I would so own one of these

[Skunksmash]

http://www.teslamotors.com/

Check these babies out. Pennies per mile. The guys who own paypal started up this electric car company, the first american car company to be started in over 50 years. I like the fact that they named it after the guy that tried to give us the electric car 70 years ago, Nikola Tesla. They said that they first had to break into the high end sports car market, but then they sold enough that now they could afford to make that 4-door luxury one. Next they plan to get into the $20,000-$25,000 bracket. Be awesome if they could get down into the Cobalt/Focus area.

[1HI4x4]

We would already have electric cars if the oil companies and our government hadn't gotten involved the last time. Don't believe me just type in "who killed the electric car" in a google search, very interesting reading.

I sell forklifts for a living, the technology is just at our finger tips on electric cars, the hangup is the battery technology. I sell Enersys products and I can tell you they are developing batteries that could be recharged in about 30 minutes and would run a car for 2-3 days(300 miles+). It is being tested right now in a few factories across the US.

I think the guys at Tesla are going to be way out front on this deal because they won't sell out to anyone, they just believe that if they can get a car to run 300 miles+ on a charge and sell it for under $30K they will have a large market, and I agree.

Check this guy out, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrHXdM9f13k

[VileZambonie]

I'd rather have a hybrid than a full elec vehicle. You run out of Electrical power you're dead. At least with a hybrid you have your generator. Next year = plug in hybrids. estimated 70 miles on elec power before recharge or engine needs to run. The battery array alone and cost of repairing one of these vehicles is what throws it's economical sense right out the window.

[1HI4x4]

I'd rather have a hybrid than a full elec vehicle. You run out of Electrical power you're dead. At least with a hybrid you have your generator. Next year = plug in hybrids. estimated 70 miles on elec power before recharge or engine needs to run. The battery array alone and cost of repairing one of these vehicles is what throws it's economical sense right out the window.

The technology they are using is very reliable, it just comes down to the battery. I have lift trucks running with this same technology that run over 20,000 hours(think 600,000 miles) with no major issues/proper preventitive maint.. I sell a flooded battery that would go 10+ years in a car, but would be very unsafe in a vehicle.

There is a big misconception about getting caught with a dead battery, no different than if a fuel pump or ECM pukes on a fueled car, the reason Hybrids are so expensive is that there are two complete systems on the car, eliminate one of thoses systems and the price will have to drop. There isn't any support from the government to go to a plug-in only car due to the taxes that are created with fossil fuels.

[VileZambonie]

A dead battery array costs a lot more than a fuel pump to replace. There goes the economic sense... If you look at the age of our trucks and look at the life expectancy of electric powered vehicles and cost of repair... you're spending more money either way. $30k on the vehicle initially and how many years can you really expect worry free reliability? You lose a motor generator, battery array etc.... it's gonna cost thousands to repair. Will the vehicle even be worth putting that kind of $ into at that point? So really what's more economical over the timeline? You'd probably get better reliability and longevity out of a 1973 k10 with a 454.

[Skunksmash]

You left out all the mechanical maintenance of a typical gasoline engine. What about the 70 oil changes that gas engine needs during it's life? Most (if not all) new factory motors will recommend synthetic oil, which puts those oil changes at higher than they used to be. What about all it's air filters? Engine coolant. What about it's tune ups? And how many times have we all had transmission problems, of any kind? Electric cars dont have transmission. What about all the engine repairs that you are going to need to have done while you keep the 100 moving parts drivetrain? The fact is, if you add all that up for the life of the vehicle, the electric car comes out being cheaper. And, as time goes by, just as with anything else that comes into a mass market, these big expensive batteries are only going to get cheaper.

So when that happens you're really saving money. Plus all you have to do to keep from running out of power is do like toyota did and embed a solar panel in there to look like a body panel. How far do you drive to work every day? If it's over 125 miles, then you need to be moving somewhere closer to your job lol. The cars go 250 miles, almost the exact same distance that my honda civic does on 11.5 gallons of gas. That's a full tank for the honda. So you would have well more than enough to drive to work and back, and still do any other daily driving that you might want to do. Let that solar panel slowly charge in the bright sun all day, (how many of us have to park in the sun for work? I know I do) and plug it in to the wall at night. Not that even that would take that long, they say it takes 45 minutes to charge the batteries on the tesla's. 

[choptop]

Ill pass, there's no place for a flowmaster exhaust, turbo, supercharger, nothing. The silence would drive me nuts.

[eventhorizon66]

Ill pass, there's no place for a flowmaster exhaust, turbo, supercharger, nothing. The silence would drive me nuts.

I know what you mean.  The noise a car makes is half of the appeal.  They would have to come with a CD called 1001 race car engine sounds.  Or better yet, have a built in feature where you can select between American V8, Italian V12, or IRL V10 and it plays engine sounds in sync with your driving.

[choptop]

That might work, but by the time you got the sound equipment onboard to properly simulate the real thing that should leave about 50 miles left to the range of the car.

[eventhorizon66]

That might work, but by the time you got the sound equipment onboard to properly simulate the real thing that should leave about 50 miles left to the range of the car.

LOL, especially at the volume I'd play it.

[1HI4x4]

Ill pass, there's no place for a flowmaster exhaust, turbo, supercharger, nothing. The silence would drive me nuts.

I agree they could never take the place of my truck, but I don't drive it to work everyday. I could get real used to about $6.00 a week in battery charges.

In the forklift world a LP/Gas truck will cost $3 for every $1 spent on an electric lift in maintenance.

[Skunksmash]

With perfect quiet all the time i would start hating noisy regular cars lol. But i do wonder how the do the air conditioner.