LSA V's Telsa, blown away
 

https://youtu.be/6eGhjhx8O9M

Electric vehicles our silent future????
Gotta love the grunt though.

Rule number one of street drags....NEVER race an all wheel drive EV. They have more instantaneous torque that you can dream of, and they can put it to the tarmac.

Then again, at 150 mph, they run out of juice in about a minute.

i saw that the other day it's pretty impressive as is the electric formula one cars that race in there own series . they still are a long way of been a mainstream vehicle . they may be fine around cities atm but get back to me when one can tow a 18 ft fibreglass boat 500 ks to my fav fishing areas then you will have my full attention,

i see them like a 3d tv set sure a few people will buy them but they never really took off and certainly not it every home yet.

cheers dean

I agree Dean, for commuting around the city they are fine but they gave a long way to go before they are challenging the internal combustion engine.

Supercars have never been quick off the line either, they should have challenged something made for the job.

I believe that particular model S 0-100kmh is 3.4seconds. Line it up against a Godzilla and it'll be smoked (if 1 second is a smoking!).

It's a lovely car, but there are cars which will outperform it in any area, including range.

No doubt it's a marvel, but they do still have a long way to go.

My Brother-in-law has one (Tesla). I drove it the other day. Man the instant acceleration from any speed is pretty amazing.

I still couldn't get used to the lack of a nice V8/10/12 etc though.

He's got the latest software in it with the "Autonomous Driving mode". Although it says "Beta". I don't think I could trust "beta" software to drive for me though :-)

The main thing I like about them is that they are an ok looking car. I don't get why EV's in the past had to be designed like crap.

cheers

Gregg

Gav, I'm not sure where they still have a long way to go. Sure, you can't drive from Brisbane to Sydney on one charge, but what percentage of cars would truly do that anymore?

The guy who has put the 800 cubic inch motor into my old Chevelle has bought a couple of Teslas. His wife and kid convinced him to get the tree hugging cars to offset the Chevelle!
The P85D (the all wheel drive one with "insane mode") is great fun to drive in. It rides really well, especially considering the 21" wheels. It gets from 0-140 incredibly quickly. It has near enough to 500km range and can be fully charged overnight. The technology in it is amazing and they're a pretty classy looking car.

The range will continue to improve and the prices will come down with technology, but I think what they're offering for the money seems pretty reasonable compared to any electric, fuel or diesel competitors.

I love a rowdy V8 and always will, but I'd very happily own a Tesla.

If you live in a city they may be an option.
Their range and recharge time are what is going to need to improve.
But maybe I'm thinking the wrong way, perhaps there will always be a niche market for vehicles that can be refueled in remote areas?

or just buy a 500 k long extension cord lol

I could not help, but read this thread and post...

I just put in an order to buy a 90D (no, not a P90D, which costs an extra $30k - that would be ludicrous! - literally and figuratively!)

The P90D in Ludicrous mode is rated at 0->60MPH in 2.8secs. That's quick, especially for a heavy 4 door, 5 passenger car. My 90D is rated at 4.2sec...

I take delivery at the Factory in Fremont in January :D

In an ideal world I wouldn't mind having a Teslanfor the commute. But it would come behind my other ideal cars, a 911 and a Silverado. These are daily drivers only. Cobras/classics are another topic.

I think the Tesla is a technological marvel.

At the moment in this country they appeal to the well-off "early accepter" brigade who acknowledge their appeal and are prepared to buy notwithstanding the perceived problems inherent in bringing something so different to the market.

Tesla have to hope that they will not have to contend with the raging opposition they face in the US from the entrenched network of automotive dealers who oppose the Tesla marketing model in which purchasers buy directly from the manufacturer, bypassing dealers. Did you know that in some states it is not legal to buy a Tesla? Possibly the relatively small takeup of Tesla cars here will not cause too much heartburn to the old boy dealership network.

Other causes of concern are the initial outlay -- over $200K for the upper models in Aus-- the lack at this time of recharging stations and of course, distance anxiety.

Once a network of super-charge points has been established as in the US where numerous charging stations provide an 80% charge (350 klms worth) in twenty minutes, for free, while the driver has a cup of coffee or does some shopping, then the distance anxiety question goes away. Most people on a road trip stop at a servo for fuel and a cuppa anyway so the twenty minute wait is no biggie. At home it's simply a matter of plugging in to your Tesla-supplied wall mounted power pack each night and you start every day with a "full tank" which, starting from empty, costs about $5 worth of electricity to fill or charge. Better than $90 of 98 to fill your Beemer or Merc.

One of my concerns is that the car is always on-line and the owner is notified of software updates that can be installed for no charge with the push of a button. This must provide a challenge to hackers with an anti-social bent and too much time on their hands. I'd hope that with the resources at his disposal Elon Musk has employed the best and brightest to construct impregnable firewalls to see off this threat.

Otherwise the Tesla represents a huge step forward, and the product can only improve with advances in technology and with such a forward-thinking visionary as Musk at the helm. By mid next year it will be possible to drive from Brisbane to Melbourne with proposed charging stations along the way including Goulburn (!!!). With the finances I'd own one in a heartbeat.

It's the future! We are all hobbyists now.

No good to me until they can do 1500kls in a day.
At 130 plus KPH

They're everywhere! Electric cars that is.

Electric power lights up Pikes Peak

Anyone making an AWD with decent ground clearance? That's what we need up here, in the snow & mud seasons. Stainless or Ally would be nice too, with all the salty salt salt...

Not to hard to blow away an Lsa, even one in a cobra, they are not that quick.

A friend let me drive his Tesla S P85D yesterday.

Got up to 107km/h in about 50m coming out of a driveway in insane launch mode.

Apparantly about 1.1G (the tower of terror at Dreamworld is about 0.8 I think) and felt every bit of it.

No noise, no tyre spinning, just instant acceleration and a sense that my retinas were about to detach.

Does anybody have the 1/4 mile time for the Tesla? I find 11.7s on the web. Quick, but I expect mid 10s to make headlines...

Per Motortrend, "With a full charge, the P90D reliably rips through the quarter mile in 10.9 seconds, hitting 122.7 mph. Those numbers make the EV the fastest four-door sedan we’ve ever tested, besting both the mighty 707-hp Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and the Audi RS 7 at the strip. The P90D is a supercar beater, too, beating the Porsche 911 Turbo S and Nissan GT-R NISMO (among others) through the quarter mile, though in sprints much longer than that, the Porsche will walk away as the Model S nears its 155 mph top speed."

2015 Tesla Model S P90D w/Ludicrous Upgrade First Test