Tesla, Panasonic Agree to Build Gigafactory

[exfileme]

It's a big step towards producing mass market electric cars.

Tesla, Panasonic Agree to Build Gigafactory : Read more

 

[borisof007]

I can't read "Gigafactory" without thinking about Trials Evolution because of that goddamn Gigatrack.

 

[patrick47018]

This is 'Gigacool'!

 

[akom]

Great news, considering this is one of the steps Tesla needed to take to get the pricing down for their next planned car (formerly "Model E"), which they aim to get 200 miles per charge and cost around $40,000.

 

[Bondfc11]

MOAR POWA NEEDED! Still in desperate need of power stations. Tesla's US-wide rollout is going painfully slow.

 

[ickibar1234]

Hopefully by the end of 2015 their supercharger network will be more complete

 

[icemunk]

Giga-ty Giga-ty

 

[Bondfc11]

Funny I got down-voted for saying they need more power stations. They do clearly. You cannot drive these things E-W, N-S without more stations. Plain and simple. Look at their maps and long haul driving is not possible. Love the car - hate the poor power distribution right now. In a year or two it will be nation-wide (they say), but for now and for my needs the Tesla is a fail (as is all electric vehicles - not speaking of hybrids - pure electric).

 

[antilycus]

Why pick an Asian run company when Johnson Controls has the capabilities and can keep jobs in the U.S. and pay taxes as a U.S. Company.

 

[mrmez]

If Tesla is the future of electric cars, bring it on.
Pity the big manufacturers can't (won't) produce anything worth looking at.

 

[izmanq]

it's a big commitment to battery :| i'm not sure it's ok, what happens if in few year graphene super capacitor is ready :|

 

[sykozis]

Tesla is a joke. They produce electric vehicles to save the planet.....yet, the batteries eventually have to be disposed of and that in itself is a larger environmental hazard....

 

[f-14]

i do not understand the need for batteries, there are capacitors that can store all this power needed and are lighter which will require less power to move a lighter mass than 1 ton battery packs and extremely fast to recharge, just plug in to house fold 120V 20mp, go to the bathroom take that full 30 seconds to wash your hands come back out and unplug ready to go fully charged again.

there's the argument that capacitors don't hold their charge for very long, and yet it's proven that when replacing a car battery with a 6 pack capacitor pack, it will hold more than enough charge after a week of sitting, to start a car a few times easily. and it weighs less than a baseball which is a heck of alot less than the 40# battery

 

[f-14]

just plug in to house fold 120V 20mp,

house hold 120v 20amp large CAD render just finished and saved caused loss of letters, hahaha.

 

[vir_cotto]

Sweet, hopefully this along with the new solar powered roads electric will be good to go!

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

Good. Finally I will be able to go outside to get a breath of fresh air. Well, except for when stupid damn cigarette fanatics are around.

 

[rexter]

i do not understand the need for batteries, there are capacitors that can store all this power needed ..... it will hold more than enough charge after a week of sitting, to start a car a few times easily. and it weighs less than a baseball which is a heck of alot less than the 40# battery

Capacitor have high current discharge but do not have high capacity charge. It won't hold enough energy to run your car radio for an hour for the same amount of size as with liquid cell. That is why you need to recharge it often.

Why pick an Asian run company when Johnson Controls has the capabilities and can keep jobs in the U.S. and pay taxes as a U.S. Company.

Panasonic is one of the company that have good technology of battery. Think LITHIUM VANADIUM.

This is a good news for technology though. we will all benefit from it in the future.

 

[ickibar1234]

Tesla is a joke. They produce electric vehicles to save the planet.....yet, the batteries eventually have to be disposed of and that in itself is a larger environmental hazard....

You are wrong. I see this kind of post on most electric vehicle articles. Don't you know that at the end of the batteries useful life in an electric (or plugin hybrid / hybrid) car, that they can be used to buffer energy at wind farms or other uses in the grid?
Finally when they really don't hold much of a charge at all, they are recycled. Shredded. Over 90% of the material is recyclable I believe, as are traditional lead acid car batteries.

So, you could say all the lead acid batteries being recycled every year from traditional cars are an environmental disaster too? But it isn't.

 

[ickibar1234]

i do not understand the need for batteries, there are capacitors that can store all this power needed and are lighter which will require less power to move a lighter mass than 1 ton battery packs and extremely fast to recharge, just plug in to house fold 120V 20mp, go to the bathroom take that full 30 seconds to wash your hands come back out and unplug ready to go fully charged again.

there's the argument that capacitors don't hold their charge for very long, and yet it's proven that when replacing a car battery with a 6 pack capacitor pack, it will hold more than enough charge after a week of sitting, to start a car a few times easily. and it weighs less than a baseball which is a heck of alot less than the 40# battery

A 120 Volt 20 Amp socket can only as much power (energy / heat) as a high wattage hair dryer. It doesn't matter what type of storage medium this energy is going into.
Just like the theory of 5 minute rechargeable laptop batteries. You would need a huge AC adapter to convert all that AC power into DC power and the correct voltage. Not to mention probably a 240V outlet.
With a car, you would need 480V and serious amperage to charge it up in 10 minutes or less.

In the future, anything is possible.