refineries with mini-nuclear power plants thats sole purpose is to make electricity to turn water it into hydrogen and oxygen. Wouldn't even need to hook them to the power grid unless the plants had a surplus of power. I'm a fan of the hydrogen fuel cell technology, it's just bottle necked at the production level and our ability to produce it.
I have to work some OT Saturday but I plan to sneak away Saturday morning and hit the KK for a few minutes. I don't work too far away. I hope to be through working in time for the Alabaster cruise-in. Look for a black, '04 GTO...
I have no need to "suck up" to Jim. I have lived most of my life without "V8 Buick", but I think JW nailed it.
The answer to battery problems, yes. But we still have the pesky problem of where that electricity is going to come from.
Yah, to get hydrogen it takes a good amount of electricity to break the bond between H2 and O2, then you want to burn it in a rotating assembly that is 50% (at best) efficient in power delivery, that kind of defeats the purpose. Electric motors like those used in the Tesla are in the 90% efficient range. The sun is renewable, emits so much energy that we could never use it all, and that is a true never. When it runs out, it won't matter. Solar panels are improving quickly and though they are a little nasty for the environment during manufacture, once they are made they pretty much last forever or can be recycled. There are tons of advancements already coming in battery technology as well as cleaner and lighter batteries. Capacitors haven't even been utilized yet. Except that new Lambos use them for start/stop and it makes the 12V battery last the life of the car, because the battery isn't constantly under load and re-charge. Batteries in Prius' used as taxis have as much as 350,000 miles and counting on them. A bad battery can be taken apart and re-purposed, they are not just thrown in the dump. Most super cars now have hybrid power and are making in excess of 800 daily drivable hp that gets decent mileage. The electric drive solves the low end torque problem that these high revving cars normally face. One of them uses a battery that has twice the density and half the weight as the 'mainstream' Tesla battery. Piezo electric generators will probably not be advanced enough for practicality in our life time, but they are being worked on more now than ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddU4tcGIF6k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlBUB9RqY_I http://investors.maxwell.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=94560&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1740617
