Tesla owners replacement tires cost more than his electricity

First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win. - Mahatma Gandhi

We seem to be between "laugh' and 'fight'...

 

Unfortunately, it will probably only take time for the negative perceptions to die off. One comment called EV drivers thieves because the battery makes the car heavier and thus cause more road wear. I could point out that full size SUV pay the same registration fees as a compact car in PA, or that you have to get into commercial truck weights before a substantial measurement in wear is recorded, but I think it won't matter and his mind is already made up.

EVs chance have to continue on the path they are on. Gas prices will rise in time.

 

From what I've seen in my area, the dealers are pretty bad with EVs. They generally only have one or two (if any) in stock. The Volts I've seen at the dealer were either fully loaded or pretty close to it. The Leaf I test drove at a used car dealership had 8 miles of charge remaining when we started driving. Pretty ridiculous when you just have to park it by an outlet and plug it in.

 

Dealers have become the biggest roadblock to EV adoption.
The Dealer cartel has no interest in EVs and doesn't want to see them succeed as they require so little service.

There are some dealers that are really good at selling EVs. They do seem to be the exception though.

The best thing to do to help speed EV adoption is to get people in the cars to drive them.
I love the extended test drives many BMW dealers are offering of the i3. BMW seems to be putting more effort into this than even Nissan.

As word spreads about the added convenience, performance, safety and drive quality, EVs will increase their market. It is just a question of it happening quickly, or slowly.

 

about 100 of the chevy dealers 80% all the volts. 1 toyota dealer sold about 1/4 of the rav4 evs. Most chevy and toyota dealers want nothing to do with these.

 

these articles that keep talking about how great free charging is. well let me tell ya, it ain't gonna be free forever. just a dumb comparison that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

 

Tesla quick chargers will be free for as long as you own the car. Most public chargers will end up charging.

 

and edison used to give away free light bulbs, but even the tesla thing is likely to change at some point.

 

It could be written up in a more straight forward manner, that's for cetain. The, "I drive on free fuel" CAN be true ... but in reality, when you buy a Tesla, the cost for electricity/fuel is just paid up front ... in the cost of the car. Same with our PV solar. We paid 10's of thousands for a huge PV system. Folks that do that eventually save as much on their electricity bill, as they paid for the system. At that 'pay-off' - fully amortized junction, one can juggle numbers to rationalize that their power is free ... or super low per kWh.

 

Naw, I think this razor maker is giving away the blades for free. Its in the price of the car. Its a $2000 option on the 60 kwh model. As these get more established I expect tesla to drop the price added to each car to use the super chargers. Price/car decreases as more cars are on the road. Battery prices and solar panel prices are also dropping, so new stations cost tesla less than the first ones.
+1

It helps that electricity is so high in california. In texas no one thinks solar panels are free, but with all the subsidies, they may soon be cheaper than buying wind, then less than buying power from power plants (although it is shared). If you get a telsa here, a utility will let you charge it at night for free, as long as you pay more during the day ;-) for your other power.

 

They are already charging for it. It's a flat fee of $2000 at pruchase, already included in the price of the 85 models. Then it's $2500 if you want it later. Tesla might go to another payment method later, or for other models, but the stations include PV installs. So Tesla might make money selling the power when cars aren't charging at this time.

 

This an article from 2011, but it appears the U.S. government is progressively increasing its acquisition of electric & hybrid vehicles.

This year, approximately 22,000 of the 35,000 vehicles ordered by GSA were advanced technology vehicles (i.e., electric vehicles, hybrids, flex-fuel capable automobiles and plug-in hybrids). Over the past two years, the government has supposedly more than doubled the number of hybrids in its 600,000-plus vehicle fleet.

U.S. government fleet jumps to 23.4 mpg average thanks to fuel-efficient vehicles

 

Chargers are supposed to charge.

. I agree, I put in a tiny PV Solar system. One KW, 4 panels. I figure it will take 33 years to pay back. The beaurocratic hassle from SMUD and my local govt for a bldg permit was unbelievable. Took 3 months of screwing around even tho I had the racks built in two days. Multiply this scenario by 30 or 40 panels and the math is all the same but, with higher costs.

 

well said.

 

Leaf is putting out a pretty extensive ad campaign on TV in NC.

And the depreciation, insurance and taxes on a Tesla has got to far outweigh any tires, charging, etc. costs.

It is like the yacht I want to buy when I win the lottery...the maintenance of around $800k a year and dock rental of $4k a month make the $3M purchase price a bargain. If course I could buy the docking space for the price of a Tesla...and then pay condo fees.

Toys come with expenses.

 

Tesla's Superchargers around here don't have solar panels.

Tires are "expensive" and bigger tires are more expensive than smaller tires, but we all have to whine about something.

I hate it when the tolls cost more than the gas on a trip.

 

No, the math shouldn't be the same. The bureaucracy, permits, inspections, design work, meter, interconnection agreement, electric branch circuit
installation, and various other overhead-like costs should mostly be fixed, or at least be much less than proportional to system size.

My DIY system has been built in two stages so far. The first 1.6kW bore nearly all that overhead burden. The next 2.7kW was far easier and cheaper (aside from the direct equipment). The only repeated overhead was for a new permit, plus refiling (no new fees) some updated paperwork.

Stage 3, to add 2-3kW to push this house to Net-Zero, will require some new electrical work, but the hardest part was included back at stage 1 to avoid later rework. And that new work will also support the future Stage 4, to add capacity for a plug-in car (whenever it arrives).

Payback time? That is too complicated by a tiered rate structure and many unknowns -- the neighbors' shade trees are still growing, production incentives are capped, my area will hit that cap soon and shrink the benefit by unknown amounts, the utility's multi-year rate hike plan is very likely understating reality, El Nino and PDO are not yet predictable, and the next squeezes from ISIS/ISIL and Vladimir Putin are unknown. But for various reasons, I consider the 'null option' as irresponsible, so home energy use must be reduced. Numerous conservation measures have already harvested nearly all the cheap to mid level savings, the remaining measures (e.g. window replacement, solar hot water to fit this particular building, re-siding with upgraded wall insulation) are considerably more costly than this PV production.

Or, in my local market, payback would also happen the day I sell this house.

 

boston to d.c.

 

. Your not fuzzy, that was all crystal clear! Cost are proportionately the same in so far as more panels. So payback is always years away. The company I purchased my kit from very naively or not forecasted my ROI as 21% (Anapode). I estimated payback at the soonest, 7 years. Both estimates are totally wrong. The real enjoyment I receive is knowing I built everything myself and going out everyday and monitoring my solar production. which is fuzzy. I have gotten much more familiar and intimate with the Sun and have gained a greater appreciation of it. I will understand payback better perhaps in 1-3 years from now. Hopefully you did not have to put up with all the beauracracy I went thru. I see no fixed costs, should I add panels: more panel cost, associated wiring, junction box, additional racking, another $300 bldg. fee, more hassle with (city and local utility ( SMUD ). ). =. AGGRAVATION. Overall it is not worth it, the office types do not even understand what you are doing, even after you patiently explain it to them.