I did a double take figuring out what the 3 I saw today was.
I joked with my wife just a few days ago that you see more Teslas than Hondas these days (maybe a slight exaggeration but not by a lot.)
In the SF Bay Area they are everywhere, as expected. All of them, 3s, Xs, Ss, and even a Roaster every now and then.
On my lunchtime walk I went across a 6 lane highway overpass and decided to look for a Tesla in the 45 seconds it took to cross. No luck, but I did see a Maserati Ghibli.
I was just thinking more about how Teslas are very common in some parts of the country, and very rare in others. It hit me that the same thing would have been true for other brands when they were first introduced, as well. For example when Toyota and Datsun (Nissan) first came to the US they initially only had dealerships on the West Coast and as they became more popular expanded to other parts of the country. So if we were having this discussion somehow back in 1969 someone in Georgia probably would have never seen a Toyota in person before, while someone in California would probably consider them fairly common. Kia was that way in the 1990s, too, and one I have personal experience with. In 1996, growing up in North Carolina, I had never heard of Kia, let alone seen one. Then that summer my family took a trip to the southwest. Everywhere we stopped, the Grand Canyon, Brice, etc, I kept seeing these unfamiliar little cars, mostly with California plates. Of course nowadays Kias are fairly common everywhere.
That’s part of it, but it’s also the new infrastructure — the Tesla Superchargers are still being rolled out. Try their Find a Supercharger site, Find Us | Tesla. I randomly tried Clear Lake, Iowa, for example, and the two nearest ones are 35 and 40 miles away.
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42.674008, -93.462779 — 35 miles to the south in Dows IA
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43.686060, -93.357721 — 40 miles to the north in Albert Lea MN
gMap here, Google Maps
Those are pretty far away.
(Clear Lake IA is just a random rural area town I’ve been through once. It’s where Buddy Holly’s plane crashed, ‘The Day the Music Died’.)
I thought of that, but for most people’s everyday driving it’s rare to really need to charge it away from home. You get an electrician to install a charger in your garage, then you can go out, commute to work, run your errands, then come home and charge it overnight. For the majority of people they have more than enough range for that. Although having the chargers out there probably helps with range anxiety.
I do often see them plugged into the chargers at work, but those are actually free, so who wouldn’t take the opportunity for a free charge if available.
Our chargers aren’t free, they require a CC. Same with the ones I see at the supermarket parking lot.
I wonder how much they charge compared to home electric rates. A few years a former coworker who had a Volt told me it was actually cheaper to charge it on the chargers that you have to pay for than charging it at home (that may no longer be true now that we’re on time of use rates, if he charges it during off-peak hours).
I wonder just how many of these Model S cars everyone is seeing are just regular old Model S’s, or the mighty P100-D. It’s a quantum leap in performance, so seeing that particular flavor of Model S still tingles my dingle.
I saw something with 4 wheels & a motor so I’m gonna post it here. A BMW GS (motorcycle) with a mountain bike on a rack; front wheel separately mounted.
I have a 5ish hour drive this weekend; approx 1½-2 hrs of which I won’t even have cell coverage it’s so remote; don’t think there’s a lot of chargers on my route.
What happens if you run out of ‘fuel’ in an EV? AAA can’t just come out with a gallon of gas; do you need to get towed somewhere or are they now starting to carry portable chargers?
I assume this is not your everyday commute, though. How often do drive this route? Some EVs now come with a couple of free cars rentals per year for those few times where you might need to drive somewhere where the range isn’t enough. But even if they’re not free most people would probably save enough money “fueling” an EV versus a gas powered car to cover the cost of an occasional rental car. Or since most families have two cars anyway I could see people having one EV and one conventional gas powered car, and using the EV as the around town commuter and just taking the other car on longer trips.
I assume the former but I really don’t know.
I drive an EV. I think if I ever ran out of juice I’d have to get towed to a charger. I don’t know, but I’m not aware of any service trucks that carry chargers capable of charging an EV.
Where I’m going this weekend I only go once or twice a year; however, this is my third long trip, of at least 9 or 10 this year.
I drove ≈ 150 miles on Sunday; took me almost 5 hrs, including a whopping 4 minute stop for gasoline. That’s because the first 45 miles took 3 hours! I know the range alone should get me further than that, but that’s driving; how much range is lost in traffic like that? How late would I have gotten home if I had to stop & plug in somewhere for a while?
You do realize how much a rental car is on a holiday weekend, right? Plus you need to do things like add & delete EZPass from the rental car, move the stuff you keep in the car (dashcams, etc.) over & back. Then there’s the issue of half the new & most of the rental cars come with a can of fix-a-flat instead of a donut, let alone a real spare tire. Get the wrong kind of flat & you’re effed. Have no choice but to call a tow truck & spend the night somewhere because no one is open to help you out at 6pm on a Sunday evening. Also, one is never as comfortable in a car you don’t know as you are in your own car - Windshield wiper, climate control & radio controls are not universally in the exact same spot; I can adjust all of those things in my car w/o ever needing to take my eyes off the road.
They may work for some people but until refueling EVs is as convenient & as quick as ICE vehicles they’re a non-starter for me.
Two yesterday, another Alfa Romeo C4 Spyder, this one in red. I have no idea how good their mechanicals are, but the Italians design some amazing looking cars.
The other was a jet black Plymouth Prowler, haven’t seen one in a long time.
A recent issue of Car And Driver summarized their experience with a long-term Alfa Stevio SUV as follows (paraphrased): should come with a riding mechanic. 
Today’s for me was a spotless 1965 Corvette roadster in the classic metallic blue. Hoo doggies.
I have a Chevy Bolt now. In a worst case scenario, I just find a regular wall outlet to plug into. That adds about 6 miles for every hour plugged in. I haven’t run across a situation yet where I’d need to do that, but here in So Cal I’m rarely more than 5 or 10 miles from a charger so at most I’d need an hour or two boost to get me to a better option.
Yesterday it was a (I think) 1970 Challenger. Looked mint. Yellow with a black hood… I’m not really a MOPAR guy so I don’t know the model details. He rounded a corner and hit the gas and the rumble was like music to me.
Spotted a Nash Metropolitan, 1957 or thereabouts, today. It’s been a good many years since my last sighting. I wanted one of these when I was young and I think I’d still like one now, just for the fun of it.
A 30’s vintage convertible coupe, nicely rehabbed.
Someone in my neighborhood had one of those until he moved a few months ago. Well, he probably still has it, but he’s no longer in my neighborhood. I used to see him tooling around in it every once in a while. His was a '58 according to the license plate frame. The same guy also had a 1964 Studebaker Daytona.
Today must have been old SUV day for me. In the approximately one mile trip from my house to the post office, I passed an old Jeep Wagoneer, and shortly thereafter a 1980s Toyota Land Cruiser.