Tesla to Texas: How Do You Like Us Now?

[BP]

I also seriously doubt the city of Dallas will buy into this when they are trying everything they can to sell DART to the general public.

Been to Fair Park lately?

The fact is that no matter how you break down the numbers electric cars are cheaper to operate for normal commuting than smaller economy gas powered cars. Even on the extreme side of things and driving a Prius you'll still save money by switching to an electric car. The numbers get even further skewed when you talk about regular cars people drive every day that get 20mpg.

As for infrastructure that's a losing argument. If there is electrical service available you can setup a charging station. The kiosks can take up less space than a mailbox and the cars use regular parking spots. And that's assuming the owner doesn't plug it in at home, which is ludicrous because everyone will. The charging stations will only be for people that drive more than 35-50 miles in the case of a Leaf or more than 150 or so with a Tesla.

https://www.chargepoint.com/

Check for yourself, there are plenty of places to plug in. Over 200 in Austin, 400+ in DFW, well over 1000 in the LA area. As for costs that varies by location. You pay more for premium parking downtown, you'll pay the same plus whatever energy you use.

[line-em-up]

VW battery technology info

WOW. Great video. I have always thought of a battery as a relatively simple device, but there is a lot of cutting edge technology that goes into one.

[bcoop]

it's a fad. When there is no infrastructure to "refuel" the damn things, the product will die no matter how good it is. Big Oil will kill the idea of "power stations" that Tesla is having to put in themselves and the product will die. The ONLY way Tesla will survive is to build a fuel cell car or a hybrid. The fully electric car, no matter how good, will die if you can't get a 5 minute quick charge at the corner store. The market for a $70+ inconvenient toy is very limited and once Tesla sells cars to those 10,000 people, the market is ZERO. Then consider there will be ZERO aftermarket and ZERO mechanics to work on the damn things and you have another flop.

I don't understand the Stock value thing...I figured "business" people would be smarter than that but it could just be a false "inflation" of stock price based on fad spending. Give it 2 years and the stock will trade at $20 or less.


Kudos to Tesla for being innovative and building a nice product....but I have met 3 people that own the damn things and while they LOVE the car, they all HATE having to plan their trips for recharges....otherwise they drive their gas powered car. We even had one at the race track and he was sneaking over and plugging into the RV plugs BETWEEN sessions, otherwise, he couldn't drive it home to Houston. At the end of the day, he was going to have to go to a friends house locally to charge up just to drive the 80 miles home. So while you figure in the lower costs of "fuel"....you have to figure in the additional hotel rooms and towing charges along the way. Also, what is the lifespan of the batteries and how much do they cost? $70k in depreciation on a $70k in 5 years is a JOKE!

Like I said....Fad. Ride the wave while its high but jump off before the reef.

This post reads like it was posted by a cranky old codger that just can't understand the need for new fangled technology, like computers. Seriously. I know you're a smart guy, but your view on this topic comes across as naive and ignorant.

I'd be willing to wager that you're absolutely wrong, Tesla is here to stay, and their stock continues to rise. You may not think there is a market, but they are selling like hotcakes, so your argument holds no water.

[Broncojohnny]

and their stock continues to rise.

Let's not get out of hand, current pricing has a whole lot of "feel good" built into it!

[aggie97]

Let's not get out of hand, current pricing has a whole lot of "feel good" built into it!

LOL! So if you go to Tesla's website, it has ways to figure out how long it takes to charge your car.

Assuming a 100 mi daily round trip:

110V charger at 12 amps takes 17 hours and 28 minutes. 1320 watts for 17.5 hours.

240v charger at 40 amp takes 3 hours and 8 minutes. 9600 watts for 3.13hrs

240v high powered wall connector at 80 amps takes 1 hour and 34 minutes. 19200 watts for 1.5 hours.

These numbers above assume you have TWO chargers in the car. essentially double them if you only have 1 charger...ie one connection to the wall or one available circuit.

I would also venture a guess that the "range" quoted is steady state moving down the road, not stop and go traffic in town. I bet that range goes down a lot when you are constantly having to accelerate those 7200 batteries from a stop. So 3 hours to safely charge the car to go across town and back. All of your free time would be wasted making sure the car is plugged in!

Now I know why top gear said you should buy TWO tesla roadsters, one to drive and one to leave home on charge.

Just doesn't seem practical at all.

edit: played with the site more and it's confusing how the java app works, you can get different answers based on which position you select. Still pretty crazy for charging cycles....especially if you start looking at taking a road trip! Say you went to see your kids in College station, but lived in plano and wanted to take the tesla. plan on charging it for 7hours and 45 minutes to make the trip down on your 240v/40a charger, then another 37 hours and 33 minutes on the single 110v circuit at your kid's apartment....hmm. Let's just take the wife's suburban instead! LOL!

[bcoop]

Let's not get out of hand, current pricing has a whole lot of "feel good" built into it!

Stock rising vs stock being worth $0, the latter sure seems to be much farther fetched at this point.

[Sean88gt]

LOL! So if you go to Tesla's website, it has ways to figure out how long it takes to charge your car.

Assuming a 100 mi daily round trip:

110V charger at 12 amps takes 17 hours and 28 minutes. 1320 watts for 17.5 hours.

240v charger at 40 amp takes 3 hours and 8 minutes. 9600 watts for 3.13hrs

240v high powered wall connector at 80 amps takes 1 hour and 34 minutes. 19200 watts for 1.5 hours.

These numbers above assume you have TWO chargers in the car. essentially double them if you only have 1 charger...ie one connection to the wall or one available circuit.

I would also venture a guess that the "range" quoted is steady state moving down the road, not stop and go traffic in town. I bet that range goes down a lot when you are constantly having to accelerate those 7200 batteries from a stop. So 3 hours to safely charge the car to go across town and back. All of your free time would be wasted making sure the car is plugged in!

Now I know why top gear said you should buy TWO tesla roadsters, one to drive and one to leave home on charge.

Just doesn't seem practical at all.

Just tap into your neighbor's house, if he complains, tell him he's trying to destroy the world and enjoy the free charge.

[BP]

edit: played with the site more and it's confusing how the java app works, you can get different answers based on which position you select. Still pretty crazy for charging cycles....especially if you start looking at taking a road trip! Say you went to see your kids in College station, but lived in plano and wanted to take the tesla. plan on charging it for 7hours and 45 minutes to make the trip down on your 240v/40a charger, then another 37 hours and 33 minutes on the single 110v circuit at your kid's apartment....hmm. Let's just take the wife's suburban instead! LOL!

Yeah except for the minor fact that A&M has 32 EV charging spots on campus, some of which are free to use. Most of them are the 240V version so it's an hour and a half.

http://transport.tamu.edu/Alternative/ev.aspx

Or you could head over to Austin on the way and visit the Tesla service center for a 90 second battery swap and head back up. Not really practical but you could make it.

[Forever_frost]

It ultimately boils down to what is your time worth? Is your time worth the hours spent charging your battery or does filling a gas tank make more sense?

[racrguy]

LOL! So if you go to Tesla's website, it has ways to figure out how long it takes to charge your car.

Assuming a 100 mi daily round trip:

110V charger at 12 amps takes 17 hours and 28 minutes. 1320 watts for 17.5 hours.

240v charger at 40 amp takes 3 hours and 8 minutes. 9600 watts for 3.13hrs

240v high powered wall connector at 80 amps takes 1 hour and 34 minutes. 19200 watts for 1.5 hours.

These numbers above assume you have TWO chargers in the car. essentially double them if you only have 1 charger...ie one connection to the wall or one available circuit.

I would also venture a guess that the "range" quoted is steady state moving down the road, not stop and go traffic in town. I bet that range goes down a lot when you are constantly having to accelerate those 7200 batteries from a stop. So 3 hours to safely charge the car to go across town and back. All of your free time would be wasted making sure the car is plugged in!

Now I know why top gear said you should buy TWO tesla roadsters, one to drive and one to leave home on charge.

Just doesn't seem practical at all.

edit: played with the site more and it's confusing how the java app works, you can get different answers based on which position you select. Still pretty crazy for charging cycles....especially if you start looking at taking a road trip! Say you went to see your kids in College station, but lived in plano and wanted to take the tesla. plan on charging it for 7hours and 45 minutes to make the trip down on your 240v/40a charger, then another 37 hours and 33 minutes on the single 110v circuit at your kid's apartment....hmm. Let's just take the wife's suburban instead! LOL!

It seems that your major complaint is the length of time it takes to recharge the car. As batteries and chargers get better, that time will go down. What other issue do you have that won't be overcome with more engineering?

[BP]

It seems that your major complaint is the length of time it takes to recharge the car. As batteries and chargers get better, that time will go down. What other issue do you have that won't be overcome with more engineering?

Elon Musk has said it himself that batteries are old technology, electric vehicles will use capacitors in the future. Charging will be virtually instant.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1057301_tesla-ceo-super-capacitors-trump-electric-car-batteries

[svauto-erotic855]

What other issue do you have that won't be overcome with more engineering?

The law of thermal dynamics and electrical resistance. Until there is a room temperature super conductor electric cars will be wasted effort born from CARB trying to mandate that half of all cars sold in Cali be zero emissions (code for electric) by year 2000.

[Nash B.]

It ultimately boils down to what is your time worth? Is your time worth the hours spent charging your battery or does filling a gas tank make more sense?

It's different. You won't need to stop to charge during your commute unless you're driving more than a full charge will support. Drive to work/dinner/bar and charge while you're not using the car (or don't if there isn't a charging station), then drive home and charge while you're at home. Once we get past the limited charging stations and/or time required to charge, charging will become more convenient than filling up with gas.

[bcoop]

It's different. You won't need to stop to charge during your commute unless you're driving more than a full charge will support. Drive to work/dinner/bar and charge while you're not using the car (or don't if there isn't a charging station), then drive home and charge while you're at home. Once we get past the limited charging stations and/or time required to charge, charging will become more convenient than filling up with gas.

I wasn't sure what he meant by his post, but you beat me to it. Value of time varies from person to person, but you don't have to stand there while it charges, like you do with gas.

[racrguy]

The law of thermal dynamics and electrical resistance. Until there is a room temperature super conductor electric cars will be wasted effort born from CARB trying to mandate that half of all cars sold in Cali be zero emissions (code for electric) by year 2000.

Do you mean the laws of thermodynamics?