Howstuffworks has a decent writeup here: Howstuffworks "How the Tesla Roadster Works"

...and this video shows (briefly) the charging station Mahalo Daily » Blog Archive » MD001 - Tesla Road Test

EDIT: Pics of charging station: KickingTires: Checking Out the Tesla Electric Roadster

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but that is only about 70Hp.

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Protector of the meek & weak. Defender of the American way

Funny... there's all kinds of quotes regarding the batteries down to their model number, but no specs on the motor. I've only found a few surces that quote it as being 182 kilowatts

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Our team runs altair nano batteries and when we were searching, we could not come up with battery on the planet that held more power/kg. That European electric supercar (the Lightning) that is coming out uses them and has a 250 mile range. As far as charging, you only need a big setup for quick charges (like on the road). At home, you can use a normal charger. I know this, because we have one

well i am definitely missing something here.

the numbers just do not add up in my feeble brain.

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Protector of the meek & weak. Defender of the American way

You could dramatically cut your fuel spending just by going to a high gas mileage car that is currently available. Heck I picked up a 1991 BMW 318is for $1200...I put $500 in it to make it pretty dang nice. It gets about 30 mpg (I swapped the stock 4.10 rear for a $60 3.73 at the junk yard). All while still being plenty fun to drive

If you are going through $700 in gas a month you are consuming from 175-200 gallons of gas! That is crazy! I consume about 55-60 and I have a 30 mile (total) commute daily. Switch out your V8 truck for something smaller and lighter and you will cut your gas bill in half. If you have to have a truck to do your job, then I dont see how the Tesla is relevant... It wouldn't help your situation.

Personally I would love a low cost government subsidized electric car that had a 100 mile range. Use it to go to and from work... then have your other "play car" for whenever you wanted to have fun. Short of a good public transportation system I dont see how they are going to force a changeover. I would love to live in New York. I was there for a month, and I LOVE having nice public transport. SO NICE...

Phoenix, AZ probably the worst public trans system anywhere. So I am stuck commuting.

I also would fully support a car like the Volt. A diesel generator that powers electric motors...and a battery as a primary short range power source. That, to me, sounds like a good solution. Why haven't we seen any progress with it? That car debuted like 3 years ago...

How much do the nano batteries weigh compared to a car battery? By the looks of things - if the weights are comparible - the Lightning is going to be extremely heavy.

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I had a VW Passat before this and it only shined on long trips. I would get about 28MPG with it. The Dodge gets just shy of 20MPG running back and forth to work every day @ 40 miles one way. That's not to mention all of my running around after work and on the weekends.

It's not the fact that it costs $100 every time I fill up, it's the fact that I'm paying just shy of $4.00 per gallon of gas - no matter how much I buy and those prices are not ever going to go down - only up. If I bought something that got 40MPG I'd still be pissed off at the pump

I'd rather completely step away from gasoline/diesel etc for day to day activities and save the gasoline for play toys.

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20 mpg with a Dodge V8 truck is impressive! I had no idea they got that good. I used a 2008 Ford F150 to move my GF to Phoenix from LA and I got 16mpg over that trip. That completely sucked.

I get almost 60mpg on my Suzuki SV650 motorcycle...and you can use the carpool lane here in Phoenix with it! I have to wear professional dress and it doesn't work well with that in the summer time out here. Otherwise I would use it to commute daily.

I would love to eliminate gas as an expense, but that isn't an option, so I minimize it by driving smaller, lighter vehicles. That makes me feel better when I go to fill up. It really does.

If you could avoid DD-ing a big pickup, and nearly doubling your fuel mileage, I bet you would feel a little better about the total expense. Even if the per unit cost is staying the same or rising.

I walked into the dealer expecting 12MPG but was pleasantly surprised when I saw the sticker and the first fill up receipt.

It doesn't fare to well on hauling though. With a V8 RX-7 in tow and a crew cab full of people in a headwind it got 9 MPG on the way back from SNS 08

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