Tesla Model 3 is not better than Model S

Most major automakers have come out with real products or at least prototypes of cheap(er) electric cars for the masses, but none of them has excited buyers more than the upcoming Tesla Model 3.

Tesla had a rough start with its first product, the Tesla Roadster, which took the company 8 years to develop and could only sell it for much more than promised ($100K+). Then came the Model S and X, which also had significant issues, but at least they are a lot cheaper and most problems are already identified, fixed and production methods modified to prevent them in future cars. Model S starts at 70.000 USD, while the Model X (electric SUV, all wheel drive) starts at 82.000 USD.

The Model 3 is weeks away from production and its price starts at 35.000 USD, BUT it's important to understand its place in the electric car market.

These brochures were sent to all Tesla showrooms, so the employees can clearly explain the differences between the company's products.
Although it's not clearly stated, these specs apply to the base configuration Model 3. Other options like all wheel drive and faster 0-60 times will appear once the production line is up to speed (~5000 units per week).

The 5.6 second 0-60 mph acceleration time is the same as the first Model Ss', but slightly better than the competition at this price point. The closest competitor, the Chevy Bolt EV 2017 accelerates from 0-60 in 6.5 seconds.

We don't know anything certain about the range of the Model 3. Elon Musk promised 215+ miles (EPA) at the reveal, about 1 year ago. It could be anywhere between 200 and 300 miles with different capacity battery packs. The biggest battery pack will be 75kWh at first, but as battery technology is significantly improved every year, it's likely that all Tesla cars will soon have at least 100kWh battery packs and 300+ mile range.

Access to the supercharger network won't be free for the Model 3. You'll have to pay for the electricity plus a few cents to cover the cost of the chargers, however Tesla promised it will not make any profit on the Supercharger network. Payments will be very simple, through your Tesla account (monthly?). At the Supercharger stations you just plug in, charge, and leave, there's no access card, no codes, no buttons on the charging station ... everything gets transmitted between the car and the station automatically.

The Model S in theory can fit 5 adults sitting normally, and two children in rear facing seats. Some owners complained about not having enough room in the back seats (especially for tall people), but the Model 3 doesn't seem to have this problem, as rear facing seats are not present. People who went on a ride in the early prototypes noticed how roomy it is in the back.

Cargo space in the Model 3 is less than half of the Model S. This was expected, as the Model 3 is a much smaller and cheaper car. The trunk door also has to be operated manually, but future versions of Model 3 may implement a cheap, powered liftgate, IMO.

The Model 3 dashboard will be very clean, no buttons at all. You'll have the steering wheel and a 15" center touchscreen. There will be some buttons inside the car for turning on cabin lights (in the Model S/X you press the light to turn it on, maybe it'll be like that) and the switch for emergency light near or on the top rear view mirror. Some people are outraged about not having a screen behind the steering wheel for speed indicator and other information, but the hosts of Model 3 Owners Club Youtube channel pointed out that you can install a cheap HUD on the dashboard, as it's so flat and much lower than in the Model S.

Customization at first is limited to about 80 combinations, but as production speed ramps up and new options will be added, i'm guessing this number will go up to at least 50% of the Model S. I don't see any reason why Tesla won't offer extra configuration options, as long as they don't complicate manufacturing too much.

All in all the Model 3 is a good looking car, nothing like the Chevy Bolt, BMW i3 or Nissan Leaf, which were intentionally designed to look very different/odd. For the 35.000 USD price (minus ~5.000-20.000 USD tax credit, depending on where you live) you get great value and it'll do everything that your old car does, but better, assuming you don't mind the typical 15 minute charge time for ~100 miles of range, or charging at home at night.

AKYTA AT-136 keyboard review - hands on

I went through about 20 keyboards in the past few years, since I work as a blogger, but only two of them impressed me so far: Genius KB-G200 and AKYTA AT-136

I bought the AKYTA AT-136 keyboard from Kaufland with a huge discount. It cost me 12.34RON (3USD), even though it's clearly a 10+ USD keyboard 😎

Before I say anything about it, watch this short typing video I made:

I don't know exactly why, but I really like the light clicky sound of it. And here are the larger buttons pressed - some of them are harder to press at the edges, because their mechanisms aren't that great:

Now that you saw and heard it, I can reveal the fact that when I bought it, it had no rubber feet at all. Like most cheap keyboard, it only had the extending legs in the back and some small plastic feet in the front. Needless to say that typing on it sounded horrible, as it didn't even have all 4 legs touching the table ... so I fixed it just 5 minutes after taking it out of the box:

I glued on four pieces of rubber, using super strong BISON contact adhesive.

After this operation, I could type without hurting my ears and was quite surprised how pleasant it sounds. Not bad for a 9USD keyboard, bought for just 3USD with a 2 year warranty 😎

Automation is the future

Some nasty business popped up recently surrounding Tesla factory workers. Allegedly there are far more injuries than in the rest of the automotive industry, so some employees decided to join the UAW.

This is a strange phenomenon, because conditions in the factory improve every year, so the employees should have been much more upset a couple of years ago, when they began building the Model S, later the Model X.

A more reasonable explanation for the sudden whining could be that the workers feel their jobs threatened, as Tesla purchased Grohmann Engineering GMBH, which specializes in automation. This relatively small company will supply all robots for future Tesla production lines, including Solar Roof, Model 3, Y ... Tesla Semi ...etc. They even cancelled all projects for other factories, which were in the works before Tesla purchased them... now they only work for Tesla, and it seems they'll have a lot to do, as Tesla is planning to open at least 4 Gigafactories in the near future, on different continents.

To give you a picture about how much automation matters, right now in the Tesla Gigafactory 150 workers produce about 20 battery packs per day for the preproduction Model 3 cars. Tesla is investing 215 million USD in robots, which will reach a 75% efficiency and produce almost 1000 battery packs per day.

This is a Model S battery pack. The Model 3 battery pack is very similar, but it's smaller, uses larger (21700 vs. 18650), fewer battery cells ... and also an improved thermal management system...

Some websites predict that Model 3 battery packs will have 50% less cells than Model S, which may have implications in charging speed and total power output to the motors. We'll have to see in a couple of months, when the first customers (Tesla and Space X employees) will receive their Model 3s.

Tesla taking preorders for Solar Roof

The business community and stock market were extremely pessimistic about Tesla's acquisition of Solar City, which is also an Elon Musk founded company, but allegedly does not make any money. Despite the cries of naysayers, Tesla shareholders voted 85% for the merger last year, and now they are ready to make their own solar products and install them alongside stationary battery products and electric cars. Awesome solution, right?

RIGHT! If you look past all the hype and marketing nonsense, you'll see a relatively expensive COMPLETE solution for energy production, storage and consumption. Nowadays anything can run on electricity from tools, home appliances and gadgets to cars, motorcycles, trucks, boats...etc.

We don't have all the specifications of the latest Tesla energy systems (PowerWall II and Solar Roof), but this illustration is a good basis to start making my point.

Tesla (and Solar City) use very high efficiency inverters for all their systems, losing less than 13% of the energy in a full cycle. This full cycle consists of capturing solar energy, storing it and using it or feeding it back to the grid. The grid then delivers it  - to wherever it's needed - with a 5% maximum loss, depending on the distance. Some clever German engineers found that 350V DC can be transported with even less energy loss, under 3%, but this type of grid is not used worldwide, yet...

So in the picture above you see a Tesla PowerWall (V1), which had some serious limitations, like the sustained power draw, which couldn't be more than 2000W (an average AC unit), but the PowerWall II has a 90% efficiency, 13.5kWh total capacity and 5000W continuous/ 7000W peak power delivery. 120kg ... 10 year warranty... and uses the new form factor Gigafactory battery cells, called 20700 (20mm diameter x 70 mm height) instead of 18650 (18 x 65).

For now you can order Textured and Smooth tiles, and you have to pay cash or non-Tesla credit/financing. It seems they want to serve paying customers first, then later in the year they'll offer some kind of financing for the larger customer base.

In the US you get a cost calculator, which more or less approximates you final price and savings over 30 years, using Google Project Sunroof information. In other parts of the world, you'll have to wait for an expert assessment.

Personally I'd wait to see the finished product working on some customer's homes. In theory these Tesla Solar Tiles may be the best solar products on the market. For most real estate developers it's a no brainer, while the average house owner will probably wait for the current roof tiles to break beyond repair, then upgrade to Tesla Solar Roof, as part of a renovation.

In my opinion, battery storage makes more sense in the short term, as the grid can handle all electricity consumers, but struggles at peak hours. Having stationary battery storage plus charging you electric car only at night, will stabilize the grid for the near future, BUT end goal should be to shut off all the dirty power plants and use only solar, wind, geothermal and battery storage.

For more information check out Tesla.com

Eli the Computer Guy could have bought a Tesla ...

In one of his recent videos, Eli the Computer Guy talked about how OK his life is, as he can afford two cars, a house, travel trailer, two dogs ...etc. Then he added that he could have bought a Tesla if he wanted, but he likes Ford, and this cheap used internal combustion car is already made, so there's nothing he can do about its carbon footprint, so he bought it and they (Eli or his wife) use it weekly, not necessarily daily.

For somebody like Eli, who pretends to understand business, I cannot let this slide without making a few observations:

• by buying an internal combustion car you're supporting the oil industry, as you'll have to refuel it to use it
• if you bought the used car from a dealership, you're supporting that dealership, which is focused on selling internal combustion cars
• if you buy a cheap, used ICE car, then a new one has to be made and sold to somebody else, who would have bought the cheap one (supply and demand)
• if Eli would have bought a Tesla, which he could have afforded, then somebody else would have bought the cheap ICE car and a new ICE car would not be needed by that person
• buying an electric car means that you're not spending any more money on gas...

Eli also has a huge Ford F-150 truck, which he uses to pull his travel trailer.

I can't comment too much on this purchase, because when he bought the ICE Ford F-150, no Hybrid or Electric car could do the same job. In a couple of years this will change, as quite a few companies have presented Hybrid, fuel cell or fully electric pickup trucks, which are more efficient and have a lot more towing power, generating 50%-0% as much pollution while driving. Even Ford announced they'll be making at least hybrid-electric F-150 trucks.

I hope this all made sense, please follow Eli The Computer Guy on his family friendly channel, on Failed Normal or on his Brutally Honest Channel, where he live streams every weekday at 1:00PM local time... and also check out SiliconDiscourse.com for sound career advice(s)...

Air Conditioners save or ruin the planet?

First of all most people don't understand what a current generation AC does, so they get confused.

In Europe we mostly use these "split system" air conditioners, which have a noisy external unit and a more silent internal unit. These air conditioners use a heat pump to move heat from the internal unit to the external unit, and vice versa. They do it by circulating a special liquid/gas in a way that creates high pressure on one side, and much lower pressure on the other. This pressure difference allows the AC system to dissipate heat taken from inside, even if the temperature outside is higher. Thanks to this system the AC is also capable of taking moisture out of the air and let it drip out outside through a tube.

So, long story short, an AC system uses electricity to MOVE HEAT, but doesn't actually create heat, except for a couple of Watts, wasted by the ~90% efficient electric motors used in the fans and compressor... which may add up to about 100W total heat generated (like an average laptop computer or classic light bulb), when operating at full capacity, ~1000W/room power consumption. This is why it's both economical and environmentally friendly to use the AC unit for heating too. Not only does it NOT create any pollution, but also has an average 350% efficiency, meaning that by using 1000W of electricity it brings in (or takes out) 3500W of thermal energy. When you burn wood or natural gas you can only get about 90% efficiency (up to 120% with some advanced burners) and a lot of toxic fumes. Traditional electric heaters don't emit anything harmful, but are also bound by the laws of physics to under 100% efficiency, as they use the electricity to CREATE HEAT.

These split system ACs cost about 500USD/room and are very practical in places, where you don't have air ducts for a centralized AC system. All the split system AC needs for installation is a small hole in an exterior wall, through which the two 4/3" tubes and a couple of power cables can pass.

... and of course a few screw holes outside and inside to mount the units.

Tesla Supercharging ... not so super ...

The first car Tesla made, the Roadster, had a very good range of 200+ miles, but you could only charge it at very low speeds. For the Model S, X and other upcoming models, Tesla created the Supercharger network, which can charge the batteries at up to 135kW, at least in theory.

In reality two "electricity pumps" are connected to one 135kW charger, so if you're charging next to another car, you get about half the power. The rule is that the first car to start charging gets the most power and the second car gets the leftovers.

Recently Tesla owners found out about new charging rule, which wasn't publicly mentioned before. It's about the car's battery management system, which limits the maximum charging speed, in order to protect your battery, if you're doing a lot of fast charging.

Bjorn Nyland was one of the first owner, who noticed the limitation, as he goes on long trips almost every weekend in his Model X P90DL and rarely uses slow charging. When he got the car, he could supercharge at around 115kW max, but now, after just a few months, he can barely reach 85-90kW max.

This is an interesting problem, as there are real physical/chemical limits to what Li-ion cells can do, so one simple solution is to lower the charging speed, BUT going into the (near) future there's at least one other solution: putting the same amount of charge into more cells, so each individual cell gets charged slower.

Today Tesla's biggest battery pack holds 100kWh of power and in theory all Tesla batteries could be swapped out with these large capacity ones, in order to improve range and charging speed. The owner would have to pay a significant, but affordable fee.

In the long term this is a real problem and needs to be fixed somehow, because fast charging is very important for long distance travel, city taxis and other logistics, where time is money. Tesla promised owners faster and faster supercharging, NOT slower and slower ...

Read more about the subject on Electrek.co.

Tesla Semi Truck blueprints

OK, so not every scientist uses MS Paint for technical drawings, but I just wanted to illustrate how the most important parts of a 100% electric semi truck would fit.

As we're talking about a long range heavy duty semi, I thought the low center of gravity is not as important, so I imagined the battery packs in a vertical position, behind the cab. The six electric motors would be at least 200hp each and would be in the way of the floor battery pack(s).

To have the battery pack(s) on the floor, between the wheels, just like in the Model S, 3 and X, the distance would have to be bigger between the front wheels and first rear wheels, BUT then the truck would become longer, less maneuverable.

With the battery pack(s) between the wheels it would be the most stable semi truck in curves and Elon would get a bigger bed, maybe a bathroom and fridge too ;)

BUT more importantly, I don't think 6 x 75kWh battery packs will be sufficient for a long range semi, so it's more likely they'll use 12 x 75kW, right up to Elon's seat (and bed). In the Nikola One semi prototype they installed a 320kWh battery pack, which wouldn't be the main energy source, it would just stabilize/complement the Hydrogen fuel cell's current. They rated that truck for a combined range of 800-1200miles, so the 320kWh battery would be maybe 1/5 of that.

As you can see, the hybrid technology makes the truck even longer, as it doesn't just have the motors and battery, but also a Hydrogen tank, fuel cell and a more advanced cooling system, as the fuel cell is only about 70% efficient, meaning that 30% of the energy is wasted as heat.

To have some idea about the battery requirements of such a big vehicle, we can look at an electric Proterra Catalyst E2 bus, which can travel 350 miles with, using its 660kWh battery pack.

So, yeah ... the Tesla Semi Truck will most likely have at least a 1000kWh battery pack, which will give it a ~500 mile range. This would mean that there'll have to be a battery swap station or quick charge station every ~300 miles on "electrified routes".....

Tesla Semi is around the corner

If you look at the big picture, Tesla has taken very small steps, very very slowly in the world of EVs, but it constantly changes the world for the better.

Their first product, the Tesla Roadster wasn't a new concept. Battery powered RC cars already existed and petrol sports cars also existed ... and the Roadster is just a mixture of the two. What takes lots of time, money and effort, is coming up with exactly the right formula for the product, in order to make it appealing to the consumer. From this point of view, the Roadster was a partial success, as it had lots of problems and its automated production line never worked properly.

The Model S is a completely different story, because it had lots of funding and a lot of very bright people worked on it. Even though it was released a few years ago, even today the Model S is THE ELECTRIC CAR without compromises.

The Model X is just a taller Model S, bult on the same assembly line, with crazy falcon wing doors and up to 7 (normal, forward facing) seats. It also got a trailer hitch for towing up to 5000lbs and an improved HEPA filter, which can get rid of the smelliest farts and any smoke (including diesel).

The Model 3 is (or will be) a cheaper version of the Model S, on a completely new assembly line, with fewer features, but will have the dual motor option, trailer hitch, roof rack and up to 75kWh battery pack (at first). Its starting price is at 35.000USD (without any incentives) and the base model can go from 0-60mph in less than 6 seconds. The official total range with the smallest battery pack will be 215miles, but this will surely improve, as battery technology advances. Tesla got around 400.000 preorders for the Model 3, but analysts speculate that it's much more and demand is likely to increase, as Tesla estimates it'll produce 500.000 units per year.

The Tesla Semi Truck will be a very interesting product, as the prototype is allegedly put together from Model 3 parts. This could mean that each wheel of the semi will be connected to its own Model 3 motor and battery pack, without any major modifications to the Model 3 hardware... IMO only traction control needs to be optimized for 6-wheel / 6 motor operation, which is done in software, shouldn't be too complicated. They also need to hook up the batteries and motors to a much bigger radiator, as we've seen overheating problems with the Model X at high speeds, even when not towing.

What we know for sure is that the Tesla Semi Truck will be unveiled in September 2017 and it could have a huge impact on transportation cost and carbon footprint.

Concept - not a real product yet

The Tesla Model Y will be a cheap version of the Model X. Although it was planned to be made on the Model 3 production line, Musk has said at the recent earnings call that Model Y will need its own factory. This came as a shock to most investors, BUT it makes a lot of sense if you consider one simple piece of information Musk added: the Model Y will have 10x less cables than Model S and X, and about 6x less than Model 3. This means that the Model Y will be the next huge step in improving both the Tesla electric car and its manufacturing process ... and hopefully this simplification process will be applied to the Model S and X too.

Concept - not a real product yet

The Tesla Model P will be a fully electric pickup truck and will be revealed some time after the semi truck. There aren't any specifications released yet, but some time ago Musk said that it'll be based on the Model X platform. However, since the Model Y won't be based on the Model 3 platform, we can assume the pickup truck (and most future products) will also be something new and improved.

The Tesla Bus ... probably won't happen, as taxis and shared fleets of electric cars are much more desirable than cramming 10+ people into one box.

For more information about currently available electric Tesla cars, visit Tesla.com ... and watch the Model 3 unveil event ;)