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  1. C

    Elon Musk says Tesla will raise prices and slow down store closures

    Big EM fan, but there is a thing about due diligence that is just missing and killing this company with all the needless noise. EM needs a strong second.
  2. C

    Startup idea: Electric "tow truck"? Would you pay for that?

    Honest opinion is that if there is a high enough density of EV's in a given area, there is also a fairly high density of L3 charging stations. It would almost just be as easy to tow the car to one of those charging stations. Somewhere like Minnesota where I am from, charging stations are...
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    model x battery trailer idea

    There is a guy on youtube that build a battery trailer and hooked it up to his converted VW Samba. Seemed to work out for him since the trailer was so low profile it didn't add a lot of wind resistance. Complete Tesla Battery Range Extender Trailer Project - YouTube Difference being though is...
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    Cadillac kills the ELR

    Never understood why they sold it in the first place. The moment that price was announced pretty much everyone said it needed to drop 20k just to have a chance.
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    Tesla Pickup Truck

    I got the sense from watching the whole thing that while Truck was "the logical thing" It didnt sound like it was a priority in the near/medium term. I think we all assumed Model 3/Suv then maybe roadster and truck right afterwards, but maybe the truck is farther off? My guess 2020, 2022 or so.
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    Tesla Powered Truck Thoughts

    Probably the only threads i follow anymore on TMC are the pickup truck threads because i still need to tow my trailers and have decent work commute. So I am either stuck with a solution of buying 2 separate vehicles (which i dont have the space in my driveway for) or just suck up the high...
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    Pictures from the X event

    Well even Reddit is down.... Think Tesla just broke the internet! Got that Gerbil screen. Might be back up after my 3rd attempt
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    Did Tesla Just Kill Nuclear Power?

    There is no doubt in my mind that Nuclear is the end power game. The issue is the Light Water Reactor designs of today along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are killing any innovation in the field. While yes there is a large project for the Tokamak (which may go commercial in 40 years)...
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    Tesla Pickup Truck

    The Model S works today because of the performance and coolness factor. People are willing to pay the price premium the MS because for many those things are more important then cost. When you start getting into commercial loads a battery EV just fails on so many levels. Yes with a F450 based...
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    What questions would you ask Elon Musk if you had dinner with him?

    Couple of them have already been repeated but here it goes. 1. If spacex's plan is to be the Fed Ex of space, how do you plan on going to mars without first developing a business for going to mars? 2. Will you continue to be able to allocate high R&D funds with your planned level of operational...
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    Does an electric semi truck make sense today?

    We had a pretty good discussion on this topic about a year ago. Would suggest taking a look at Class 8 trucks going down mountains with full battery Pretty much came to the conclusion that it doesnt work for long haul but maybe with some battery weight reductions could make it work with swapping.
  12. C

    Tesla Pickup Truck

    While I agree F150's hauling capabilities are worthless (1500 to 2000 pounds) lately their tow ratings are more then respectable with some hitting 12,000 pounds (which is scary for a half ton). When Ford came out with the 6.2 and the 3.5, I have been seeing some really heavy loads pulled by...
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    Tesla Opens Its Patents To Boost Electric Car Adoption

    Tesla success formula is pretty simple. Put a big battery in the car and liquid cool it. With a big battery you have the potential for a lot of power so put a big inverter/motor in it. Now you have range acceleration and better battery life. Granted the S is a good car for other reasons but...
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    Tesla Opens Its Patents To Boost Electric Car Adoption

    Todd The ramping down is due to the infrastructure cost needed for a 135kw grid pull can be pricey. For instance currently there are 0 DC3 chargers in MN (so maybe this is a bad example). I take an ice fishing trip once per year in Baudette MN. The last hour of that trip is pretty sparce...
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    Tesla Opens Its Patents To Boost Electric Car Adoption

    While I agree opening up the protocol benefits everyone, the caveats Elon describe means that hardly anyone is going to take them up on the offer. 1. To take advantage of 120-135k kw charging requires minimum 60 kwh packs (2C charging) which at this point does anybody have over 30 besides the...
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    Future EV architecture

    think cars in general will double in price due to government mandated safety features, self driving tech and 500 mile ev ranges. The overall price wont matter much however because most people will not own the cars as they will turn into a"lyft" type service. Order your car for a time and...
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    Nissan Leaf

    This they had this problem a month ago where they were being DDoS'ed or something.
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    Volvo XC90 T8 AWD

    Just read this article that says a fully electric 2016 xc90 to compete with the Model X. Not a lot of detail but worth reading. Pure electric Volvo XC90 SUV planned | ecomento.com
  19. C

    Kia Soul EV

    0-100 km/h in 12 seconds... thats pretty good for an electric car *cough*. So many half truths in that video.
  20. C

    Model S - the next 3 Months?

    I for one am hoping for a price decrease. Not that i could afford one even if the price decreases, but I think its time the price goes in the other direction. A bulk of the cost of the car is batteries and if Elon is truly saying that battery costs are going down then we should start seeing...
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    Tesla's Multi-Vehicle Charging Patent Dissected

    Lets upsize my example for a minute and say we have a 12 charger array with 200A of service. You are not going to wire each charger to be capable of the entire 200 A load. Hell Tesla's duel charger can only take 80A. You could size them for a max of say 40 A (10 kw). If you are a 3.3 kw...
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    Tesla's Multi-Vehicle Charging Patent Dissected

    Does this patent include all charging or just L3 charging? One of the problems I have seen is the dedicated wiring for each individual L2 charger (EVSE). If I was a business owner and I wanted customers/employee's to have a chance to charge, I would prefer to just string up say 8 chargers in...
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    Tesla Pickup Truck

    Look how fast SpaceX ramped up? you mean 2 years behind schedule? Tesla is still working on the Model S's different versions. They are realizing just how hard it is to make a good car which is the reason for the Model X delay by more then a year (and a half). The Gen III requires a massive...
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    Nissan Asks “How Much of a Premium Would You Pay For a 150-Mile EPA-Rated LEAF?”

    I have to agree with everything roblab is saying. The idea of having L2 chargers all over the place is to solve the fact that today's EV's have no range. When i do chores around town, I dont fill up my gas tank at every location. It is inconvenient and it would slows my day down. Most of the...
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    Kia Soul EV

    Normally I am not a fan of news agencies, but I have read a lot of articles about this car that state the 120 mile range (from the manufacture) figure and say EPA will be more like 80-90. Really goes to show that there are actually some journalists out there that are starting to understand how...
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    Nissan Asks “How Much of a Premium Would You Pay For a 150-Mile EPA-Rated LEAF?”

    Thought i read a couple years ago that number was $384. Given that many people believe Tesla is getting cell prices below $250 per kwh, you have to assume that Nissan's battery is not going to be terribly more expensive then cell and BMS cost given there is no active cooling in the pack.
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    Nissan Asks “How Much of a Premium Would You Pay For a 150-Mile EPA-Rated LEAF?”

    Tesla has really proven the concept of bigger batteries and liquid cooling. By having bigger batteries, your motors and inverters can be sized for great performance. You also have the ability to handle so many what if scenario (cold, need to detour my route, pickup someone at airport before...
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    What's going to be at the 2014 NAIAS Tesla exhibit?

    I think your definition of Tesla Time also carries over to Elon's SpaceX. Grandiose plans with short time tables only to be delayed by reality but still really freaking awesome when it does come.
  29. C

    Ford c-max solar energy concept

    I know the point of this is to try and sell the car, but really just put the 300 watts of solar panels on the collector and wireless charge the battery. You dont have to move the car, you just move the small solar panel (or get a bigger panel). We can call this the off grid charger where...
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    Will Tesla Be Taken Over?

    This wont happen any time soon. Tesla is way too expensive for how many cars they sell. Telsa sells 1 percent of the volume of GM, but has a market cap of 1/3 of GM. Taking advantage of GM's manufacturing capacity is pointless if cell production is your limiting factor. GM doesnt make their...
  31. C

    Tesla Factory working hours and holidays

    Probably doesnt hurt them all that much to stop production. If battery cells are indeed the bottle neck, then shutting down just stocks that supply and allows them to turn out more cars in Q1.
  32. C

    Minnesota Superchargers (location speculation, discussion)

    Random thought, but i noticed that Albert Lea picture was right next to an airport. Supercharger network for EV Planes are next on Elon's list...
  33. C

    misinformation spreading

    Over the last say 6 years I have been obsessing about various topics including EV's and Space (before Tesla or SpaceX existed FYI). Once i started to get to the point where I really felt i understood the subject matter I started seeing media covering the subject and realized how bad...
  34. C

    Minnesota Superchargers (location speculation, discussion)

    Clearwater Travel Plaza... Its on 94 and only 7 miles from Hi-way 10 so it can handle traffic from both locations. It is a bit close to the cities (~40 miles from Maple Grove, ~60 miles to DT Minneapolis), but you look at the map it would connect the planned Albert Lea SC traffic being a...
  35. C

    Tesla Pickup Truck

    Its easy to have an over sized casual pickup truck when fuel is only $3.00 per gallon and $105 a year in registration (Thank you Gov Ventura). I would think Norway is a horrible place to have a pickup because of their tax structure. 25% VAT AND they tax registration for CO2, weight, engine...
  36. C

    Why Model S when Model X is coming?

    You had me laughing at Model Y, but think you went to far with the CAR at the end!
  37. C

    Depreciation / resale value

    In the short term, there is a pent up demand in the secondary markets for these cars which will keep that value up for the foreseeable future. There are no 3 year old Tesla S's out there so not a lot of people have given up their cars yet to look for the newest greatest thing. I can foresee...
  38. C

    Tesla Pickup Truck

    I love how there is all this buzz about Tesla building a pickup truck, yet Tesla probably wont even have a napkin drawing for another 4-6 years from now.
  39. C

    Class 8 trucks going down mountains with full battery

    If I am dreaming then I want it to run on a p B11 pollywell fusor. Clean, cheap, abundant and theoretical.
  40. C

    Toyota is Sticking With Hybrids

    I think Toyota is making the right move for them. They still have the halo effect with the Prius line and they sell a lot of them. With the exception of the Model S, most current EV's are extremely limited in functionality and are not selling all that well (albeit I believe that is the intent...
  41. C

    Class 8 trucks going down mountains with full battery

    Why would that be? Hydrogen doesn't store a lot of energy per unit volume which means a lot of space and weight used up by tanks. In addition hydrogen today is more expensive the diesel fuel not to mention the motor today is a lot more expensive then normal ICE's.
  42. C

    Class 8 trucks going down mountains with full battery

    O I'm not an electrical engineer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Well technically I guess you could say I am a software engineer. Nuclear big rigs.... hopefully you are talking about a pb11 fusor and not the fission stuff that has a 17,000 year half life. A more...
  43. C

    Class 8 trucks going down mountains with full battery

    The first question always starts with how much energy do you need (for a typical day). Normally loaded long haulers with an 11 hour work day would need at least 2 MwH's of electricity (Problably closer to 3 MwH's but we were really trying to see if we could make the numbers work). So if we...
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    Nissan Leaf

    I think it is more then just triple digits. Everyone talks about the average day they only drive xx miles but a lot of people do not buy their vehicle for the average day. My typical work day I drive 50 miles between work and errands and I think a Leaf could very well fit with that schedule...
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    Nissan Leaf

    Of course they cant afford a 65k car, but for only 5k more than the base leaf (27k) you can add at least another 10 KwH for a total of around ~120 miles. I have talked with so many people in my state and everyone of them says they would need more range before they would ever consider an EV...
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    Nissan Leaf

    I think the Leaf has the potential to be a Gen III competitor, but Nissan has taken the road of making a compliance car then telling everyone that wants to buy one that you dont need the most important thing that people care about (range). This isnt just a problem with a leaf, but with their...
  47. C

    Class 8 trucks going down mountains with full battery

    Ouch... just looked at balqon mx30 day cab Tractor specs. 380kwh for 90 miles of loaded range. Guess my 2-3MwH for a long haul day wasnt to far off.
  48. C

    Class 8 trucks going down mountains with full battery

    I rode around with my friend for a day (who is a regional driver) and we got to talking when he filled up his rig with Diesel. We came onto the topic about electric cars (go figure) and started figuring out what it would take for a Class 8 to become a BEV. In a long haul scenario the energy...
  49. C

    Electric RV?

    My guess if you just double the Tesla 85kwh pack and you decide to take that bus on the highway, you may only get 80 miles of range or less. I know there are some reports that say range is 155 miles on 60 kwh, but these tests are in cities with average speeds of under 20 mph. Highway speed...
  50. C

    Water, water everywhere....and a power update.

    While not my area of expertise, I came across this ESS system that may be worth looking at. For 12 grand this ESS is 34kwh meaning $350 per kwh. This is the cheapest price I have ever seen for pack configuration. I am sure if you could tie a couple of these babies together they may be an...