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Tesla Model S Named 'Car of the Year'
SternisheFan writes with news that Automobile Magazine has named the all-electric Tesla Model S its Car of the Year. Quoting:
"We weren't expecting much from the Tesla other than some interesting dinner conversation as we considered 'real' candidates like the Subaru BRZ and the Porsche Boxster. In fact, the Tesla blew them, and us, away.
Actually, the Model S can blow away almost anything. 'It's the performance that won us over,' admits editor-in-chief Jean Jennings. 'The crazy speed builds silently and then pulls back the edges of your face. It had all of us endangering our licenses.' Our Model S was of Signature Performance spec, which means its AC induction motor puts out 416 hp and that it blasts to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds. ... You'll note that we haven't even discussed Tesla's raison d'etre, which is, in Musk's words, 'To accelerate the advent of electric cars.' That's another credit to the Model S's overall execution and seductive powers. 'The electric motor does not define this car,' says Nelson. But it is, at the end of the day, what makes this very good sport sedan an absolute game changer. The Model S's range, rated by the EPA at 265 miles with the largest battery, finally fits the American conception of driving."
The Model S's range, rated by the EPA at 265 miles with the largest battery, finally fits the American conception of driving.
But at $78,500 before a $7,500 tax rebate that doesn't fit the American concept of pricing.
Make no mistake, I'd really love one of these. But $78,500 is pricy.
Oh, and there is that all important question of how they hold up in a hurricane. Fisker's Karmas seem to have issues with getting wet.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Hybrid electric cars like the Prius C are $20k new, but that's not exactly what you're asking about, I realize.
The battery is a big factor in the Model S' cost. 85 kilowatts of lithium ion batteries ain't cheap.
I have a Nissan Leaf. Range is under 100 miles but that meets my around town driving needs. We have my wife;s Prius for trips. Lease prices in October for 2012s were $200/month, $0 down, 24 months. Top speed is >90mph, seats 4 comfortably, 5 if a couple are kids. Decent trunk room. Good acceleration. Overnight charging in the garage with 120V (included) charger keeps me running, and my employer has 6 free charging stations on site, our town has 4, hospital has 2, etc.
Since there is no ICE, there is no oil to change, no transmission, no fluids to change, only 2 (windshield washer, inverter coolant) to top off. Only maintenance is changing wiper blades and rotating tires.
All in all a very drivable car, great end of year pricing, and very low cost to drive. EVs are here, available and practical. I love mine.
I was looking into Tesla's patents out of curiosity a few weeks ago and saw that they have a lot of patents regarding lithium-air batteries. It looks like they have looked long and hard at them and come up with ways to address their strengths and weaknesses, even though LABs are probably years away from production.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
Maybe next time!
Not maybe, that's exactly the plan. Notice the trajectory here:
1) Tesla Roadster: Take a standard chassis, turn it into an electric car, sell as a high-performance roadster to people with ludicrous money lying around. The goal: to have a car prove the key technology: the battery and the engine.
2) Model S/X: Take the proven technology of the Roadster, put it into a sexy car that causes rich people to open their wallets, and sell it at a nice markup in the luxury segment. The goal: to work out the kinks in their manufacturing equipment and their supply chain.
3) Take their proven technology and manufacturing capability to create an electric for everybody.
In essence, Musk is doing a slow ramp-up that allows him to have customers subsidize the development of their final car. The 5k downpayment for a Model S is just as brilliant: it's free money for Tesla to build out their manufacturing capability. I love the Model S as a car, but it's the business model and the man at the top that makes think that Tesla is going to be the game changer for electric cars. The comparisons to Steve Jobs are not unwarranted.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
If price of the electric car > Price of cheap gas fueled car + 200,000 miles of gasoline then don't buy
If economics are how you judge a vehicle, spending anything more than a couple grand on a used car is a bad decision for you.
if you're in maine, half of your power is renewables and hydro and the other half is mostly natural gas. so... kind of depends where you live.
You're an idiot. The high cost has almost nothing to do with cost of construction labor, government mommy laws, or union vs. non-union labor. Quite simply the cost is high because the R&D hasn't been amortized yet over several decades of production. Additionally, the Tesla would almost certainly not exists were it not for grants and subsidies from the same "government" you allude/whine about. Shut up and consider yourself lucky to pay taxes to a government that offers you an almost historically unprecedented quality of life. Government and private industry both largely employ the same type of people, except the private industry ones expect to get paid 50-1000% percent more. Talk about waste of money... Why is it when people talk about private industry as a "unit" to praise its efficiency, etc. they don't somehow include how most business fail, and the time and money wasted as a result. /rant
If you're a single person driving tens of miles to work then tens of miles back, it totally makes sense to have a tiny electric car. Charge it at home, charge it at work, you're good to go.
I'm all for Tesla, I have a friend that works there. Selling these high class cars gets the technology better so things will be cheaper down the line. I'm hoping someday the electric car is also the economical choice. Once you can have a plug in car, you save a great deal on refueling, and it starts encouraging people to buy solar panels and the electric company to upgrade the grid.
I'm really happy for the technology to keep rolling forward, and maybe someday the electric car becomes an economical choice.
God spoke to me
If price of the electric car > Price of cheap gas fueled car + 200,000 miles of gasoline then don't buy
If economics are how you judge a vehicle, spending anything more than a couple grand on a used car is a bad decision for you.
If economics are your *only* consideration, maybe. Personally, I just bought a Nissan Leaf, and the evaluation was made primarily on economics -- but with the starting point that I was going to buy new, because I prefer to buy new and drive for many years. Given the available new car options, and my driving patterns and related requirements, and the available tax credits, the Leaf and the i-MiEV were the cheapest options. Many small gasoline-powered cars were much cheaper up front, but when you factor in 8 years of fuel, the electrics win hands down (for me).
If anyone is interested in my analysis, I did it in a Google Docs spreadsheet, which I'm happy to share: http://links.willden.org/electric
Note that if you dig into the calculations in the spreadsheet some of the cells contain insanely-complex formulas which are not obviously meaningful. My calculation was done by assuming a normal distribution of trip lengths, applying the obvious cost function to lengths and computing the expected value of the resulting random variable. That calculation is fairly hairy and the resulting formulas are expressed primarily in terms of the Gaussian error function. I used Mathematica to compute the expected value expressions and then converted them to spreadsheet formulas. The result works very nicely, but the functions appear to be insane. For example, the image I included on this Google+ post shows the expression for the expected cost of operating a plug-in hybrid.
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I think EVs are economical now. That's why I bought one! Because it was the cheapest option.
There are some caveats, though. In order for them to make sense, you first need to be in a position to buy a $35K car, and you need to have a long-enough time horizon for the lower electricity costs to pay for the premium over a comparable gas car. You also need to have driving patterns that stay within the electric range, with enough time between trips for recharging. Related to driving patterns, if you ever drive well beyond the range of the electric, you need a cost-effective alternative. In my case I already have two gasoline-powered cars and needed a third vehicle (there will soon be five drivers in my house!), so it's reasonable for me to fall back on the gas cars when necessary. Another alternative, if you don't need to make longer trips often, is to rent. Finally, you need to get tax credits. Without the available tax credits the EVs are middle-of-the-road options. Not terrible, but not great.
Of course, all of this will get better: range will improve, charging time will decrease, cost will come down. But there's a chance that an EV may be an economical choice for you now.
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