“Darn, just as he was about to announce that the Model 3 was going into mass production...next month.”
We live over the hill to the east of the Tesla plant. Truckloads of Model 3’s go up I680 here every day. I don’t own a Tesla, but they are beautifully crafted automobiles. Our little town is full of them. They are an ideal urban/suburban mode of transportation. And they are FAST! Just watched a video of “supercars” doing a combined 1/4 mile drag race on the runway down at Vandenburg AFB. The Tesla beat ALL OF THEM! Ferrari, Lamborghini, Corvette, you name it. Now they’re going to go to a 1/2 mile event in hopes of the super cars with gas engines having a better chance of overtaking the Tesla. So much to say, electric propulsion is an ideal source for an automobile. Over time, the electric car will predominate as battery technology and solar arrays improve. And I say that as an IC engine guy!
Yes, but have you looked at where the rare earth metals for the motors and lithium for the batteries? And where does the electricity come from to charge those batteries? Over the life of the vehicle, an electric car contributes more CO2 to the atmosphere than a similar gasoline vehicle. Not to mention the huge open pits to mine the lithium in Canada and child labor to mine the cobalt in Africa.
P.S. I’m not against electric cars. I just don’t buy into the hype about how great they are for the environment.
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Its all a question of how long the batteries will last.
They have full maximum torque when the electric motors reach about 50 RPM, so as long as they last the E-car will win.