How often do you take multi hundred mile trips? Why not just rent a car for those times?
yeah the network coverage of the charging points is key really for long trips (just as the petrol station is for a regular car). In the Uk (and europe) we already have a pretty good network (not sure how it would work on a Tesla mind you, i haven’t looked into that!), as seen in that youtube video i posted from that Scottish Zoe owner. I won’t know the exact details until i have an electric car (and tried it out myself), but with the current infrastructure i can see doing a trip from London to Cornwall (about 200 miles) with one 40min stop (for full charge) or 2x 30min stops (for 2x80% charges) on route, or a bit of both depending on the driving situation etc.
It does take longer in an EV car (well accept for the Tesla cars) as in general the top cruising speeds are lower than most petrol cars, and stopping to charge requires a min of 30mins really, compared to 5 minutes to fill your petrol car at a petrol station. But you pay much less overall for your 100 mile range EV car, cheaper to fuel for those distances, cheaper to run, and now as cheap to buy on certain models as regular petrol cars. For me that certainly makes them ‘competitive’ if not a complete like-for-like swap with a petrol car, but that is coming.
I have no issue with Hybrids, they are a step in the right direction, and for many people that are worried about going full EV, a great choice. Personally i don’t need one, as i have a regular car that does everything a hybrid does (in terms of range) and is reasonably economical in terms of fuel (but nothing compared to an EV).
I’m a poor example because I live in manhattan and don’t even own a car. But if I did, I’d want to use it for longer trips too.
I’m a poor example because I live in manhattan and don’t even own a car. But if I did, I’d want to use it for longer trips too.
Generally speaking, the further west you go, the more need you have for long distance driving. I did a lot more of it when I lived in Colorado and in California.
The issue with “why not rent a car?” is that it costs money. Why not just buy a car that can do both, save that expense, and have something more convenient? The pure EV models tend to be more expensive than PHEVs, though the Nissan Leaf is a notable exception.
Gah…i’ve been reading of some issues with the Zoe, it’s higher capacity charger seems to have issues with some of the ‘super chargers’, causing a ‘not possible to charge’ error. I guess for these first generation of ‘competitive’ EV’s you are best waiting a little for the tech to mature? The leaf is looking the most ‘stable’ overall it seems?
Also i just discovered this weird looking EV from Mia, which looks like the Shuttle from Star trek:
And a nice american-centric youtube video from a Nissan Leaf owner:
And a nice american-centric youtube video from a Nissan Leaf owner:
…well some of those look like custom jobs (and i’m sure down town L.A. can compete for weirdness there), but they did go bankrupt, which is quite ‘French’, so yes i didn’t expect much, but i thought they looked kinda cool (imagine a Steve Jobs designing something like that!).
The Tesla 3 is probably going to be a future car purchase, but living as i do in the deep west 300 miles from any city of merit something like a gen 2 Fusion Energi will probably be a more practical alternative. The Volt looks great on paper but… GM.
Get a plug-in prius, it’s the obvious choice.
What percentage of american families are 2+ car homes? Because for those families, it seems pretty reasonable to presume a Tesla makes perfect sense as one car, while the other could be used for longer-distance trips.
The Tesla makes perfect sense for families that can afford a $65k commuter car (base model + supecharger access - federal incentives) for the lowest-range model. Which, I’ll freely admit, includes me, but it’s still somewhat rarefied heights.
But why is that a problem? Tesla clearly has more demand than it can supply for now, and that’ll probably still be true once they release new models. I don’t really understand why people expect Tesla to make something affordable by the masses when that’s obviously not necessary for them to thrive.
What was the question again? I thought it was “is an electric car a good choice for most American families vs. gasoline or PHEV?” not “what’s best for Tesla?”
Tesla mission is to increase the long-term sustainability of the human race, by electrifying the transportation system. $70K car is too expensive to make much of a difference in this goal, and even a $35K (Gen III) car is still too expensive. That is in a large part why he is allowing access to Tesla IP to other car makers. If in 20 year Tesla is a large and successful car manufacturer but electric cars are still say 10% of the market, I think Elon will be unhappy.
The same way that if in 20 years SpaceX is the #1 rocket company in the world, but we haven’t put men on Mars, he’ll view SpaceX as not being successful. SpaceX mission to enhance the long-term survivability of the human race by making us a multi planetary species, not to make money.
I totally understand why people would be cynical of these lofty goals, but I actually believe the guy.
Indeed it was, the whole thread has become a serious look at how close we are (or are not) for most people to make that big move away from petrol/gas in their cars. I dropped a sizable amount on a new merc a couple of years back, and that became the family car. I simply wouldn’t want to push things to do the same and get a Tesla (i could trade in the merc, but i don’t know the longevity of a tesla like i do for the merc (they last)), when, to my understanding of the current state of other EV’s, i can get a ‘good enough’ EV choice starting at around 15,000K, which would make a 100% perfect second car.
Also Tesla is very american-centric, i have heard nothing about super-charging stations being built in the uk etc? However i’m very, very happy he is in america doing this thing, as that is the country most at need of an ideological shift in relation to fossil fuels, if america changes it is much easier for the rest of the world to follow.
Google is your friend. There is a slider which shows the plans for the next year. One of the more impressive things about Tesla is that US supercharger network was rolled more or less on schedule with a few exception. Also given the high cost of Petrol in Europe and the shorter distances, Tesla plans on selling more cars to Europe than the US fairly soon and China will ultimately be its biggest market.
My island is a lot smaller than yours but I can say the Tesla/EV make tons of sense on an island.
Thanks for the info, but really that meme is so not true! So they do have plans for the uk then (and europe). You know the one big thing i see as being a problem for current and near future EV’s (speaking as someone that is desperate to get one), what happens if suddenly tons of people wake up to the fact that they can have a cheap EV car, cheap to buy, cheap to run, the cheapest car they have ever owned(overall)?
How many chargers are there around the place, for sure quite empty now, but if EV’s fly off the shelves at any point i see lots of angry owners getting all nasty down at the over crowded plug in points. I don’t know how you can easily avoid that situation currently?
At that point, they won’t be free to use, so you build more of 'em. Cheap compared to trucking gasoline all over the country.