http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/ Engadget Comments for Tesla Roadster enters production at long last http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:08AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
now that were all through with that,

yay! tesela roadsters fnally getting produced, good news eh?]]>Mar 18th 2008 12:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
I'd buy one in a second - if I were rich.]]>Mar 18th 2008 12:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RKJ0zk3NOc]]>Mar 18th 2008 1:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
Is there anything YouTube can't do? Yes, apparently. Make me rich.]]>Mar 18th 2008 1:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 2:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/

...in Canada]]>Mar 18th 2008 12:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 1:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 1:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 1:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 7:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
It's been a long time since we've been able to go over 150 miles on just dollar or two of energy.

Here's some hard numbers for you - taken from DOE info:

On average, it takes 51KwH of electricity to charge this car. With aggressive driving at high speeds, that gets you 150 miles (250 miles when being gentle).

On average, a coal plant outputs 2.117 lbs of CO2 per KwH. So 108 lbs of CO2 is generated to power this car directly from a coat plant. This at a cost of about $3.06 (@ $.06 a KwH).

An internal combustion engine, on average, generates 1 lb of CO2 per mile. So to go 150 miles in a car, you generated 150 lbs of CO2. Using the CAFE fleet average of 25 mpg, and gas cost of $3.50 a gallon, it cost you 21 dollars to go the same distance of 150 miles.

So even when powering the Tesla by a coal plant, it's better for the environment and costs 85% less to go the same distance.]]>Mar 18th 2008 10:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
Plus, gasoline won't last forever, but nuclear power could easily replace fossil fuel power plants. Nuke plants on cars? Not so quick.]]>Mar 18th 2008 12:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
Take this calculation if your round trip commute were 50 miles. (I'll be very conservative about these calculations) The Tesla has a range of 200 (low side), so 1/4 of the battery capacity of 50kWh. So that's 12.5kWh needed per day. Say we round that up to 15kWh if you stop by the grocery on the way home. Say you can only park and charge for 6 hours while you're at work. Of course I'm now assuming you can solar charge at work, or I guess you could offset grid capacity by pushing solar at home back to the grid. To charge in 15kWh in 6 hours you need 2.5kW capacity solar panel. Round that up a bit to say 3.5kW because you don't get that all year. That's about a $25,000 panel system with inverter. (Just a guess, based on a couple websites, you can probably get one for cheaper, depending on the power company rebates etc)

With the price of gas at $3.50/gallon, and a car with similar performance driving conservatively getting 25mpg. That's 2 gallons of gas a day. If you drive to work 50 weeks a year, and don't count weekend driving that's 250 days of driving, and $1750 in gas, and $250 in oil changes at 5x$50. So at $2000, the solar system breaks even at 12.5 years assuming gas doesn't increase in price. (hah)

If the price goes up at ~25% per year (which seems likely) linearly (+400/year), and you can get the panel system for 20k, it pays off in a little over 9 years. Since solar systems are designed to last 20-25 years, it's an overall win.]]>Mar 18th 2008 3:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 3:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 8:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 1:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
I've got a silver M Coupe, wave if you see me.. I don't see a lot of SLK 32's, but I've seen a couple. I work in Redwood Shores. Just put a thule rack on my car, it'll probably be on there for the next 4 months at least :)]]>Mar 18th 2008 1:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 1:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
Have a bit of sensitivity, will you? There are many folks who visit the site on a regular basis from Silly Valley. In light of recent events, that comment is really insensitive.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8530018]]>Mar 18th 2008 2:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/>>>>...>>.>.

Al: BOO!
]]>Mar 18th 2008 8:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/ [warning - flash heavy]]]>Mar 18th 2008 7:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
Hopefully that will change over the next few months.]]>Mar 18th 2008 9:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 9:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/
I'm guessing that they could have charged much more and still sold out.]]>Mar 18th 2008 5:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/tesla-roadster-enters-production-at-long-last/Mar 18th 2008 12:09PM