Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Now I am a petrol head through and through, but I don't feel the need to lie about stuff just to make petrol cars better.

I am sure most of us watched Jeremy thrash a couple of Teslas around the Top Gear test track. The review was going well until one ran out of charge and the other broke. Well, it appears this is untrue....

BBC: Top Gear Tesla didn't run out of juice ? Register Hardware

I am a little disappointed to say the least

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

The source is Register Hardware: From the lab to the living room ?

Steve_PPP

iTrader: (3)

those little Teslas were awesome, couldn't believe how they out-dragged an Elise down the straight

lozgti

I'm not worried about what Top Gear said.

If however someone did churn out these at £15k a go,I'd go green.

I'd miss the noise though I must say

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

The thing is, it was done to illustrate a very valid point:

Car runs out of petrol: You walk to a nearby petrol station, buy a jerry can and 5litres. You limp your car to petrol station and within 5mins, your ready for at least another 200miles.

Electric; you run out. Erm, what now? Even if you did find a power point, you couldn't take the car anywhere for a few hours at least. Even longer if its charged from a normal 13amp socket.

Thats the thing; as a weekend toy or for short commuting, its fine. But it still doesn't offer that flexibility of petrol power.


Its why I'm a hydrogen fan. Although I don't see the need to push fuel cells;

We could have hydrogen power cars right now; A normal internal combustion engine can be modified to run on it (which BMW have been doing for decades). Its almost like converting a car to run on LPG. So why aren't we doing it?

Politics, thats why. The technology has been here all along.

PeteBrant

Virtually maximum torque all through the rev range

I'm surprised they had a single motor with tranmission to be honest - you would though they would have had a motor on each wheel. Zero tranmission loss, and no need for weighty things like differentials.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I'm with you on that, hydrogen seems the way forward, it just makes sense.

Leslie

The old electric trolley buses with the overhead cables used to accelerate like hell away from rest. They had a great big flywheel which stored the stopping energy and used it to get away from rest. Pretty impressive, especially when you were trying to keep up with them.

Les

rob 666

iTrader: (1)

okay the tesla is quick,but as said on the show takes 16 hours to recharge and will be a complete pain in the **** if it does go flat and is way over priced ,it is the way forward but like everything else still needs further develpment to be more user friendy

mrtheedge2u2

The Clarity that May tested did make me sit up and take not..... seemed like the first decent alternative around...... to be honest, if there were enough hydrogen garages I would buy one as soon as they come out

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Electric: you run out, you're a fecking idiot, just like if you run out of petrol. See that gauge on the dash, next to the speedo? The one that moves downwards over time in a completely predictable way? Pay attention to it next time.

According to the TG report, the Tesla can go 200 miles on a 16 hour charge - so plug it in when you get home from work (a luxury which you DON'T have with a petrol car) and it's ready to go the next day. The limited range is only a problem for long trips where you'll be staying away from a power point overnight - but I'm sure that would change as soon as there's a commercial demand for 'powered parking' rather than just a space to leave your car.

The big problem with hydrogen is handling it; to keep it liquid it has to be kept at high pressure and cryogenic temperature, which makes it a nightmare to transport and store, and (if BMW's Hydrogen 7 is anything to go by) the tank boils dry after a few days whether you drive the car or not. BMW don't widely advertise this for some reason. They also don't mention that a hydrogen / air mix burns at a very high temperature which produces a lot of NOx - so it's not the totally clean combustion process we're led to believe

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

The other valit point they made was where does all the electric that powers it come from? A big dirty great power station, hardly green is it.....

LG John

What shocked me about the show was that Hydrogen was nearly as costly as petrol! You know what's going to happen here and remember it was Saxo Boy of Scoobynet fame that called it first:

Years from now we'll slowly convert over to Hydrogen powered electric cars until petrol/diesel power cars become 'weekend toys'. The price of petrol will rocket as falling demand makes many wells less viable and, in short, the recreational petrol user will be punished hard. Meanwhile the world will run on freely available and infinitely abundant hydrogen. But what's this.....it still costs as much as petrol would have if it was the primarily fuel? Why's that? They'll make up some story about how despite advances it's still costly to separate the hydrogen from everything else but ultimately what it boils down to is the revenue stream that petrol provides will have to be found elsewhere and so more lies will be sold to us to ensure we loyally pay the stealth tax.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Bang on: the fundamental point made by JC et al was perfectly valid and isn't negated by any staged antics: saying that an electric car is green is dubious. You still have to produce the stuff in quantites that can't be provided by sustainable, green sources!

Hydrogen is the way forward!

Ns04

ex-webby

You have to remember that Top Gear is an entertainment show.

The tesla didn't run out of juice any more than it stayed within the white lines continuously without multiple takes, or that it was probably even the same one throughout the section...

or any more than they burnt down a petrol station carwash with a home made convertible...

or any more than Star Wars was really filmed in deep space.

The underlying story is almost always pretty on the money, but the way its illustrated is pure fiction, for entertainment purposes.

If you do it all factual, you end up with 5th gear (although even that will be fudged).

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I would think hydrogen storage and dispensing issues have been overcome. Seeing there are now over 170 public hydrogen refueling station open all over the world - 23 in California alone. No point storing/dispensing it if it can't be used

Another solution as a stop-gap technology is the GM/Chevy volt: It acknowledges the impracticalities of a sole electric power source and has a combustion engine that is merely a generator. It serves the purpose of an electric car than can be charged by a power point AND be capable of being driven long distances without worrying or the need to keep a regular eye on power reserves (looks cool too).

orbix

I'm sure it won't be long before they design a wind up Tesla

StickyMicky

me to, but for what its worth, i thought the sound of the screaming motor was fecken class

StickyMicky

i can vouch for the fact that the carwash episode was a complete load of "story-****"

TopBanana

Whether or not it ran out of juice makes no difference. Petrol and electric cars both run out of juice eventually, it's not a deal-breaker is it?

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

Out of interest, how is the hydrogen used in cars actually produced? From water?

ex-webby

as they all are mate.

They all know what the little white envelopes are going to say when opened.

They all knew Jeremy was going to arrive with a cow on his bonnet.

Their VISAs didn't really proclude them from making an entertaining production in america.

-

Top Gear is, IMHO complete genius. But people who worry too much about the factual side of it, are missing the point.

Simon C

Hydrogen also has another problem. Anyone know what the Hindenberg was??

Talk about driving a bomb.

EddScott

Starring in the next Transformers film.

ScoTTyB

It's mined from hydrogen pourous rocks. I hear Scotland is abundant in the types of rocks suitable for extraction and we could well be the next commodity rich country, dictating the energy supplies of others.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Driving round with a petrol or lpg tank ain't too clever either

Ever remember what happened to the old Mini if it was in a heavy rear impact?

Fuel tank split, and the boot mounted battery would short out; spark boom!

ex-webby

Make sure nobody says "WMD" outloud then!

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

It would be interesting to know how much electric per mile it cost to run one of these milk floats? Can't imagine it being cheap on charge constantly for 16 hours!

scooby-tc

iTrader: (2)

Why they cant develop a way of charging the batteries on the move i dont know.You would never have to charge up then

ScoTTyB

Something like rails?