Well hopefuly they can stop when you want them to.

Telsa is going to use the Nummi plant?

Telsa needs to get the phuck out of California and they should never use union lazy labor or be involved with unions or they won't make it.

Union trash will kill them.

quote Originally posted by MidEngineManiac: Its an internal combustion motor (probly diesal from what you are sayin).......take off all the electronics, and it will run on just about anything you can pour into it. If you make road tar liquid enough---it'll run

Tsk Tsk--you young folks.
1. The liklihood of a 49 Chevy having a diesel in it is remote for sure, and you wouldn't want to run straight drip in a diesel anyway.
2. Drip Gas, is a natural very light condensate, with a specific gravity very close to 40s and 50s era gasoline. About 50 octane I believe, and we used to call it casinghead gas. Lots and lots of people used to run it in gasoline engines---cars, tractors, lawnmowers anything they wanted to, till it was outlawed most places, as it caused the states and feds to lose tax money. You knew right away if someone was using it too--the exhaust had an unforgettable smell. Oh, it burns hot too--ya had to be carefull with it, real easy to burn a hole in a piston or burn an exh valve.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: My X father in law had a 49 chevy pickup he kept at home solely to haul trash to the dump. It was like 20 years old then. He never hardly put any gasoline in it. He had an oil well on his property and ran it on what they called 'drip gas'. It was just a big catch can to catch all the leaking oil as it was pumped out...totally unrefined. I dont know if you ran on JUST that, or mixed it in with some gasoline. I do remember watching him drive it out in the field and pour the can into the gas tank all the time.

quote Originally posted by FrugalFiero: I also personally fail to see the great advantage of electric vehicles. Doesn't it still need electricity to recharge? Isn't the majority of our electricity produced by fossil fuels, and don't those fossil fuels produce pollution? What"s going to happen when say 40% of electric vehicle owners have to plug their vehicles into an already maxxed out electric grid? Technological advancements are commendable, but if they really don't solve a major problem like fossil fuel use, is it worth pursuing? Please enlighten me if I am missing something.

...plus add in the fact that the materials needed to build the batteries are strip mined - and then there is the whole process of dealing with the batteries once they have exceeded theri life span. None of these 2 proceses are close to being enviromently friendly.

*off topic* - even these 'wind generators' use oil in thm to keep the gearboxes running smoothly, so they are not 100% clean energy, and never mind the toxic chemicals and processes use to build solar cells...

I used to have blind faith in the big 3 but after seeing that the most American made car is (if my memory serves me right) the Toyota Camry I don't really care anymore. I will still buy GMs since I still like what they do with them (especially the Silverados) but when the union halls baulk at $20/hour with benefits or face losing their jobs where many of the assembly line workers are qualified for nothing else over $10 /hr, I could care less about supporting the American companies workers anymore. Toyota plants pay American employees well, offer comprehensive benefit packages and paid time off and holidays and their workers are happy. More power to em. Who cares if an industrial fat cat in the US that makes too much money runs a company or if an Asian industrial fat cat that makes too much money employes you? Its not like the Amrerican Fat Cat is going to do anything more for you that the Asian. If the big 3 and its plant workers can't get their heads out of their asses and make something happen then down the river yah go! buh bye,,, Just like any other company that can't compete.

I was disgusted when even my own fat assed lazy brother thinks he is worth gold for sitting on a bar stool and repeating the same actions 1,000 times a day felt it was a travesty when Magna Powertrain (New Venture Gear) requested a pay decrease as part of a cost reduction plan to keep the company profitable. He voted down $20/hr to do a mindless drones work that a preschooler could easily comprehend and is now qualified to do...... Finger painting? The plant is now closing and diluting the local job market and 90% of them will be lucky to find a $12/hr job. Good job guys! you just added to the housing crisis since you will now be losing your homes because you can't be reasonable. You also just tacked on more to the National debt since you will be sitting on unemployment for the next few years that the federal gov had to borrow from Communist China to support.

I work for a living. I am a construction worker that pounds 50-60 hours a week doing far more complex and physically exerting things to bring home a decent paycheck. I wouldn't hire these goons for more than $10/hr as a laborer. then I would have to let them go because most of them don't know what Labor is. Such is the consequences of those over payed assembly line workers (for example) that want to pay so little money to a contractor that they will only hire the ones that pay their workers crap because the companies that pay their workers more than they can produce can't compete. Or to the companies that are lucky enough to have a small number of great workers that they pay well that can do the same job as twice as many lazy goons. If you are in the construction field and get payed well, its because you are good at what you do, are efficient in your work and work your ass off. The rest don't get payed well because they are only filling the role of a body while the company finds someone that is better than them at their job that they will pay more because they can produce and it is far more cost efficient to pay fewer employees more than more Employees less.

The last I checked, the only people that get payed well off the bat at a company are those that are qualified to do their job such as a collage graduate or someone that has spent time at another company learning how to do their job well for a low wage.

New Auto Industry union workers have neither but get payed what?!?! And the same pay as the person that that's been there for 20 years and knows their **** ?!?! What a joke. Sounds like a free ride to me.

Once upon a time, everyone in the country had to bust their asses off to get ahead. That time has returned and I think its a good thing. Its the laws of survival. You don't work hard, you don't survive. That simple. The free ride of American Laziness is rightfully coming to an end and companies that support it with it.

[This message has been edited by katore8105 (edited 05-23-2010).]

Elon Musk, PayPal Pioneer, Is Paper-Rich, Cash-Poor

http://finance.yahoo.com/ne...-3147541066.html?x=0

The funny thing about Elon Musk is that he does sort of remind you of Tony Stark. Minus the Iron Man suit.

Like the fictional Mr. Stark, Mr. Musk seems like the kind of guy every Silicon Valley hopeful wants to be. For starters, he’s a rocket scientist. No, really: he helped design the Falcon 9 booster used by NASA. He also helped create Solar City, a leader in solar power. And he helped dream up the Tesla, the electric car that made electric cars sexy. No wonder the film director Jon Favreau modeled his über-capitalist superhero on Mr. Musk.

There is just one small problem: Mr. Musk says he is broke.

Come again? Mr. Musk is a member of the PayPal Mafia — those serial entrepreneurs who, for a time, looked like the Brat Pack of the Valley. He made a fortune as a co-founder of PayPal, the e-commerce payments system. Not so long ago, he had more than $200 million in cash. Not bad for 38.

Now Mr. Musk, who is in the middle of a divorce, says his account is empty. Actually, less than empty. He says he invested his last cent in his businesses and is living off loans from his wealthy friends. He subsists, according to court filings, on $200,000 a month and still flies his private jet.

“About four months ago, I ran out of cash,” Mr. Musk acknowledged in a divorce court filing that was widely circulated among the West Coast digital elite.

It was quite a revelation, one that laid bare an uncomfortable truth in the world of venture capital: high-tech entrepreneurs who look rich are often relatively cash-poor, at least next to their glittering images. Mark Zuckerberg may be a billionaire when, or if, Facebook goes public. Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, lives like a king. But most of his wealth is tied up in Oracle stock. Mr. Ellison lives in part off loans.

People like Mr. Musk may have redefined what it means to be rich, particularly young and rich. But somehow, many of these seemingly successful people live on the financial edge, waiting, hoping for the next deal to unlock their next fortune.

Mr. Musk’s financial situation is coming to light because he is in the middle of a messy divorce. He ran off with an actress, Talulah Riley — paging Mr. Stark — and his wife, the fantasy novelist Justine Musk, wants the house, alimony, child support and $6 million cash. She also wants a cut of Tesla Motors and a piece of Mr. Musk’s stock in his rocket company, SpaceX.

“Is that what I deserve?” Mrs. Musk wrote on her blog in a post titled “Golddigging.” “I don’t know. Who exactly deserves that kind of wealth? But based on our life and history together, is that reasonable? I think so.”

Mr. Musk told me in an interview that he put his last $35 million into Tesla, which only two years ago was on the edge of bankruptcy. That depleted virtually all his “cash reserves.”

“That was my choice,” he insisted.

Faced with what he characterized as “liquidity issues,” he said: “I could have either done a rushed private stock sale or borrowed money from friends.” He chose to hang onto his stake — a decision that is likely to make him a very wealthy man. In two weeks, Tesla is scheduled to hold an initial public offering of stock that is expected to value the company at about $1.4 billion. Mr. Musk may be broke, but, as he said to me with a laugh, “My assets are huge.”

The revelations about Mr. Musk’s personal financial problems stunned many in the industry. Wall Street spent years courting him. The Energy Department had given Tesla — which has sold its $100,000 electric sports cars to the likes of Larry Page, the Google co-founder, and George Clooney — $465 million in low-interest loans.

The whispering among Mr. Musk’s detractors began almost immediately. If Mr. Musk cannot keep himself solvent, how can he be trusted to run a billion-dollar enterprise? And what about Tesla’s financing, which had long been based on his largess?

In case you are wondering, neither Mr. Musk nor his wife says he is claiming poverty because of the divorce. She characterizes him as a billionaire, “albeit with cash/liquidity issues,” which, she says, “ I would work with him to work around.”

Mr. Musk’s personal fortune is not just a matter of pride. A business is hanging in the balance. Tesla’s loan from the Energy Department requires Mr. Musk to hold at least 65 percent of Tesla. If he cashed out early, that loan would technically go into default.

Tesla, for its part, has tried to quiet the talk of Mr. Musk’s troubles. In an amendment to its I.P.O. filing, the company said: “We do not believe that Mr. Musk’s personal financial situation has any impact on us.”

Tesla went on to say that his divorce — and his postnuptial agreement (he and his wife agreed to a divorce arrangement after they were married that she is contesting) should have no impact on the company. “We also do not believe that Mr. Musk would have to liquidate a significant percentage of his holdings in order to satisfy any settlement reached in connection with such proceedings,” the company said.

An earlier filing might have been a telltale sign about the financial problems to come: Tesla disclosed that it had begun reimbursing Mr. Musk for his use of his private plane, justifying the cost by saying, “By paying only the variable expenses of Mr. Musk’s private airplane, consistent with the reimbursement policy in place, we will recognize a cost saving as compared to the customary practice for an initial public offering road show.” Before this, Mr. Musk paid for the plane himself.

It is quite a comedown — probably only temporary — for Mr. Musk, a South African native who made his first fortune in 1999, when he sold Zip2, a dot-com publishing business he had started with his brother, for more than $300 million. (The New York Times Company was a licensee of Zip2.) From there he went on to X.com, an online payment service that grew into PayPal. PayPal soon got scooped up by eBay for $1.5 billion. Mr. Musk walked away with about $200 million after selling his stock.

In 2002, he started Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, with the none-too-grand visions of making a business out of flying people into outer space. The company also has a contract with NASA worth at least $1.6 billion to take over many of the duties of the space shuttle program, which is being phased out. Just two weeks ago, SpaceX completed a successful launch of its Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral. The company had its third year of profitability in 2009.

Mr. Musk declined to comment on the public offering for Tesla — the company is in a quiet period — but if it goes as planned, he will cash out about $21 million and still own more than 65 percent of Tesla. He can use the money, if only to pay the bill for his divorce and reimburse his friends.

“It is pretty aggravating,” he told me, referring to the rumors floating around about him. Hey, even Tony Stark has bad days.

Tesla gets ready to take over the former NUMMI auto plant in Fremont

http://www.mercurynews.com/...96342?nclick_check=1

When the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont shut down in April, many pronounced it dead -- a triple victim of the recession, sliding auto sales and General Motors' bankruptcy.

But NUMMI is about to be reborn. Electric-carmaker Tesla Motors, which stunned the world when it announced plans to purchase the plant in May, officially takes ownership Oct. 1.

Already, many Tesla employees call the plant the "Tesla Factory." Forty people regularly work out of a Tesla office that's been set up on the parking lot -- taking breaks under three red patio umbrellas similar to those at the company's Palo Alto headquarters. The various "shops," from body framing to paint, are being designed, and detailed diagrams and timelines paper the walls of hallways and conference rooms.

"I've been through a plant closure before, and it's heartbreaking," said Gilbert Passin, Tesla's vice president of manufacturing, as he strode through the cavernous auto plant in safety glasses and a red hard hat emblazoned with Tesla's logo. "To be able to give a second life to this facility and some of the people here -- it's thrilling for us to be in this position."

I thought this was the "goodbye to Tesla" thread.?.

quote Originally posted by maryjane: I also have Lucas alternators and charging systems.

Why do the British drink warm beer???
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Refridgeration by Lucas.


Joe

quote Originally posted by maryjane: I thought this was the "goodbye to Tesla" thread.?.

Looks like it turned into a 'hello to Tesla' thread

quote Originally posted by madcurl: ... give me a Tesla for 20k that has a range of 500-miles and I'm on board.

I think you may be waiting forever - can't have both.

When and electric manages to be under $20K, it will be a golf-cart-like performance ZENN.
IF it gets 500-miles, performs and looks good, the technology will cost more than $20K

quote Originally posted by fierobear: I really don't see electric cars (all electric, that is) catching on until: 1. Their range increases significantly. We need a quantum leap in battery technology, first. 2. Their recharge time is anything close to filling your gas tank 3. A big enough recharging infrastructure to make them practical for more than very short trips. If cap and tax passes, it's all over. The price of everything will rise so dramatically, it will collapse the already shaky world economy. The last thing people will be thinking about is buying an electric car with a limited range.

agree completely. Right now their just ' feel good ' cars. They might catch on in 50 years. Aint gonna happen any sooner.

Cars Ill buy are getting rarer and rarer. I wont buy Japanese ever, and wont buy a new GM product at all. Ill just buy good, 20 year old cars and save thousands of dollars.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: agree completely. Right now their just ' feel good ' cars. They might catch on in 50 years. Aint gonna happen any sooner.

...built in the early 1900's and still hasn't caught on...don't think another 50 years is really going to help.

[This message has been edited by spark1 (edited 09-27-2010).]

LOL I was at a Green Homes thing down in STL just yesterday (Sat) and a guy brought his Tesla. I asked him if he felt it was worth it everything said and done. He said he couldn't really answer that question, especially after seeing our Solar Car that we built that can go 90 mph and doesn't need a plug in the wall

But he did say he tested it and it does go 240 miles before a recharge just like it says.

quote Originally posted by User00013170: Looks like it turned into a 'hello to Tesla' thread

Yep.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/.../business&id=7700306

FREMONT, CA (KGO) -- Tesla Motors, the Palo Alto headquartered electric car maker, officially takes over the former NUMMI plant in Fremont. It's a quiet changeover with no ceremonies. Tesla turned down requests for an interview about its plans and about future jobs.


Across the street, meantime, hundreds of former NUMMI workers are at various stages of re-employment training at a "one stop" facility funded primarily by Alameda County.

While some hold out hope that they might get jobs with Tesla, others expect the jobs to pay much less than the $25 to $30 an hour they were earning at NUMMI.

Those who have checked out the Tesla website for job postings said all they could find were engineering openings, which the assembly line workers are not qualified to take.

Butch Johnson, co-director of the NUMMI Re-employment Center, said the former auto plant workers have accessed services 10,000 times since it opened early this year.

That would be equivalent to each of the 4,700 laid-off workers going twice for various job training services. However, Johnson said that in the current economy, there is no guarantee that every worker will find a job.

Allen Bernados was confident he would find work on his own and did not take advantage of the job training services. He was at the job center today to schedule a skills assessment test, the first step in the process.

Bernados worked at NUMMI for 12 years and three months, wrapping up his time there as a team leader on the assembly line. After leaving he applied for job after job, and he couldn't even get interviews.

On the other hand, Ron Brandon says he took some time off after the plant closed at the end of April. About six weeks later, he found a job as a production supervisor at a large bakery operation.

Brandon says he was surprised how his NUMMI skills transferred well to bakery production. He realizes now, in retrospect, how well NUMMI was run and how the skills he learned there would be so valuable in his new job.

Tesla said it's not discussing its hiring plans today but hopes to do so in a few weeks. It paid $42 million for the Fremont plant, which at one time was a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.

http://www.kron.com/News/Ar...0Friday/Default.aspx

FREMONT (BCN) -- A Fremont auto plant that began operating nearly 50 years ago will enter a new phase in its existence on Friday when it is taken over by Tesla Motors.

Tesla announced in May that it was buying the auto plant and would use it to build the new Model S, a fully electric four-door sedan, and other vehicles.

The Palo Alto-based company said its new production might create about 1,000 jobs at the Fremont facility.

A Tesla spokeswoman says no ceremonies are planned when the company takes over on Friday. She said Tesla will issue a statement on the transition later Thursday.

Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman notes that having Tesla move in “is a good start" at replacing the jobs that were lost when NUMMI halted its operations.

Wasserman said it will take time to replace all the lost jobs but he hopes that eventually there will be more jobs at that site than there were before.

He said that would come about through a combination of more jobs at Tesla if the company is successful, and jobs that the city hopes to create by luring other companies to the former NUMMI site, as Tesla will only be using part of that property.

The plant, located off of Interstate Highway 880, was built by General Motors, which operated it from 1962 to 1982.

The plant reopened in 1984 and was a joint venture between GM and Toyota Motor Corp. that was called the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI.

But GM withdrew from the partnership last year and Toyota decided to close the plant on April 1, leaving 4,700 union employees out of work and affecting thousands of employees at suppliers around the state who relied on the auto plant for business.

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 10-01-2010).]