You know, there are companies that will rent you a car or truck for those times when your car doesn’t meet your needs.
Any small car with a trailer hitch. Or a roof rack.
Where am I suppose to store those? In a nice suburban house with a three car garage?
I am NOT putting a roof rack or a trailer hitch on my BMW damn it! That is why I have a truck! Each vehicle I own meets a portion of my needs but they are two very different vehicles which meet very different needs. If the Tesla was priced at the point it was viable (similar to my BMW) I would buy it in a heartbeat. I ‘looked’ into buying a Tesla but just couldn’t justify the cost but it was a damn slick car. When the new model comes out, I will seriously look at it. I rarely drive more than 50 miles in a day. And I have a three car garage with one lonely bay just sitting there.
Roof rack stays on the roof. trailerfolds up and stands behind the car in it’s parking space.
Or you can buy a Volt knowing every other person on the planet got it wrong and it’s the perfect car.
Other than that, sucks to be you. Most people living in the city don’t operate a construction business out of there car. For the rest of us in the real world we get along just fine with our vehicle purchases.
There yah go. You can probably pre-purchase one. Go for it. You fit right into the category of people I just discussed who can afford to purchase a new toy.
There’s no damned way that most Americans do not believe they have made compromises in buying their car. Alleging that a car, house, watch, movie, or beer is 100% what a person wants is nonsense.
Don’t underestimate the sales potential of what you call a “toy.” No one needs a Porsche, Lexis, or BMW, but I sure see a lot of them on the road.
For many of us, but obviously not everyone, the advantages of an electric car far outweigh any perceived inconvenience.
I assume you need a trailer as well?
If by many you mean a small percentage of the population then yes. This is just the Volt thread all over again.
uh huh. You want to haul construction material in a small vehicle. That’s not a compromise, it’s impossible. So it still sucks to be you. I haul stuff all the time with my compact car. It does just what I want it to do.
While it’s not impossible to travel nominal distances in an electric car it’s a HUGE compromise over virtually every conventional car on the market.
For you.
In the previous 9 years or so, the longest trip I’ve taken by private vehicle is about 200 miles (and that rarely). I didn’t grow up on this coast, and my family is thousands of miles away, so I don’t know anyone driving distance outside of my city. I’m not outdoorsy, and I prefer to vacation elsewhere, so I rarely have any reason to drive out of the city.
It literally would not affect me. Not only would it not be a HUGE compromise. It wouldn’t even be noticed.
What's your point? Are you going to predict the new Tesla will be the new Honda Accord?
It could be, or at least something significant.
It seems like some of you guys are getting awfully defensive about this. Nobody will force you to buy an electric car in the foreseeable future.
But I disagree with your premise. I live in Boston. I could get a SUV but they are big and it’s a pain to find parking spots on the street so I have a Prius. About 4-5 days every winter it snows enough that I can’t use my car. It’s not that big of a deal. If I ever get an electric car and need to drive > 200 miles in a day I’ll either borrow a car from a family member or rent one.
For some people that’s not good enough (just like for some people not being able to drive in deep snow is not good enough). For most of us it’s fine.
If it gets anything close to the advertised distance at the price quoted it will assuredly increase market share. It will not replace gasoline powered cars. A 2 minute recharge rate will. Overnight.
That is of course, my opinion. I was horribly wrong about the ipad but I did call it on the Volt.
You continue to miss the point. Virtually everyone who buys a car makes a compromise. Size, comfort, price, amenities, which company makes it, mileage, etc. And yet, you’re saying that range is something that hardly anyone is going to compromise on unless they can recharge it faster than most cars can fill up with gas.
So you say you’re happy with a compact car. But isn’t lack of space a huge compromise, too? And yet, millions of car buyers accept that compromise because they feel they don’t need a lot of space.
How do you know those car owners think that having a 425 mile range is ESSENTIAL but having a 300 mile range is a car that only LOSERS would buy?
And I’m the exact opposite; 90% of my miles are from miltihour trips, since I mostly rely on public transportation when local. But more people are like you. That doesn’t prevent gross irrationality when buying a vehicle. See the people with trucks who haul stuff once a year.
When my car was acting up a few summers back, I rented one for a trip to Ohio. Had I had a short-range car, I could have done the same.
you seem to miss the point. When an electric car runs out of energy it’s no longer a car. That is not a compromise feature, it’s a complete fail. So the 300 miles that might occur on a nice day with no air conditioning or heat, on fresh batteries and a fresh charge, without a lot of hills, or heavy stop and go driving… represents the distance it will travel before it needs to be towed to a charger.
Traveling any distance requires the location of charging stations and significant waits between charges. The car is completely vulnerable to power outages which makes it useless in an emergency.