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Elon Musk Predicts 1,000km EV Range In Two Years, Autonomous Cars In Three
An anonymous reader writes: Speaking with a Danish TV show, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made a couple of interesting statements about Tesla's future. The company's Model S sedan advertises a range of 200-300 miles (322-483 km) depending on variant, average speed, and tires. Musk says the company will produce an electric vehicle capable of breaking the 1,000km (621 mi) mark by "2017 for sure." Later, Musk went even further, saying he expected "full autonomy" for Tesla vehicles to arrive in "approximately three years." He doesn't expect them to be legal at that point, as regulations will take time to catch up.
If the price is right 1,000 km range electric cars will signal the beginning of the end for IC engined cars.
The median price of a car in the US is $32K. Electric cars are cheaper to fill up and maintain, and so if there's rational economics going on, the median price could effectively go up quite a bit and still cost the same.
There already are $20K 4 seat electric cars (after subsidies) that go 150km, and charge up overnight on a 120V connection, and they're a niche item. 300km would be a definite improvement, but I'm not sure it would change the world overnight.
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On a side note, as a european, I can add that electric bikes have been making a silent killing in the last one or two years, mostly for city use, but also for farther commuting (some cities have bike path that never cross a road) and even mountain bike use (for older people). The bike shops that used to sell road bikes and mountain bikes now mostly sell those same bikes, but electric. And it's slowly changing the cities (more bike paths, you can take trains/buses with bikes, etc).
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