Tesla Model 3

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Yeah, I don't think Tesla semis will be used for long haul. Probably better used to move product from distribution centers to stores relatively short distances. They'd need to be able to charge up at the loading docks while being loaded/unloaded.

I'm curious how the Tesla semis will pencil out, and to see if they become commonplace. They'd sure be great in city gridlock, both in terms of recapturing braking energy, and in being capable of accelerating back up to speed.

Nobody except Musk thinks electric semis will be used for long haul. The most obvious usage is in-town delivery, within ports, and drayage. For that type of usage you only need a 100 - 200 mile range.

As for charging, I expect that to happen at the home depot overnight. Very few trucks run 24 / 7.

[oil pan 4]

To do over the road trucking all electric will require mega watt hour scale batteries and potentially take days to charge them.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Xist

It would defeat the purpose of LeMans to bring multiple vehicles, right? Would five be enough?

Yes and no. Yes, it would defeat the purpose of an endurance event to simply let one car after another assume the same track position. And no, 5 would not be enough. Teslas and other electrics are drag racers not endurance racers. That won't change until they can swap a battery in 20 seconds or less.

Keep an eye on Formula E for the latest in electric car racing tech. Rules limited but definitely expanding the envelope.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Insight for life

So what does everyone think of the newest Tesla Model 3?
- What do you think about the front end including the lack of a grill?
- What do you think of the full Panoramic roof ?
- What do you think of the Specs?
- What do you think of the steel and aluminum mix now?
...Personally I am not a huge fan of the front end, but I may change my mind about that. I think they could do a better job at making that lack of grill look a little less blah feeling.
Over all I am a big fan!!!

The grill,as is,could be contributing as much as a 12% drag reduction,therefore,I'm willing to accept the efficiency as a priority over any aesthetic consideration.(form follows function)

[freebeard]

Nothing a vinyl sharkmouth can't fix.

Flow Battery Vs. Tesla Battery Smackdown Looming

The company is involved in a three-part Energy Department–sponsored smart grid energy storage project in Washington State, which is designed to demonstrate high-efficiency systems for tapping into the region’s wind energy resources.

The project is set up to include both Li-on and flow battery technology. UET was tapped to provide a flow battery for Avista Utilities, which was assigned to develop a “smart campus” microgrid with Washington State University in Pullman. One major end-user will be the employee-owned electric power systems company Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories.

The battery was delivered earlier this year and the new announcement confirms that the shakedown period is over, and it is now fully owned by Avista.

Here’s the subtle dig at the Tesla battery from company CEO Gary Yang from the press release:

…UET is not shy to say it has the best grid-scale energy storage solution at the best levelized cost, maximizing value for the customer.

Actually, UET is hardly being subtle about it. Back up a couple of graphs in the press release and you’ll find this nugget:

The Uni.System’s levelized cost ($/total GWh delivered over 20 year life) is multiple times lower than the cost of lithium ion systems such as Tesla. Those have limited availability of their energy, degrade in capacity, are flammable, and have ¼ to ½ the lifetime of the Uni.System.

https://cleantechnica.com/2015/06/21...kdown-looming/

[redpoint5]

Yeah, but flow battery has nothing to do with transportation. It's not dense enough.

[sendler]

8 MWh. For how Much $ ?

[oil pan 4]

Have they built one yet?

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by JSH

Your link clearly states they are using data from the frontal crash test.

I doubt Tesla does a single press release without Musk's approval.

I heard no one can flush a toilet without his say so!

But seriously, Tesla used NHTSA's own Vehicle Safety Score (VSS), that NHTSA publishes in the Federal Register.

Methodology
While NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program doesn’t distinguish safety performance beyond its 5-star scale, every car rated by NHTSA since 2011 is assigned a Vehicle Safety Score, which NHTSA calculates by taking the weighted average of the Relative Risk Scores (RRS) in front, side and rollover crashes. We compared the underlying and publicly-available NHTSA data for each published vehicle since this calculation protocol began in 2011 (dockets: NHTSA-2010-0164, NHTSA-2011-0085, NHTSA-2012-0055, NHTSA-2013-0053, NHTSA-2014-0043, NHTSA-2015-0034, NHTSA-2016-0045, NHTSA-2017-0037).

The Vehicle Safety Score represents the “relative risk of injury with respect to a baseline of 15%,” according to NHTSA. Model 3 achieved a Vehicle Safety Score of 0.38, which is lower than any other vehicle rated in NHTSA’s public documents. By multiplying the Vehicle Safety Score by NHTSA’s 15% baseline figure, we arrived at an overall probability of injury for Model 3 of 5.7%. Applying the same calculation to each of the vehicles rated in NHTSA’s documents, we found that Model S achieved an overall probability of injury of 6.3%, and Model X achieved an overall probability of injury of 6.5%, making them the vehicles with the second and third lowest probabilities of injury, respectively, based on NHTSA’s publicly-available data and records.

We respect that NHTSA only endorses ratings from 1-5 stars so they can be helpful for the public to make quick and easy comparisons. The star ratings are especially helpful to show on the Monroney window stickers of new vehicles that are offered for sale. At the same time, we used NHTSA’s own methodology and data to help further educate the public about important safety information.

If NHTSA doesn't want to compare vehicles in different weight classes, they shouldn't calculate and publish VSS' for them.

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I don't see EV's being good long distance until both the batteries and the charging infrastructure are capable of delivering astounding amounts of power in a short period of time, like half a million watts kind of astounding (10x faster than current).

It would be cool to see batteries adopt some sort of modular formfactor where the chemistry and quantity can change, but it all slots into standard "bays", but that's far off, if ever. Just look how they can't standardize on common parts like steering wheels, brakes, etc, etc.

10x faster? The 3 right now can do 500mph at lower SOCs.

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thre...0#post-2540001

I won't complain if we ever get to 5,000mph, but at 3.5 minutes for 300 miles of range, that's barely enough for a quick #1, assuming I don't wash my hands.