I still want to know how electric cars affect the power grids, or maybe another retardplican president who will say were running out of electricity and we need to reduce our dependency on it.

All politicians need a thourough job review, as do CEO’s, just like they do the regualr workers. Then we can fire all of them and become a truley great country again. Oh, the telsa car looks ok, rather have a petro-burning supercar though, just to stay on the subject.

Popular Science did a good article last month on the need to replace and upgrade the nations infrastructure to include the power grid. I can’t see having problems at the current demand and then being able to sustain it when everyone plugs in at 5pm.

That is exactly what I’ve been screaming for months Seriously.

What happens when everyone has plug-in cars like the Volt… and a million people get home from work at 6PM… turn on the lights… TV… microwave… and plug in their cars. Our power grid can barely support things as-is.

And guess what… the vast majority of our electricity is generated by plants that burn COAL or NATURAL GAS. Gee whiz… that’s sure helping reduce carbon emissions right there. If we built more nuke plants… sure… I’m all for it. But as is we aren’t solving anything… we are just moving a problem around.

RaineMan my question has been this, and it’s a small thing, but if you live in an apartment, how are you supposed to plug your car. Who pays for the infrastructure, how is it regulated, and how will you fill up on a long trip.

Two million dollar dealership? What did they do open it out of someone’s house? Two million dollars is not a lot of money in L.A.

so they have a dealership with no inventory, but a “promise”
man i should make something like that up
“hey i just have the first dealership of cars that FLY, it does dishes, cleans your yard and gives you a hummer….just
pay me $78953729075 dollars for it and it’ll be your’s when i work out all the kinks”
but hey- thats my promise to you

Why didn’t LLN send someone down there so we can see pictures of this 10,000 sqft space & one of Tesla’s parked in it? LLN sends “writers” to Detroit to “review” (read: regurgitate marketing material) for this site. I guess LLN “writers” only leave their cubicles when a manufacturer gives them an all expenses paid trip so they can spew marketing material under the guise of news.

I’m suprised they opened a dealership at all. These things are presold without a dealership anywhere. Why spend the money at all?

The power grid issue is an important one. California’s grid goes down like 400SS’ dad on a stiff **** every summer when a few too many ACs go on. How is going to support all these electric cars?

C’mon Deanster, we’ve got more f*cking electricity up here than we know what to do with. Geez, if you guys have figured out a way to heat Eastern Canada for that 6 month deep freeze you call winter, then surely there must be enough juice left over for our good neighbors down south. We’ll trade it for say… duty free liquor. We charge their cars and they give us a good cheap buzz as well. Now that’s how f*cking free trade should work!

^ Agreed Johnny, but the problem is Quebec’s population is comprised of stupid sheep. Hydro-Quebec’s energy is sold to the U.S. and resold there for less than what we pay here locally. It’s a ****ing joke. No one cares about rebelling or rioting to protest the system (only NHL playoffs warrant that). So out problem won’t be the grid, but rather the price of running a plug-in electric car.

If my parents’ Hydro bill can hit $700 a month in the winter, then imagine an electric car. Am I seriously going to pay the same to drive? It’s cheaper to fill up with gas, by far.

It’s on Santa Monica Blvd, not too far from where I live. It looks really cool.

TugJob: for most of the year you need neither air nor heat in Socal

i just watched a show on discovery the other night and the grid will easily support these cars as long as they are charged at nite. remember, the charges are not going to make your meter explode! it will be a SLOW 8 hour trickle charge, much like charging your car battery now…

Electric cars are not for everyone. Don’t worry about the charging grid until there is some cars to buy…this is many years away. A modern electric car will be charged from a standard power outlet drawing less than 20 amps. If everyone is so concerned about electric cars and the burdon on the grid, then each and everyone of us should be turning off the computer, VCR, and everything else in your home that sits at idle all day drawing power. The fear of the grid power not being there is coming from the money side of transportation…I.E. oil companies and the economies of scale that will be severly affected by electric cars coming out in droves. My electric truck needs no oil changes, no air filters, and the brakes pads are still like new after 8 years. No fuel filters, and no exhaust system to rot and rust out. No emission checks and no check engine lights to come on. Basically, the auto companies have lots of data on electric cars and it scares them to death. The only thing to perfect or get right is the BATTERY! This is why Chevron bought the patent rights to the NiMH large cell battery and shelved it, and why the Saudi government is funding research at Stanford on the nano battery project…they want to be in the loop so they can buy and shelve it too. Everyone is looking after their own interests, and they have lots of money to spread disinformation and fear to everyone not educated in the facts…which is a great majority of the country and the world. My Electric truck uses about 75 cents of electric power to go approx 70 miles. I could get that power from solar, but the costs of that are too high for me to make any sense of it. I only charge at night, so the excess power from the power plants are better used. If its emissions from coal plants you are worried about, its easier to monitor the emissions of one coal plant than it is to monitor emissions from the hundreds of thousands of cars that are spewing smog from their tailpipes. Thats simple math. Electric cars are quiet. Everyone likes piece and quiet don’t they? Bottom line, the power that it takes to power your DVD player for a year on IDLE/STANDBY, will brew your coffee for a month! So shut off those stupid devices when not using them, and electric cars will have plenty of power to charge up.

Clean and Spirited motoring????? It’s only clean if the energy source is clean. Cut the double standard.

The only way an electric car society will ever work is if the cars have a special kind of plug and run on a special kind of juice. That way power used to fill car batteries can be regulated and charged at a different fee than power that keeps the lights on and the AC going.

If you can just plug your car into any outlet power companies will see this and will jack up rates accordingly… which will only punish people who do not have an electric car. I don’t really feel like paying double or triple the price for electricity so some people can charge their cars up at home.

I think it’s true that the electric demands of a motoring public based on plug-in hybrids hasn’t really been studied yet. And we’re also far from being faced with that problem.

I also don’t believe the electric grid will be taxed like some have said. Most power outages are because of breakdowns in the infrastructure, and simply not because power companies run out of juice.

In Illinois most power is nuclear. If and when the grid is taxed by plug-in hybrids, we may see additional shifting away from coal and natural gas. But, until that day, like jdasch1 says, controlling the pollution of specific plants is a managable task. As to what the rest of what jdasch1 is saying (the “shelving” conspiracies, for example, that’s an interesting notion, I’d need more time to comment). Although, I think recharging a plug-in is a much more active power draw than plugged-in–but idle–home electronics.

Seriously’s concerns are also interesting, but ultimately not distinguishable from other problems apartment dwellers have been faced with over the ages–for example, people who live in urban apartments with no garages or street parking, don’t drive cars period. Sometimes our lifestyle forces compromises.

As for Tesla’s dealerships, they’re certainly going to need them, even if the sales model right now isn’t a dealer’s handshake. The brand will be expanded, and the Teslas on the road soon will need servicing.

Oh, and RaineMan, I’m not sure what you’re proposing is even possible–is there a way to differentiate how electricity in one home is used once the electricity makes it to the house? Talk about a jolt (pardon the pun) to the infrastructure.

Besides, power companies are fiercely regulated by the government. One would hope (perhaps in vain) that the government wouldn’t allow gouging to occur simply because people are using more electricity. But if use of electricity dramatically increases, making electricity more “scarce,” than who are we, in capitalist societies, to complain about the price increase?

One Word: DMC

Re RaineMan: this is handled today by time-of-day billing which balances the load on the electric grid. The power companies install meters that charge less for electricity at night and more during peak daytime hours. So you can charge your electric car at night using cheap, low-demand power, in exchange for paying a little more during daytime hours.

My neighbor had a GM EV1 electric car and that’s how his power system was set up. He just did laundry and such at night and didn’t run his house A/C as much until after 8 p.m. Saved him a bundle.

Scarface03, of course it’s possible. I pay a different rate for the electricity that goes to my central air conditioning unit. All it takes is a seperate meter installed at your house.

I think many of you don’t get it. Its not even the type of energy we use for cars. Their are too many cars and other vehicles for too few roadways in America. Congestion ladies and gentleman aka Gridlock is the real challenge we are facing and will be facing more often then not until we build more ROADS.

On Subject BRAVO to Tesla for opening Dealership now if they could lower the price on that roadster to 30K then I would be happy to take a look at it

Residing in province of Manitoba,Canada, where our source of electricity is Hydro and yet we cannot drive our Canadian made electric car ZENN unless our premier’s bill allowing this is passed ! This company is working with EESTOR Texas battery company.
Considering what many countries are doing Re: electric cars,now for city use and in future highways it is important that North America move forward with better priced cars !
The economical and non polluting features of electric cars make this move a must do!
While waiting up North I hope Americans enjoy their electric cars,high priced Tesla or reasonably priced Zenn!
P S China is planning to produce millions.

KenCanada your right about China Ken ;However, the chinese need to do a few thing to enter the North American market successfully.
They have yet to even: 1.) Penetrate the US market(their not here yet!) and

2.) If they get over here-(which we know they will be coming) then they need to Be Successful in a tough market.

3.) Get a regular following.

4.) and most importantly this will take time and perception of quality and value for what americans pay for a chinese built car.

The key for electric for me is the fact that I won’t be shelling out $60 each week at the pump. The environment may suffer the same, but my wallet won’t. That’s the selling point.