

Tesla Says It Is Testing an Electric Car Prototype for Toyota - donohoe
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/tesla-says-it-is-testing-an-electric-car-prototype-for-toyota/?src=twr

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protomyth
So, to go along with this, has anyone been successful at building a charger
for an electric car that could be used to replace a gas pump (safe in weather,
80 - 100% charge in under 8 minutes)?

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aaronblohowiak
Yes. You simply swap the battery out for one that is already charged. The
model works where the person owns the car but effectively leases the battery,
so your fee at the station includes the battery "rental" and the delta in its
charge. <http://www.betterplace.com/>

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protomyth
I can swap the batteries in under the amount of time it would take me to fill
a tank of gas (around 8 minutes avg)?

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Groxx
If it's _made_ to be swapped out? Yes. Grab handle & pull. Drop in
replacement.

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hugh3
Problem: the batteries on a Tesla Roadster weigh about 400 lb. Have fun
lifting that!

If you want a battery that one man (or more to the point, one woman) can lift,
you'll have to settle for a drastically reduced range.

Alternatively, you could have twenty easily-removed 20 lb batteries to swap
out. It'd still be a bit of a workout, and beyond the capabilities of your
average grandmother.

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HeyLaughingBoy
Apparently you're not an engineer!

Here's my proposed solution based on current technology and about 10 seconds
thinking about the problem:

\- Battery is in an externally accessed compartment mounted on a sled with a
pair of clips.

\- Driver opens compartment door and backs into "battery loading bay" at gas
station.

\- Clips engage matching latches that sense battery and extract it from car,
then rotates a new, charged one in place and loads it.

\- Driver pays and drives off.

None of this is more complicated than filling up your car with gas and the
mechanisms are cheap and easy to build.

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hugh3
Hey, I never said there weren't solutions, I just wanted to point out the
problem in the parent's "pick it up by the handle" approach.

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adamilardi
Does anyone know how much the first electric car GM put out cost to build?

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stan_rogers
If you mean the EV1, it worked out to somewhere between $80K-100K per vehicle
due to the small number of vehicles produced. Keep in mind that there was no
way to _buy_ an EV1 (it was lease-only) and that only 1117 of them were ever
produced despite a never-empty waiting list. Seems GM never found a battery
pack that priced in at anywhere near the same level as a stamped gas tank, so
the margins were lower than they had hoped for...

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gsiener
Has this had any effect on their stock yet?

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dgritsko
Up 0.49 as of 1:11 EDT.

[edit] Now it's up 1.27 as of 3:03.

[http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:TSLA](http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:TSLA)

