Joseph

"Cobasys doesn't make lithium ion batteries. The Smart EDs in London are powered by sodium-nickel-chloride (Zebra) battery. not sodium nickel-hydride."

I know, I know. That's why I posted it: because it said something we've never heard before.

__________________
"Success is 99% failure" - Soichiro Honda

graham

Another Smart Car captured at the Tesla Menlo Park store:

doug

Yeah, I've seen a Smart parked regularly out by the service entrance for a while now.

deenko

Have you all ever thought that these might actually be personally owned by employees?

doug

Heh.. yeah, I forgot to mention that I had just assumed it was an employee car.

graham

Oh sure, the picture I just posted has no distinguishing marks on it, and is just "yet-another-Smart-at-Tesla"... but ones earlier in this thread were pictured with Manufacturers plates, which wouldn't be something a standard employee would have.

TEG

TEG

TEG

Joseph

I don't mean to raise expectations, but I kind of doubt that Tesla won't be providing the batteries.

A. The Smart EV (ED is a stupid name) is only going to be around 1,000 cars, according to the ABG article. Many automakers are using large-format prismatic batteries, like the block shaped batteries in the iMiEV. There are very few uses for high amp hour prismatic batteries so naturally they cost alot of money because of the economies of scale. It would be very expensive to make a small batch of batteries just for 1,000 cars.

B. The Model S is reportedly using a flat shaped ESS. And look, the Smart also has a flat battery pack. (Although it's not like it could come in any other shape)

C. Elon isn't stupid. Why would he mention a relationship with Mercedes if he wasn't confident that somethign was going to happen? Tesla has said that they have had multiple auto-makers approach them, and out of all these unnamed auto-makers, Elon chose to name Mercedes.

__________________
"Success is 99% failure" - Soichiro Honda