Tesla Cybertruck Reveal - Nope!
12-02-2019, 06:01 PM
#271
Rennlist Member
A Tesla S would suit about 90% of my driving needs but I'm not buying/renting another car just to make up for its shortfalls, whereas an ICE fits 100$% of my needs.
12-02-2019, 06:14 PM
#272
That sounds like a testable assertion. How many Tesla customers later went back to ICE cars?
They are not yet ready to admit to being wrong.
12-02-2019, 06:30 PM
#273
That sounds like a testable assertion. How many Tesla customers later went back to ICE cars?
If that percentage is small, then you're clearly wrong. But if the percentage is large, that would argue in favor of the whole trend being driven by hype, propaganda, and virtue signaling.
If that percentage is small, then you're clearly wrong. But if the percentage is large, that would argue in favor of the whole trend being driven by hype, propaganda, and virtue signaling.
12-03-2019, 04:30 AM
#274
Racer
The cars are too new and niche for any sizeable rejection yet. 90% of the purchases are still emotional rather than rational in that the buyer is it for one of the associated ideologies whether it is saving the environment or being a trendy early adopter.
They are not yet ready to admit to being wrong.
They are not yet ready to admit to being wrong.
We recently bought an e-golf, because:
- I can commute to/from my office for an entire week, using about 65% of a single charge
- I can charge it for free at the local Target store, while we have lunch at a brew-pub or get groceries in the same shopping center. If that option goes away, it will cost us about $6 per week to charge it at home, based on our current usage and cost per kwH.
- There are virtually zero maintenance costs for at least the first 20k miles
- The battery is warranted to provide at least 70% of the rated capacity for 120k miles or 10 years. Even if it drops to 50% capacity after the warranty expires, it will still suit our needs.
- In October, the VW dealers in CA were selling them marked down from $34k to $24k. Considering the $7500 federal tax credit, our new EV ended up costing ~$18k including sales tax.
- Any long distance drives are handled by our ICE powered vehicle (TDI Sportwagen), so we've not had to make any compromises by owning an EV as a second car (two cars are an absolute necessity for us)
I have several friends/coworkers that have bought EVs for the same rational reasons. I'd be lying if I said it is not fun to drive, despite the limited available torque (~200 lb-ft).
12-03-2019, 08:54 AM
#275
With a $10K additional price tag, how long to break even compared to the base plus fuel? Especially considering such a short commute?
I still think you are simply in the 10% and reinforce the idea that EVs are best as urban only vehicles.
I still think you are simply in the 10% and reinforce the idea that EVs are best as urban only vehicles.
12-04-2019, 10:44 AM
#276
Addict
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
12-21-2019, 01:41 AM
#280
Cottage Industry Sponsor
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
found this an interesting read. was posted over on Peli.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/11/why-green-energy-is-a-terrible-idea.php
Here is a snippet:
I have never seen a coherent explanation of how batteries can be produced and deployed so as to store the vast quantities of electricity needed in the U.S. alone. It would cost a prohibitive $133 billion to buy batteries sufficient to store one state’s electricity–Minnesota’s–for 24 hours. Minnesota is an average sized state, so that corresponds to around $6.6 trillion for 24 hours storage for the U.S. That is much more than the entire budget of the U.S. government. This assumes that such batteries exist, which they don’t.
Bringing electricity from those facilities, and connecting a nationwide GND grid, would require thousands of miles of new transmission lines – onshore and underwater – and even more raw materials.
Providing those materials would result in the biggest expansion in mining the United States and world have ever seen: removing hundreds of billions of tons of overburden, and processing tens of billions of tons of ore – mostly using fossil fuels. Where we get those materials is also a major problem.
If we continue to ban mining under modern laws and regulations here in America, those materials will continue to be extracted in places like Inner Mongolia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, largely under Chinese control – under labor, wage, health, safety, environmental and reclamation standards that no Western nation tolerates today. There’ll be serious pollution, toxics, habitat losses and dead wildlife.
Even worse, just to mine cobalt for today’s cell phone, computer, Tesla and other battery requirements, over 40,000 Congolese children and their parents work at slave wages, risk cave-ins, and get covered constantly in toxic and radioactive mud , dust, water and air. Many die. The mine sites in Congo and Mongolia have become vast toxic wastelands. The ore processing facilities are just as horrific.
Meeting GND demands would multiply these horrors many times over. Will Green New Dealers require that all these metals and minerals be responsibly and sustainably sourced, at fair wages, with no child labor – as they do for T-shirts and coffee? Will they now permit exploration and mining in the USA?
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/11/why-green-energy-is-a-terrible-idea.php
Here is a snippet:
I have never seen a coherent explanation of how batteries can be produced and deployed so as to store the vast quantities of electricity needed in the U.S. alone. It would cost a prohibitive $133 billion to buy batteries sufficient to store one state’s electricity–Minnesota’s–for 24 hours. Minnesota is an average sized state, so that corresponds to around $6.6 trillion for 24 hours storage for the U.S. That is much more than the entire budget of the U.S. government. This assumes that such batteries exist, which they don’t.
Bringing electricity from those facilities, and connecting a nationwide GND grid, would require thousands of miles of new transmission lines – onshore and underwater – and even more raw materials.
Providing those materials would result in the biggest expansion in mining the United States and world have ever seen: removing hundreds of billions of tons of overburden, and processing tens of billions of tons of ore – mostly using fossil fuels. Where we get those materials is also a major problem.
If we continue to ban mining under modern laws and regulations here in America, those materials will continue to be extracted in places like Inner Mongolia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, largely under Chinese control – under labor, wage, health, safety, environmental and reclamation standards that no Western nation tolerates today. There’ll be serious pollution, toxics, habitat losses and dead wildlife.
Even worse, just to mine cobalt for today’s cell phone, computer, Tesla and other battery requirements, over 40,000 Congolese children and their parents work at slave wages, risk cave-ins, and get covered constantly in toxic and radioactive mud , dust, water and air. Many die. The mine sites in Congo and Mongolia have become vast toxic wastelands. The ore processing facilities are just as horrific.
Meeting GND demands would multiply these horrors many times over. Will Green New Dealers require that all these metals and minerals be responsibly and sustainably sourced, at fair wages, with no child labor – as they do for T-shirts and coffee? Will they now permit exploration and mining in the USA?
Tesla’s Cobalt Usage To Drop From 3% Today To 0%, Elon Commits
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/06/17...-elon-commits/
Benchmark Minerals, a specialist battery research company, estimates that over the last 6 years, Tesla has reduced the average amount of cobalt used in its vehicles by 60%, from 11 kilograms to 4.5 kilograms per car.
12-25-2019, 05:55 PM
#281
My 2011 GMC 1500 has 210k miles and the only thing I’ve been replacing is tires, fluids, rear drums twice and front pads only once! And I’ve been averaging 20mpg with the small 4.8 V8 flex fuel. I usually haul pallets of flooring which can weigh 2500lbs and she takes it all day every day. Tesla has a lot to prove before it can battle with the current selection. The coolest thing about the truck is the bed can be closed. But otherwise it’s a pile like the rest of his creations