Tesla haters? Check this out (video)

[slodave]

Kinda?? How near is near?

[911pcars]

This Tesla plant is the converted former Nummi plant in Fremont (CA) that once partnered Toyota with GM. Prior to that, Nummi-GM was considered the worst automotive assembly plant in the US. There was an eye-opening NPR podcast a couple of years ago about Nummi that symbolized GM's decline punctuated by a brief turnaround by Toyota.

NUMMI | This American Life

Sherwood

[aigel]

Cool to see the underpinnings and how these are put together. It is a much bigger operation than I had imagined. That said, they make it look like a highly automated manufacturing plant is something special. That equipment can readily be bought and used equipment can be adapted to a new model pretty quickly. It isn't that an automotive engineer needs to do something different for a welding robot on an electrical car vs. a gas powered car ... maybe they have to make sure the battery pack is disconnected?

What surprised me is that many of the run-off-the mill plastic parts are made in house with injection molding eqipment. Is that common? I thought that that's usually all outsourced to smaller, specialized supply companies. (That's at least the German model). I would imagine making it in house in CA is good for quality, but is it also good for price?

Cheers,

G

[aigel]

Originally Posted by island911

That's what I was saying. My concern is that they aren't doing testing like say Porsche would do. And, even if they could do Porsche-level testing, that still doesn't ensure smooth sailing. ELT (extended life testing) loses accuracy with testing time compression. ...and Tesla is moving pretty damn quickly here.

I am sure they did hire automotive quality engineers that know their business. I doubt they need you pointing to the cutaway show model to tell them they missed a crack on their battery pack. You also aren't suggesting that they use a stack of washers to hold in their pack on their actual production model, right? I am not sure why you are such a naysayer on this car, but the negative comments on the Tesla launch are getting pretty long in the tooth to read ...

Personally, I am very happy to see this coming out of the US and California. Would you rather have the Japanese or the Germans build it? Read up on Musk - it is a good example how the US still attracts the best entrepreneurs and thinkers worldwide. We get there by being open minded, diverse, tolerant and by supporting new ideas! I really would have expected more excitement from this board ...



G

[Laneco]

Eric,

Your friend Jessi is a doll and seems FUN as well! As for the Tesla, color me intrigued. The styling is decent, but not jaw dropping - probably just the ticket for the market right now. I do absolutely hate the screen on the interior but perhaps it is better to live with than to look at.

As with any truly new car, particularly with outside-the-standard-box technology, let the first few owners beta test it. I think a small wagon/hatch or a shooting brake would be intriguing.

angela

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by slodave

Kinda?? How near is near?

Originally Posted by Laneco

Your friend Jessi is a doll and seems FUN as well!

Dave, she's in between you and Todd and Denis (West Side)

Here's a fun Porsche review that shows her personality, from a couple years ago before she signed on with Motor Trend. Watch 'til the end....

[azasadny]

Thanks for the video!

Jessi moves her hands around too much...

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Jessi moves her hands around too much...

You're not the only one to tease her about this. She holds her hands together to stop herself, but then forgets after a bit.

[sc_rufctr]

Thanks for that but...

I don't see any passion in the video from the directors of Tesla. You have to have that to succeed.

Anothet point... Great looking car but did you notice something about the range of the vehicle?
About 12months ago they stated a 300 mile range. In this video they said 280 miles from the largest battery.
Only a small detail but still important IMO.

[Joe Bob]

They also throw km and m around like it's interchangeable....that what killed a Mars probe.

[intakexhaust]

Trying to steer away from the political views on this thread (gov. loan issue thats bothersome) but it's the packaging of the company that intriques me.

In a relatively short time, you have some Silicon Valley execs into a start-up automotive production company, assembling a team, utilizing connections with powerhouse companies like Daimler and Toyota. Those endeavors so far have a achieved a nice looking car with respectable performance numbers in their category and its real, not a concept. Think about that again... quite amazing compared to the giants of the automotive world.

I hope the customer / buyers long term reviews are positive and Tesla survives.

Other: Comments of the range from intitial estimates are nil. Different packages are available and then take into consideration of using ancillaries, where driven and climate.

Ps. BTW, that Jessi is very cute. She needs a new agent who would get her onto the big screen.

[island911]

Edited - personal attack removed. -Z-man

[island911]

Originally Posted by stealthn

Soo how do I replace the battery packs and how much will it cost?

Apparently they drop from below.

I was impressed with the cost/range . . .until I found out that the base model ($50k) does not have the much touted range of the 85_KWh battery. ....that option pushes the price over $100k.

as I've said before - that is one effn expensive 'gas'(energy) tank.

[Joe Bob]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/automobiles/Tesla-Battery-Failures-Make-Bricking-a-Buzzword.html?pagewanted=all

[island911]

Yes, I would like to order a $110,000 Tesla in "Kiln Red"

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/automobiles/Tesla-Battery-Failures-Make-Bricking-a-Buzzword.html?pagewanted=all

Originally Posted by island911

Yes, I would like to order a $110,000 Tesla in "Kiln Red"

From the article:

Q. Can this problem be prevented?

A. Yes. Electric vehicles can use fail-safe systems, with multiple features to guard against full discharge, said Tom Gage, chief executive of EV Grid, a company focusing on energy exchange between E.V.s and the electric grid. They include the ability to isolate the battery from any loads (other than monitoring) when the charge gets low, use of a backup 12-volt battery and a separate “wake-up” function, sometimes using an external 9-volt battery, that can restart the vehicle’s systems. “At this point, the battery must be slow-charged back to health, but it is fully recoverable,” Mr. Gage said.

Ms. Brooklyn of Tesla said there was “no facility to prevent this full discharge” in the more than 2,000 Roadsters produced since 2008. Tesla said it planned to employ a “deep sleep” mode and other protective systems in its new Model S sedan.

Tesla’s corporate blog explained the fail-safe provisions of the new model this way: “A Model S will not allow its battery to fall below about 5 percent charge. At that point the car can still sit for many months. Of course you can drive a Model S to 0 percent charge, but even in that circumstance, if you plug it in within 30 days, the battery will recover normally.”

Q. How does a fail-safe system work?

A. A fail-safe essentially disconnects the E.V. battery pack from other vehicle systems that drain the battery. When cut off from the rest of the car, the battery will still drain, but it could take a year or more before the battery loses all power.

[Joe Bob]

Wiki claims that a battery replacement is 12K, while Tesla wants to charge 40K to the schmuck that bricked his ride. I guess there is a 28K "Hey Stupid charge" for letting it sit for two months w/o a plug in.

Sounds like there will never be a Tesla Roadster barnfind in the future...

[island911]

Originally Posted by kaisen

From the article:

So what you're saying is that when Woody Allen makes "Sleeper 2" it won't be an old (Kiln red) Tesla found in a cave which will fire up and run.

[Joe Bob]

Well.....it won't be a Roadster unless it's still plugged into a solar panel or the grid....assuming there IS a grid.

[island911]

Maybe a Fisker then? ...they have the solar panel on the roof. ...although scratch the "found in a cave" part. ..."found in the desert" ...yeah, that will work.

que aigel to tell me that he is sure that Woody Allen would hire story-line quality engineers that know their business. And doubt they need me pointing to the cave darkness to tell them they missed an energy component to keep the electrics alive. .