Tesla Motors

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Socnorb11
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Re: Tesla Motors

Post by Socnorb11 »

IMADreamer wrote:
Socnorb11 wrote:
thrill wrote:I think it's very silly to complain about maintenance and charging stations not being available in non-major metro areas and that being the reason this won't work.

When you're releasing a totally new product that has never been sold before, you sell it where the people live and invest in infrastructure where those people are going to be using it. Then you expand outward. It's just a numbers game and there's really no other way to do it.
Agree completely.

My beef is that we all want to mock the Republicans for refusing to believe that global warming is an actual thing that we can help with, and then dismiss efforts of those who do try to make a difference. I guess we all want to address global warming, as long as it doesn't impact us directly........... like having to wait 30 minutes *gasp!* to re-charge our automobile.

Well if this was actually fighting global warming we might be able to make that argument but the reality is if you live in the midwest, or most of America really your power comes from fossil fuels. This car just trades gas for coal or natural gas.

If we are going to pretend we are serious about global warming we need to get serious about alternative electricity sources. Something like 35% of our electricity comes from coal, another 30 or so from natural gas. Renewables make up I think around 7%, let's call it 10% just for fun.

Like the Tesla because you like the car, or you like electricity but let's not kid ourselves it's made of plastic, rubber, lithium, and runs ons coal it's not in any way environmentally friendly.

We're making a lot of progress with alternate energies. We shouldn't be resistant to do the same with automobiles.

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Schlich
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Re: Tesla Motors

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Even though electric cars draw on dirty energy now, it's a lot easier to transition them to clean energy when it comes along. I wonder how emissions factors into things.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Tesla Motors

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

So, I started looking into Tesla more after this instead of just relying on periphery knowledge. Teslas look cool as [expletive], especially the console. They're super safe in crash tests. It's electric and relatively inexpensive compared to all the other electric cars. Those are the positives, as far as I can tell.

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pioneer98
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Re: Tesla Motors

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Schlich wrote:Even though electric cars draw on dirty energy now, it's a lot easier to transition them to clean energy when it comes along. I wonder how emissions factors into things.
The Wait But Why article about Tesla talked about this. Even in areas of the country with the dirtiest coal plants, the net emissions coming from an electric car would be similar to the emissions coming from some of the best gasoline powered cars. This is because power plants are more efficient at converting fuel into energy than the gasoline engine is. Power plants convert something like ~60% of fuel into energy, and gas engines only turn like 25% of the fuel into energy. So the gas engine uses more fuel and creates more emissions to do the same job.

This map shows an estimate as to the equivalent "miles per gallon" of emissions an electric car would put out via the power plant. In other words, driving an electric car in the Pacific Northwest would put out the same emissions (via the power plant) as a gasoline car that got 75 MPG.

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pioneer98
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Re: Tesla Motors

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Another key thing from that map is that 45% of the population gets energy clean enough that driving an electric car would be like driving a gas powered car with higher than 50 MPG, and a significant chunk of that is 75 MPG and above. Another 38% of the country would be above 40 MPG. The remaining areas only make up 17% of the population, and even those are all 34 MPG or higher.

Socnorb11
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Re: Tesla Motors

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I read today that Tesla built a new facility in Nevada, to produce the lithium batteries for their automobiles. The facility is powered by renewable energy sources.

Good for them.

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lukethedrifter
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Re: Tesla Motors

Post by lukethedrifter »

I just bought the Tesla of lawnmowers. I'm eager to try it out.
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tlombard
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Re: Tesla Motors

Post by tlombard »

I haven't mowed a lawn in years but I would love to give one a shot with that lawnmower. It just looks fast. I bet I could mow a golf course in under five minutes with that thing!

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IMADreamer
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Re: Tesla Motors

Post by IMADreamer »

lukethedrifter wrote:I just bought the Tesla of lawnmowers. I'm eager to try it out.
Image

Curious how that works out for you. I need one at my cabin. I've got very little to mow and when I bought the place I inherited this 30 year old mower that I can just barely keep running.

Socnorb11
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Re: Tesla Motors

Post by Socnorb11 »

lukethedrifter wrote:I just bought the Tesla of lawnmowers. I'm eager to try it out.
Image

Give us a report. I've wanted one of those things for awhile, but haven't bitten the bullet.

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