Posted on 08/30/2014 11:30:35 AM PDT by ckilmer
One of the hottest clashes in technology pits two pathmakers in the new era of electric cars—Tesla and General Motors. Both are developing pure electrics that cost roughly $35,000, travel 200 miles on a single charge, and appeal to the mass luxury market.
The stakes are enormous. Most electrics have less than 100 miles of range. Experts regard 200 miles as a tipping point, enough to cure many potential electric-car buyers of “range anxiety,” the fear of being stranded when their battery expires. If GM and Tesla crack this, sales of individual electrics could jump from 2,000 or 3,000 vehicles a month to 15 to 20 times that rate, shaking up industries from cars to oil, which were until now certain that large-scale acceptance of electrics was perhaps decades away.
It is a substantial gamble for both companies. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has more or less bet his company on the contest. GM’s existence is not in jeopardy if it loses, but the outcome could still determine its place in the next generation of automaking.
And we all have a house full of stuff with dead rechargeable batteries.
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That’s not the way it works.
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.
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Yeah I’m going to drive an internal combustion engine too for at least the next 5 years. Maybe 10 years. But when the numbers look better I’ll reconsider. What you have now are the early adopters coming in. Improvements in the car are made on their backs.
Same goes with solar power. In 10 years or so when they are much cheaper and better and easier— I’ll likely look into them again. But I can see the trends. They are constantly getting cheaper better easier. They’re still not deal by my lights. But that may change in time. In the mean time improvements are being made on the backs of early adapters.
This pattern of constant improvement on the backs of a growing client base is pretty consistent across dozens of industries.
Most FReepers, had they been around 100 years ago, would have been laughing at the notion of a horseless buggy. Too slow, not much range, no gas stations, uncomfortable, yada yada yada.
No vision. Heaven help us. Ceding the future to so-called progressives. And it’s not just in this area.
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Agree. A lot of this guff is political however. Run similar stuff about the fracking revolution in oil and natural gas and the tone of the discussion is much different.
“Most FReepers, had they been around 100 years ago, would have been laughing at the notion of a horseless buggy. Too slow, not much range, no gas stations, uncomfortable, yada yada yada.”
The electric car was invented over 100 years ago, it wasn’t practical then and it still isn’t.
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Certainly the tesla electric car is not as good as the internal combustion engine. But a lot of people are buying it. A lot more people are going to buy it. A lot more big companies like GM are investing ever more in the car. The money people believe in the tesla as reflected by its stock price. Consumer reports gave the tesla the best score on a car it has ever to any car bar none.
Its the trend we’re talking about. It may well be that all the metrics don’t work for Tesla right now...but people think the future may be much different.
100 years ago, the electric car proved itself to be the impractical, absurd joke that it remains today.
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Face it, it’s Agenda 21, but I guess they’re getting better at selling it.
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I always waited two years before buying the next upgrade for windows. I’ll likely wait another 10 years before I buy an electric car if current trends keep up. But the point whole point here is now is about the trend.
No the tipping point it when a consumer can fully recharge the batteries in less than ten minutes. How many miles is just smoke and mirrors...
The guy said a friend of his watched an episode of one of those shows and a MINT perfect one went for 70K.
I know only too well about spending money on oldies. Got one dead one and one sort of operational shape here.
“But the point whole point here is now is about the trend.”
...lots of trends fizzle out - we’ll see.
“See my last post. 15,000 square feet of solar panels for each car to obtain a 20 minute 50% charge.”
So for the 6 cars, 90,000 square feet, or about 2 acres. And that’s only when the sun is pointing dead-on. Multiply that number by 5 to account for nighttime and bad weather (standard factor) - so now 10 acres to be able to fast-charge 6 cars continuously.
So more like the area of a football STADIUM, not a football field.
...also, assuming they have on-site energy storage (which I’m sure they don’t), the 20kW of roof-top capability would provide enough power to charge roughly ONE CAR per day.
No, but Harry Reid owns some land in Nevada where they can be buried...
Agree about city commuting - except that most city people have nowhere to plug in.
I do not disagree with you, but you can make liquor/beer/wine up to a certain amount, and you can technically get your own meds if you're in to that holistic medicine stuff.... but, no, you are right - those as well.
Hey, it just occured to me that I should point out that you have to go to a dealer to purchase a "new" car. Used ones can be sold in private.
100 years ago, the electric car proved itself to be the impractical, absurd joke that it remains today.
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Maybe. What this article shows however is that Tesla is forcing the Big Auto companies around the world to spend big bucks on electric car technology. All the gimlet green shade eyes on wall street love tesla. Consumer Reports gave the Tesla the best ratings they have ever given a car. Sales of the Tesla are going straight up.
Weighed against that is that every one of the knocks against the electric car on this thread are true. The electric car technology and infrastructure is not as good as the internal combustion engine.
Anyone familiar with technology knows that it starts out selling to the early adapters on whose backs the technology is refined. That’s what’s happening now.
I typically don’t buy a windows update until its been out at least 2 years because that’s how long it takes to get the bugs out of it. If all goes perfectly as predicted for the electric car, I’ll likely not buy one for another 10 years.
(Same goes for solar tech—because costs/convenience are steadily improving.)
That’s fine.
But you need to keep a weather eye on technology trends. It is not prudent to simply dismiss new technology out of hand. Technology has made an ass out of way too many people way too often for that.
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