Posted on 02/26/2013 9:58:13 AM PST by jazusamo
Musk has a bit of a blue tinge to his skin.
/ end irrelevant musing.
One could only hope that he crashes and burns spectacularly.
Yep...The guys a billionaire, let him cater to the very wealthy with this car with his own money.
There’s no way the buyers of electric vehicles should be getting a $7500 tax credit, especially on a $100,000 car.
Too bad Nikola Tesla’s (Super... Genius...) memory is being marred by this boondoggle.
Last fall my buddy's daughter ordered the Tesla SUV and put down 5 grand deposit and it was supposed to be built in 2014. But they made her a deal on the sedan and she got it instead - last week.
The nearest dealer is 185 miles away, so they delivered it via a transporter to her house. She gets "free" juice at her employer and has a long commute. Will be interesting to see how the economics work out. The thing is plenty fast, 0-60 under 6 seconds. Looks very much like the latest Jaguar sedans.
A nice looking car but it should be for that kind of money.
She better hope she doesn’t have a break down that requires dealer service. :-)
They claim the “Tesla Rangers” come with their mobile service rigs. This will be interesting to follow now that I know somebody who actually has one.
Thanks, keep us informed if anything comes about.
What’s scary is that if he fails, idiot boy in the bananna shack will just bail him out with our money.
Again.
All while vacationing for the hundredth time on our dime with his man love.
Well its a nice looking car....heck its a luxury car.
I don’t have a problem buying one...but I do have a problem with the government getting my money involved.
I am very curious about her ‘long term road test’ of this car - especially dealing with range and driver comfort (heat). Heck I’m also curious to know what air conditioning does to the range.
My biggest curiosity is the battery (and I understand this being a luxury ‘toy’, some might not care. Interpolating from their pricing options, depending on the battery, it is worth approximately 40-50% of the car’s value, and warranteed for 8 years/125k miles. I remember growing up in the 1970’s, and if a car got to 100k miles, it was time to think about a new one. But now its difficult to find a used one with less than 100k. Cars just plain go alot further, without major engine problems. I’ve got a few with over a quarter million miles in the driveway right now. Anyway, I assume that the battery will pretty much be toast long before this car gets near 200k miles...with a big price tag to replace. I just wonder how that will work out for people who actually drive to work and put miles on a car like this.
Rumors are that Volkswagen, one of the first purchasers of the 100 thousand dollar gems, found about $140k worth of car and batteries! Usually such a product is a loss leader, although with free money from Uncle Sam, it’s not obvious where any profit would come from with Tesla.
Weren’t they supposed to $40-50k? Well, that’s the stripped models they’ll build later with 40-80 mile batteries! Current versions (for free PR test drives) are much more.
Just to be fair, hybrid battery packs seem to have no problem getting to 200,000 miles. Like gas engines, some will fail before then, but there are ones around with over 10 years and 300,000 miles.
Toyota, for example, warranties their batteries 100% for at least 100,000 miles.
Electric-only vehicle battery packs should probably perform similarly.
I believe the reason Musk is so ticked off about the NY Times article is that not only is he relying on government loans but investor money. That article hurt him with investors and the stock slide is proof of it. That's just my view.
I've seen others classify Musk as a con man.
Here’s the pricing and options for the four different Model S Teslas.
http://www.teslamotors.com/models/options
“Just to be fair, hybrid battery packs seem to have no problem getting to 200,000 miles. Like gas engines, some will fail before then, but there are ones around with over 10 years and 300,000 miles.
Toyota, for example, warranties their batteries 100% for at least 100,000 miles.
Electric-only vehicle battery packs should probably perform similarly.”
Yes there may be some Prius driving around with 300k miles. But you know what? You could take the battery out of the Prius, and the only thing you would notice is a slight reduction in mileage. In other words, it doesn’t really matter, and that battery riding around in a 300k Prius is probably completely useless anyway.
There will be no 300k Tesla battery packs. Period. Its the only means of propulsion, and you most certainly will notice when it starts to be a problem.
And its not quite like a gas engine. It will start to fail on the very first day. That’s right. That’s how all batteries function. Every single time they are charged and discharged, their efficiency drops slightly. This is why my car engines tend to last longer than my cell phone batteries. They always will.
Then there’s the ‘bricking’:
http://theunderstatement.com/post/18030062041/its-a-brick-tesla-motors-devastating-design
Anyway, back to normal battery life - Tesla knows exactly what it is. They have to have tested it. And people are constsntly asking the question on their website...and they never get a straight answer. That makes me very suspicious the battery life expectancy isn’t much longer than the 8 year warranty.
Sounds like there might be a business opportunity for someone to convert “bricked” Teslas to gasoline power. It might end up being less expensive.
That’s a good idea.
“Loans” to companies and tax credits to purchasers of their products. Theres a whiff of fascism is the air.
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