Well, unless the final solution is a fuel cell, it’s a loser because the consumer part of the power grid won’t be able to handle it...
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That’s likely why Musk is also heavily invested in solar. He’s looking for off grid distributed power generation to handle the load. Might not work. We’ll see.
Solar charging works great since the car is in the garage overnight when the sun shines the brightest.
/sarcasm
Have they figured out if dead batteries can be recycled in quantities without harming the environment?
I am unable to see the economics of buying an electric or hybrid when cars cost 25-50% more to buy. Then the batteries are a big expense to replace. The electrical grid will have to be beefed up to handle all the extra load to charge batteries. And if the electricity will be generated with fossil fuels, there is no reduction in air pollution.
I drive a gasoline powered car with every option installed, my range is 400 miles plus, very cheap to maintain, have original battery, tires, spark plugs, belts etc after 4 years and 40,000 miles. And it cost under $20k to buy new.
He's "invested" in solar because it is a scam that makes money for him. The tools who put his panels on their roofs get nothing and don't gain any energy independence. OTOH the power that Musk sells from those panels is sold at full retail price whether it is worth that much or not. It is only worth that much on sunny summer afternoons when it can be fed to nearby A/C units. Otherwise we (rate payers) are vastly overpaying for unreliable and off-peak power. In addition to the rate payer subsidies, Musk picks up taxpayer subsidies.
As for charging electric cars with solar, that is ridiculous. The cars are charged at night using coal power from the grid. If you want to charge cars during the day you get 10 Watts per square foot and you need about 100kWh to charge an 85kWh battery with conversion and charging losses. With 4-5 hours of good sun you get 100kWh from 2000 square feet of panels. Unless the commuting destination is near the rooftop solar installations that is not feasible.
Also the idea that taxpayers ought to subsidize wasteful luxury electric cars is completely insane.
“That’s likely why Musk is also heavily invested in solar. He’s looking for off grid distributed power generation to handle the load. Might not work. We’ll see.”
LOL...won’t work, but then Musk is not dumb, he knows FULL WELL that most people cannot do the math and figure out that charging stations would need football field sized solar farms (along with 24/7 sunlight) to be able to fast-charge multiple vehicles.
But stick a couple of panels on a charging station and 99% of the people fall for it.
VERY SMART on his part...capitalizing on public ignorance.