Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

As a sidebar, I really wish that Blendle would exit Beta so that I could buy these extremely interesting articles as a one-off micropayment. I don't intend to get a subscription with every top news organization (NY Times, New Yorker, The Atlantic, WSJ, Economist etc), but I would be more than happy to pay $0.25-0.75 for an article like this.

I want to pay for their content, but getting locked into a subscription when I don't want to read the majority of the content in any one of these publications is foolhardy. And unlike streaming platforms like Spotify, Netflix, HBO etc these news platforms don't provide nearly the same return on investment. I listen to Spotify 15-20hrs per week, I watch Netflix for at least 6hrs / week. High quality journalism is very valuable, but certainly these publications are aware that they aren't in the same weight-class as Netflix and Spotify in terms of value to customers individually. As an aggregate, I would easily spend $10 / month consuming "high quality technology and research news and opinion" pieces.

Please, for the love of god, provide me with a sensical way to pay for your content.

Well right now most Teslas go to salvage by a third party and some go to Tesla recycling. I assume some number just go to normal scrapyards.

It's profitable to recycle the batteries so it isn't really a problem, and isn't likely to be a problem, and there are existing paths to recycle vehicles at EOL. For instance 90% of lead-acid batteries are recycled[1]. Again though batteries are most useful simply as salvage, and it'll probably be that way for a couple decades at least. The battery in a Tesla is so sturdily built (very thick aluminum sidewalls and bottom plate, then filled with potting epoxy) that they pretty easily survive crashes that total the car. Even "dead" batteries still have significant life and storage left, and are still more efficient, cost-effective and energy-dense than ni-cad or lead acid. Right now they're mostly just used by hobbyists but I will not be surprised to see companies popping up in a few years that buy old Teslas for $5,000-$10,000 and sell stationary storage at close to $125-150/kWh. They scrap out the rest of the car, install the battery modules into racks and sell them. At those prices it will take quite a while for this to be a viable business, but once it is it'll even compete with the used car market.

Worst case Tesla batteries can be safely sent to a landfill (they contain a small amount of cobalt and nickel, but no other toxic elements), they should just be drained first. Recycling is done with a hammer mill normally, but car shredders are built to chew through two foot long cast iron blocks[2]. They would have zero trouble with a Tesla, and probably wouldn't mind if it was charged.

[1] https://www.tesla.com/blog/teslas-closed-loop-battery-recycl...

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQNttxaG1qA

There is no way you owe $7500 in federal taxes on a $40k/year salary.

In the worst case (single or married filing separately; in this range the numbers look the same), the standard deduction is $6350 and the single personal exemption is $4050 in 2017. So your taxable income is $29,600 assuming you aren't putting any pre-tax money into retirement savings.

The 10% tax bracket for those filing statuses goes to $9325 in 2017. The 15% bracket goes to $37,950. Tax on $29,600 ends up being $3974.

To get to $7500 in tax you have to have about $47k of taxable income, and hence about $57k of gross income, for single or married-filing-separately filers.

For married filing jointly filers, you have to have about $56k of taxable income, standard deduction is $12,700, two personal exemtions is $8100, so you need at least $76,800 in gross income to owe this much.

For married-filing-jointly you need a gross income of at least $76,800 in 2017 to owe $7500 in federal taxes.

Your married number is off; I think you forgot that in that case the personal exemption and standard deduction also double...