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.
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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.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:08AM
Actually if you network around a bit, it's possible. But the electric car may require some work. A friend of mine just by being interested and hanging around with a group of electric car builders, scored a 1980 Datsun 310 that had been converted to electric for $1.00 US. He had to get new batteries (golf cart batteries) for less than $500.00, and do some other stuff. But he wound up with a car that does 35 mph and has a range of ~30 miles. That is plenty for running errands around town.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--