All electric cars need to carry the same generic, easily replaceable batteries. Then a filling station will be just like getting a new can of propane for your grill. Drive in, let an automated machine swap the batteries for fresh ones and drive off. The idea of hooking up 170,000 watt power source to my vehicle is not appealing either. The Galaxy Note 7 had a fancy fast charging circuit too.

I'm all for electric cars as long as they take over via the free market and not subsidized by tax dollars. That said, I am not in on a Tesla any time soon. I have a Suburban that holds 3 pinball machines and a Focus that gets 36mpg for daily driving. We are still a long way away from a true replacement for fossil fuels. Until then I would rather see every building in America get LED lights, thick insulation and two pane windows (all made in USA). Energy conservation is the way to go along with a major switch to nuclear power. We should also be drilling the shit out of the entire continent and stop buying foreign oil.

The top 3 sellers in the USA are full sized pickup trucks. Prius is up to 54th.

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2017/01/usa-2016-vehicle-sales-by-model-manufacturer-brand.html

Tesla is changing a lot of people's thinking, but it will still be a long time before electric cars are even close to the norm. By then we will be using fuel cells or something similar.

I do. I have rarely sold a car to anyone but the scrap yard when I am done with it.

The other fact that is greatly overlooked is that the environmental footprint of the average electric car is not that much better than an efficient gas burning car when you look at the big picture. The production of the batteries and electric motors requires a lot of rare metals that are obtained by grossly damaging mining operations mostly on the other side of the world and in China. Sure these metals will be recycled more as these cars become more popular, but so will the mines have to grow to meet demand. The fact of the matter is that these mines have a huge carbon footprint and are way more damaging/polluting to the environment and ground water per vehicle supported than oil wells and refineries. Solar panels also require lots of rare metals to build. The flip side is that the electric cars don't pollute when running, so in the long run they do eventually balance out the manufacturing. If the power in your area comes from oil or coal the environmental savings over the life of the car are not enough to be breaking your arms patting yourselves on the back. So at best you might be living somewhere that has nuclear, wind or solar energy available, and over the life of the car save some carbon emissions.

That said, I do someday want to own an electric vehicle, but that has zero to do with the environment and has everything to do with 0-60 times.

As much of a car guy as I am, I can't bring myself to watch Top Gear because I have always felt Jeremy is an unbearable walking, talking rectum. Fortunately I have Velocity channel and plenty of other car shows to watch.

Not everyone. That might be the biggest exaggeration in this thread.

Battery charging and storage is way too inefficient right now for houses. If you are producing electricity on your roof, it is best to sell it into the grid and buy it back when the sun isn't out. Before solar or wind makes any sense, we all need to get our houses up to par on efficiency to prevent having to buy a huge solar system. My new house has metal roof, icynene insulation, all LED lighting, double pane windows, tank-less water heaters, etc. It's twice the size of my old house and half the energy bill. I don't skimp on using lights either like I used to. Right now I can count 24 lights on in my living room. I like light. Dark houses are depressing. Anyway, I am happy as is and have no plans for solar power. Conservation is something that I think most people can agree on. I do it to save money and not CO2. Some day I would like to have a fuel cell of some sort out back.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/drillinginfo/2016/02/22/debunking-myths-about-federal-oil-gas-subsidies/#f9e14976e1cd

Even if what you said was remotely true, the Government collects an ungodly amount of taxes from both the oil companies and the sale of their products. The oil companies are successful despite the government, not because of it. Not to mention that most electric cars run on energy from fossil fuel plants.

As I mentioned before, I would like an electric car some day, but not because of it being green. I want one because they are fast! I even put in an electric car power run in my garage when I built my new house. The subsidies and tax breaks for electric cars doesn't bother me because there are so laughably few sold right now. Now that the industry is moving to the next phase of affordability, it is time to get rid of the tax breaks and let the free market take over.

Most Teslas I see in Florida are black. To me that makes no sense. It's blistering hot and sunny 9 months a year down here. A white car with tinted windows all the way around would save a lot of energy for air conditioning.

Definitely looks awesome in white!

A poll like this one is completely unscientific. The only people who will even look at this thread are people who are interested in Tesla for one reason or another. The other 90% of pinside (who would all be "no" voters) won't ever crack into this thread let alone vote.

Personally I will not be buying a Model 3, I'm not an environmentalist wacko and I'm not a Tesla investor. The reason I opened this thread is because I've been traveling to the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne for work a few weeks a year since 2010. Back then we could walk out the back of the SpaceX factory and right into the Tesla facility and poke around. Slowly but surely they started putting up fences and gates separating the facilities and we could no longer poke around. Even still there are always tons of Teslas around when you go to the SpaceX factory.

Its a funny picture. Have a sense of humor.

He was also the greatest gun and ammo salesman of all time.

Considering the F150 sells 750,000+ units per year (10x what Tesla has shipped in its existence) and the top three selling vehicles in America are full sized pickups... These cars will always be a niche market until you can drive into a filling station and have a robot swap out dead batteries for charged ones. That means all electric cars would have to carry a standard battery just like all gas grills use the same 20lb tank. Once Ford, GM, Toyota and Honda hop in and do that, Tesla will be a penny stock and get bought up as an after thought.

I do have money invested in Tesla, but my ear is to the ground and listening closely.

I have a house with a garage that has a dedicated electric car charging breaker that I built in. How many people can really say the same? Lots of my friends live in apartment complexes, or park on city streets or their garages are too full of junk to park a car in (LOL). Point is that as electric cars inevitably get more popular, the people buying them more and more won't be rich people who have garages. More and more people will rely on others to charge their cars.
In a way this is good because cities will be able to make even more revenue from parking meters if they can charge your car. Same with parking garages. Really any business with a parking lot might be able to monetize charging.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/tesla-shares-plunge-12-percent-this-week-on-disappointing-deliveries.html

The point is obvious! You guys believe in them blindly, so now is time to buy in a little more stock while it is in a dip. Personally I am holding at this point and not buying or selling.

I'll be close enough to have to hold my ears when this goes off:

https://www.teslarati.com/falcon-heavy-first-draft-animation/

Glass roof is a disaster in places like Florida. There is no amount of tinting that can make up for not having any insulation above.

I don't need to ride in it. When it is that hot out and you get into the car that has been baking in the sun the glass itself will be so hot that it will be radiating heat - especially for taller drivers like me. This has NOTHING to do with the glass being clear and everything to do with the lack of insulation. Now if it is double or triple pane glass, that would make a slight difference. Just as a side note, why do you have to jump directly into being a dickhead when someone has a different opinion than you?

I hear there are lots of Teslas being stolen recently. It's easy to tell though because the cars are re-branded as Edisons.

Oh boy you are in for it. You have insulted the religion of more than a few people here and they will surely not be happy.

I found it interesting that Tesla unlocked extra miles on their cars charging systems so people could have longer range for evacuating Florida before Irma. Nice of them to do that, but what a shitty business model where you charge extra thousands of dollars for the exact same car just to get it un-gimped.

This sounds more like the mythical stories I heard as a kid of 120 MPG 1960 Cadillac's the evil GM and oil companies suppressed and didn't want us to know about than something the always honest and respectable Tesla would do.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/02/spacex-will-try-to-launch-elon-musks-tesla-roadster-on-new-heavy-lift-rocket/

It is kind of funny, and I am pretty sure its a joke. If they do launch the Tesla on the Falcon heavy it won't make it to orbit Mars. It would basically just go off into orbit around the sun. This is a test launch and SpaceX doesn't have an upper stage capable of maneuvering, correcting trajectory along the way and getting into orbit once it reaches Mars. Once it separated from the second stage it would basically be on its own. Theoretically they could build a third stage to take it to Mars if Elon wanted to invest millions. Or they could put it into the trunk of a Dragon capsule I suppose, but the heavy test launch will be using a payload fairing and normally the Dragon flights do not have a fairing.

So it could be done, but I don't think it will happen this time. Either way, I will have a front row seat to watch the launch whenever it happens.

China and India are going hard into nuclear power generation like we should have done 20+ years ago. Nuclear power and electric cars are a natural combo.

I'd say you are a little optimistic but not far too far off. They will have to catch on way faster than hybrids. Seems like Prius are really popular right? They are not even in the top 50 vehicles sold in America. There are 14 F-150s sold for every Prius.

I like it too. Even the second one.

I was standing outside the VAB about 3 miles from the launch. That is basically as close as anyone can get. The launch was almost as loud as the Space Shuttle used to be. Still shockingly loud with 5 million pounds of thrust! We were also able to clearly see the two strap-on cores return and land from our vantage point. Cool indeed. Funny thing is that I have worked for NASA for 30 years and still get excited. I watched with our new trainee who just started work on Monday as an Aerospace Engineer and this was his first ever launch in person. He was excited to say the least. A day he will remember the rest of his life.

Here are some pictures from the launch. These were taken by a friend who was standing right next to me. Definitely loud from this close!

image001 (resized).jpgimage003 (resized).jpgimage002 (resized).jpgimage004 (resized).jpg

Looking at the two side by side today, I would take the Bolt hands down. The Model 3 just doesn't have that solid look that the previous Teslas have. It looks both cheap and dorky on the outside. Hub caps? And that interior, ugh. Where do I start... Car guy wants a car with real interior, instrument cluster and no cheap looking wood glued to the "dash". The LCD screen looks like a laptop glued to the dash. Seriously this is the worst interior I have ever seen. It's taken me many times seeing it in person and each time I want to like it. Each time it looks even worse.

The tent just went up. How do you know the quality of the cars produced there?

That could probably be said any time someone questions another person's religion.

I wouldn't want to buy a car built in an open air tent by someone working 84 hours a week either. But that's beside the point.