[SGVLUG] Off-topic: cool article on electric concept cars

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

Well, thank you -- that link touched off a multi-hour foray into this
site:  http://www.teslamotors.com/  and while you can't get one THIS
year [even at the, >ahem< $98,000 price tag, the WAITING LIST for this
year is FULL] you can still apply for 2009...

When you get down to the "brass tacks" on this, it is basically a souped
up 1:1 scale version of a radio control car -- powered by 6,831 "AA"
batteries :)

Reading through the comments on one of their pages [from late november
2006], a common (and unanswerable) question was "how much will the
replacement battery pack cost?"  there is no answer /right now/ because
the rated lifetime of the pack is "5 years" -- at that point

   -- technology may have changed [dramatically] and there is "something
better/different" available (and no way of knowing the price)

   -- market economies may have changed [again, dramatically] -- this
car uses batteries you can buy now to put into your maglite flashlight.
Imagine what happens when orders for 6,000+ "batteries" are needed "per
capita" ;)

   -- they've "built in" some of the replacement cost in the initial
purchase (they fully expect you to recycle the batteries through them,
though...)  Another example of a (semi) built-in cost is that if you
live more than 100 miles from their "service facility", there is an
$8,000 fee that covers towing/transporting your car to/from the service
center (for the life of the service contract, from what I read...)



> -----Original Message-----
> From: sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net 
> [mailto:sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net] On Behalf Of Robert Leyva
> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 3:49 PM
> To: sgvlug at sgvlug.org
> Subject: [SGVLUG] Off-topic: cool article on electric concept cars
> 
> 
> Off topic.
> 
> Cool article on electric concept cars 
> http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4248082.ht
ml?page=1


Me
-- 
"Knowledge is Power" -- Francis Bacon

Robert Leyva
mrflash818 at geophile.net
AOL IM: mrflash818
http://mrflash818.livejournal.com
etc etc etc....