[benu9714]

Electric vehicles only partially reduce the problem of greenhouse gases by shifting the burning of fuel to a more efficient and distant place, viz. a fossil fuel power plant.

The real solution will come only when power is produced without burning fuel and stored in a manner that is accessible to a moving vehicle. This means solar/wind/hydro power and Li-Ion batteries/capacitors/electroysed hydrogen.

I am hoping to see, in my lifetime, a cost-efficient solution to this problem.

[aryayush]

Tesla is working quite speedily towards attacking this problem from all fronts. Besides selling electric cars, they've set up a global network of solar powered charging stations for their cars, they install solar roofs on your house, will sell you a battery to store the generated energy and are even doing custom, large scale battery installations to power entire cities.

The mainstream adoption of electric vehicles is going to be a crucial step in moving towards a world that runs entirely on renewable energy.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by Turbojc

A crazy vehicle indeed, but the torque figure seems slightly misleading.
...

Thanks for this. I was almost feeling bad about the rear tyres. That said, its the Tesla Semi looks to be game changer, a million mile breakdown warranty, unbrekable windshield, central driving position and performance! Without load it licks a Golf GTI clean! And all this before we get to safety (impossible to jack knife) and autopilot which is becoming more advanced and more autonomous as I write this.

World is at the cusp and I have fear and admiration in equal measure. It will be fascinating to see where we would be at in the next 10 years or so. India on the other hand needs to do something drastic if they have to feed 1.3 billion people. We need our own Elon Musk.

[volkman10]

If you think 0 to 60 MPH in 1.9 seconds just isn’t quite quick enough, then Tesla CEO Elon Musk Elon Musk has the answer to that - Get the "special option package.”

How much “next level” is there? 0 to 60 MPH in perhaps 1.7 seconds. 10,000 pound-feet of torque maybe? With the base Tesla Roadster already raising the bar, we can’t even begin to imagine how much higher it goes with the performance-enhancing “special option package.”

link

[Mission_PGPX]

nice looking beauty i must say. no offence but i will feel like i am driving a bigger toy, just the way my daughter drives her merc in my house. The point is, whats the fun of driving if there is no engine and no exhaust note. even the bullet trains now days reach over 350 kmph.

[nishsingh]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Rumour has it that it is a distraction from the current production problems plaguing the Model 3. Introduce this concept and distract the press

If true, we must bow down to Tesla
Model 3 production actually started only in the mid of this year, and Tesla would have created a competition-beating concept (actually a production vehicle) in only 4 months!

[sri_tesla]

Its funny to read some of the naysayers doubting the Roadster numbers and to the ones who are calling its just a distraction to Model 3 production issues.

Here are some of the facts about Tesla:

• Model S P100D is already on sale for more than an year and does 0-60 mph in 2.275 seconds. Its 4 door family sedan that weights 2,250 Kgs. Not a sports car. It beats many of those super cars.

• Initial Model 3 and Tesla production targets were to reach 500,000 (5 lakh) vehicles by 2020. After the huge no of pre-orders of Model 3s at the reveal in March 2016, they revised those targets by 2 years to 2018. They are facing issues to reach those revised targets and announced recently about 3 months delay.

• They sold more than 150,000 Model S vehicles and around 50,000 Model X vehicles in the last 5 years. Average price of these vehicles is around $100,000. Model S is the best selling vehicle in its segment in US for the last 3 years.

• They setup 7,500 super chargers at more than 1000 supercharger locations in all the markets they are selling. Some of those locations are even having 40 to 50 chargers.

• They are back investing every penny they are getting by selling Model S and X. In Q3 alone they spent $1.1 billion (Rs 7,500) on expanding Model 3 production, superchargers etc...

[rageshgr]

Insane car! Have to see what the production car is like. 10,000 Nm is that a ship??

Well I always prefer a soulful, mechanical chirpy Internal Combustion Engine, but if this is the future of the electric car, then I am not complaining at all.

Imagine Jeremy reviewing this! "The acceleration is so brutal, my eyes are behind my head and I can see the rear without turning my head"

[nishsingh]

Originally Posted by Mission_PGPX

nice looking beauty i must say. no offence but i will feel like i am driving a bigger toy, just the way my daughter drives her merc in my house. The point is, whats the fun of driving if there is no engine and no exhaust note. even the bullet trains now days reach over 350 kmph.

Embrace the future!

Faster but boring electric cars are the future. Cars will be all but travelling and not driving. No fun, but will get the job quickly done.

[AdiSolEn]

Originally Posted by aryayush

Tesla is working quite speedily towards attacking this problem from all fronts. Besides selling electric cars, they've set up a global network of solar powered charging stations for their cars, they install solar roofs on your house, will sell you a battery to store the generated energy and are even doing custom, large scale battery installations to power entire cities.

The mainstream adoption of electric vehicles is going to be a crucial step in moving towards a world that runs entirely on renewable energy.

It is indeed a stupendous achievement by Tesla! Going from scratch to this in 15 years is truly commendable! However, I won't take everything that Elon Musk says about the future as true. His views on solar energy and his approach to it is partially correct, not entirely! Also, please understand that the world cannot run completely on renewables alone! We need conventional sources to meet our energy demands! Not even in the most optimistic of scenarios is it possible (sorry for being off-topic).

But coming to this car, if and when it becomes a reality, it is going to be insane to say the least! Exciting days ahead indeed!

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by AdiSolEn

It is indeed a stupendous achievement by Tesla! Going from scratch to this in 15 years is truly commendable! However, I won't take everything that Elon Musk says about the future as true. His views on solar energy and his approach to it is partially correct, not entirely! Also, please understand that the world cannot run completely on renewables alone! We need conventional sources to meet our energy demands! Not even in the most optimistic of scenarios is it possible (sorry for being off-topic).

But coming to this car, if and when it becomes a reality, it is going to be insane to say the least! Exciting days ahead indeed!

That is a misconception. A single bolt of lightning from a cloud can power a city the size of Mumbai for a whole year! Only if we know how to store and harness it. Likewise 10 mins of sunlight recieved on the earth is enough to light up the world for a few months, if we could tap all of it. Currently we have no means of fully harnessing natural/renewable resources on a mass scale, but it doesn't mean we can't do it in the future. Calling for fossil fuel usage based on current technology is like a 18th century man saying the world cannot run without steam and coal, may seem realistic then and certianly laughable now.

[The Rationalist]

I was like most here who thought change would be bad. How wrong could I have been! I was driving a manual car for one and half decades and thought Automatics would be boring to death. But after driving an automatic for 2 years, I'm happy with it.

I do miss the way I could shift the gears and all, but if you are owning the right kind of car, an automatic can be fun to drive. I don't have a reason to think it would be different with an electric car. If BMW and Ford can give the same handling in their electric cars, I would have no issues in owning one.

And the conventional energy source is not an unending source. Besides we don't have any right to destroy this blue planet, we have to ensure our future generations can sustain here till they find a way out of this planet if at becomes uninhabitable at some point in future,which I wish don't happen.

[sandx]

Originally Posted by rageshgr

Imagine Jeremy reviewing this! "The acceleration is so brutal, my eyes are behind my head and I can see the rear without turning my head"

That's one witty line.

As overheard: Tesla, they won't even let you drive the car, all's automatic.

Makes me remember the scene from i-robot when the leading lady castigates the protagonist (read will smith) when he takes control of the car from the auto-pilot mode. A fantasy to be realized soon enough then.

[AdiSolEn]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

That is a misconception. A single bolt of lightning from a cloud can power a city the size of Mumbai for a whole year! Only if we know how to store and harness it. Likewise 10 mins of sunlight recieved on the earth is enough to light up the world for a few months, if we could tap all of it. Currently we have no means of fully harnessing natural/renewable resources on a mass scale, but it doesn't mean we can't do it in the future.

Dear Sir, with the risk of going off-topic, I would like to point out that what you say is absolutely true about the natural energy that is available to us and its quantum!You are also correct about our shortcomings in harnessing it. However, the reason I say that conventional sources will be required is due to certain limitations from the thermodynamic point of view and physical limitations of renewable energy at present and in the foreseeable future!What is indeed the need of the hour is a combination of energy efficiency+renewables to ultimately increase the contribution of renewable sources in the total energy mix!This is going to take considerable efforts and time to achieve!

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Calling for fossil fuel usage based on current technology is like a 18th century man saying the world cannot run without steam and coal, may seem realistic then and certianly laughable now.

Also, I am more than sure that I am not referring to fossil fuel usage in that sense! If it came across otherwise, I must read twice before posting! Conventional energy can mean everything from biomass to coal to nuclear, and debating which is more unsustainable than the other surely deserves a thread of its own!

[arunrajk81]

It's time for 0-60 will be lesser than 60-0.
As of now Tesla's P100D can do 0-60 in 2.3 Secs and can beat Dodge Challenger Hellcat in quarter mile drag Race which was the fastest 4 seater car in Production earlier.
Any distance over quarter mile Hellcat will beat Tesla because Petrol engine start building up torque as RPM goes up.