This might not be news to anyone but me but I thought it was pretty interesting. I remember this guy from the other place:

http://www.ndneyes.com/mo/index_files/Page379.htm


I should say former LT4....

Very creative, but I seem to recall him having a maximum distance of somewhere between 20 and 30 miles. Yuck.

Again, very creative, but I wouldn't even be able to get to a car show on the other side of town and back on one charge.

It's an exersize in 1/4 mile times.

I suspect it will kick ass, really.

I think youll find its more an exercise in passing emissions, cause he was starting to have more and more issues getting the 396 to pass the test each year and got sick of it all. I remember reading the thread about it. No trouble passing now!!

On the lead acid batteries, he probably will only get about 30 miles, but he was or is going to put in Lithium batteries if he hasnt allready, which will lighten up the car, give it alot more range, and probably make it abit faster too.

He said the car was lighter after the change even with the lead acids in there, so with lithiums in there is should be really light for a C4.

I think there is a company called AMP that converts a Saturn of some sort, dont know alot about it, havent looked into it.

If you look into the Tesla Roadster Durango Boy, itll go about 240 miles or so on a charge, and its fast. I can count on 1 hand the amount of times ive driven more than 150 miles in day let alone 240!! Then if you put solar panels up on your roof, you pretty much power the car for nothing ( with the cost of fuel, the solar panels would pay for themselves reasonably quick... )

Not for everyone though.

Quote:


I remember the Tesla Roadster. A very impressive car. VERY expensive if I recall, and yes, very fast. Seems I remember it had a way of charging the batteries through the braking system so it could utilize the kinetic energy it created to it's advantage.

Yeah mate it does, that is a pretty common sort of thing with dedicated electric vehicles, the GM EV1 also had that feature. Some electronic speed controllers on electric radio controlled cars have that too ( in this day and age they probably all do!! )

Very expensive indeed, no question about that, but VERY cheap to run, i cant see it being expensive to service, and performance is sort of inline with price for what you get i reckon, 0-60 in 3.9 seconds for the standard model and 3.7 for the sport is pretty respectable ;)

Mo has done a top job on that Corvette and a huge thumbs up to him!!

I'd hate to have a leak and drive it threw a car wash!

How much would it cost to replace the batteries?

On most of my battery powered items, after so many charges and discharges, the battery is junk and A-Won't hold a charge anymore, or B-the computerized charge level controller gets confused.

I just wonder, on an electric car, how long or how often would the batteries need to be replaced. Is there a disposal fee? Core charges on the higher tech batteries? How much for the new ones? Can they be installed by the owner or would it have to be regulated by dealerships that are certified...(Labor.)

loved the EV1, but you may want to think twice about the tesla..



Top+Gear++reviews+Tesla+Roadster

a few things to consider:

Electric cars won't short in the rain... they can't. It's insane to think that the manufacturers, in this day and age, wouldn't isolate the electrics in such a way as to prevent that.

The LiPo battery is prone to exploding... at least the laptop variants. This has caused the TSA to put battery standards in place.

I haven't hard of the Tesla blowing up, but, no one has one yet!

Yes, the controlers do regenerative braking. It's not capturing the brake energy; it puts the motor into generator mode with emulates compression braking. The RC car speed controllers do the same thing, just on a grander scale.

Remember - electric motors put out full torque at 0 RPM. They hit like a ton of bricks!!!

The Tesla is a long wheelbase version of the Lotus Elise. The battery is behind the driver; keeping much of the weight inside the wheelbase.

As for driving that exceeds 150 miles, a study I read/heard about indicates that the average driver goes 30 miles a day. Don't bitch to me if you exceed that; I am talking averages. I only commute about 10 miles a day, total. I would be a great candidate for an electric.

Don't expect the batteries to short or explode on impact, either. I suspect there is a break-a-way kill switch that isolates the battery in impact. Remember, these cars must pass crash tests like everything else.

We forget that we drive with 15 gallons of gas, and there is a lot of fire potential there... (I know, liquid is reasonablly inert, but the vapour is released instantly).

here's another