Introducing the Tesla Model S

Autoblog Green
Looking further down the road, Musk said that the next-gen Tesla vehicle, the long-rumored $35,000 (without any subsidies) EV, should be a compelling option with a 200-mile range. That vehicle is still quite far away – he wondered aloud how his company might need more battery cells than the laptop industry does if it's making a half-million cars a year – but at least his automotive competition now has targets to shoot for if they want to beat Tesla in the longer-range EV game.

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Looks like Musk just announced my next new car :D
 
Well maybe it'll be out by the time I'm graduated with a reasonably stable job, so it could be my next and first car. Granted, 35k in USD means 40+ CAD plus 10 grand in taxes and fees.
 
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Gorgeous gorgeous car indeed. I'm not sure what I think about the Model X yet, but if the Model S came down in price to Model X levels, I would hypothetically consider one.

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As Joey said, it probably wouldn't add much weight to make it AWD. Add a couple of motors, which can't be anything more than a couple hundred pounds each, and a bit of wires, reprogram the computer, and you've got yourself a AWD machine.

The coolest thing is that, theoretically, it can be programmed so that the front motors are turned off, turning the car into purely RWD. The car can be made so that the motors are providing anywhere between 0%-100% of power and any given time. Now that's awesome.
 
Tesla Model S Is The Safest Car Ever Produced​

The NHTSA ranks crash safety on a scale of one to five, with five stars being the best, one star being the worst. The Tesla Model S just scored 5.4 stars. Yes. It broke the scale.

Tesla says that the Model S did so well because it scored a five in every single possible category and subcategory. And even though the NHTSA doesn't have a rating higher than five, it does record when something exceeds the five star level

Apparently, because the Model S doesn't have a large thing some people call an "engine" up front. That gives it huge crumple zones to absorb impacts, according to Tesla. The frame is also pretty strong thanks to all the batteries.

Hell, the Model S broke the testing machine for roof crush protection.
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Jalopnik






 
There's a Tesla Dealership near a mall where I live. I took a lot of pictures of the car. I'll post them here as soon as possible.
 
As if I needed another reason to buy one :lol:. At least the safety thing will make it easier to convince the future wife.
 
I give up. I may as well turn into a walking billboard for the Model S, I love it so much. What a car.
 
The Model S continues to impress me. 👍 The only other car that i know that broke the Crusher was the Ford GT. I might make this my first project to work on in GT6. :)
 
Vic Reign93
The Model S continues to impress me. 👍 The only other car that i know that broke the Crusher was the Ford GT. I might make this my first project to work on in GT6. :)
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For the 800lbs of extra weight it carries though, I'm sure the other manufacturers could build in a little more safety to their vehicles.

It will be interesting to see how much lighter the model S will get in GT6 even with a stage 3 weight reduction, I'm guessing it will get out handled fairly easily.
 
^^ I just looked up the Model S's kerb weight and did some rough maths using GT5 and a Chevy SSR as reference. Theoretical kerb weight after weight loss is around 1600kg's from 2.1 tons. 2.2 for the SSR stock. :) On topic, I agree on manufacturers building more safety into there cars. The trick though is how to balance Safety against Good MPG. Less weight = better MPG, more weight = more room for safety. Of course this varies from car to car so it's not 100% accurate.
 
Vic Reign93
^^ I just looked up the Model S's kerb weight and did some rough maths using GT5 and a Chevy SSR as reference. Theoretical kerb weight after weight loss is around 1600kg's from 2.1 tons. 2.2 for the SSR stock. :) On topic, I agree on manufacturers building more safety into there cars. The trick though is how to balance Safety against Good MPG. Less weight = better MPG, more weight = more room for safety. Of course this varies from car to car so it's not 100% accurate.
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Sounds like talk of the recently started Elio motors... Which weighs close to nothing yet they think it will have a 5 star safety rating. They also claim to have good mpg, light weight, and a cheap price when it "comes out". I think the company will give up eventually. XD
 
Omnis
Weighs close to nothing because it's vaporware. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/19/paul-elio-motors-releases-financials/

Besides, I don't want to drive a go-kart on the roads. Your car can be safe as hell, structurally, but that still isn't going to keep the insides from turning into soup when you go flying after being hit by Joe Dually.
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Thanks for that link, I'd not seen it.

The car is actually a neat idea, but I've been fairly suspicious of the company since it first arrived, since it's just about the most repeated formula in the business: New company arrives. Product is a light-weight three wheeler. Claims it'll be cheap. Required to sell in huge unlikely volumes. New company disappears again.

They seem to have had a huge following though - any article I write on them gets tens of thousands of hits somehow.
 
A lot of the people on the green sites are smitten. And a lot of people have put down deposits.

On-paper and in prototype form, the Eliomotors car is actually pretty well fleshed-out. The use of a Suzuki-based engine shortcuts a lot of development issues, and guarantees good fuel economy.

The business model... not quite. There has been grumbling for some time, and the latest round of releases has intensified it.

Shame.
 
One of the odder reasons I like it is because it's actually very similar to an idea I've had in my head for quite some time. Not a particularly original idea obviously - we've seen loads of similar vehicles over the years (HMV freeway, anyone?) but as a concept, it just works really well. It's light, it's simple, you can mend it in your garage, it doesn't cost much to buy, and it's probably quite fun. A lot of kit-car builders have done similar things, and I've always quite liked the idea of building a kit-car.

Not to get too far off Tesla, obviously. Who've essentially done exactly the opposite but made a fairly sound business case out of it...
 
R1600Turbo
Tesla knows exactly what happened but I guess the general public now thinks these things are hazardous and shares of Tesla stock have dropped nearly $25 in the last two days. Funny how the world works.
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Well it's a reasonable concern, fire fighters probably don't have much experience fighting fires such as this, and given the battery in the S forms the floor it's easy to see why people would be worried, since it was basically the battery that caught fire.

I'm not saying it's more dangerous or anything, but it's a relatively unknown situation, and electricity does present different challenges in an accident. People will need to be reassured.
 
MatskiMonk
Well it's a reasonable concern, fire fighters probably don't have much experience fighting fires such as this, and given the battery in the S forms the floor it's easy to see why people would be worried, since it was basically the battery that caught fire.

I'm not saying it's more dangerous or anything, but it's a relatively unknown situation, and electricity does present different challenges in an accident. People will need to be reassured.
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I'm sure I read an article before about training emergency personnel for electric vehicle incidents. Things like battery fires and cutting through high voltage cables.

And I found it, but it relates to Chev' and OnStar holding training courses.

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/0...-to-train-emergency-responders-on-electric-v/
 
Reviving this thread to announce this very, very important news. :D

The Belgian police (Zaventem district) bought their first Model S.

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I don't see electric cars taking off in popularity--the technology is just too unproven and the electrical grid can't support the increased draw. Plus, the power to fuel electric cars, or "EVs" (short for Electric Vehicle) if you will, doesn't exactly come from clean sources. I think these things should remain the domain of shadetree tinkerers.

Oh and I'm given to understand the nutter behind this venture--who apparently got his money co-creating and then selling some web-based thing--also has his eyes set on space travel.

This is just fluff for the treehuggers to get a stiffy over...

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Oh wait, it's 2018.

:P

@kikie I'm just yanking your chain.

;)
 
This is what happens when you go on vacation with your Tesla or any electric car. A charging station jam.

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