Quote:
Originally Posted by scgms1
Hi BUCKEYE NATION,
A year ago my son had set up a test drive on a Model 3. I go along for the ride and when we get back after his test drive I ask to drive a Model S. It's a dual motor, and it wasn't set up on Ludacris mode, but... There's a ton of traffic on a Saturday in Orange County - there's a little break in the traffic and I punch it. I'm pinned in my seat, but...
This is vanilla ice cream for me, and don't get me wrong I love vanilla ice cream, but it can be boring...The acceleration was exhilarating and the autonomous driving part was very cool, (although that's a 10k hit for a software upgrade) but there's something about the absence of sounds that left me looking for more. The styling, trim, paint were OK, but nothing spectacular. Handling was decent, but overall I was impressed with a few things and left wanting more for most of the car.
I fix cars for a living so I'm pretty familiar with how things work. My feelings on all this is I'd skip the hybrids. ICE engines today are expensive enough to fix and now you're adding electric to an already expensive car. I have a Tahoe hybrid in the shop now that has a fault with the 2ML70 M99 transmission and the hybrid battery needs to be replaced. It wasn't too long ago that you could buy a decent vehicle to get you from point A to B for what this will cost.
The Tesla's seem to have a few things going for them. Maintenance costs should be fairly low compared to an ICE vehicle and the torque/acceleration from these vehicles.
The downsides seem to outweigh most of the upsides for me. Elon's got these things wrapped up so tight that you're never, ever, going to be working on this. If you're the type that never touches your car that's not a problem. If you're not that type, then you're not going to be able to do much on this. The insurance costs are prohibitively expensive due to the previous comments and the fact that even relatively minor collisions could result in a total loss.
The time to 'refuel' and it's cost.
My son picked up a Model Y and while we're waiting for the local utility to give us a break on electricity he's been using the local supercharger. It'll charge in about 40 minutes and the costs has been around $8.00. Once we got the 'break' from SCE my bill went up $100 from the previous month. Ouch. Sitting in the driveway in the summer sun the car loses 20 miles a day to keep the fans running. Going on a vacation for 2 weeks you'll want to keep this plugged in. The only way this would make any sense would be to add solar, which I've been considering.
The 'hit' we're all paying as taxpayers to fund these cars and solar.
Current battery technology and the mining of lithium, nickel, and other materials that go into production of battery cells. The toxicity of disposal when these have reached the end of life.
Our aging power plants and distribution networks. If we all buy into this green idea what do you think would happen when we all plug into the grid? We're going dark. California is already is close to 98 - 99% capacity on some days. It wouldn't take too much more to push things to the brink and the cascading effects of California going dark would start to go across the interconnected distribution networks. If the end goal is anarchy and the eventual takeover of our lives by government this could be the catalyst. If newer nuclear fuel technologies and NIMB attitudes about electricity don't change, we're not solving the energy shortage we're experiencing. Windmills and solar add new problems. I guess I'll quit rambling on...I think we're nuts, maybe not all of us, but...
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Hit the nail on the head.
We greatly lack the infrastructure to make 100% ev a reality. They already can't power everyone's ac, so I guess we'll be sitting at home when blackouts hit. The issues with battery technology and precious metals are always glossed over or ignored completely. Many good points, what the answer is I have no idea, just please don't make an electric camaro. I would agree, humans are crazy