[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by BADDASSC6

With the advances in solar power buying an electric car is a really attractive concept. Many places will let you charde for free now. Imagine no fuel charges. That woulda me this a really attractive fiscal choice. However, the model S 85 got hot in a third on a lap at the ring. it would be far from a fun car. I honestly would buy an electric self driving car.

Battery tech is advancing very very rapidly, though we're years away from them being truly competitive with a gas car. It's just massive amount of current and shit is going to get hot which in turn plays hell with the batteries. I would seriously consider a Model 3 if it's sexy and in the 30s for a DD.

Even IF you don't get free juice, your kwH charge, even in the People's Republic of Kalifornia is still quite bit less than gas energy. Your $/mile in a bad case is still quite a bit better.

Oh, and this all implies are grid, which is fairly pathetic, is going to have to get a massive upgrade in the not so distant future if electric cars are going to be truly viable.

Ultimately I see a lot of inductive roads and cars with relatively smaller efficient batteries. You just pick up power everywhere you go from the road itself, but that is WAY off. Maybe 30-50 years in my BS'n opinion.

[enkeivette]

Originally Posted by blackax

To bad that little generator would put out nowhere near enough power to drive the car. the model S uses 38 kWh per 100 miles

Well my thought was, exhaust the capacity, then charge it while at your location for a few hours. Not while driving.

And if charging to go 100 miles really takes a few days... Hard pass.


If I owned a home I'd look into buying a used natural gas civic. Fill up in your side yard for 72 cents a gallon, or whatever it is.

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by enkeivette

. . . If I owned a home I'd look into buying a used natural gas civic. Fill up in your side yard for 72 cents a gallon, or whatever it is.

I've thought about that too, especially when I was close to moving out to Riverside. I've even looked into conversions, but it's another case where doing it (legally) is very restricted.

[BADDASSC6]

Originally Posted by Vettezuki

Battery tech is advancing very very rapidly, though we're years away from them being truly competitive with a gas car. It's just massive amount of current and shit is going to get hot which in turn plays hell with the batteries. I would seriously consider a Model 3 if it's sexy and in the 30s for a DD.

Even IF you don't get free juice, your kwH charge, even in the People's Republic of Kalifornia is still quite bit less than gas energy. Your $/mile in a bad case is still quite a bit better.

Oh, and this all implies are grid, which is fairly pathetic, is going to have to get a massive upgrade in the not so distant future if electric cars are going to be truly viable.

Ultimately I see a lot of inductive roads and cars with relatively smaller efficient batteries. You just pick up power everywhere you go from the road itself, but that is WAY off. Maybe 30-50 years in my BS'n opinion.

The motors are huge too. We have some models that use 500 hp motors and they are giant easily weigh more than two diesel motors.

So right now if you are ok the grid then you're house looses power during black outs even if you have solar. It's done to protect utility workers from shock. It's only a matter of time until some micro switch or diode set up is used to prevent that. I definitely agree the cost saving is significant with solar if they can provide a competitively priced vehicle.

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by BADDASSC6

The motors are huge too. We have some models that use 500 hp motors and they are giant easily weigh more than two diesel motors.

So right now if you are ok the grid then you're house looses power during black outs even if you have solar. It's done to protect utility workers from shock. It's only a matter of time until some micro switch or diode set up is used to prevent that. I definitely agree the cost saving is significant with solar if they can provide a competitively priced vehicle.

I don't know what the legality of installing a switch into a solar setup is, but they already exist for homes. "Survivalist" types have them with their whole house generators. They automatically fire up the generator when grid feed goes down and switch to it, no backfeeding the grid. Some people install manual switches even. If the grid is down, before firing up your generator and plugging it into your panel, you throw a big manual switch like in the movies. If you don't do this and back feed the grid during an outage and a utility worker gets hurt and it's traced to you . . . you in fairly serious trouble.

A 500HP electric motor is goddamned ginormous! The ones in Teslas are much smaller and in each wheel(?).

Where it gets real interesting is the advancement of some of the nanomaterials. We're not that far off from materials that are many many times lighter (and stronger), meaning power requirements are smaller.

[Damian]

They should throw a solar panel on the roof of the car like the Fisker Karma.

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by Damian

They should throw a solar panel on the roof of the car like the Fisker Karma.

I think that barely generates enough power to operate some controls. It's for show mostly. Fine on a luxury model, doesn't really meet value equation criteria that this is aiming at as far as I can tell.

[Damian]

I bet it makes more power than you think. Was it in the 80's when they were doing those dolor powered only races across Australia? That was back then and solar technology has made a few improvements since then. Think about it, how often does it rain out here? 99.9999999999% of the days are however many hours of free power.

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by Damian

I bet it makes more power than you think. Was it in the 80's when they were doing those dolor powered only races across Australia? That was back then and solar technology has made a few improvements since then. Think about it, how often does it rain out here? 99.9999999999% of the days are however many hours of free power.

I learned that from a review. It's nothing much compared to what electric motors for what a full size car require. Panels, especially effecient ones, are bat shit crazy expensive/watt.

The cars you are referring to were money no object, covered in panels, extremely light, raced in full sun. These are regular heavy cars, small surface area, money very definitely an object, will be sold and used all over, etc.

[Damian]

They were purpose built for that by technology is so much better now then it was. Plus, if you park for awhile, it can be charging itself instead of having to constantly being plugged in.