Good morning - I was watching to see if this was an extended analogy between Teslas and trends in the computer industry that would circle back to cars, but it doesn’t look like it’s coming back anytime soon. Would you mind redirecting the discussion? You’re also free to take it to your respective walls or private messages. (Not that I haven’t read your posts with interest, but dem’s de breaks.) Thanks.
@Bing, check on line to see if your old Apple stuff has value. If it runs, it may be of interest to collectors. Even if it doesn’t work, some collectors may be interested in parts. It’s like buying parts cars for a classic you want to keep running.
@cdaquila Yeah, apologies for going so far off track. The analogy that I don’t seem to be able to convince him of is that when a lot of companies are all building different things that operate on a standardized core, those things are more successful than when just one company is building them with an “if you don’t like it, screw off” attitude, and so if Tesla’s battery/charging scheme is standard and useable by anyone, then EV’s will proliferate more than if all EV companies are all making their own weird little battery/chargers that aren’t compatible with each other. But that’s gotten lost in the fray.
I agree @shadowfax. Standardized battery cells would offer many advantages. Battery packs could be traded for fully charged packs at a rest stop on a long trip at meal time. A standard charging interface would allow charging to the cars own batteries during a rest stop, too. The cost to manufacture the batteries would come down quicker since the manufacturing technology is already available. And Musk wins because Tesla will soon have a huge factory capable of supplying both Tesla’s needs and other EV manufacturer’s needs for several years. I’m sure there are other advances, too. For all you skeptics, pardon me for seeing a half full glass.
@shadowfax, not a problem. Thank you. I followed your logic. 
Battery packs could be traded for fully charged packs at a rest stop on a long trip at meal time.
For a long time now I’ve believed this would be the holy grail, so to speak, of EV proliferation. Imagine a standard modular battery pack plugged in to the bottom of the car. Car pulls up to the “fueling” station, and a robot yanks the old battery, pops in a new one, and you drive off in less than 5 minutes.
Until they figure out how to make a capacitor discharge like a battery, I suspect modular batteries are the way to go.
Then you run into “tragedy of the commons” problems: nobody will swap a new, good battery for an unknown one…but would gladly swap one on its last legs for an unknown. This ratchets the quality of the “unknown” battery downwards, until they are all pretty awful.
I mean, thus system just barely works for propane tanks…which are a LOT less valuable than an EV’s battery would be!
The EV battery on a Tesla S is, what, $12,000? Not swapping that out!
@texases, the battery on a Tesla S is more like $65,000 for the big battery pack. I wouldn’t swap that either. The alternative is to lease from a national company and then swap. The lease company has all the risk. You just pay for power and the wear on the battery.
This concept was tried, or was planned for trial in Israel, I think. I don’t think it went well or we would have heard more about it.
@jtsanders “check on line to see if your old Apple stuff has value. If it runs, it may be of interest to collectors. Even if it doesn’t work, some collectors may be interested in parts. It’s like buying parts cars for a classic you want to keep running.”
Nope, don’t care. They’re going to the dump. I’m tired of looking at all these old TVs and computers. I suppose to a computer geek though its like crushing a 59 Pontiac. If someone wants them they can have them but otherwise its to the recycler on free day.
@Mustangman - yes, I’ve had problem chasing down an actual # for the Tesla battery cost. I got that $12,000 mistaking the ‘pay us now for a battery in 8 years’ program that Tesla has. The other figure I’ve seen is $45,000 for the 85 KWhr pack. At any rate, swapping would worry me.
Tesla claimed in 2013 they’d be setting up swapping stations, but nothing has come of it.
@Harrisjb78 I guess I did not explain that charger incident very well. I did not have to drive to pick it up somewhere. I drove about 40 miles to the dealer so they could check out the charger. That took all the battery. They ordered the charger and I drove home 40 miles on gasoline. I then did my normal driving for three days waiting for the charger to come in. Drove the 80 miles round trip to pick up the charger at the dealer. That’s 150 miles plus of gasoline driving, easy.
Standard charger is 120 volts. That’s a 10 hour charge time. You may purchase a 220 charger(4 hour charge). I did not want to do that on this leased vehicle. Wanted to check out this technology before committing to it. That’s why I leased in the first place. I wanted the walk away option if the screaming memmies on the internet, who probably knew little or nothing about them, turned out to be correct. Based on my experience to date, they were not. The lease deal was also quite attractive.
Like I said earlier, at the end of this lease I will probably acquire another Volt. Unless somebody brings out something similar in the mean time that is bigger, better or cheaper.
A few years ago Edmunds had a long-term test of the Volt. I seem to remember that they also had charger problems.
I think GM made the Volt leases very attractive during the first model year or two because they wanted an easy out for the users if their Volt was problematic. That is an opinion, BTW.
Hopefully GM has their charger problem figured out. But if you are going to have charger problems with an EV, the Volt is the one to have it with. Pretty much a non-event. No bigger deal than exhausting your charge on the interstate. Just keep driving.
I’m going to start it up again . . .
You can love the Chevy Volt all you want . . . but please let’s not call it an EV
In my opinion, the Nissan Leaf is a real EV
GM has extremely deep pockets and influence, and managed to get their vehicle classified as an EV.
A brilliant marketing move. If Hyundai, VW, BMW, or another foreign nameplate had designed the Volt, I doubt they would have what it takes . . . the clout . . . to get it classified as an EV. It would have been classified as “merely” another hybrid
I’ll disagree a bit. The Volt is closer to a Leaf than a regular (non plug in) Prius. One can drive the Volt for weeks on battery only.
And the Volt’s ICE primary job is to recharge the battery, not propel the car by itself. In an emergency, the engine can propel the car alone as a fail-safe measure. I think it qualifies as an EV.
I don’t really care what we call it. I drove it 41 miles last night and used 0.00 gals of gas. And if I had driven it 82 miles, the only difference to my drive would have been a change in the display and hearing the engine. And that is a fact.
@Slackdawg, we like to argue about minutiae.