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To: Cool Guy
They can produce a car at around $30,000 and compete against the $20,000 Honda civic, given there is minimal maintenance expense and minimal gas expenses.

Minimal maintenance expense? The battery alone is a ticking time bomb of maintenance expense, so I wouldn't be touting that as an advantage just yet. I'm not even talking about the peripheral hardware that will be subject to failure, for example the power generation features like brakes.

I bought a hybrid in 2009, and I'll be looking to replace it in a couple of years because that battery warrantee will be going away soon. And I don't even have 20K miles on her yet.

73 posted on 08/18/2013 12:14:48 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (It wasn't the Rodeo Clown's act, it was the crowd reaction they could't take.)
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To: Cyber Liberty
Minimal maintenance expense? The battery alone is a ticking time bomb of maintenance expense, so I wouldn't be touting that as an advantage just yet. I'm not even talking about the peripheral hardware that will be subject to failure, for example the power generation features like brakes.

There are only a handful of moving parts in an all electric. The battery is under 8 years unlimited warranty. The battery is covered even if an owner fails to follow charging guidelines laid out in the owners' manual. "Any product that needs a manual to work is broken," Musk said. Tests in labs have shown minimal reduction in capacity over 400,000 miles of driving or a 20 year equivalent of driving. Today the battery pack costs $12,000, so 8 years down the road it will be priced a lot less.

"I've told the Tesla service division that their job is never to make a profit," Musk said. Most auto dealerships make a large portion of their profits from the service department which, Musk pointed out, creates a conflict of interest when it comes to product quality. "I hate the idea of making money because our product broke," said Musk. "That's just wrong."

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/26/autos/tesla-service-gaurantee/index.html

Base on all of the above, I would bet on minimal maintenance costs for Model-S

85 posted on 08/18/2013 12:30:24 PM PDT by Cool Guy
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