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That didn't meet EPA estimates and Ford actually lowered the ratings recently.
I looked at one with the family. I was the only one who liked it. The other 3 bailed and went to look at a Jeep. Back seats are thin and hard - Fail.
I was bummed because it's shorter than a Prius but has almost as much room as a Prius V, and is likely more fun to drive than either. I also liked that the fuel tank capacity is greater than either Prius.
With 3 vetoes it's off my list, though.
Nice to be royalty and have deep pockets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTBZP7KCEho&feature=share&list=PLpMCMJ0CBUXSiXYlW- CC74R0-9RdFbwiMa
Kind of cool to see the skeleton exposed, though.
the first car in the world to exceed 60 mph was an electric.
It just give you hope when you know there will ALWAYS be nuts out there trying to figure out how to make something go faster. :shades:
So if you are in your Leaf do you turn off the AC and cook or take the chance of running the battery down the hour or more you are stuck moving 10 miles?
I imagine you would leave the A/C on until your range got close to the distance from home.
Useful info like real-time traffic, police activity, and hazards on the road.
At least 3 times I've ignored it and regretted it. When it sees a jam in front of you it reroutes you automatically.
Far from perfect (volume is too low, you get ads when idling), but still good.
Here's a reason (not one that will likely resonate with consumers though).
gimmestdtranny, "What Would It Take for YOU to buy a diesel car?" #11254, 29 Sep 2013 9:33 am
Still, I like having more info - then I can decide.
Looks like Tesla have the Spin Doctors all over this one for sure:
The incident happened Tuesday after 8 a.m. as the driver was traveling southbound on state Route 167 through Kent, said Trooper Chris Webb of the Washington State Patrol. The driver stated that he believed he had struck some metal debris on the freeway, so he exited the highway and the vehicle became disabled.
The driver told authorities he began to smell something burning and then the vehicle caught fire. Firefighters needed several attempts to extinguish the flames because the blaze kept reigniting, Webb said. A trooper who responded to the scene was unable to locate any objects on the roadway, but Department of Transportation workers did observe some debris near the scene.
Webb said there was too much damage from the fire to see what damage the debris may have caused.
The automobile website Jalopnik.com posted photos of the blaze that it says were taken by a reader, along with a video. The video shows the front of the Tesla Model S in flames.
Tesla said the flames were contained to the front of the $70,000 vehicle due to its design and construction. Company spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean said there were no indications that the fire was caused by anything other than the crash.
http://news.yahoo.com/tesla-stock-tumbles-model-catches-fire-210456370--finance.- html
Seems like an isolated incident.
The battery fire issue isn't Tesla's fault - Li-ion batteries have a HUGE amount of chemical energy stored in a compact size. If something goes wrong (just as it does with gasoline tanks) a fire can easily follow, and be difficult to extinguish, because the chemical energy is still there, flame or no flame.
And the media is still on the 70K slant, maybe to tone down the offensiveness of the tax break given to a car that probably has an average unsubsidized MSRP a bit higher.
http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-model-s-achieves-best-safe- ty-rating-any-car-ever-tested
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2013/08/tesla-model-s-safest-car-overall-not-- so-fast.html
I disagree, though, some debris was hit and the fire happened after the passengers exited the car. All the passengers were safe. It's not like it exploded and injured people inside.
The 2nd article merely says they did not want Tesla using the information in a way that they didn't intend. But what they claimed wasn't inaccurate.
In fact after reading it, to me it seems like Tesla had a point!
Not only did they exit the car, a built-in alert system discovered the problem and alerted them to do so.
Plus the fire never spread to the inside of the cabin.
People will react to news like this, but I don't see how it's unsafe. The driver collided with debris. I'm sure temp sensors found the problem before the condition became unsafe.
My dad was once a passenger in a car that caught fire. Other cars told them to stop, and he got out just in time. No alert system in that car-B-Q.
Putting a fire alarm in a building doesn't make it "safer". A fire-suppression system makes it safer (as in race cars).
And, as the only car to warn you to exit the vehicle...one is tempted to ask---why did they feel such a warning necessary?
Would be nice if fuel tanks had an alert if the fuel level suddenly dropped, indicating a fuel leak, but gas cars are not as safe.
Tesla should be compared to sedans, not race cars. That's not really fair - look at the million dollar price tags those race-prepped cars carry.
Hopefully the NHTSA get to look over the car before Tesla destroys any evidence.
A full tank of gas has as much or more energy than those batteries, and no, don't ask me to do the math. Miles driven is how I came up with that.
My figures show that only perhaps 2 times month would the car's range totally screw me up, not meaning getting stranded, but meaning that I'd have to change my plans so as to re-charge.
I absolutely could not live with 100 miles, so a Leaf is out.
A Tesla simply isn't practical as a "second car"---it's not enough of a "toy" to justify it like you might an exotic that you take to track days, you can't off-road with it, so it's not "recreational", and you can't haul gravel with it, as with a spare pickup.
I just don't see how selling $100k cars to the rich helps me and the rest of the Middle class tax payers. Tesla has already dropped the entry level model off the list. When will we see the Tesla for the rest of the buying public?
I don't see any different standard. If MB marketed an expensive electric that exists with tons of outside aid and then it caught fire for reasons still unknown, I'd be pretty inquisitive, too.
I noticed something else---there is no longer a waiting list for a Tesla even though production hasn't ramped up.
And we import about 20 fewer barrels of oil per year for each one, per the EPA. Set those on fire and see how much damage that would do....
20 barrels, the emissions warranty means the batteries have to last 10 years, that's up to 200 barrels, Brent Crude is around $110 per, that's over $20 grand.
Realistically I don't see them being driven as many miles as a 7 series, but still.
That's not what Tesla is saying on their blog:
"A curved section that fell off a semi-trailer was recovered from the roadway near where the accident occurred and, according to the road crew that was on the scene, appears to be the culprit."
I see ABC did their usual investigation and just repeated what Musk told them to say. It's his story and everyone is sticking to it. If they have recovered this curved piece of killer steel, it should be easy for the insurance company to determine if it was that or something else that caused the problem. I can't imagine the insurance company covering a $100k loss without getting another opinion on the cause.
Been a few years since I've noticed an exploding laptop in the news. (theinquirer.net)
This is an interesting blurb from MIT. Hard to believe that there's "one fire for every 1,738 cars on the road." Have to go check the expiration date on the little extinguisher in my storage box under the passenger seat.
"A half hour of yard work with a leaf blower is equivalent emissions-wise to driving the f-150 raptor full size pickup from northern Texas to Anchorage, Alaska or about 4,000 miles," said Kavanagh.
Blower Pollution (WWLP)
Just going to mulch my leaves (if they fall before the snow does) using my e-mower.
I rake up my oak & Locust leaves and put them on the compost pile. The Euk leaves I haul to the dumpster. I Indiana the rake them into piles in the streets and the city picks them up. Never saw that before.
Who said they have 1/4" plate under the Tesla? This ain't a rally car...
Keeping weight down is essential so there's no way they use that.
Lady next door uses 100 of those lawn and leaf bags since there's no curb side pickup. Yet taxes are ridiculously high here.
"(Reuters) - Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O), defended the safety performance of electric cars on Friday, three days after a battery fire in a Tesla Model S helped sparked a decline in the automaker's market value.
"For consumers concerned about fire risk, there should be absolutely zero doubt that it is safer to power a car with a battery" than a conventional gas-powered vehicle, Musk said in a blog post on Tesla's website.
Tesla shares fell more than 5 percent this week, the sharpest weekly decline since mid-August, after images and a video emerged Wednesday of a Model S on fire after an accident near Seattle Tuesday morning.
The fire occurred after the driver struck a large metal object on the highway. The object punched a hole three inches in diameter through the quarter-inch armor plate protecting the battery pack with a peak force of about 25 tons, Musk said."
Now is it true, I don't know, but neither Gary or I imagined it being said in the official response from Musk. Now is it misquoted who knows, I know I saw it in other reports besides the one I copied here, but as we know it seems reporters can be quite lazy nowadays and just copy and paste their articles, so the same mistake can be in several places.