Canon EOS 5D
ƒ/7.1
16 mm
1/200
640
Woo-hoo! They just delivered it tonight. Excited beyond words…
55 responses to “My Tesla Arrived!”
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I dig the color choice. Nice. 🙂
Enjoy driving it and please don’t wrap it around a tree, or offer to jack up a Mercedes! 😉
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What is the actual range, and how long does it take to charge via household plug?
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New mechanical toys are always good.
I’ll assume that since its engineered by Lotus then it will be great to be drive.As others have asked, I would also like to know how it performs day to day, in terms of running costs, charge time, range, whether range is dramatically effected by having the radio on or such like.
I love the fact that you’ve put in solar panels to charge it. Do they only run only to the car? Are they the only source the car has? Do you mind me asking whta that set up cost? I’ll understand if you don’t want to say.
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Cool. Is that officially the Thousand Yard Grin? I have a meeting with Tesla next week, looking forward to that. I’ll ask how demanding their lead customer was …
It does look *GREAT* you know. Like a really good Lotus. And I’ve had a really good Lotus and a really bad Lotus!
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Beautiful Steve! Been watching these guys through the tumultuous journey to get this far, and I’m still convinced (despite the rough spots) that they’re going to be a (*the*?) leader in the paradigm shift.
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congrats and Im so jealous now. why cant anyone make a decent electric car that is affordable? Im hoping the Think Ox comes out soon. oh and how much for a ride?
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Nice. Happy for you. I was curios about how many movies has this roadster been in and found a database, that had listed 2: The Iron Man and a doc: Who Killed the Electric Car. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=tesla&model=
but Ford T come up over a 1000 times
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=ford+&model=t
The Tesla looks like a classic that should last as well.Some interesting comments on the subject at the end of this article – http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_31/b4044419.htm?...
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thanks y’all. Gosh, I just love this car, and I think this is a new experience for me. I last felt something like this when I got my first Apple ][ in 1978. But never with a car. I was “happy” and a bit “excited” when I got other new cars, like a V12 BMW coupe a few years back, but it was a kinda like a fun first date that you just know won’t go anywhere long term. Not that I have dated much, but it’s the only analogy I can think of.
Victor, drona, xouroborus: I keep repeating to myself: "go for a spin, not a flip"
AshwinK: heh, I thought every day was Halloween….
zenera: looking for naming suggestions. "green machine" is a bit trite… Sequester… EVe… Beta… Sol… when I thought I was going to get the metallic red one: Ruby on Rails
menlo : glad to see you are perpetually sour. I was worried that you just hated Obama. =)
j_silla: Bob from the movie works for Tesla now!
rrelam and Tayne: The solar panels connect to the house and the car hangs off that too. One great option in California is net metering with time-of-day pricing. So the solar panels send power back to the grid during their peak hours (from noon to 6), and the Tesla charges at night… and the utility offers a 3:1 pricing ratio between those times. So three hours of charging at night only needs one hour of afternoon solar. The utility does the time shifting, and with a huge cost advantage to the consumer. So far, recharging has taken about 2 hours (but I have not driven long distances yet). The commute use case for me is compelling: I never worry about range since I plug in each night, and leave with a full tank of electrons each morning. Charge time could be 3x slower and it wouldn’t be noticed by me.
Tayne: driving cost is free to me because of the solar. But if I was paying, the car’s touch screen has a calculator (and all kinds of cool graphs) that shows that I use less than $1 of electricity per day.
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Waiting for the next one, en route to our parking lot, to arrive… I have a photo idea in mind…
Meanwhile, the best story so far came when I parked in a 2 hour zone. A meter maid drove up in her cart, tire-chalker in hand, and she just stopped and stared: “That’s just too beautiful for me to mark.”
And she drove by to mark the next car.
The Tesla made a meter maid friendly!!!
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now thats an accomplishment.
Actually, I’m curious about the batteries too.
How long do they last and whats the replacement cost?I recently had to dole out hundred-something-$ for a new powerbook battery after three years. not horrible all things considered, but I can imagine that cost being a power of magnitude higher with the kind of batteries the Tesla runs with.
thoughts?
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We’ll see how long they last. Laptop usage patterns (drainage cycles and temperature) are about as bad as you can get for battery lifetime. Tesla liquid cools the batteries and runs fiber optic sensors along all of them for longevity management. We may only have accelerated testing to guide us on ultimate lifetimes, and that may be biased if the temp is regulated. Your milage may vary. =)
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Did you see the GM Volt Battery Lab on Charlie Rose recently? They had a pretty crazy battery testing center. Here’s a link: http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/08/19/1/a-look-at-the-new-...
Skip forward to about 00:29:26.
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I am exceedingly jealous. And very happy to see someone with a Tesla. Congratulations.
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Oh, the early U.S. customers will get the same "0-60 in 3.9 seconds" performance as the Europeans. Tesla is going to upgrade our PEM and motor/gear box block in the same time frame.
The interesting back story is that a major improvement to the whole system (no transmission, longer range, higher performance, higher efficiency) was enabled by a breakthrough in the semiconductor industry – a new IGBT transistor that just started shipping. (full story from the CTO)
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Fine choice of vehicles Sir. I admire your forward thinking.
Glad to see what some thought of as a pipe dream actually being use in the real world. -
out of curiosity how tall are you? This model of the Tesla is built on the Lotus Elise frame correct?
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thanks…
firexbrat: at first, I thought the reference to a Tesla Coil Inside was purely electrifying metaphor…
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You are a lucky lucky man.
That is so awesome.
Congrats!
What are your thoughts on the car so far? How is it to drive? Do you drive it on a daily basis? How far can you go in it?
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I’m lovin’ it. It’s such a rush, without the punctuation of shifting… Yes, I drive it on a daily basis, and I start with a fresh charge each morning and never drive more than half its range on any given day.
Other than a long-distance road trip (which I wold not use this for, and which I rarely do anyway), I never think about the range or how/when to charge it. For commute / local business / local fun uses, it’s a free ride.
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