NBC just features a "green" sports car. That Tesla. I kind of laughed at the thing. Its damn fast but has a top speed of 125 mph (4.0 sec 60).

But green?

They said it had 6000+ Litium ion batteries in it and you plug it in a wall to charge.

Aka in most places in this country where power is gained from Coal.

So is that really green??? Plug 10000 of those into a city grid and see how green it really is.

You could say that it kind of helps get rid of oil.. but green.. how about sustainable??

6000+ batteries...

I really hope hydrogen comes around good. Acquire it in a green way, produces water and should be sustainable. That

 

[QUOTE=y2ks2k,Dec 26 2007, 07:57 PM] NBC just features a "green" sports car. That Tesla. I kind of laughed at the thing. Its damn fast but has a top speed of 125 mph (4.0 sec quarter).

But green?

They said it had 6000+ Litium ion batteries in it and you plug it in a wall to charge.

Aka in most places in this country where power is gained from Coal.

So is that really green??? Plug 10000 of those into a city grid and see how green it really is.

You could say that it kind of helps get rid of oil.. but green.. how about sustainable??

6000+ batteries...

I really hope hydrogen comes around good. Acquire it in a green way, produces water and should be sustainable. That

 

I think electric cars are the future but not with a 6 - 8 hour recharge time. This is a start, but not a mainstream product yet. As for green, who is really counting... ethanol seems to be tougher on the environment (and certainly the economy) than gasoline but it is pushed by many.

Hydrogen is much further off (if ever) so don't yet too excited about it.

 

Coal is extremely clean and much more efficient than an ICE. Problem is the batteries ofc... they aren't exactly the most environmentally friendly creations.

 

if a rechargeable battery car isn't your idea of green, I really can't understand why you'd think hydrogen would be better. It's no different than a battery - it still takes energy to separate hydrogen, and that power comes from the same place that charges batteries.

 

riiiight lol, good thing they didn

 

Don't forget also that it takes 3x to 4x the electricity to produce fuel cell than running on battery directly.

So if you hate coal, then you will have to hate fuel cell even more.

 

Although electricity often comes from a fossil fuel source (coal), a power plant is much more apt at controlling pollution than a gas powered vehicle is. So although both a gas powered car and an electric power car are both running off of fossil fuels, the electric power produced in a power plant is much much cleaner as a multimillion dollar power plant is much better suited at controlling emissions than a car.

So yes, the Tesla is a green car.

Also, the tesla is much more efficient than a gas powered car. It takes about $2.50 worth of electricity to charge it to capacity and it has a 250 mile range (if you take it easy). That works out to about 10 cents a mile. Not bad.

I've had a chance to meet some tesla engineers and many of them use solar panels at their homes to charge the cars. According to one guy I spoke with, he receives enough solar energy throughout the day to charge the car to capacity. But here's what he does. He receives solar energy during the day and sells it back to the power company at peak rates. Then, at night, when rates are low, he charges the tesla. So in the end, he actually MAKES money and is able to drive the tesla around off pure solar power. pretty cool.

however, i agree with you to some extent. batteries aren't the most environmentally friendly thing.

 

there are many uninformed/misinformed people here.

Electricity from a powerplant is always cleaner than deriving power from and ICE in a car. This is because powerplants are more efficient (75%) than car engines (the best are only 25%). so, even from a "dirty" source such as coal or diesel you would still generate less pollution. Remember, cars are the number one reason for pollution, not power plants.

It doesn't take hours to recharge the Tesla; only with the conventional plug. With an adapter, it only takes a few minutes to recharge the car.

As for 6000 batteries? These are SMALL batteries. It is easier to recycle small batteries one at a time than to recycle one giant 300 lb battery. A monitor in the car tells which batteries are dying. Compare this with the modern hybrid, where you don't replace the single giant battery until it is completely dead and fuel efficiency goes down along the way. If you keep replacing the small batteries, you keep the full potential of the battery "system."

 

If only. It takes about three hours to charge the tesla with the power station. Charge time is probably the biggest strike against using an electic vehicle as a daily driver.