You canna change the laws of physics

[red-beard]

Someone is stretching the truth...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-24/tesla-s-newest-promises-break-the-laws-of-batteries

These claims are so far beyond current industry standards for electric vehicles that they would require either advances in battery technology or a new understanding of how batteries are put to use, said Sam Jaffe, battery analyst for Cairn Energy Research in Boulder, Colorado. In some cases, experts suspect Tesla might be banking on technological improvements between now and the time when new vehicles are actually ready for delivery.

“I don't think they're lying,” Jaffe said. “I just think they left something out of the public reveal that would have explained how these numbers work.”

[motion]

Well, if anyone can do it, its Elon Musk

[red-beard]

Vaporware like the Powerwall.

We were approached by a Powerwall reseller when their client found out that they couldn't connect a generator to a Powerwall.

[island911]

Originally Posted by motion

Well, if anyone can do it, its Elon Musk

Bah-LEEV-vah-ha...!

[legion]

P.T. Barnum said it best: "There's a Tesla customer born every minute."

[Jrboulder]

I'm genuinely surprised someone in Boulder would say that.

[Steve Carlton]

[RKDinOKC]

Zero Point Energy

[stomachmonkey]

The battery charging seems solveable.

They are probably looking at multiple ports to charge subsets of the pack in parallel

[M.D. Holloway]

Faraday, Tesla, or Edison...all three were amazing and provided contributions to our lives that were unimaginable 200 years ago. Now, who do you think was the smartest and who do you think was the richest? The two are mutually exclusive typically.

I mention this because I am not convinced Elan Musk is a wizbang scientist, more of an Edison type yet without them the ideas never come to completion.

[sc_rufctr]

The linked story is good reading. I thought it was very fair and honest.

At some point Tesla will have to either deliver on their promises or face the music.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

Faraday, Tesla, or Edison...all three were amazing and provided contributions to our lives that were unimaginable 200 years ago. Now, who do you think was the smartest and who do you think was the richest? The two are mutually exclusive typically.

I mention this because I am not convinced Elan Musk is a wizbang scientist, more of an Edison type yet without them the ideas never come to completion.

Tesla was the smartest but Faraday wasn't far behind. Edison, the richest & very shrewd.

I'd classify Musk as an entrepreneur. Nothing more than that. He has vision and often that's enough but he must start producing the goods.

[legion]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

The linked story is good reading. I thought it was very fair and honest.

At some point Tesla will have to either deliver on their promises or face the music.

So far, they have very consistently not delivered on promises. Heck, they've sold features on cars that have never worked.

I have a friend on his second Model S. He also owns a 986S, a 991S, a Lotus Elise, a Cayenne, and a Cadillac CTS. He tells me the fit and finish on the Model S are crap--far below all of his other vehicles. He says all road trips must be carefully planned out ahead of time. He describes autopilot as a joke.

Why does he own it? From what I gather, it is the only vehicle on the market that combines the virtue signaling of a Prius with the "look at me" factor of a Ferrari.

[CurtEgerer]

Dennis Hopper explained all of this back in 1979 .... I guess Musk didn't see the movie

[flipper35]

Musk is very good at hiring people smart enough to help his visions come to fruition. Though Space X is doing far better in advancing tech than Tesla.

[red-beard]

The issue is charging 75% of 800kWh in 30 minutes. This requires 1.2MW. A "standard" house has a 150A service, but typically uses no more than 20kW at a time, maximum. 1.2MW is equal to the MAXIMUM power of 60 homes and the average power of well over 300 homes.

Even if the cables for the "charger" were run at 1000VDC, the current will be 1200 Amps. Let's split this up into 100 Amp sections, you would need 12 pairs of #2 wire.

Since most trucks can operate a maximum of 10 hours per day, there is roughly 14 hours per day for recharging. The 1200 Amps will drop to around 60 Amps, to fully recharge the batteries. This is much more "do-able". Of course batteries do not charge in a linear fashion, so the 60 Amps average will need a maximum current to be more than double that actually charge the bank in 14 hours.

Another issue is heat. If the battery charging is 95% efficient, then 5% of 600kWh is wasted. This is 60kW of heat generated! And this is the loss in the batteries. You will need a massive cooling system (see the Power Wall!) to reject 60kW of heat. The heating system for my building is 12kW and it runs for maybe 5 minutes to heat 650 square feet.

No, the engineering issues are not trivial.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Musk is very good at hiring people smart enough to help his visions come to fruition. Though Space X is doing far better in advancing tech than Tesla.

SpaceX is the jewel in the Portfolio.

[GH85Carrera]

I come back to wondering what Porsche and Mercedes are about to release in a year or so. No US tax dollars used to prop up the company, competition on the open market.

It will be interesting to see. I for sure will not buy one. I will stick to my gas powered 30+ year old vehicles for as long as I can.

[tadd]

Space X is successful because it's time was right.

The 'technology ingredients', like the metallurgy for rocket motors, electronics and MEMs for sensors, ect., were finally all there at once and could be combined into an engineering solution.

Just like Gates/Jobs and the PC, right place-right time.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

Faraday, Tesla, or Edison...all three were amazing and provided contributions to our lives that were unimaginable 200 years ago. Now, who do you think was the smartest and who do you think was the richest? The two are mutually exclusive typically.

I mention this because I am not convinced Elan Musk is a wizbang scientist, more of an Edison type yet without them the ideas never come to completion.

Nikola Tesla (the original real guy) was bordering on insanity and came up with as many crack-pot ridiculous science fiction ideas as he did practical ideas. Maybe more.

We could list some of his ideas and experiments and they'd have you shaking your heads in disbelief.

Much as the current tesla should be.