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Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

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Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#101

Post by joezydeco »

bcbrown wrote: post #100
joezydeco wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you live, but in the US you can usually get a weekend special from Enterprise for $10/day (although it's 100 miles a day) if you time it right. If not, a full-size sedan with unlimited miles will run you maybe $50-70. A rental might cost you hundreds if you're looking in the wrong place like an airport location, or the wrong time like a busy national holiday.

You mean like the time when many people will be driving a long distance to visit family?

Okay, sure. So let's do the unthinkable: I'm going to see what Enterprise wants for a unlimited mileage full-sized sedan, over the Labor Day weekend (pickup Friday noon, return 8am Tuesday). Big car, big holiday, short notice.

$179. Still not seeing "hundreds of dollars" here.

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#102

Post by Arelius »

clarky07 wrote: post #61
enraged_camel wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I'm just suggesting that the general population doesn't have 50k to spend on something that only provides one very specific utility. I doubt that. Take a look at this: http://www.autospies.com/news/Study-Finds-Americans-Own-2-28... The average American household owns 2.28 vehicles. The percentage of households that own three or more vehicles is a whopping 35 percent. Furthermore, the most common pairing of vehicles…

first, I have 2 cars with a combined value of less than 10k. that's a far cry from 50k on 1 car. second, no it can't. That's the one they use to do the traveling I'm talking about. They don't take the pickup on the road trip.

And the Tesla's value drops over time also. I don't know the exact set of cars you own, but I imagine that together they were likely worth more than 50K new.

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#103

Post by clarky07 »

enraged_camel wrote: post #93
clarky07 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all the other mid range cars can do another 250 in 5 minutes.

Irrelevant. The point is that if your destination is less than 250 miles away, then it doesn't matter whether the car charges in 5 minutes or 50.

It's not irrelevant, as the whole point of this particular thread was the hypothesis that many people want to travel further than 250 miles.

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#104

Post by hatcravat »

maxerickson wrote: post #47
clarky07 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might work. If I have to wait 30 minutes to charge (and not even a full charge) it has to have a longer initial range than gas. There is also the problem I mentioned above that the place you are going has to actually have a charging station as well, otherwise your range is cut in half. Can't got 250 miles if there isn't a charge there. Then you only get 125. Finally, not sure how this works, but it seems that "r…

It's slow: http://www.teslamotors.com/roadster/charging/spare-mobile-co... (They also have higher power options)

Hmm... it seems like the really sweet spot for this type of thing is one that could supply power while you drive. If it could deliver about 7 kW (a little more than the mains plug for a domestic dryer or oven or range), it would supply around 50% to 70% of the car's freeway power requirements. That would double or triple the range, from ~250 miles to ~750 miles.

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#105

Post by clarky07 »

michaelt wrote: post #99
clarky07 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even overnight isn't enough though. It's 30 hours to charge in a normal outlet, and you then you have to take over their garage.

Ah, the article says the Tesla home charger takes 6 hours for a charge, but I guess it needs to be wired directly to be breaker box or something.

Yeah, that a special installation that you would get in your own house. Unless your friend also has this hookup (which if they do they probably need to using for themselves anyway) you have to use the special regular outlet hookup which is ~5 miles per hour of charge.

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#106

Post by clarky07 »

joezydeco wrote: post #101
bcbrown wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like the time when many people will be driving a long distance to visit family?

Okay, sure. So let's do the unthinkable: I'm going to see what Enterprise wants for a unlimited mileage full-sized sedan, over the Labor Day weekend (pickup Friday noon, return 8am Tuesday). Big car, big holiday, short notice. $179. Still not seeing "hundreds of dollars" here.

i paid 600 for a rental this summer. it was a van, and it was pickup and dropoff in different locations, but there are certainly scenarios in which you need to spend hundreds of dollars on a rental car. Yes you can do it for cheaper, but that depends on location, time, special needs, etc.

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#108

Post by bigdubs »

Gravityloss wrote: post #71
snowwrestler wrote: post #14

That article seemed filled with anxiety to me. I don't think anything will eliminate range anxiety other than time. As more people get electric cars and start to build their lives around them, their acquaintances will start to see it as more normal. It's almost like the very early days of the automobile, when each driver had to carry a ton of extra gas, since fill stations were few and far between. Like any bootstrap…

What I don't understand is why don't they put a small 20 kW 500 cc one cylinder generator in cars, at the same time they could reduce the battery size quite a lot and still most trips could be made purely electrically. Cost would be a lot lower as well. The average power needed for driving is very low, only 10-20 kW and the battery handles the peaks like when you need to climb a hill or overtake. For example in this…

What you just described is basically the system in the Fisker Karma: http://onward.fiskerautomotive.com/en-us/karma/overview/

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#109

Post by joezydeco »

clarky07 wrote: post #106
joezydeco wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, sure. So let's do the unthinkable: I'm going to see what Enterprise wants for a unlimited mileage full-sized sedan, over the Labor Day weekend (pickup Friday noon, return 8am Tuesday). Big car, big holiday, short notice. $179. Still not seeing "hundreds of dollars" here.

i paid 600 for a rental this summer. it was a van, and it was pickup and dropoff in different locations, but there are certainly scenarios in which you need to spend hundreds of dollars on a rental car. Yes you can do it for cheaper, but that depends on location, time, special needs, etc.

Ah ok. I was looking at your original problem, which was travelling 450 miles to visit your family. That problem, at least to me, didn't involve cargo vans and one-way dropoffs. Sorry.

Re: Tesla model S eliminates range anxiety

#110

Post by mcot2 »

pyoung wrote: post #84
mcot2 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for this. The cars which combine electric and gas make a lot more sense until we get to at least 5k range with electric. I'm not joking about that either... I routinely go over 5k miles on trips where plugging in for 5 hours would be problematic.

uhhh, 5k is over 3 straight days of driving at highway speeds. It is longer than the distance between SF and NY. I highly doubt that EV's need to be optimized for these distances, as no one in their right mind would routinely go on trips of these lengths. Hats off to you if you can put up with that much time in a car, but personally I would take a plane.

Let's say I go on a trip to visit a friend for the weekend and his/her apt does not have an easily accessible electric outlet. Then let's say I drive while I am there and then drive home. This is a very very common scenario for me where I might rack up 1000 miles without being able to recharge.

I threw out the 5k number as something where I would be extremely confident I would never hit before being able to recharge, not as a number of miles I go frequently.

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