Tesla's newest car; the Model S Plaid.

[Brassmonkey]

My only gripe with the electric clean energy crap is the consumption, no one seems to care how much energy is used as long as the greenies can deem it clean. As a slight conservationist myself it just doesn’t jive with me. Sure the exhaust from my truck isn’t rainbows and unicorn farts but I run less then 30 gal a month through the filler neck of the tank, likely less energy than folks plugging in their car everywhere, and it was built 30 years ago should still be running 30 years from now. Doesn’t stop the smugness and science denier scowls.

[Finster101]

Teslas are almost as common as Prius here. Lots of them on Hwy 1. There's a Supercharger at Ventana Inn, Big Sur then no public utilities until you hit Cambria. Don't leave the lights on. LOL

I noticed a tesla sitting at a vacation house because the brake disks had rusted in the salt air. Huge Disks for something I would think would have regenerative braking or maybe that doesn't work with full batteries?

Regenerative braking is not designed to stop the vehicle only to scavenge power when lightly braking or coasting. You still need mechanical brakes for performance and emergency stopping.

[jonp]

The schwartz must be strong with you!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

+1. Nice catch. First thing I thought of was " you went over my helmet"?

[jonp]

The first big producer of Solar Panels was the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. They built the first Commercial Solar Generating Plant in Carizzo Ca and ran it from 1983 to 1994. It was the largest solar plant in the world at the time. Panels were over $10/watt at the time, they lost money, the plant was shut down and the panels sold off. That was the start of private solar farms. I have 9 of the original ARCO panels and they are STILL IN OPERATION.

The Conspiracy Theories that big oil would hide a technology rather than use it themselves is a load of manure.

Secrets don't keep.

A carburator that got over 100 mpg was bought up by "big oil" to keep it secret. Anyone remember that?

[Mal Paso]

This one? https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nobodys-fuel/

[rbuck351]

Diesel injectors do what the pogue carb was claimed to do, that is to micro mist the fuel. Diesel cars get nowhere near the 100 or 200 mpg claimed and diesel has more BTUs per gallon than gas. There is just not enough power in a gallon of gas to push a car that far no matter how much you atomize the gas. Well if you could split the atoms of gas you could get that kind of power.

[abunaitoo]

The USA becoming a "throw away" country, electric vehicles work.
Very little maintenance, good for short trips, here they have lots of incentives, easy to drive.
After using for 4 or 5 years, throw it away and get another.
I think a battery change cost $10,000.
Us "old timers" keep our old gas vehicles going by fixing them ourselves, long trips, no waiting for it to charge.
I drive a 1990 Maxima, 1999 Frontier, and a 1999 PreRunner.
Fix them myself, not worried about trading it in every 4 to 5 years.
Two things that would make EV practical.
1) Cheaper batteries that have 100% more capacity, and are charged by solar panels on the roof.
2) Superconductor wire so power loss would be "zero"
If these happen, fuel engines will be gone.

[Lloyd Smale]

My only gripe with the electric clean energy crap is the consumption, no one seems to care how much energy is used as long as the greenies can deem it clean. As a slight conservationist myself it just doesn’t jive with me. Sure the exhaust from my truck isn’t rainbows and unicorn farts but I run less then 30 gal a month through the filler neck of the tank, likely less energy than folks plugging in their car everywhere, and it was built 30 years ago should still be running 30 years from now. Doesn’t stop the smugness and science denier scowls.

I use even less. Force me to buy an electric car when some yuppys living in the city buy a home 60 miles away in the suburbs and both of them drive a 120 miles a day. Come home to a house that is heated and cooled thats twice the size of mine. Have ever electric do dad that sold by man.

Fuel injection did make cars burn more effeciently but it isnt the drastic change you think it is. Typical 4 cyl car gets between 30 and 40 mpg. My buddy had a 4 cyl chev chevette with a carb that got 43 in 1985. If i use logic and think that who is hurting the environment more. A guy today driving a 120 miles in a corola getting 30mpg and burning 4 gallons of has or him driving that same 12 miles using 3 gallons of gas. Tail pipe may be a bit dirtier but the pollution producing that gallon of fuel and transporting it and keep that gas stations lights on and the pump running probably add up to more pollution. Ill add to that that its not fuel injection that changed the car industry. Its ELECTRONIC managment that did. The ability of a computer to adjust fuel air rations and timing in milliseconds. Chevy fooled with it in the last years of carbureted motors but even the fuel injection tech was in its infancy back then. They no doubt could have made vast improvements in carbureted motors.

[rondog]

Electric vehicles are a hard "nope" for me. Not interested.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Let's do a quick engineering "back of the envelope" calculation on an electric vehicle carrying solar panels along to recharge itself.

Let's start by making some assumptions - I'm simplifying the heck out of this, I'm not a solar expert but I do a lot of electronics. So... Let's say 40,000 Wh to recharge it fully, assume that the solar panels are super light and don't affect the car's aerodynamics, or mileage, and assume that you live in Nevada or California so you have decent sun, and that it's summer so it's even bright sun. And the panels magically always keep themselves at right angles to the sunlight, for max efficiency. OK...

And let's assume that the panel is 6' x 6' in size, just for the quick calculation. That could be a pair of SunPower SPR-E20-435 panels, a decent one. I'd suspect you won't get Horror Fright panels here LOL

OK so the core math is then, hours needed for the recharge = Watt Hours / Panel Wattage, or hours = 40,000 Wh / 870 W = just under 46 hours to recharge your vehicle, of constant bright sunlight on the order of Nevada or California brightness?

If you live somewhere that has sun for almost 2 days in a row, I strongly suspect it's inside the Arctic circle or Antarctic circle. And sunlight there isn't quite tropical in intensity.

So - I don't see carrying your own panels as a great plan, unless you carry a LARGE array, like 10+ of those panels, and then have someone re-aiming the array every half hour or so, or you could carry fewer panels and a lot of mirrors and use those to cast a lot more light on the panels, if you do that someone/something has to aim the mirrors regularly, and it'd be a REALLY good idea to cool your solar panels so they don't melt down.

Or just use Diesel or Gasoline?

[Gator 45/70]

Well someone has come up with a solution for all the Hipsters on-board with the electric cars that can give you whip-lash on take off....and extended you're range until at least a service station, Where the rest of us knuckle dragg'n Squatch's fill up at.
You'll be needing a trailer hitch btw.

[para45lda]

Ludicrous Speed!!

[rbuck351]

Electronic management doesn't do much for carbs but it works great with electronic injectors and valve and ign timing. But no matter as there is only so much power available in a gallon of gas or diesel. What does matter is the availability of charging stations and electricity to charge the batteries. Also there is the pollution caused by creating the electricity and the disposal of the parts of the worn out power generators and batteries.

If we turn off all the generators the greenies don't like we couldn't run half the things we do now let alone going to all electric vehicles. They don't like hydro electric (kills fish), nuclear (kills peopie), natural gas, oil, coal (all kill the planet), wind turbines (kills birds). The only thing left is solar and that gives you skin cancer. Maybe we are looking at this wrong, maybe we should get rid of greenies.

[Lloyd Smale]

Let's do a quick engineering "back of the envelope" calculation on an electric vehicle carrying solar panels along to recharge itself.

Let's start by making some assumptions - I'm simplifying the heck out of this, I'm not a solar expert but I do a lot of electronics. So... Let's say 40,000 Wh to recharge it fully, assume that the solar panels are super light and don't affect the car's aerodynamics, or mileage, and assume that you live in Nevada or California so you have decent sun, and that it's summer so it's even bright sun. And the panels magically always keep themselves at right angles to the sunlight, for max efficiency. OK...

And let's assume that the panel is 6' x 6' in size, just for the quick calculation. That could be a pair of SunPower SPR-E20-435 panels, a decent one. I'd suspect you won't get Horror Fright panels here LOL

OK so the core math is then, hours needed for the recharge = Watt Hours / Panel Wattage, or hours = 40,000 Wh / 870 W = just under 46 hours to recharge your vehicle, of constant bright sunlight on the order of Nevada or California brightness?

If you live somewhere that has sun for almost 2 days in a row, I strongly suspect it's inside the Arctic circle or Antarctic circle. And sunlight there isn't quite tropical in intensity.

So - I don't see carrying your own panels as a great plan, unless you carry a LARGE array, like 10+ of those panels, and then have someone re-aiming the array every half hour or so, or you could carry fewer panels and a lot of mirrors and use those to cast a lot more light on the panels, if you do that someone/something has to aim the mirrors regularly, and it'd be a REALLY good idea to cool your solar panels so they don't melt down.

Or just use Diesel or Gasoline?

sometimes up here in the winter you dont see the sun for a month.

[MrWolf]

Another way for them to keep you home or very close to it without you realizing. Think about it.

[Lloyd Smale]

Another way for them to keep you home or very close to it without you realizing. Think about it.

good point. Keeps us from seeing the farce at the capital building or whats really going on at the border. It would keep the average guy from seeing with his own two eyes the destruction of this country by the liberals.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Around Seattle we just mutter about "I heard this rumor about a bright light in the sky"... Hard to see it except during tourist season.

[nvbirdman]

I agree, electric vehicles are the future, but at 77 years old I ain't going to see that future anyway so I'll just keep driving my gas guzzler.

[JackQuest]

Electric vehicles will be great, as long as you don't need a heater or air conditioner. Around here, you need both the same day.

Not to mention that a lot of Montanans drive 3 hours 1 way to get groceries. Montana is the electric car’s worst nightmare.

[JackQuest]

Around Seattle we just mutter about "I heard this rumor about a bright light in the sky"... Hard to see it except during tourist season.

Having grown up in western Oregon, and visited Portland routinely, the Seattle stories about rainfall are mostly hogwash. Portland has a U of O Suicide study center because the weather is so grim. Seattle is in the rain shadow of the Olympic forest, but they neglect to tell “the rest of the story”.
You want extreme weather unlike any other part of the country? Try the Columbia Gorge. Try The Dalles.