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* Posts by David

15 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jan 2008

Hydrogen motoring too heavy for pundit

David
Paris Hilton

A few extra substations...

@anonymous coward.

"At any given filling station you may see a dozen cars being fuelled at any one time. Does anybody really believe that the national grid can cope with this? In order for plug ins to be a real world solution we need a massive upgrade of our electrical infrastructure starting with a whole lot more generating capacity, working through the grid to carry all that extra current right down to the massive cables feeding every "filling" station. Is this going to happen? Who is going to fund it?"

Do you really think our national grid can cope with 4 times as much demand to make all the hydrogen you envisage?

What's harder and more expensive to install, a national hydrogen infrastructure or a few extra 11kV grid connections? The latter is pretty easily added wherever you have a new row of shops or houses. The latter will cost millions per station and probably have the NIMBYs out in force.

Paris, for all the people that think hydrogen is the answer.

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David
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Nice to see a motoring journalist who gets it...

Ahem, Top Gear.

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Tesla names Model S rollout date

David
Boffin

Dates

Yeah the gearbox got fixed...

The date it will be unveiled is actually the *26th* of March.

You will be able to sign up and put a deposit down straight away, but the cars won't be in production for a couple of years.

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Tesla announces S, unwraps Sport

David
Boffin

Transmission

Was fixed ages ago. There are ~150 cars on the road now with fixed, production transmission.

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BBC: Top Gear Tesla didn't run out of juice

David
Boffin

Even now Top Gear's myths are taking hold...

@ Rusty Shackleford

The Tesla already does 200 miles on a charge, just not when you are caning it around a track with a heavy right foot. See http://www.teslamotors.com/blog4/?p=70

@David Dingwall

The duration of charge wasn't a fair point. Clarkson claimed 16 hours. That is only true *if* you have to charge from a normal 13A socket, but the car can be charged in 3 hours on its home charger and 45 minutes when Tesla release a three-phase charger. OK - so it is not petrol station speeds, but you can at least have lunch while it charges up.

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Tesla takes Top Gear test to task

David
Boffin

Electric race car with 45 second battery change

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/12/18/launched-wx10-t-all-electric-race-car/

Just as Jeremy Clarkson complains about the Tesla charge time, West Race Cars go an launch a new electric racer designed to have its batteries changed in 45 seconds. Don't buy two Teslas Jeremy, take another set of batteries to the track.

This is a very interesting development. If racing improves the breed, then bring it on.

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David
Black Helicopters

Why Tesla will have the last laugh

Carniphage sums up the problem with hydrogen really well. It has to go through two more conversion processes and that soaks up 4 times more electricity as just charging a battery.

Battery cars will beat hydrogen in one of two ways:

1) Rapid recharging - either by swapping out the battery or through high-power chargers. Both are going to happen in the near future and rapid rechargers can be installed anywhere there is three-phase power. Own a shop or restaurant and want a nice little side line? Then charge people a fiver to top up their car while they eat your food or browse your products. It's completely independent of the oil companies - which has to be a good thing. As someone said above, Google for GT Lightning.

2) Battery capacity - when batteries reach the level when they will go further in a day than you can sensibly drive, then the whole argument about speed of charging goes out the window - just do it overnight.

The Asus eePC already has batteries that are a generation beyond the Tesla's. They store 2.9Ah vs 2.2Ah. Panasonic are about to start selling batteries that are even better again - 3.6Ah. So we've gone from 2.2 to 3.6 Ah in the space of a couple of years and that directly translates into two-thirds more range. The genius of the Tesla design is that they can use of-the-shelf laptop batteries that will keep getting better as the IT industry improves them. Expect the 2010 Tesla to include better batteries.

Still think hydrogen in every filling station will happen first? I don't, and I will put my money where my mouth is when Tesla release their four door.

Why the black helicopters? Because this is the idea that George Bush and his mates don't want you to know, people, and they use their state-run broadcasters to dangle the hydrogen carrot again and again.

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David
Black Helicopters

Why Tesla will win

Carniphage sums up the problem with hydrogen really well. It has to go through two more conversion processes. This uses 4 times the electricity.

Battery cars will beat hydrogen in one of two ways:

1) Rapid recharging - either by swapping out the battery or through high-power chargers. Both are going to happen in the near future and rapid rechargers can be installed anywhere there is three-phase power. Own a shop or restaurant and want a nice little side line? Then charge people a fiver to top up their car while they eat your food or browse your products. It's completely independent of the oil companies - which has to be a good thing.

2) Battery capacity - when batteries reach the level when they will go further in a day than you can sensibly drive, then the whole argument about speed of charging goes out the window - do it overnight.

The Asus eePC already has batteries that are a generation beyond the Tesla's. They store 2.9Ah vs 2.2Ah. Panasonic are about to start selling batteries that are even better again - 3.6Ah. So we've gone from 2.2 to 3.6 Ah in the space of a couple of years and that directly translates into two-thirds more range. The genius of the Tesla design is that they can use of-the-shelf laptop batteries that will keep getting better as the IT industry improves them.

Still think hydrogen in every filling station will happen first? I don't, and I will put my money where my mouth is when Tesla release their 4 door.

Why the black helicopters? Because this is the idea that They don't want you to know, people.

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Europe's Tesla will be first with full performance

David

@Stephen Gray

Charge it here: http://teslafounders.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/slide040.gif

@Solomon Grundy

If you knew what you were talking about, you would know that the only thing it has in common with that existing car (the Elise) is the dash and the front suspention. The chassis, the body, the rear end set-up, everything else is all brand new.

Save your Smart ForTwo comments for when *you* have driven one.

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David

Transmission failures

@Anonymous Coward

Yes it does look simple on paper doesn't it.

Unfortunately, three different transmissions from three top OEM suppliers kept breaking as they couldn't handle the instant max torque after a gear change. So Tesla's solution was to go back to their electronics engineers and remove the need for gears all together.

I'm not working for them, by the way, but I have been following the project closely and building the world's first production electric sports car was not without its ups and downs. If you can do better, call me when it is ready and I will tell you how it compares on the road :)

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David
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The most exciting new car in years

I'm lucky enough to have driven the euro-spec version of the car and my god is it quick. At any (near) legal speeds there is not much that will touch it.

A few points:

1. It is not an Elise body, it is a new design and even a different material.

2. Until PML Flightlink motors have been shown to run at 100+ mph reliably - and stop a car from that speed - I will take the inboard design every time. The Roadster was design was virtually complete by 2005, not 2009. The Tesla motor is so compact that freeing up its space would not add many more batteries.

3. We will see both longer range and cheaper Tesla models in the near future that will be able to do almost any journey most people make. 300 miles is expected in their next saloon model. If you want to go on long road trips, don't buy this car. For the other 99% of the journeys people make, it is very capable, a lot of fun and will save you tens of thousands in petrol costs during its lifetime.

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Blighty's electro-supercar 2.0 uncloaked today

David
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Profit margins people

@ Dervheid, Adam et al...

These guys are selling fast, expensive stuff first because the profit margins are much higher and you don't need to set up a complex production line.

Once these companies establish a firm financial footing, I am sure we will see them come "down market" in terms of what is on offer. Oh look, that is exactly what Tesla are planning.

If you can produce a Ferrari-beating supercar with a decent range then it should be a doddle to make a family hatchback do the same. The big boys know this and they know the game is up, which is why you will see a glut of lithium ion powered regular car concepts in the next couple of years. Once they get going in this space, the "boutique" manufacturers will have a tough time competing, which is why they need sports car reputations to fall back on long term. They have to establish that reputation now.

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David
Joke

Charge times - rubbish

Assuming this has a similar capacity to the Tesla (53 kWh), then to charge it to 80% in 3 minutes would require a current of over 2000A, even on three phase.

No one has that kind of circuit available, and even if it were allowed by health and safety, you'd never be able to lift the cable!!!

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Reviewer puts prototype Nokia N96 to test

David
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@Steve Evans

I've just got an N82 and the GPS receiver in it is fantastic - in sharp contrast to my experience with the early N95. It can get a lock indoors in a few seconds and outside virtually instantly. I'm sure the N96 will follow suit. Now Nokia just have to get the Maps software up to scratch, but we know that is coming soon.

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UK nuke-power plans leak early

David

No fast breeder reactors?

"Much spent reactor fuel, at present classified as waste, could be turned into useful fuel once more by the use of so-called "fast breeder" reactors, which have not yet been built"

Really? Then what was that thing at Dounreay that operated for several decades.

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