Enough LiPo batteries to power this car for 250 miles is gonna cost a lot. Sure they're off the shelf but that's the whole shelf and then some. Also the body looks pretty hot for an electric car. The Prius is starting to look like the friend with the "great personality".

I would make sweet love to that all night and give it little RC car babies.

*sigh* I can not wait for someone to figure out how to mass produce batteries that can power something like that for a fraction of the cost.

batteries? come on people! Batteries have a charge-life span... a short one. Its like we haven't learned anything from the past. When is the lure of a battery powered car going to fade in the minds of consumers?! We've had the same dream for 30+ years... how much is charging this puppy going to cost you on your electric bill?

On the other hand, I can appreciate the low (or non) emissions, and performance. It does look pretty hot, not like it came from mars. I want new technology, not regurgitated technology. Think different for a change!

So after I drive for 250 miles I will need to sit for 3.5 hours before I can go again?

Sure everyday driving I could plugin at the end of the day and not care, but long distance this could double travel time.

Yeah, 250 miles...on the EPA's highway cycle. So, what, about 120 in real life? Even less if you show off the 0-60 performance.

It's not even all that pretty, if viewed from a non-PR angle.

We should be thinking diesel. If Audi can win Le Mans with a diesel, it should be good enough for your daily driver. Then we can start looking at fuel cells, and maybe electric.

Geisrud makes a good point, and that is assuming that you have brought along the 220volt charging unit that they talk about in the article. The typical 110volt travel adapter takes much longer as they claim. So a long road trip really is not a feasible idea in this car.
But I wouldn't turn one down.

at 100K tht's actually not too bad of a price... but the 3.5 hours charging time really kills.... unless u add solar panels so it can charge while driving... they need to introduce something where once the car is running the momentum from the wheels should be used to generate power to recharge the batteries.

deziner,
NiMH batteries have a long lifespan IF you carefully manage the discharge-recharge cycle (Toyota warrants 8 years). I believe Li-on is even better.

The electricity to recharge an electric car is cheap, way less than gasoline. The Wired mag article says "Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile".

Electric cars are perfect apart from the low energy density per pound of batteries. That leads to weight which leads to low range, which isn't a problem for two-car garages though GM and oil companies want you to think so.

chigga,
A solar panel doesn't generate much power. I have 9 panels each the size of a big window on my roof producing if I'm lucky a total of 1600 Watts. So there's no way solar cells on a car can power it, at best they could recharge it taking many hours or days. Look at the "cars" in solar challenge races: huge bodies covered with panels struggling to move one rider and a flimsy frame.

You can't power a car from its momentum, that's perpetual motion. You can recover energy when braking and nearly all hybrids and battery-only cars do so.

Power and energy are different, "density" can mean a lot of things, and cost depends on what you're measuring. Don't fight physics.

I love the comment regarding the Prius looking like the friend with great personality ;-)

Solar panels on the car can't generate enough to keep it going as noted by another commentor. Telsa is working with solar panel companies to provide an option where you get solar panels installed that put enough power into the grid to recharge the car overnight as you pull power off the grid - essentially a solar power car but with a home-based solar station. You could put the solar power into batteries that then charge the car and be completely independent of the grid, but why not just use the grid as a big power reservoir from which you can make deposits and withdrawls.

The Tesla Roadster is not positioned as a car for a road trip. Besides the limited mileage and charge time, it doesn't have much luggage capacity and would feel a little confined for most people on a long trip. However most people drive less than 50 miles per day or less and it's perfect for that kind of use. The day will come when there is 500 mile range and a national infrastructure of charge ports which will make electric cars more practical for road trips.

Life span of the Telsa Roadster battery pack is expected to be 100,000 miles or 5 years. Battery prices will come down substantially during that time.

Perhaps solar panel-topped garages could conjure up enough juice to handle the day to day recharging. Not a cheap solution, but it is feasible.

I personally think the best solution would be a turbo diesel/ electric hybrid car, but what do I know.

Several years ago I read where a man had a small windmill mounted in the back of his pick-up truck, and used it to generate power for his truck. Wouldn't something on this order work here?

see the above comment on perpetual motion.

I've always found it interesting when people talk about 'zero emissions' vehicles that they may be very wrong about that. For an electric vehicle, does it produce ozone? Are there emissions of oxidized material or fibers from the braking system? More importantly, electricity does not fall out of the sky (well it does sometimes, but that kind is hard to charge a battery with). It comes from a nuclear plant, or hydroelectric facility, or coal or oil fired plant, or from some other tangible source. If your electric car, with all of its engineering marvels is getting its charge from a coal plant (not unlikely) then you have a COAL powered car, and it might be a worse polluter than anything powered by gasoline!
Another thing overlooked by some proponents of technology are what are called 'bads' (as opposed to 'goods') by some economists - the byproducts, waste, leftovers from manufacturing, and ultimately the worn out product itself (whether it's a cellphone or a cruise ship). By rights these have to be included in the total cost (and I don't mean just the monitary cost - this includes damage to the planet we live on)of any product, but seldom is. What I mean by this, is to make a real comparison between, say, a car powered by lithium ion batteries, and one powered by a cast aluminum engine block, you should include all of the 'bads' (including energy costs in manufacturing) from start to finish of the life cycle of the vehicles.

I'm not suggesting that this is easy, rather that things are not always as simple as they seem at first look, and one should always be a bit sceptical of fancy new answers. The new sewing machine powered by cosmic rays and good thoughts may indeed be terrific, but the hidden costs might be insupportable.

- Dougall in Canada

my electric bill is already 45,000 dollers i don't need to pay another 100,000 for the car and then another 100,000 for the electric bill

Try reducing the batteries to 300-600 and couple the car with a small air cooled diesel engine. You could achieve the same, or better, results with a much lighter frame, drive to and from work every morning (without any direct heat engine assistance) and still take long road trips when needed. U.S. auto makers have totally missed the advantages of disconnecting drive engines from the electric components. Perhaps they are not that interested in a car that achieves over 100 mpg plus??

you jest hold one second ther sonny. ah don't care bout yer so cald "pertual motshion" but mah buddy has an 87 datsun that has 2 fans mounted on backward on his roof and he says generate enough power so that he hasn't filled her up since the first Bush president.

Ya crazies. It's a sports car. If you want to be energy practical go get a bicycle and shut your traps. Some of us want to go 0-60 as fast as we can. We call that fun.

Zoom-zoom-zooma-zoom. (not a Mazda reference)

i am sorry you all think about the same thing with the batteries in the car.If you should have learned anything is that this company has thought outside the box ,while building this dream car,its time to think outside the box again,and go with a new motor that doesnt need batteries.This new motor is run off of magnetism.Yes this motor does need a little help to get going,but besides that it will run off itself.whithout having to charge it

This company in all aspects,has built this car by thinking outside the box.Its to bad you guys are all still stuck in the box.There is a new motor out there that is run on magnetism.The idea of this motor is so simple,and it can give you bone cracking torque,without having to charge it or add any fluids to keep it running.Its time we stop trying to improve on fuel and electric motors , that have been invented over a hundred years ago,Its time to think outside the box again,and throw all the old ideas in the trash

i want to design a magnent motor if someone has a patent on it please let me know

magnents i thought of without help on my own

i have so many inventions that are major contributions to the world but i cant afford to make them if i dont within 10-30 years all of them or most will already be made this car is nice and perfect for me exept the price drop that down and i'll get one or two

I'm glad to see this car become available if for no other reason it draws attention to evolving electric car technology. It certainly is just a start, but if even half ways successful who knows where it might lead. There will be a lot of engineers and even hobbyists looking to improve on this.