2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5: New looks, wheels, seats, less noise | Hacker News Reader

2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5: New looks, wheels, seats, less noise

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53 pointsjeff1825 comments

I wish they'd unveil more details about the Model S sedan. I thought it was supposed to come out 2011, but this explains everything why it's pushed off.

If nothing else, they've demonstrated they can do cool and sexy quite well.

It looks a lot like a Lotus Elise to me -- which is no bad thing! Also, I wondered if this was deliberate, or whether the problem is lightweight sportscar design is heavily constrained? (Of course, taste is constrained too.)

It is a Lotus Elise with different fascias and interior. And powertrain of course. Tesla isn't really a car company, they are a powertrain company and in my opinion they should stay that way. It is where their strengths are, building cars is hard and expensive, and lots of other companies do it well. What the current car companies don't do is electric powertrains and all the controls that go with that.

It is based on the same chassis as the Elise and is assembled by them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster

If they ever do an all electric NASCAR that will be one quiet race with the exception of the air wrenches changing tires and automated battery replacement swapping.

Might be like digital cameras and the added shutter noise - speakers outside each car broadcasting pre-recorded engine noises based on a factor of electrical output and fuel load, plus some random number so the looped track doesn't sound like a looped track.

All electric Isle of Man motorcycle race "TT Zero" is already happening. Averaged nearly 100 mph for duration of 37.7 mile course. http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/06/motoczysz-isle-of-man-t...

Around Top Gear's test track, they were able to get IIRC about 30 minutes of full speed usage before he battery was completely drained, at which point it was a 6 hour recharge to top up the batteries again. Definitely not practical for any sort of extended racing series like NASCAR, etc.

Back of the napkin calc: NASCAR cars get 5 mpg, hold 22 gallon tanks --> 110 miles max range. Average speed of 170 mph --> a maximum of 39 minutes of racing.

If they currently pit every 35-39 minutes or so, it wouldn't be completely impractical to pit every 30 minutes or so: have pit crews do a quick swap of the electric batteries at the same time as a the tire change.

> have pit crews do a quick swap of the electric batteries

I think that's the impractical part...

How is it more impractical than changing the tires?

Well batteries are much much heavier and would likely be in the centre of the car for weight distribution, and you need to make the electrical connection. Changing a tyre during a race just takes a speed gun and one nut.

You just need to develop some sort of "liquid battery" and pump it in some sort of receptacle, or tank, in the car.

IIRC the Top Gear segment was "produced" to show the car out of juice... i.e. don't draw any battery life conclusions from Top Gear's methods!

This vehicle is priced at $101,500 after federal tax credit, according to Tesla's website. I don't think the article mentions it.

The high price makes the car less impressive and impractical. Create an affordable electric car and then I'm be impressed.

It seems wrong to subsidize a $100K sports car with a tax credit.

It'd be more efficient to tax bad things like carbon emissions than to subsidize good things like electric cars. If you've been paying attention to our political discourse lately, you already know how low the chances are of an effective version of that policy getting implemented.

Let's face it, this is not just another car company. They are selling a high-end luxury car -- but oh yeah, it's electric. It's almost hard to believe.

I hope their stock continues to do well.

They look hot. I would love to see a mass market version. Even a 50k model could potentially see wide adoption.

Quieter, eh? I had a chance to drive the original a while back and it was already pretty damn quiet.

It'll be interesting to see if they can beat what the Smart Roadster [1] delivered. My gut intuition is that Tesla hasn't the chops.

[1] http://www.google.com/search?q=smart+roadster

What? That's not an electric car...how is this related? Why not compare it to all sports cars ever built, which would definitely turn up some better cars than either the Tesla Roadster or the Smart Roadster?

uh oh, you expressed a negative opinion. you know they can't handle that.

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