Tesla now gives 1000 free miles, they estimate the charge for 1000 miles around $90, at $2.50 a gallon if you get more than 27.7 mpg gas is cheaper.
I’ve go to here this. You consistently drive more then 300 miles a day? Even when I was averaging 40k miles a year the 300 mile range was more then adequate.
The office complex I work at have at least 2 EV stations at each office building. There are at least 30 buildings.
Yes I do! Thank You! 
Besides, when I travel I drive for hours, virtually all day. I stop only for gas and I eat in my car.
None of that matters as much as…
I want/need a vehicle that I can use and depend on without having to have the vehicle dictate to me how I’m going use it or how I’m going to travel, etcetera.
A vehicle that has those limitations that limit me is like having a vehicle that some guy made in his basement or garage.
As I’ve said, I don’t object to electric vehicles. I’d like one once they are as practical as a real car. 
CSA
Cart before the horse?
When the gas stations start seeing declining gas sales I hope our nation’s power grid can supply the electricity for everybody’s battery powered car. I’m sure it can handle it, right? 
Where I live, more than half of my electricity comes from coal. Start rolling more coal! 
CSA
And how is the Tesla stopping you from doing that 360 days a year?
For 99.999% of drivers on the road the 300 mile range is more then adequate. From the way you’ve described the extreme remote area you live in I’m surprised you have a gas station within 300 miles from your house.
1 Like
It’s not going to be today there are 10,000 cars charging their cars and tomorrow or next week there are 20,000,000 cars charging their cars. The electric companies are already taking steps. I own a few utility company shares and I actually read their stock-holder news letters. They are fully expecting to see an average of 20% increase of electric vehicles a year and are taking steps to ensure there’s enough power to handle. Believe it or not the grid can handle a 1000% increase in electric cars today without even one hiccup. The power drain in charging these cars isn’t that great…it’s like adding another dryer to the household.
1 Like
Yeah that’s the argument the pro-EV guys use all the time and ahve been since the first EV’s hit the road. And the % increases every time they tell it. I agree with you that as a daily commuter it fills the need with even the 200 mile range. As a second car, if the price were right, it works.
But not for those folks that own only one car. If the product doesn’t match 100% of current car’s abilities at a similar price, it hasn’t met expectations.
At the end of the day, EV’s will continue to sell less than 1% of all cars sold until the charging stations are built out and “fast” charging is still slower that filling up a tank of gas.
2 Likes
I hope these cars come with an in-car cigarette lighter charging device. 
That’s the only way it would work out for my bride.
She can’t seem to ever remember to charge her cell phone and often does that in the car. 
I don’t suppose these cars will roll themselves up to the charger and hook-up the way a Roomba does. 
CSA
I think you’re right that any EV can’t be relied on currently if it’s your sole form of transportation. But how many families only have one car anymore? There are 5 at my house, and we don’t even have kids. Admittedly we’re extreme outliers, but very few people have fewer than 2 cars in the garage these days - especially if you limit the sample size to people with the financial wherewithal to plunk down 35-55 grand on a car.
My SO and I have discussed this at length because her next car will probably be an EV. We will, for the time being anyway, have a gas car for long road trips still, but the EV will be perfectly useful for her for the other 51 weeks out of the year - and even that’s somewhat overcautious on our part because we generally do one road trip a year, to the same place, and there’s now a network of superchargers set up to where we could pick one of 3 different routes to get there, and easily make it with just a 15 minute top-off at the halfway point where we normally get lunch anyway.
And even for people with only one car - I have a friend with the 60kwh Model S. He’s a bachelor and isn’t really into cars, so he only has the one. He kept his gas car around for a long time after he bought it because he wanted something to use as backup if he needed to travel longer distances. It sat for years unused because the Tesla filled every need, and that’s the shortest range version.
When you really come down to it, if there’s a road trip you want to do that doesn’t have well-placed superchargers, or that you want to do 12 hours of straight through driving, you can rent a car for that trip, using the money you’ve saved by not having to gas up your commuter every week.
There will always be the outliers who would be severely handicapped in their normal routine by having to do a full charge every 300 miles, but that leaves, and it’s pretty accurate, 99%+ of us who would be perfectly fine with an EV.
FREEDOM
It’s all about freedom for me. I don’t purposely support restrictions imposed by cars, government, machines, etcetera.
Until these cars are perfected enough to replace normal cars then it takes away some of my freedom and I have to start planning based on the limitations imposed by a machine.
In automotive technology for me, It’s a step backwards!
I’m patient. I will wait until the technology is there that make it practical.
CSA
1 Like
One issue that may be a major problem for all EV makers is resources - lithium and cobalt aren’t that easy to acquire:
1 Like
It works for many families with only 1 car. 300 mile range is huge. Do you drive 300 miles a day? Most families don’t drive 300 miles a week.
The area it falls down for me is driving to visit family in upstate NY. But driving to and from work an other errands - it’s more then adequate.
1 Like
Your argument is well founded but the car buying public has not embraced it as yet. Primarily, I think, because the cars cost so much to buy! And even then, its a big change in how the car is perceived… So New = Scary.
My sister in law wants a Tesla in the worst way. She’s the type to forget to charge it every night. She hasn’t bothered to see how much the lease payments are… and that would end the discussion right there, I imagine.
Dave: "Come on HAL! " (HAL=Tesla Model 3 or whatever) “We only have another 50 miles to go. We can stop at a recharging station then, not now! I’ll be late!”
HAL: "I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave."
CSA
I’m sure that, as an old retired guy, I’m not typical, but most weeks I drive somewhere between 150-200 miles. There are some weeks when I only drive ~100 miles.
Even when I drive to my brother & SIL’s house in PA, my round-trip is only ~225 miles. One of these Teslas would be perfect for my needs, although I am not quite ready to have an EV as my only vehicle.
See, I think the public has embraced it a great deal more than it’s been given credit for, but the public just can’t afford it yet. No one runs around saying Porsche is unpopular simply because most people can’t afford one - why are EVs getting such lopsided analyses?
@common_sense_answer I understand that you’re all about freedom and that you apparently drive 40,000 miles a week ( ) but that’s not most people. Most people drive 50 miles or so per day to and from work. They might do 100 miles on a Saturday if they’re cruising estate sales. If you don’t want an EV because you’re afraid that a 300 mile range is too limiting, that’s fine, but some of us recognize that for the vast majority of our driving, we do not even require a 100 mile range to get us through the day, much less a 300 mile range.
At the end of the day, your freedom is going to run out because gasoline is a finite resource. And even before it runs out it’s going to cost you a fortune - in fact the unrest in Venezuela is already being predicted to be the beginning of the end for “cheap” $2.50/gallon gas. Now personally, when gas spikes to 5 and more per gallon, I’d love to be “filling my tank” with electrons that cost me a few cents a night.
That’s a freedom too, because I would have the financial freedom to do other things while you would be burdened with a 100% and more increase in your fuel expenditures.
One thing Americans tend to get wrong a lot is understanding the future. When gas spiked 10 or so years ago everyone scrambled to unload their SUVs, which were then worth almost nothing, and get fuel efficient vehicles instead. I had a friend with an old CRX HF that got absolutely ridiculous offers for it from people desperate for that 50mpg rating.
And then gas prices went down again and instead of saying “hey, this is great, I can save some money during this temporary dip in prices” they all ran out and bought the biggest, dumbest vehicles they could find again.
Personally I’d rather acknowledge that gas is one day going to be a lot more expensive, and be in a situation where I only have to buy it to fill my snowblower (because of course, my next mower is going to be electric too )
There are people who simply hate Tesla because they’re changing the automotive landscape and because Tesla has blown past all of their predictions of failure and impossible barriers without a whimper. Tesla could make a 1-ton pickup that went 500 miles on a charge with a full load and the heat on and recharged in 10 minutes and they’d still argue that they’re inadequate. That’s okay, it’s their right.
The automotive world is being changed by the Elon Musks of the world, not by the haters. 20 years from now if everyone is buying EVs, the haters will still protest that they’re inadequate. Physics is easy to understand… people are impossible. 
1 Like
+1
However, you forgot to consider that most of the pickup drivers nowadays never put much more than a few bags of mulch in the cargo area, anyway.
Don’t get my $40,000 luxury pickup–which I bought solely for image–dirty!
2 Likes
LOL, great reply, VDC!