Discussion
  • Read More
    ApheXNinjAJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:20pm

    I find it astonishing people still buy into electric cars being green... when it's not at all, in fact, it's just as bad, and sometimes worse, than driving a normal car.

    Each kWh used by this, or any electric car being charged, is 1.341lbs of Co2... To put that in perspective...

    Most electric cars are around 2.1 - 3.1 miles per kWh (25(mi) / 2.6 = 9.61 x 1.341 = 12lbs of Co2) , the average car is around 20-30 miles per gallon, and roughly 14lbs of co2 are created per gallon...

    What's that all total? A whole lot of bullshit for people buying electric cars because they're "green". No, they're not, they're not at all, in fact, if you include how hazardous the batteries are... you got yourself a driving environmental mess.

    Electric cars will not be viable until we invent a new battery — and by then, hydrogen powered cars should be standard.

    Reply
    • Read More
      Marty GrawApheXNinjA
      9/04/13 12:29pm

      Are your CO2 numbers based on coal power?

      Reply
    • Read More
      ApheXNinjAMarty Graw
      9/04/13 12:32pm

      It's based on an averaged grid estimate. As I'm sure you know, all the power here in the United States (Or most parts of the world) is linked together — from the coal and gas sources, to the hydro, thermal and solar.

      Currently, this figure would be 5x's worse if I used Asia's Co2 / kWh ratio. : )

      Reply
  • Read More
    mjmJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:01pm

    I thought the batteries magically fell from the sky creating a "green car" and 7500 tax credit.

    Reply
    • Read More
      ridered777
      9/04/13 12:20pm

      Also, the electricity that powers those plug-in "green" cars is made from unicorn farts, not many, many hours burning fossil fuels.

      Reply
    • Read More
      stirling.speraridered777
      9/04/13 12:31pm

      Depends on where you live.

      In the midwest, an electric car is less environmentally friendly than a gas car, but in a place that uses more hydro, solar, wind, etc. like the west coast, it's more environmentally friendly. Torontonians in Teslas charge using only energy from Niagara Falls.

      Reply
  • Read More
    godfathercorvetteJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:08pm

    That may be the greatest Photoshop in the history of Photoshop.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Tom McParlandJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:10pm

    Did you make that graphic Torch?....brilliant!

    Reply
  • Read More
    BATC42Jason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:24pm

    And this is one of the reasons why I think for now electric cars can not work. I hope reasearch on graphene based batteries is doing well, because one day we will run out of Lithium, like we will run out of oil.

    Reply
    • Read More
      Frankenbike666BATC42
      9/04/13 3:13pm

      When we start running out of lithium, there will be a lot of batteries to recycle to extract the lithium content. Lithium doesn't get used up, and conditions aren't exactly optimal in laptop batteries to create fission and turn it into helium. Pretty sure there will be a push to recover that lithium from batteries more inexpensively.

      Graphene batteries and supercapacitors look pretty damn promising. And if we put money into developing graphene power storage devices into commercial development as a national priority, we'd get them sooner. Right now, it's guys/girls coating CDs with a thin coating of a carbon rich solution and using a Lightscribe CD printer they had lying around to turn it into layers of graphene.

      The problem is that huge amounts of money don't flow into every promising development to speed up the cycle of discovery and product development. Instead we have to wait years for penny pinched university research to run its course.

      Reply
  • Read More
    RSBroJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 1:07pm

    I watched the review on Jay Leno's Garage and was impressed w/ the car. They didn't talk about the price point, and it was hard to believe the battery packs have a solid 10 year life with little to no degradation, since cell phones and any other rechargeable battery-powered items start to fade with months of use, but if the range is a legit 300 miles that's not bad at all.

    Of course it being "green" and all is laughable at best, but it's good technology that maybe can be mated to diesel or something. I believe high MPG hybrids will be the way to go in my lifetime (I'm 31). And having user-friendly items like KERS that can help the car get back some of it's energy.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Spiegel - ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ - Hopes to post on oppos!Jason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:07pm

    Step 1 - Move all production to China.

    Step 2 - Get a marketing campaign making it cool for children to work for Tesla.

    Step 3 - Influx of children willing to work are placed under the hood of each Tesla vehicle to pedal it. When one is worn out, just go to your local Tesla dealer and "install" a new one.

    Step 4 - Battery consumption is reduced and thus battery recycling is reduced. This creates a new worldwide green initiative which drives everyone to save the environment.

    Step 5 - ??????

    Step 6 - World Peace.

    Reply
    • Read More
      For SwedenSpiegel - ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ - Hopes to post on oppos!
      9/04/13 12:14pm

      Replace Chinese kids with shamed athletes, and I'm there.

      Reply
  • Read More
    meccapanzerJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:30pm

    That would power a lot of PVs and flashlights.

    Image for article titled
    Image for article titled
    Reply
  • Read More
    erikgradJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:24pm

    So this means the market will be producing* more batteries, which means* the cost of said batteries will go down, and everybody wins*.

    *hopefully

    Reply
  • Read More
    UncleWaltyJason Torchinsky
    9/04/13 12:20pm

    The plug-in/hybrid model is simply not sustainable, for several reasons. The batteries are just one of them.

    Reply