Featured CR no longer recommends Tesla

Properly engineered pushes the cost up, which is why new power in the US is natural gas or wind. Then there is still fundamental wrongs when properly engineered. Burning coal more efficiently makes the wrongs with strip mining, huge ash piles, and heavy metal and radio isotope pollution only slightly smaller.

 

What would Tesla have to do before you think it will survive and be a car people should risk buying.
Is there anything?

Mike

 

What would Tesla have to do before you think it will survive and be a car people should risk buying.

I've always thought smaller cars are better than bigger cars for me and for lots of reasons.
A couple things I think would help Tesla would be to offer a modest compact with excellent range or a more
efficient power range. Top end 100 or 110 in Ludachris Mode. Geared and dialed in to 65 or 70 with moderate accel.

It boggles my little mind why the US has maybe one or two models like this that don't sell very well or live very long in production
which is probably why we wouldn't see Tesla making one either.

Though if the new Corolla offers a plugin model when they release, I'll be looking at it and perhaps learn how to waltz too so
they will know why I'm there.

 

That is not a relevant question. They may survive. They are certainly cash strapped, but even more money can't guarantee the success of battery cars. The recent moves by Tesla are desperation moves, not confidence moves.

I cannot buy a Tesla or BEV in my situation because I cannot risk the possibility that the Supercharger network may become extinct or unaffordable or not widely available where I need it. Most people cannot take this risk. Where I live, the cost of gasoline driving a Prius is cheaper than electricity (if I were driving a Tesla). Therefore it make no sense to me to buy a battery car. And it makes no sense for 99 percent of the car buying public.

 

The reason new power plants in the US are not coal is purely political. The same for nuclear power. The disposal of process waste is an issue for all modern manufacturing. What makes you think the carbon footprint of lithium battery cars is less than a petrol hybrid? (BTW, it is not).

 

Thanks for your honesty. But aren't you evading the question I asked?
Nowhere did I suggest that Tesla merely survive...but rather what they would need to do to convince you to change your mind and buy one. Certainly if they miraculously invented a new battery that was 1/2 the price, 1/2 the size, 1/2 the weight, 1/2 the CO2 footprint. Certainly this would convince you? No? Yes?

Mike

 

I did not know the entire reason for coal's rising costs were purely due to politics. What are these political forces?

That is a vague statement. Is the discussion about the carbon foot print for production, use, end of life?

I don't think the production of a BEV results in the same or less carbon emissions than an ICE car nor a hybrid; I know it results in more. I know that the in use emissions for a generic, average BEV running on the US average grid mix is lower, and low enough that, barring misfortune, will more than make up for its higher production emissions.

In terms of specifics, the degree of lower carbon emissions may differ. There is no source of US average grid electricity for that BEV to plug into. Well, neither is there an average source petroleum, but the variances between most crudes for upstream carbon emissions is a footnote compared to burning the gasoline. For much of the US, the generoBEV has much better in use carbon emissions than a hybrid. Even on the most carbon intensive grid in the continental US, the BEV will beat the petrol hybrid, which includes cars like the V6 Ram 1500 after all. Hybrids with 45mpg combined or greater may match or beat the generoBEV on that grid, but these are ICE cars of the best efficiency available. Narrowing down the BEVs to such cars, like the Model 3, puts the BEV at the top, er, bottom, of in use carbon emissions again.

I admit to being ignorant of end of life disposal and recycling carbon emissions for any car type.