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Wireless charging will make a huge difference, I think. If you could just pull up your car to the lot, push "Sync" or whatever and then go inside and have a coffee and a donut while your car charges or whatnot, that would go a long way to making the experience actually superior to gasoline in terms of the fuel->vehicle experience. Similarly, if your car was trickle charging when you're at the mall or CVS or the ballpark or whatever. That would be cool.
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Feb 15, 2013 21:12
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It's not wireless, but quite a few car parks here have charging points.
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Feb 15, 2013 21:18
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duz posted:You seem to have confused CNN with a news organization. My mistake. 
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Feb 15, 2013 21:33
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It only takes two or three minutes to fill up a car at the moment. Depending on the time and location those few short minutes will still not be enough to stop queues forming behind pumps. What happens when the cars are sitting motionless for 45 minutes? I wonder how big these charging stations are going to be.
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Feb 15, 2013 21:34
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ozmunkeh posted:It only takes two or three minutes to fill up a car at the moment. Depending on the time and location those few short minutes will still not be enough to stop queues forming behind pumps. What happens when the cars are sitting motionless for 45 minutes? I wonder how big these charging stations are going to be. Well at present there aren't that many EVs being sold, and most are sold as second cars, so I imagine demand will be pretty light for a while.
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Feb 15, 2013 22:02
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ozmunkeh posted:It only takes two or three minutes to fill up a car at the moment. Depending on the time and location those few short minutes will still not be enough to stop queues forming behind pumps. What happens when the cars are sitting motionless for 45 minutes? I wonder how big these charging stations are going to be.  Edit: (That's a level 2, the level 3/superchargers are about 3 times as wide) They're quite small, small enough that around here they've been sticking them in the gaps between parking spots, where the handicap sign would go. You wouldn't need to have an equivalent to a gas station, you'd just have stores set a portion of their lots setup with chargers so you'd "fill-up" each time you park. Granted this only helps for in town driving, not long distance where you would need chargers on rest stops or something, but that will get better with improvements in batteries to the point where it won't matter that you have to stop for a half hour since you need to eat or whatever anyways. duz fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Feb 15, 2013 |
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Feb 15, 2013 22:15
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Yeah, I understand it's not an issue at the moment as there's so few of these cars around the supercharger demand is essentially zero. It would suck to have to wait for a space to free up for 30 minutes before even starting the 45 minute charge. I know if it took me 45 minutes to fill up my car I sure as hell wouldn't be hanging around for three quarters of an hour waiting for it to finish unless I was going to be fined for overstaying my welcome (these things are supposed to be free, right?).
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Feb 15, 2013 22:28
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grover posted:Is anyone marketing tow-behind generators as range extenders & extra storage space for EVs? Towing a trailer is a giant pain in the rear end and not many people would spend the money on a vehicle that needs a trailer to handle long range. It's just not a good solution, so it hasn't gotten much attention.
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Feb 15, 2013 22:46
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My solution of choice for long range trips is a Challanger R/T. I am carbon positive. I told my toyota guy I was cross shopping that and a prius plug in.
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Feb 16, 2013 00:02
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Suqit posted:That is what the Volt does. I thought the volt was like the new plug in prius in that there is a direct mechanical link between the engine and the wheels.
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Feb 16, 2013 01:24
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Sadi posted:I thought the volt was like the new plug in prius in that there is a direct mechanical link between the engine and the wheels. There is above 60 or 75mph(i forget which) for efficiency reasons, but there is no transmission and such, the engine cannot directly power the car in the traditional sense.
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Feb 16, 2013 01:33
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grover posted:Let's face it- if you want to drive your Tesla on a track, unless you live like 2 miles away, you're going to to flatbed it there and back. No sense dragging around a heavy- and 99% of the time unnecessary- engine for daily commuting, though. I bet richer tracks will install fast chargers. You drive there, run easy toward the end of your sessions, and charge in between.
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Feb 16, 2013 01:44
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Powershift posted:There is above 60 or 75mph(i forget which) for efficiency reasons, but there is no transmission and such, the engine cannot directly power the car in the traditional sense. I know this is kind of a derail but my understanding is the engine is hooked up to the planetary gear set quite similar to the Prius so that there can be a direct mechanical link to the wheels.
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Feb 16, 2013 02:00
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Sadi posted:I thought the volt was like the new plug in prius in that there is a direct mechanical link between the engine and the wheels. The engine acts as a generator. Under emergency situations the ICE can power the wheels but in practicality it never will.
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Feb 16, 2013 04:26
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The volt uses a planetary gearset, same as the prius. Two electric motors and one internal combustion engine. It runs the two electric motors until the battery is at the minimum charge level(25-50 miles), then the ICE kicks in and provides power and charging to maintain battery level. It won't charge the battery much beyond the minimum level, it shuts off at stoplights and long downhill coasting. Using a gas engine to run a 9x% efficient generator to power a 9x% efficient motor is silly when you can power the wheels directly. The only good reason to do that in a production car would be packaging, like if you had a detachable engine for long range use. oxbrain fucked around with this message at 10:23 on Feb 16, 2013 |
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Feb 16, 2013 10:17
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oxbrain posted:Using a gas engine to run a 9x% efficient generator to power a 9x% efficient motor is silly when you can power the wheels directly. Not if your overall efficiency rises due to running the ICE tuned for this load & rpm. Also, continue running the ICE / generator when you're in stop/go & dumping the excess power into batteries, pulling it back when you hoof it.
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Feb 16, 2013 21:20
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I did it. I ordered a Fusion Energi. 
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Feb 16, 2013 23:33
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Recently I saw a Holden somethingorother Hybrid. It's the first time I've seen a hybrid in person. Never seen a straight EV. Just thought I'd say because to me it was kind of exciting because i thought I'd never see one in the wild in Australia.
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Feb 17, 2013 00:24
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I saw my first Telsa Model S on a suburban Chicago street. Still had dealer plates and plastic on the seats. It was so, so sexy.
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Feb 17, 2013 03:55
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Suqit posted:I did it. I ordered a Fusion Energi. Now what we need is for Ford to offer radar cruise control in the C-Max. After all, they are trying to compete with the Prius V, and their radar unit is half as expensive as most others.
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Feb 18, 2013 01:47
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http://strassenversion.kinja.com/tesla-road-trip-debunking-the-new-york-times-247951069How Tesla handles software problems when their userbase is so small posted:a short while later Tesla called back and told the owner that they had detected the problem and that they were working on a custom coded version of 4.3 (an unreleased firmware update) to allow him to continue on. They asked if he was willing to be a beta tester, and he enthusiastically accepted. Some 20 minutes later they pushed the update to the car and told him to try again. Somehow the update had locked the door to the plug connection and another call was placed. They saw the bug and pushed another version of the code to the car. This time it worked I wonder if this is what befell Broder's car. quote:There was nothing but appreciation for the customer service from the owner and excitement at being able to continue on the journey.
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Feb 18, 2013 19:12
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So basically their demographic is PC gamers (like me). Sweet!
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Feb 18, 2013 19:26
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That's hilarious. In an effort to prove a journalist wrong about an article in which he had issues with their car, nine identical cars attempt to make the same completely unremarkable journey. At the first charging station one of them breaks enough that it's stranded for an hour while engineers push out updated firmware.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:27
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ozmunkeh posted:That's hilarious. In an effort to prove a journalist wrong about an article in which he had issues with their car, nine identical cars attempt to make the same completely unremarkable journey. At the first charging station one of them breaks enough that it's stranded for an hour while engineers push out updated firmware. I'd argue it's more truthful than anything Broder did, though. Both sides look weak in this whole thing but I still think he comes out worse since he doesn't really have any explanation for why the chargers were disconnected when they were.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:35
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IOwnCalculus posted:I'd argue it's more truthful than anything Broder did, though. Both sides look weak in this whole thing but I still think he comes out worse since he doesn't really have any explanation for why the chargers were disconnected when they were.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:53
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IOwnCalculus posted:I'd argue it's more truthful than anything Broder did, though. Both sides look weak in this whole thing but I still think he comes out worse since he doesn't really have any explanation for why the chargers were disconnected when they were. I thought he was on the phone with Tesla reps almost constantly throughout his adventure, claiming he plugged and unplugged the car exactly as instructed? I don't remember the rather petulant Tesla response denying this. Maybe it did - I don't remember. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong. Anyway, it's pretty telling that of the ten cars that attempted a simple journey one ended up on a flatbed and another broke and had to have engineers on the phone sending multiple firmware updates.
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Feb 18, 2013 22:27
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ozmunkeh posted:I thought he was on the phone with Tesla reps almost constantly throughout his adventure, claiming he plugged and unplugged the car exactly as instructed? I don't remember the rather petulant Tesla response denying this. Maybe it did - I don't remember. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong. Anyway, it's pretty telling that of the ten cars that attempted a simple journey one ended up on a flatbed and another broke and had to have engineers on the phone sending multiple firmware updates. I like how one of them took a cross country trip and took to refilling his car at RV parks. And even he had issues with a cross county trip and he is an engineer. I also find it a bit odd that it took them 10 days to get from Portland to NOLA, a speed even slower than my father in his 1944 Willys Jeep with a 4 banging flathead in it. Still it's rather neat to see them working all the bugs out. Also did you know the first car to win a race in the US was electric?
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Feb 19, 2013 04:55
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ozmunkeh posted:I thought he was on the phone with Tesla reps almost constantly throughout his adventure, claiming he plugged and unplugged the car exactly as instructed? I don't remember the rather petulant Tesla response denying this. Maybe it did - I don't remember. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong. Broder said, "hey, I've been charging for a while and show 30mi range. What's up? Can I go?" He said the reps said, "you can get going -- the batteries will come up to temp a bit more and give you the range you need." So he took off and indeed got more than 30mi. To my knowledge, Tesla didn't respond about whether the Tesla reps (whom he named) had indeed given him that advice.
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Feb 19, 2013 04:56
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InterceptorV8 posted:Also did you know the first car to win a race in the US was electric? I think the first car over 100mph was electric too.
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Feb 19, 2013 05:00
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DJ Commie posted:I think the first car over 100mph was electric too. Nope and the first car to do a mile a minute (60mph) was a Ford built car with none other than Barney Oldfield behind the wheel.
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Feb 19, 2013 05:02
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I just bought a Volt today. I couldn't pass up the insane-o President's Day lease thing they had going in LA. Wish me luck with it not catching fire. I might also be able to answer some questions after I drive it some more if anyone's curious. It's the basic 2013 model.
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Feb 19, 2013 05:07
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InterceptorV8 posted:I like how one of them took a cross country trip and took to refilling his car at RV parks. And even he had issues with a cross county trip and he is an engineer. I also find it a bit odd that it took them 10 days to get from Portland to NOLA, a speed even slower than my father in his 1944 Willys Jeep with a 4 banging flathead in it. Still it's rather neat to see them working all the bugs out. Also did you know the first car to win a race in the US was electric? People can't get over the whole range stigma with electric cars. Honestly 120 mile range should be more than enough to make an electric vehicle capable of meeting a LARGE portion of people's driving need 90 to 95% of the time. For the other times when the 120 mile range won't work for these people then it's easy to have another car available to fill in the gap. So what one of the Model S has problems getting across the country? That's not what an ev was designed to do. EV's are designed to meeting a large chunk of the population's driving needs MOST of the time with as little maintenance as possible while being better for the environment. And frankly, the Leaf, the roadster, and Model S all have the range to accomplish that mission.
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Feb 19, 2013 09:34
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weese36 posted:I just bought a Volt today. I couldn't pass up the insane-o President's Day lease thing they had going in LA. With a 2013 model, you shouldn't have to worry about the fire thing. My parent's 2012 model though... When they bought it, they found these parts under the trunk area. When they asked the dealer what they were for, the dealer realized they were for the battery recall/strengthening that they neglected to do before selling them the car.
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Feb 19, 2013 14:43
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What are people paying for Volts? They have 0% for 72 months and $3,000 rebate on the 2013s. I swore not to buy a chevy ever again that was built after 1957, but these are as cheap as a plug in prius with close to 4 times the electric range. Maybe I should lease it so I can just give it back before parts start falling off.
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Feb 19, 2013 15:43
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How's the Volt stack up against the Fusion Energi? The EV range goes Volt > Plugin Energi > Plugin Prius right?
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Feb 19, 2013 17:33
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Elephanthead posted:What are people paying for Volts? They have 0% for 72 months and $3,000 rebate on the 2013s. I swore not to buy a chevy ever again that was built after 1957, but these are as cheap as a plug in prius with close to 4 times the electric range. Maybe I should lease it so I can just give it back before parts start falling off. Best deal I could find was ~35k with 0% over 72 months to buy and for the lease it was 2850 down and 199 a month for 36 months (which after all taxes and fees is more like 3850 down and 217 per month). I did have to drive about an hour and a half to a dealer in North L.A., cause no one around me was matching that (I think the more standard lease was 299mo).
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Feb 19, 2013 18:28
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Squibbles posted:How's the Volt stack up against the Fusion Energi? The EV range goes Volt > Plugin Energi > Plugin Prius right? Also isn't the 2013 Volt like 5 miles greater range than the 2012? Or was that 2012 over 2011?
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Feb 19, 2013 18:51
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Coredump posted:People can't get over the whole range stigma with electric cars. Honestly 120 mile range should be more than enough to make an electric vehicle capable of meeting a LARGE portion of people's driving need 90 to 95% of the time. For the other times when the 120 mile range won't work for these people then it's easy to have another car available to fill in the gap. So what one of the Model S has problems getting across the country? That's not what an ev was designed to do. EV's are designed to meeting a large chunk of the population's driving needs MOST of the time with as little maintenance as possible while being better for the environment. And frankly, the Leaf, the roadster, and Model S all have the range to accomplish that mission. Hey, I'm not the one that took it cross country to prove something.
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Feb 19, 2013 21:41
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Squibbles posted:How's the Volt stack up against the Fusion Energi? The EV range goes Volt > Plugin Energi > Plugin Prius right? That's right. Volt is 40 miles, Energi 21, Prius 11. I wanted the Volt but it only seats 4 and my wife hated it and it will be her car. After looking though, the Fusion is the nicest car of all of them imo.
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Feb 19, 2013 22:16
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Coredump posted:People can't get over the whole range stigma with electric cars. Honestly 120 mile range should be more than enough to make an electric vehicle capable of meeting a LARGE portion of people's driving need 90 to 95% of the time. For the other times when the 120 mile range won't work for these people then it's easy to have another car available to fill in the gap. So what one of the Model S has problems getting across the country? That's not what an ev was designed to do. EV's are designed to meeting a large chunk of the population's driving needs MOST of the time with as little maintenance as possible while being better for the environment. And frankly, the Leaf, the roadster, and Model S all have the range to accomplish that mission. I will absolutely agree with the idea that 120 miles of range should be more than enough for a majority of drivers a majority of the time. However, the Leaf's official rated range is only 73 miles per the EPA - not even 2/3 of that. The worst-case scenario for a new Leaf can result in as little as ~60 miles of range (winter, stop and go, heater on) and that's before you even account for battery degradation... which would leave me rolling home with <10mi of range every night without running a single errand. 120 miles of range, however, gives me headroom for both any number of errands as well as blasting the A/C as needed and still coming home with plenty of battery to spare, even after the battery degrades. Which brings up another point - if you come home with that battery near-zero every day, you're wearing it out far more than if you were able to get everything done in half the charge.
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Feb 19, 2013 22:42
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