Posted on 01/04/2014 10:31:44 AM PST by ckilmer
While I still prefer gasoline fueled vehicles, the EV’s have a place in our transportation infrastructure.
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agree. While the present Tesla models are ok. Most of what the Tesla is about is the promise of the future and a vote for elon musk as the guy who can get things done.
FYI its likely no accident that the manufacturer and the the consumers of the Tesla are located in California.
Among many other considerations. The weather in California is perfect for an electric battery. Go too far north and the cold takes most of the performance out of the batteries. Likely too heat or humidity does that same thing. But of that I’m less sure.
There was a classic car show done in my neighborhood in Norther VA during the summer. A Tesla was there. You knew that anyone who put their tesla in the garage and left it there for 20 years could sell it 20 years from now for much more than they bought it for. The car is an instant classic.
The Tesla story in this regard is actually a success for the federal government.
They just received a nice $34 million tax break from California..........
ok you win on points.
but 15 year from now if a quarter of the world’s transport vehicles are electric cars and the price of oil has collapsed so far that the gulf states are bankrupted and al Qaeda is defunded—then I want you to remember that in this case state and federal monies were not such a bad idea.
(I support federal investment in basic research and sometimes even in applied research but not in entrepreneurial ventures as a rule. The success rate for entrepreneurs is about 1 in 30-50. If Tesla is wildly successful then all the failed ventures will have been worth it. But we won’t really know for sure until at least 2016 when Tesla promises to bring out a vehicle that can do 250 miles for 30k. If they succeed in doing that then, their volumes will move in to the 100,000’s of thousands from 10’s of thousands. More importantly Tesla will force all the major car companies to invest big bucks in electric cars.
...then hopefully our country is completely self sufficient when it comes to oil extraction, production and refining since our reserves in ND, the Gulf and Alaska have literally trillions of barrels of oil at our disposal, enough to fuel our country via current technology, for the next 100 years as well as exportation........
The only way electric vehicles will become mainstream transportation is via government fiat, and given the govt's current attack on the coal industry and the coal fired plants, what effect do you think that is going to ultimately have on the "grid" once the electric cars get plugged in?
There is no frickin way that solar and wind will ever take the place of current electrical power sources............
What car is missing from this sales report? Or is it not missing, but just to insignificant to name?
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