It's a big deal because Tesla is the leading innovator of EVs and virtually the only one out there offering cars that combine performance, style and practical range. Previously all that came only at a premium price, now it slides in at a mainstream price, still with an impressive combination of performance, style and range. How many of those electric cars (not hybrids, a separate category) in your link have 200+ miles of range? Now how many of those look like something you'd want to be seen in ... in public?
OT - Tesla Model 3
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It's a big deal because Tesla is the leading innovator of EVs and virtually the only one out there offering cars that combine performance, style and practical range. Previously all that came only at a premium price, now it slides in at a mainstream price, still with an impressive combination of performance, style and range. How many of those electric cars (not hybrids, a separate category) in your link have 200+ miles of range? Now how many of those look like something you'd want to be seen in ... in public?
Those numbers are reservations, not sales or orders. They only entail a $1,000 deposit that's refundable if you decide to cancel.
Also, Tesla opened up reservations worldwide yesterday, so while I'd assume the largest portion of reservations are from the US - the only sales count that matters for the federal tax incentive - a bunch of those reservations are from overseas and not counted against the 200K cap (assuming they even lead to sales).
But yeah, if you're banking on that $7,500, I wouldn't wait very long to at least make a reservation.
Now that would be hilarious! Charging your electric car with a gasoline generator!
In addition to the federal tax credit there is no sales tax in NJ. I have a model S and it's by far the best car I've ever owned in my 35 years of driving. Charging issues are non existent. I plug in both my car and cell phone each night and never have a problem with either. There are also more chargers available than you can imagine. I've put 35k miles on my car in the first year I've owned it and never experienced "range anxiety". Naysayers are old farts who are stuck on internal combustible engines (ICE) and can't see the future. Elon musk is a pioneer. Thank goodness for people like him who push the envelope and will eventually put humans on Mars. Think how ludicrous it seemed to someone who early in their life saw people traveling by horse and buggy and then later saw men landing on the moon.
My brother has a Model S - incredible car. When I am in the market for a new car I will definitely be looking at the 3.
That is true. It is also true that the msrp of the car may drop when the tax incentives expire because production will scale. Waiting a few years may also mean that I get a perfected product that keeps me out of the shop.
Pesonally, I don't buy stuff just because it is on sale. That is how many of us end up with a house full of crap that we do not need and bloated cc bills. If I buy it is because it works and it has some immediate utility to me.
The New York Times had an article a few years ago about just this topic. The worst was in Ohio and West Virginia where electricity at that time was mostly generated from coal.
The article came up with an equivalent mpg for EVs. In the NY area, EVs had something like 95 mpg. It was much lower in Ohio, something like 40 mpg.
Actually you'll be surprised how many charging stations there are throughout NJ and the rest of the country. There are roughly 32,000 charging stations in America. In comparison, there are 168,000 gas stations.
Some links to find stations:
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_locations.html
http://www.plugshare.com/
http://supercharge.info/
The last one is specific to Tesla's supercharging network, which is the same as Tesla's website, but adds an additional feature of where the next charging stations are being built.
The roughly dozen or so operators of these networks will work with a property manager to install charging stations. So you can give them a call, tell them where you want it installed and they work directly with the owner of the property to get it installed - both residential and commercial properties. Mind you, these are level two chargers, meaning they would take 5-7 hours to fully charge as opposed to the roughly 30 minutes at Tesla's level 3 superchargers which can be done overnight while sleeping or while at work during the day.
I'd imagine over the course of the next year or two, all those corporate office parks in Princeton, Florham Park, Parsippany, Metropark, Piscataway, etc will have multiple charging stations.
In addition, as electric cars become more ubiquitous, not just Tesla; Audi, BMW, Chevy, Nissan and Porsche all have some serious competition coming out in the next few years, you'll see more charging stations in Costco parking lots, strip malls, supermarkets, convenience store parking lots.
Yeah but that far more subtle irony is lost on most folks.
But 1/3 isn't and it appears that solar and wind power capacity increase every year.
For those that know how much energy does it take to charge the car battery?
There is also the improvement to the environment from less car emissions.
An electric car's negative impact on the environment is greatest during it's production and at it's end of life.
Probably because it's not very ironic or subtle, just an anti-EV/Big Oil talking point. Both electric car sales and electricity generation are regional topics, so talking US averages is beyond useless. So is the term "fossil fuels," because coal is really the source that makes electric cars pollute as much as/more than ICEs in terms of well-to-wheel emissions.
California has something like 50 percent of all EVs on the road. It also has an energy generation portfolio comprised of cleaner sources and less than 1 percent coal. The American West in general has much cleaner energy than the East/Midwest and also has many of the states with the most EVs - Washington, Oregon and Hawaii are also up there.
Besides, the entire EV fleet is such a tiny part of the overall vehicle fleet, it's not having much impact one way or the other. As it starts becoming significant, with help from the Model 3 (which won't actually be available for another year and a half) energy is also getting cleaner.
Please - most people on this board can't get past football uniforms beyond the combination of solid scarlet jerseys and white pants. You think they can embrace this kind of innovation?
Try shifting with your left hand while your left leg is pushing the clutch, and the wheel is on the right side of the car.
Weirdest thing about driving down here? Turn signal and windshield wiper. Still occasionally get them backwards.
Electric cars have roughly half the carbon footprint of IC cars, even including construction. And that doesn't take into account other pollution from IC engine. Electrics, and PHEVs are far superior on this front. Encouraging this industry through loans and tax breaks for purchasers benefits us all.
True, but what's more efficient: A couple large fossil fuel plants or millions of ICEs? What about production waste? A gas engine is complicated with many parts to manufacture. And what about the supply chain of gasoline?
I'm not an engineer and I don't have enough experience studying systems efficiency to help you with those questions. Please take my statement in context of the post I was replying to.
Depends, Congress can and probably will , depending on election, extend the incentives. The 3 is exactly what the tree huggers, myself included, have been waiting for. A cool, roomy interior, fast, over 200 miles electric car. Cool being the number 1 marketing ploy.
I cannot see two car homes having two electric cars. You do need that car that will take you on a long vacation or you need more than 200 miles. My wife commute is about 80 miles round trip. But when talking about the Tesla she questioned about whne she lets say wants to drive up to Boston. Simple answer, drive my car when needed.
All the stats show that 95% of all drivers do not do more the 200 miles round trip daily. IMO this car will be the real beginning of the electric car revolution. Tesla and others have already said they are doubling and tripling the amount of charging stations this year alone. But 99% of the time you will charging at you home.
Far from being that simple: outside of a number of Californian and Texan cities, driving an EVs may result in more damage from pollution than driving an equivalent conventional car. In Los Angeles, which has a lot of traffic and which benefits from relatively clean electricity, an EV is the right choice, Alternatively, the rural midwest may not be the best place for EVs, since the low population density means comparatively little air pollution from traffic, but electricity comes from lots of coal power stations. And when you take into account the potential environmental damage from battery production, storage and future disposal - the total environmental impact is far from "superior". Having the government pick winners and losers is rarely a good idea.
The only part of that argument that holds water is that if you currently get your power from a coal plant, especially an old one, the CO2 differential is nil. But our power generation from such plants is currently only 1/3 of the total, and decreasing every day. Thus in the majority of locations, it is very beneficial. Not to mention using power at night, etc. The batteries are being developed to be reusable with solar in homes.
Having the government support a clean future is a winner for everybody but the fossil fuel industry.
I thank God for all you EV guys every time I get behind the wheel of my antique Caddy and fire up the big V8.
What's wrong with fossil fuels? Cheap, abundant, dense energy source. What's not to love?
Nothing "wrong" with fossil fuels just like there's nothing wrong with riding a horse. It's just evolving technology.
That a 46k Camaro SS compares straight up, head to head, with an 81k M4 says a lot about what GM has done with this car.
The Petro Dollar/US Dollar is backed by oil - take away the Petro and you have no dollar and no economy....you won't need electric cars cause everyone will be riding around on bikes.
OK. Others were making it seem like it was a bad thing. Some of us like it when our cars and trucks make noise, though I suspect we are the older folks.
Life is interesting when it comes to cars. Was looking at the M4. Sweet car, but they pipe in the engine sound, because it is too quiet. I told the BMW dealer it is heresy, and for that reason alone, I passed on it.
I drove a Tesla S. Crazy acceleration (electric motors have tonsof torque). But it makes no noise. So I passed.
Now if Tesla can buy the BMW engine music, I would buy it.
In the meantime, I ordered a Challenger Hellcat. So much for having any sense at all.
I drove a Tesla S. Crazy acceleration (electric motors have tonsof torque). But it makes no noise. So I passed.
Now if Tesla can buy the BMW engine music, I would buy it.
In the meantime, I ordered a Challenger Hellcat. So much for having any sense at all.
Interesting comparison test.
To me, one problem is that we've moved away from "driver's cars."
Many new cars are objectively good cars, but there certainly seems to be more of an emphasis on luxury, comfort, efficiency, and power than on exciting driving dynamics.
BMW used to really excel here, but the new ones tend to feel more processed and disconnected from the road. I like mine a lot, but this annoys me. My previous one was slower, but, in some ways, more fun to drive.
Audis feel even more disconnected and over-processed. Again, objectively very good cars, but not quite what I want.
And I haven't look closely at automatic-only brands, as I have a strong preference for manual.
So who's doing what I'm describing?
To me, one problem is that we've moved away from "driver's cars."
Many new cars are objectively good cars, but there certainly seems to be more of an emphasis on luxury, comfort, efficiency, and power than on exciting driving dynamics.
BMW used to really excel here, but the new ones tend to feel more processed and disconnected from the road. I like mine a lot, but this annoys me. My previous one was slower, but, in some ways, more fun to drive.
Audis feel even more disconnected and over-processed. Again, objectively very good cars, but not quite what I want.
And I haven't look closely at automatic-only brands, as I have a strong preference for manual.
So who's doing what I'm describing?
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The new RF debuted in New York last month is a sick, little ride - a better makeover than a new generation.
@Lawmatt - there's been an absolute renaissance going on in driver's cars, but mostly in terms of ultralight roadsters built for the track (and road, too), and mostly from tiny startups the average driver is not familiar with - Vuhl, Zenos, Rezvani.
The big manufacturers have realized there's more money to be made by creating every size of SUV/CUV possible and marketing them with terms like "adventurous" and "urban". Toyota is the latest guilty party with the C-HR, but it's also the big brand worth watching closely. Akio Toyoda is a driving enthusiast and has repeatedly stressed his desire to put the fun back into driving. The Scion FR-S (now Toyota 86 because Scion is no more) is already one of the better affordable sports cars out there, and Toyota is supposed to sandwich it with an entry level car and flagship sports car (Supra?) developed in conjunction with BMW. BMW is working on Z4 successor as part of that collaboration. That BMW-Toyota project has been going on for years, and there's been a bit of will they/won't they in recent months, so who knows.
The S-FR concept from Tokyo 2015 previewed Toyota's entry level Miata-fighter, and while it might be too stripped down for your taste, it's definitely a driver's car - tiny, 2,200-lb coupe, 130-hp inline four in front-mid position, six-speed manual. Its looks are polarizing, but I like them and they're inspired by the Toyota 800, Toyota's first sports car. It's supposedly going into production, but not clear if the US will get it or not.
Either of the new 718 Boxsters promise to be great cars and definitely have the dynamics you're looking for. The only drawback is that if you're going to insist on being a purist and shifting for yourself you're going to miss out on the performance of the PDK. All of the German DSG transmissions are a value-add, as I've found with my own Audi.
