Jeremy Clarkson Drives the Tesla
Last night’s TopGear (which will air in the U.S. by 2015 or on your computer now) featured Jeremy “The Gentle Giant” Clarkson driving the Tesla Roadster. His observations?
The good: Same time around the track as a Porsche GT3. No gas. Very fast in straight lines. Looks good. Very fast in straight lines. Cheap to fill up compared to a gas/diesel car.
The bad: Handling only so-so, because of the low-resistance tires and the 1000 lbs added by 6831 batteries in the middle of the car. Ample road noise. Green-ambiguity of electric cars & power production.
The ugly: After caning it, Clarkson got 55 miles of range. In a 13 amp UK socket, he estimated a 16 hour recharge time. Tesla had to bring two cars. One overheated while driving (on the track), the other’s brakes “broke” while it was recharging.
Clarkson calls the car a stunning “technical achievement” but finishes by saying it is “completely irrelevant” as he previews a later segment on Honda’s fuel cell car, the Clarity FCX.
Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.
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"Still this doesn’t warrant Clarkson’s conclusion that ergo BEV’s are irrelevant and hydrogen is the future somehow." Agreed. But how did you come to the conclusion that Hydrogen powered cars will never work? Humans can slow down light to a walking pace, teleport subatomic particles, and eat burritos cooked by a radio. That's not proof that it will someday be possible to cost effectively store hydrogen. But do you have proof that it will be forever impossible?
"Hydrogen is the most abundant resource known to man." It is the most abundant element known to man but H2 isn't exactly abundant outside a Hummer dealership. If electric powered cars are common than highways with a third rail will be common to. In which case an electric car wont make sense everywhere. But those places are often the places were a SUV makes sense.
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say that there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." Frank Zappa God I loved that man....
You are all missing the point - the truth about cars is that the big companies are all ripping us off to travel around.The car companies and the oil companies all have a vested interest in the electric car not succeeding.G.M tried to kill the electric car but it is coming back with a vengeance. Anyone who knows about hydrogen technology knows that it is not a good solution + the oil companies are all diversifying into it as a clean energy because they know the internal combustion engined cars are not only killing the climate but killing us with their fumes. We should all stick to fingers up to the big companies that are ripping us off. Clarkson is totally biased and it has been said that he is getting lots of money for knocking electric cars.We should tell him and his range rover driving cronies where to go as they are the selfish folk who are controlling the the brains of the flock of sheep we call the average human being.People who cannot think for themselves and research the facts.This comment will probably not be added to this site as it does not tow the line of the people who run it! It is more truthful than most of the other comments