Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the light-speed-too-slow dept.

You may have heard about Tesla's "insane mode," which accelerates a sedan from 0 to 60 mph in a mindboggling 3.2 seconds. But Tesla is already moving ahead with something even better: A "ludicrous mode" that sends you from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds.

Shaving off half a second may not sound like much. But the $10,000 option on the Model S shows off some of the advances in battery technology that Tesla is building into its newer cars. Under ludicrous speed, said Musk, the car will accelerate at 1.1 times the force of gravity.
...
The Model S is also getting a battery capacity upgrade from 85 kilowatt-hours to 90 kWh, an increase of around 6 percent that will cost existing owners about $3,000 if they choose to upgrade. Not everyone should be upgrading every year, though, as Tesla expects to add around 5 percent capacity to its batteries every year on average. That translates to a roughly 5 percent annual increase in range. Musk said he expects most customers to upgrade batteries once every three to four years.

Not too much longer before "range anxiety" becomes an ICE problem.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:36AM

    by tftp (806) on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:36AM (#210939) Homepage

    if you catch yourself nodding off, pull down the first exit, park somewhere, and set a 15-20 minute alarm. The 15-20 minute power nap is long enough to restore some vitality, but not so long that deeper sleep sets in.

    I actually did that once - on a relatively short trip (2 hours each way) simply because I was physically tired. Worked very well. Indeed, road trips should be a pleasant occurrence, and not a dangerous torture.