Tesla Motorcar

[manifold]

About 4 or 5 years ago I got into alternative power. I almost converted my convertible (bit of a mouthful) to electric. How things change! Anyway one of the cars I noticed being developed was the Tesla. Here is a couple of videos of the Tesla if you havent already seen it in the press over the last few months.

[johnonthetyne]

saw this on top gear.

[manifold]

...definately room for a electric powered Midas if anyone dares to the plunge for something different.

I've even seen a motor bolted to a plate on top of a Mini gearbox directly driving the gears/diff so that you can use the gears (clutch not necessary).

With better battery Li ion technology these days possibilities are there.

A smart was recently done using same idea. I wonder how the smart cars weight compares to a midas.

Cheers,

David

[DavidL]

A friend of mine in Australia is about to buy a Tesla. I'm quite jealous!

I work for a company that makes offroad mobility scooters - electric, of course. One of ours was featured on the comparison test on Top Gear last year, a three wheeler, which turned out at the end of the test to be the one the soldiers (disabled servicemen who were there to test the "off-the-shelf" machines in the test) picked out as their preferred choice. Since it was the BBC, and because they weren't actually cars, the individual scooters weren't named, so not such a good advert for us as it could have been!

One of the people who work at "head office" (it's a very small company, there are only four or five people there) has converted a Reliant Robin to electric power, but on a low-tech level. It only does about 40mph and has a range of about 25 miles...

[lankyjames]

Very jealous of Tesla's newest offering, would very much enjoy an electric car for round-about-town driving, wouldn't even need much range.

A Midas would make for a fun conversion, but would you put the motor in the front or the back?

I've also seen a mini pickup converted, with a load bay full of batteries, but the website was never updated past the build phase, a big shame.

[kelvink]

I've got an electric road legal off road buggy in my workshop right now.

[Stuart]

a good take on where batteries still need to get to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... tfKux9BUnE