71–80 of 284 posts
If you leave a gasoline engine car unattended for a while, it becomes a brick, too -- you need to flush the fuel, replace the seals, etc. True, it takes more than 11 weeks, and you can usually put the transmission in neutral to tow it. This is a big problem, though. If anyone has a spare Tesla and would like someone to take care of it, I'd be happy to keep your car garaged and energized, and will only drive it 200 mi…
While a lot of this accurate and something to consider, the author of this article fails to mention anything about Tesla's unique service/support model that they plan to roll out with the Model S. Tesla also mentions a "five-minute battery swap" available on their upcoming vehicles as well as "Tesla Rangers" that will come to your vehicle in the event that it dies. It seems to me like this is a small problem that the…
Nissan are now in full production of the Leaf, a practical electric car that's half the price of the Model S. Renault have the Fluence ZE on sale in Israel and ready to go internationally this year. Mitsubishi are selling the i-MiEV in quantity in Hong Kong and Japan.
All of these big, established car companies are doing it The Right Way - targeting customers who already drive highly efficient city cars. These are customers who predominantly drive short distances and who are used to driving a small car with few luxuries and a relatively low-powered engine. They understand the compromises necessary for efficiency. They're part of a car culture that sees nothing unusual about a 1.2 litre diesel engine or a turbocharged 900cc two-cylinder petrol engine. You can build these people a lightweight, efficient car that they can afford and that they'll be happy to drive.
Tesla are amongst the many upstarts who are doing it The Wrong Way. They're trying to skip the necessary evolutionary steps a customer needs to make before they will be happy with a battery electric car. They're trying to lure people straight from heavy midsize cars and SUV crossovers, which is doomed to failure. These customers just haven't entered the efficiency mentality. They don't realise that efficient cars are noisier because they're not carrying the weight of sound insulation. They're not ready to wind down the window on a hot day to save the energy that AC would use. Tesla are trying to engineer around culture and it's an expensive, flimsy mistake.
Sit it out, lobby congress to mandate improvements in diesel fuel quality and higher fleet efficiency standards, beg manufacturers to send over the clever little engines. Tax or shame SUV drivers into station wagons. Once you hear people describing the Ford Focus as a large family car, you'll know you're ready.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd prefer the government stay out of it all together. Producing vehicles isn't what the government is for. Second, using a 2500 pound car to transport a 150 pound person 15-20 miles to work every day is incredibly inefficient any way you look at it. If the government is going to be involved at all, it should be to promote walking, cycling, and public transportation. Researching more efficient cars is like trying to…
We'd be far better off if government weren't subsidizing the automobile at all. Subsidizing mass transit to ameliorate the effects of subsidizing the automobile makes no sense. I don't think it needs to promote walking either. Most people are perfectly capable of understanding their own situations if we don't hide the costs and if they are allowed to learn from their own mistakes. It would be proper to tax things tha…
Ideally without specifying how to make them more efficient, just overall cost per expected miles/yr (which would probably give natural gas vehicles the best pricing right now).
This regional service manager has been sacked.
The correct answer here was, "I'm not sure, I'll see if I can look that up for you," evasively answering ugly questions 101.
If you leave a gasoline engine car unattended for a while, it becomes a brick, too -- you need to flush the fuel, replace the seals, etc. True, it takes more than 11 weeks, and you can usually put the transmission in neutral to tow it. This is a big problem, though. If anyone has a spare Tesla and would like someone to take care of it, I'd be happy to keep your car garaged and energized, and will only drive it 200 mi…
"a while" is usually years not weeks. repair cost != $40,000 (again usually).
Why can't the wheels turn after the battery dies?
It's probably around the same in "normal" cars today. If you just have a car in park it won't move until you move it out of park, the catch is in gas powered cars, even if the battery is dead you should be able to put it in neutral to get it towed. In electric cars when the battery is dead, well that's all you have, so you can't get the gear into neutral to make it at least rollable.
There are also flatbed trucks.