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News.com Interview with Elon

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Anyone know what the European differences are for certification?

I've asked around in the Netherlands. At least the lighting is different: different head lights, add mist/fog light, remove the red side reflectors. Other than that: translate the manual into 10(?) languages and change the speedometer (and possibly other indicators) to metric.

And of course the bumpers should accommodate the larger EU license plates.

AFAIK there should be no differences between EU countries (but I might very well be wrong here).
 
As AFAIK the difference between a legal car in the US and Europe is very small I really hope they will look at the differences and plan for those while they are designing the Whitestar. So when they do have it finished they can basically pump out Euro versions of the Whitestar at the same time as the US version. Should make it easy to get rid of all the 20k vehicles without any reductions in price :)

Cobos
 
Interview with Elon

Good and very concise interview with Elon regarding Roadster & WhiteStar.

What perturbs me is the Tesla to make gas-electric car | Green Tech blog - CNET News.com article, which indicates a 150-200 mile range/charge. Based on that, one can conclude TM is not considering any type of battery beyond what is currently used in Roadster. Newer types of L-ion and perhaps a major EEStor announcement might impact price and range.
 
Good and very concise interview with Elon regarding Roadster & WhiteStar.

What perturbs me is the Tesla to make gas-electric car | Green Tech blog - CNET News.com article, which indicates a 150-200 mile range/charge. Based on that, one can conclude TM is not considering any type of battery beyond what is currently used in Roadster. Newer types of L-ion and perhaps a major EEStor announcement might impact price and range.


I agree Iz. Tesla can't do it all in this day and age. A123 and Altair are too good at batteries now to not shop around and see what's there, especially with what's being produced specifically for the Volt. And I'm not talking about patent infringement... Also, what in the hell is wrong with using the Roadster battery? Economy of scale and cost cutting have got to make the prices drop, or am I dead wrong?
 
Iz, DDB - our approach is to use the best cell chemistry for the application, and we definitely shop around. We have people in the powertrain group dedicated to understanding and following all the cells that are on the market and that are coming down the pike. Cobalt cells like those in the Roadster are very high energy density which is appropriate for a pure EV. Iron Phosphate cells (such as A123) have good power and cycle qualities but have about half the energy density of the cells currently in the Roadster. Using A123 cells we would have a range of about 110 miles and moderately increased power. Lithium Titanate spinel cells (Altair) are very expensive and have less than half the energy density. A Roadster using Altair batteries today would cost about $170,000 and have a range of less than 100 miles.

Regarding EEstor, we'll believe it when we see it. If their claims are true, then we won't need batteries anymore at all. Sounds really great! They have been very opaque about their development, including when JB and others visited them in Texas. They have never produced a working prototype that I am aware of.