Tesla's makes portable phone-charging battery

I like the built-in micro and lightning cables.

That’s just another area or point of failure. And the fact that it’s built in means when it fails, and everyone nows almost all micro usb cables fail, you are stuck with a brick and no way to charge your device sans hacking it apart to replace a cable

Sure is convenient tho

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built-in cables are a good idea for the emergency small battery types, the type not used often but when used you’re glad you don’t have to find the cable.

Built-in cables though become a bad idea as the price of the unit gets much above $10 as, then what you said - the cable usually fails first so its a brick. A <$10 brick is less waste than an expensive brick.

$45… well the person bought a Tesla so there’s a self-selection process going on here. Not unlike Apple.

It may be a gimmick, and I agree that built-in cables are not great. (Would prefer to have something with built in cables AND a USB port). And even if they sold millions of them, it obviously wouldn’t move the profitability needle on their financial statements. But there are plenty of people who want to own a Tesla “something”, so if they can sell batteries with that small of a capacity for $45, kudos to their marketing team.

They can’t keep up with the demand for their cars, so they’re doing what they need to keep their name in the forefront of people’s minds.

And @nigelhealy, regarding your earlier comment about alternative transportation being better than electric vehicles, I wholeheartedly agree. However, some or all of those may not be an option depending on where people live.

I live in Southern California, and am fortunate enough to work just three miles from home. However, I would never consider riding my bike to work, as it is three treacherous miles of road, filled with road-raging drivers and no bike lanes. Walking is not much safer, as the streets are five or six lanes wide, and crossing them during rush hour, even with a walk-sign in my favor, is not for the faint-of-heart.

As for public transportation, ours is abysmal. I would have to take three buses and my commute would go from 6 minutes to more than a half hour. While I realize even that is nothing compared to the one to two hour commutes that some people have, a 5x increase in time to get home after a long day is not something I’m willing to endure.

Our train system is only viable for long commutes in very limited areas, and we don’t have trams.

While I do carpool (with my wife, as we work together), of the 20 other employees in my office, none live anywhere close to me to make carpooling an option.

Again, I’m not disagreeing with you. Just pointing out that not everybody has those options, so whether it be Tesla, Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota or any other car manufacturer making them, alternative-fuel vehicles (preferably coupled with some form of alternative energy like solar, wind, etc.) are needed.

EDIT: I forgot to add that our gas tax just jumped $0.13 per gallon earlier this month so that our corrupt/inefficient government will have some funds to actually repair our aging and overwhelmed streets and freeways. I’m fortunate enough to have such a short commute and not do a lot of extracurricular driving, that the increase won’t hurt. But people who drive hundreds of miles per week aren’t so lucky. Some would say that the increase in cost of an electric vehicle is no better. But for those in our area with long daily commutes, the ROI is much shorter, and electric vehicles are attractive alternative transportation options.

If those road-raging drivers did not drive, then you’d feel safe biking.

So its a tipping point problem.

You’re absolutely correct. But one would have more success being a leper in today’s society, than getting the masses to give up their cars…especially in areas of dense population with so many entertainment choices.

Everything we use comes from somewhere that uses fuel, wether to manufacturer it, design it (electricity), ship it, and also to sale it. Selling an item requires employees all of which more than likely travel to their place of employment on a fossil fuel burner. And if they do not they will either bike, which was more than likely built using fossil fuels somewhere along the way. So its a damned if you do damned if you don’t scenario. We live in a society that thinks if you do no burn dinosaurs the world is a better place, no that is not correct. That item came from somewhere, more than likely China and the cycle starts all over. Bad work conditions, minimal pay, long hours. The list goes on. I for one think a Tesla is a great vehicle for the individual who is willing to turn a blind eye on how it was made and what all was needed from humans and this earth to produce. The waste produced to build one of these vehicles like @nigelhealy sort of mentioned outweighs the benefits to those who are not willing to turn a blind eye or who quite frankly do not care.

:joy:With all that said, the Tesla Roadster is a thing of beauty :heart_eyes:

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Indeed one cannot be nil footprint, not in any kind of western type consumering. Anker products, made in China using China’s coal energy and then boat / flown using someone’s gas. Yes know that.

The issue with Tesla is:

  • it is allowed to use MOV when it is not, taking up a bit of lane which could be filled with actual carpool to reduce actual congestion. Actual congestion is what puts off folks from riding a bike, for example, so a Tesla puts people off doing even better than a Tesla.
  • it creates an illusion you’re doing something better. Nope. Not in the least bit.

Now, back to Anker type stuff:

  • Yes we need to store energy more, it buffers between renewable varying supply
  • Solar delivers all the power every human could possibly want, but its problem is its not continuous down at ground level in the places it is needed so there is a storage and piping energy problem.
  • Yes batteries are going to be key, in the home, in service supply (“gas stations”) and in devices
  • But “batteries” need to substantially improved, more technology. My fave is hydrogen fuel cells as its raw ingredient is water and its waste is water and you make its fuel from sunshine.

No amount of Tesla is going to reduce congestion, its exactly the same amount of road it needs, only way to reduce congestion is bike and shared public transport. One way for shared transport is self-driving vehicles which are point-to-point public transport so instead of there being cars on driveways and on roads and outside offices, there’s just enough cars in existence and they keep moving. But then… we need a fast charging technology…

Haha I also read this news this morning. I’ll stay faithful to Anker :slight_smile:

There isn’t the available electricity capacity to fuel electric cars.

Not for nothing but that’s why they are creating power grids made from electric batteries fuel by solar and wind power. So imo this article is a moot point and just trying to scare off people from electric cars

It takes 20 years to build a power station. The UK has plenty of wind power.

The issue is basic lack of electrical cables to match the energy of petrol station. No opinion can waive that.

Battery power station/grids do not take that long. Case in point they built the one for south Africa in less than 180 days. You can keep arguing as you want but the fact remains there will always be someone who doubts and someone who proves a point by getting it done

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Not in UK which is densely populated, each power station has to go through layers of government reviews.

In the same way a car driver expects everyone else to change by offering up excuses, none like a power station in their area due to fears of pollution, traffic. The public consultancy takes years. In a democracy based locally, means local decisions fight the decision making progress. Fundamentally this is a democracy fighting population growth.

There is a ban on new coal powered stations due to a wish to not lose the low lying areas due to the fact of global warming, nuclear power stations take very long time. UK is already heavily into renewables, as % of energy is ahead of USA, behind other countries, mostly making use of the fact it is an island in a windier part of the world to use the seas around and hilly lower population areas.

The three limitations in UK currently:

  • the wires running across the country do not have a big enough capacity to replace the energy distribution of a gas tank. No opinion can easily fix that.
  • current battery technology does not allow a long enough distance so there is a “top up” angst. This is where the main focus has to be because it helps solve all the other issues. Hybrids help with a small gas tank and petrol engine. All-electric cars are more vulnerable.
  • there are too many cars anyway, just making them electric just causes a quieter less smelly congestion and then the above point.

The population density means it is hard to make a new or better form of transport due to roads being built around cities which existed before USA existed and every tram line or train line has to knock down a home or business. To reduce congestion you need to make a person much closer to other persons so that is bike and bus and train and tram and car pooling.

So Tesla is not an answer, it is a sideways step, it does nothing to help with congestion, if it anything it makes it worse due to a false piety and an ego wealth statement. It is a step forwards in using batteries but it is not solving the other issues like energy distribution so it is pulling forward a problem. So a backwards+forwards=sideways.

So the way forward:

  • deep innovation in energy storage technology, as this then flattens peak in supply and demand, such as to alleviate peak power distribution and droughs of renewables.
  • eradication of a car centric culture to limit it to those with no alternative such as disabled people. Everyone else is in public transport and human-powered.
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It’s cute and all, and certainly looks good on any desk. But, yeah, for 3750mAh I rather pay for an Anker Astro Mini - as I did - than the Tesla brand.

That said, even if the design looks good, it’s not necessarily practical. I can see the edges and notches sticking on the inside of my bag. Function before form, for me.

Geez $45 for a 3350mAh portable battery. Sounds like a rip off to me even with the built in cables to the side. I guess it is made by Tesla so that is why they can charge so much money although I bet I could find a nice one for 1/3 the price.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/tesla-apos-newest-product-mobile-164653654.html

Nothing beats an Anker power bank. You should know that ^^