Elsewhere? I'll take my chances with a conventional gas/diesel engine, thankyouverymuch.
Posted on 10/05/2014 6:40:13 PM PDT by ckilmer
It would increase demand. But the good news is that 100% of Americans aren't buying Teslas tomorrow, so this would be a gradual evolution. Moreover the impact would be limited because I'm guessing the peak demand for recharging is at night, whereas the peak demand for electricity is normally during the day.
What would that increased demand do to electric rates?
Probably increase them in the short run, although I assume in response to additional demand, new generation and transmission would be added to the grid, lowering prices.
Would the cost of operating an electric car then be cost prohibitive?
Hard to say -- too many variables. Price of the car, price of gas, price of electricity, all of which are hard to model.
Elsewhere? I'll take my chances with a conventional gas/diesel engine, thankyouverymuch.
I think to be successful, electrics will need to be capable of being refueled much like gasoline cars. Pull into a service station, pop out the old fuel canister(s) (fuel cells perhaps? Something new?), pop in the new fuel canister(s), and your good to go. That is not what the gigafactory will provide as I understand it. They are about making batteries for Tesla’s cars which can be recharged multiple times. With the service station model, they can recharge, recondition, or fill the fuel canister to where it can again be inserted into a vehicle and power it for 300 - 500 miles.
Without the convenience of fast refueling, I think the market for pure electric vehicles will be limited to those applications where a day’s use is well within the cars range for a single charge.
Fixed that for you. All of this crap is underwritten by the US. Taxpayer to a very substantial degree. Without taxpayers subsidizing these boondoggles, they wouldn't be happening.
Mostly what I expected. The ratings are best performance to wring every ounce of distance from the batteries at optimal conditions.
But you wouldn't have that "warm feeling" you get with a Tesla.
There are some freepers who really badmouth electrics and will never drive one. Then there are freepers who are gung-ho on electrics and want everyone to get one. My take on it, is that a lot of specs, say range from batteries, is literally eked out under very optimum conditions that the average Joe can't duplicate. It really burns me up to be behind a slowpoke in an electric or hybrid tenderly moving along to get optimum distance from the batteries. When I drive my daughter's hybrid, I punch it, range be damned. That's how you test best performance, and it shows you whether it is useful. All-electrics won't be replacing fuel powered cars anytime soon.
Beside Hopium, TESLA has a couple other back-up power sources if the battery dies: Unobtanium and the car can actually tap into the driver and passenger’s smug sense of self satisfaction.
Tests done in the Eugene, Oregon area show the car is a near perpetual motion machine.
I am more excited about the 707hp 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat.
I’d rather bet with him too. You know, it’s kind of sad to see people I like here become so damned negative on things like this.
There were people who thought the horseless carriage was a novelty and wouldn’t last long.
When trains exceeded 40 MPH, there as talk if man could survive that speed on a sustained basis.
I watch Musk with some interest. I don’t know if he’ll eventually be a success at this. In the long run, I hope he is.
I’d like to see the United States become the forefront of a new technology.
I have mixed thoughts on batteries, the whole electric thing, but in the long run I think it would be better than the internal combustion engine.
It will be interesting to watch.
Frankly, I would love to be able to afford a Cadillac ELR.
I have questions about this image. The battery pack of a Tesla is a sort of “skateboard” design, flat, shallow and basically forming the floorboard between the front and rear wheels. The electric engine is between the rear wheels. The fire shown indicates something highly flammable in the front, which is to my knowledge a storage area and safety crumple zone. There should not be anything there to burn like that.
Do you have the backstory for it, where did the image come from?
Recharging is not “free”. It’s either subsidized by taxpayers, included in the price of the car, or the company voluntarily loses money on a temporary basis. At some point Tesla will go bankrupt or start charging a fee for recharging, probably when the “lower price models” are introduced.
“There were people who thought the horseless carriage was a novelty and wouldn’t last long.”
Electric cars have been around for over 100 years. Haven’t exactly taken over the gas engine yet.
One of the options when you order a Model S is to get either “Single” or “Dual” charging circuitry. Either way, you would need to also install a wall charger provided by Tesla in your garage. It operates at 240 Volts and needs either a 50 or 100 Amp circuit from your garage depending on if you got the Single or Dual option in your car.
With the Dual option, the home charger can charge 58 miles of range per hour. With the Single Charger option, the home charger can charge 29 miles per hour. Either way, the home charger is mostly used for overnight charging.
A Supercharger (basically Tesla's version of a gas station that they have installed around the country and that customers can use for free) can charge 170 miles in 30 minutes. (source)
But the bigger picture is that the vast majority of an owner's charging will be done in the convenience of their own home while they sleep. Which, not to mention, is when the electric grid has lots of excess capacity. Also, electricity costs about 60% less than gasoline on a per-mile basis. It is even less if you get one of the discounted nighttime electricity plans that electric companies have started to offer around the country. (I went more in-depth about this in this post.)
Right now, you wouldn't buy a Model S to save money. But you might with the mass-market Model 3 that they are going to build with the Gigafactory.
Why?
By the way, aren't you all glad that I'm not a liberal, telling all of you that you shouldn't own one? That perhaps they should be banned? Nah, I'm for personal freedom for everybody, not just me.
There are indeed liberals saying that gasoline powered autos should be banned.
and by the way morphing libertarian, I'm a great grandpa too, many times over (actually only 5 great grands). I have 4 adult children, 2 minor children, still at home and 13 grand children, God has truly blessed me and my family. (Things do get hectic around here at Christmas time)
Getting old I reckon, my wife informs me that we have 16 g/children, not 13 that I posted previously. I’m 69 years old.
If that sounds old to still have minor children at home, the two are adopted. God bless you all.
I’m 67, 3 grc
With the number you have easy to lose count.
I’ll probable have an electric or hybrid as my second car before I ride off int the sunset. I think over time, many kinks will be out and the cars will have appeal.
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