[McRat]

In a move that is unheard of for a high tech company, Elon Musk opened up their entire patent portfolio for other companies to use free of charge.

http://pda.sciencealert.com.au/news/20141306-25675.html

This is really big.

Let's see who has the huevos to follow Elon.

It's going to piss off a lot of lawyers.

[Jason@JacFab]

That's pretty cool... I'm guessing he hopes others will attempt to make an electric car and it will boost battery sales... It's probably easier, and more profitable to make batteries than whole cars. Just thinking out loud.

[dmginc]

a boost in battery sales could lower the production costs and also what the buyer pays in turn allowing them to sell more cars. will be interesting to see what happens with this.

[VRYALT3R3D]

Fuel cell cars are the future, not hybrids. With Tesla planning to make a battery plant with huge capacity, obviously they did this so they get the business for the battery plant.

To sell a car in California, you need ZEV credits. With pure electric cars, you get 2 ZEV credits unless it has more than 300 miles range AND fast fuel refilling capabilities. Fast fuel refilling capabilities means it has to be able to refuel at the same amount of time as it takes to fill up a tank in a gasoline car. If you are able to do that, you get 7 ZEV credits. This means that after 2020, the only vehicle that will get those ZEV credits in any meaningful number, so you can sell your other cars, is fuel cell cars.

[rayhawk]

Originally Posted by VRYALT3R3D

Fuel cell cars are the future, not hybrids. With Tesla planning to make a battery plant with huge capacity, obviously they did this so they get the business for the battery plant.

To sell a car in California, you need ZEV credits. With pure electric cars, you get 2 ZEV credits unless it has more than 300 miles range AND fast fuel refilling capabilities. Fast fuel refilling capabilities means it has to be able to refuel at the same amount of time as it takes to fill up a tank in a gasoline car. If you are able to do that, you get 7 ZEV credits. This means that after 2020, the only vehicle that will get those ZEV credits in any meaningful number, so you can sell your other cars, is fuel cell cars.

Although regulations do effect what comes to market, you can't regulate your way around the laws of physics. Fuel cells are unlikely to ever see meaningful production numbers for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it takes more energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen that you can get back out of it when re-combining. Unless California demands that water molecules comply and begin to spontaneously separate into hydrogen and oxygen...

[McRat]

Currently, commercial hydrogen is cracked from petroleum.

Note: Current hydrogen production does not alter carbon produced.
The hydrogen is bonded with carbon in petroleum. If you need hydrogen off of it, you end up carbon that will be normally be burned anyhow.

[Cymaro]

Originally Posted by rayhawk

Unless California demands that water molecules comply and begin to spontaneously separate into hydrogen and oxygen...

That sounds like something CA would try

[Bhobbs]

Originally Posted by rayhawk

Unless California demands that water molecules comply and begin to spontaneously separate into hydrogen and oxygen...

California politicians are just stupid enough to do that.

[Silverlsinva]

Hmmn very interesting

[102SS]

I bet that was one of the "self proclaimed geniuses" ideas

He went to interview for VP last week he must have got the job

http://ls1tech.com/forums/racers-lou...man-tesla.html

[Number 3]

The issue isn't that it costs more to get Hydrogen from water than what you get for it.

What matters is that the overall process is cheaper than gasoline.

Today, nothing beats the amount of energy you walk around with in a gallon gas can.

Hydrogen must be pressurized to 10,000 psi to be able to carry enough energy to give a car any reasonable range.

And the GM "in your driveway" (another GM innovation they can't seem to get credit for) it takes far longer to fill hydrogen tanks than to put 12 gallons of gas in a car. However, this is likely more feasible than recharging a battery in just minutes. As my friend always said, "do you want you wife or kid arc welding around the car?" And this is from a guy working on hybrids.

I would be very interested to see what patents he released and what their real value is. Keeping mind his car is more innovative in styling than propulsion or energy storage. My guess is this more a marketing ploy than meaningful information. He is a master marketer and likely the stock went up because he did this making him personally even richer.

The company does not make money selling cars. It makes money selling ZEV credits. They did get a bunch of government loans, which no one seems to care about. But at building cars, not a dime as of yet.

[trademaster]

Originally Posted by 102SS

I bet that was one of the "self proclaimed geniuses" ideas

He went to interview for VP last week he must have got the job

http://ls1tech.com/forums/racers-lou...man-tesla.html

It was probably Elon's idea, an actual genius. Elon Musk is arguably the most successful person on the planet if we're not talking pure wealth figures.

Founder, CEO & CTO @ SpaceX

Historic achievements by SpaceX, among others, include the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit (28 September 2008); the first privately funded company to successfully launch (by Falcon 9), orbit and recover a spacecraft (Dragon) (9 December 2010); the first private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the International Space Station[5] (25 May 2012); and the first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (3 December 2013).

Co-Founder @ PayPal

CEO & Chief Product Architect @ Tesla

Oh yeah, and he's 42 years old. If Elon is doing something and you don't think it's the right move, you should reconsider.

[derklug]

For electric cars to become practical, the number on the road needs to increase dramatically. Musk understands this and is doing what he can to push more makers into production. Economics of scale will gain him more in the long run than what his current patents will.

[Hurst]

After see a video for the "White Zombie" (a white electric Datsun) drag racing, I will be watching this industry closely. This will be interesting.


Sent from the road...