But, after 8 years of ownership the Tesla owner mentioned earlier was facing a $23,000 bill for a battery replacement meaning his annual battery cost was $2,875 - a very significant cost.
An isolated case. More typically, a Tesla will never need a new battery and some have gone hundreds of thousands of miles.
What I didn’t know was how long it would take to charge the car, which was almost dead flat…There’s a natural relationship between regional touring in an electric car and lunch. Instead of fast food at a highway service station, the longer charge times of electric cars lend themselves to a more relaxed schedule to poke around a small town. It is less “pit stop” and more “electric back roads”.
What you didn’t mention is that the article is almost two years old. If you go to google maps and show chargers it is dotted with many chargers now.
One more thing you left out from the article:
And the cost of charging? Absolutely nothing. Free.
No doubt we will continue to see all these stories about someone’s EV charging adventures month after month after month. Maybe someone should write about how they got a flat and ran out of gas too.
EVs are different and not as convenient in some cases. But in many cases they are better and some cases no different.
As always, all wrong all the time. Well, maybe correct about his own personal experiences, but since everything else is wrong, why would I believe that?
Uptime is well above 99%, and if a location is out then the navigation software just routes you to a different one. I think at this point the only location which would present difficulty is Terlingua, and even there Plugshare shows a variety of non-Tesla operated places to charge.
The truth is that when you’re on a road trip in a Tesla, running out of charge is a concern about as relevant as running out of gas when you’re in an ICE vehicle. It just doesn’t happen unless you’re being foolish. And every once in a while you have to go a little out of your way to take care of it.
What’s going unsaid are the advantages of going in an EV, especially a Tesla. You arrive happier and more rested. In a Tesla, autopilot is good enough that you can spend your time looking at the scenery and giving the road only enough attention to react to emergencies. That’s a huge advantage – for example going through Bryce Canyon National Park I’ve been able to pay attention to the incredible scenery even while driving.
And depending on your route and timetable, sometimes you don’t need to spend time charging at all. I’ve had days with less than 250 miles of travel, when I’m staying at accommodations where I can charge overnight. Such are becoming ever more available, and it means that I don’t have to go anywhere special for fuel and it takes none of my time. Usually it’s also free (as in no additional charge since I’m staying there).
On the whole, it’s simply better. So much better I would never consider going back to an ICE vehicle, especially for a road trip. Driving a Tesla on a road trip (vs. an ICE vehicle) can be compared to when that irritating background noise stops – you feel better and don’t know exactly why until you think about it.
What’s going unsaid are the advantages of going in an EV, especially a Tesla. You arrive happier and more rested. In a Tesla, autopilot is good enough that you can spend your time looking at the scenery and giving the road only enough attention to react to emergencies. That’s a huge advantage – for example going through Bryce Canyon National Park I’ve been able to pay attention to the incredible scenery even while driving.
Sure. But would you trust autopilot on the “Going to the Sun” highway in Glacier National Park?
intercst asks: But would you trust autopilot on the “Going to the Sun” highway in Glacier National Park?
Got to give an “it depends” sort of answer on that one.
Two years go: no.
Today, not regular autopilot, but I would use the Full Self Driving Beta (now version 10.12.2).
In two years, probably wouldn’t consider going without autopilot on. Having to pay significant attention to the road rather than the scenery would be annoying. The new normal.
“But would you trust autopilot on the “Going to the Sun” highway in Glacier National Park?”
I don’t even trust myself on that road.
That said, Tesla Autopilot on an interstate is amazingly relaxing and safe. And just to be clear, Autopilot is not Full Self Driving… it’s more akin to Subaru Eyesight, with a few extra features and a bit more precision. Of course, it is bossy… take your hand of the wheel or your eyes off the road and you DO get scolded.
“Sure. But would you trust autopilot on the “Going to the Sun” highway in Glacier National Park?”
A couple of years ago I did Going to the Sun on my bike, it was the most scenic road I’ve ever pedaled. From observing some of the vehicles driving it, I think I’d have been safer if they
were auto-pilot driven. I have never driven or been in an auto-piloted vehicle, are the sensors
good enough that bicycles and other non-vehicles sharing the road are reliably picked up ?
If that’s the case, cyclists across America will rejoice when auto-piloted vehicles are
everywhere on the roads. The human drivers that are currently dominating the roadways have
caused me to avoid riding on roads as much as possible. Feel much, much safer on a rail trail, or
a dirt trail.
In two years, probably wouldn’t consider going without autopilot on. Having to pay significant attention to the road rather than the scenery would be annoying. The new normal.
It seems to me if you are not actively driving, you relax taking in the scenery and then relax a little more and zzzzzzzz.
It seems to me if you are not actively driving, you relax taking in the scenery and then relax a little more and zzzzzzzz.
Ayup. When I was in Seattle several years ago, I didn’t bother with a car. Got around by a combination of Grey Line buses, city buses, monorail, and feet.
In two years, probably wouldn’t consider going without autopilot on. Having to pay significant attention to the road rather than the scenery would be annoying. The new normal.
I’m not sure that’s likely to happen in two years. Progress on autonomous driving has been grindingly slow, and not just for Tesla. It may just turn out that getting to level 5 autonomy is a much harder problem to solve than anyone anticipated.
IMHO, in two years both Tesla and (perhaps more importantly) the law will still be telling you that you have to pay significant attention to the road with autopilot on.
I have never driven or been in an auto-piloted vehicle, are the sensors good enough that bicycles and other non-vehicles sharing the road are reliably picked up?
On Teslas the sensors (mostly cameras) pick up everything relevant. In fact they’re much better than human eyes in that they can see in all directions at once, and despite darkness. The recent FSD Beta version, when driving on local streets, gives bicyclists a wide berth. In fact, if there’s no oncoming traffic, the car will edge across the center line to give them extra room.
If the car can’t see well enough to drive (e.g. heavy rain, dirty camera lenses), it requires the human to take over. Of course, if it were fully autonomous, in such situations it would slow down or stop.
It seems to me if you are not actively driving, you relax taking in the scenery and then relax a little more and zzzzzzzz.
Yes, falling asleep while driving is a real problem.
See <https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drowsy-driving>:
“NHTSA estimates that in 2017, 91,000 police-reported crashes involved drowsy drivers. These crashes led to an estimated 50,000 people injured and nearly 800 deaths.”
Me, if I fall asleep while driving, I know I’d much rather have the car try to drive itself while attempting to wake me up than have it just go off the road. This seems to me to be an obviously correct choice.
This is just one of the things that makes Teslas the safest cars on the road.
There is plenty of infrastructure if you’re driving a Tesla .As I have been doing for 8 1/2 years.
During that time the number of superchargers has increased dramatically.
About the only place you might have problems is in very rural areas. Those off the tourist path. There are a significant number of L2 chargers in most of those places ,the problem is finding one that works
But as long as scare stories sell ,you will see lots of scary stories. Like the NYT one where the author drove the car in circles until he ran out of juice but failed to mention that in his article
The only time a good BEV does not way outperform a gas car is on long trips on the expressway. Because ICE are at their best( even if still inefficient) running at steady speeds
I wonder what internet post would have looked like in the 1890s or early 1900s about horseless carriages?
This doesn’t answer that question directly, but it is interesting to note that the first automobile to be featured on a US postage stamp was an electric vehicle.
Good suggestion… I’ve driven GTS Road both directions. There is not a chance I would trust ANY “self-driving” / “driver-assisted cruise control” on that road. IMO no one should. Unless EVERY car on the road was forced to follow a program.
People driving too fast. Or too slow. Or towing a trailer 1foot over limit length. Hairpin turns with a vertical rock cliff taking your mirror off on one side vs low stone guardrails on the other side. Sunlight flashes that blind cameras. Scenic overlook pullouts too full of cars with people taking OMG pictures (because the view are beyond OMG). Pickup trucks or (FCS) duallies. Throw in the occasional demented bicyclers.
I am rather heavily invested in the commodities used to make electric cars this includes but not limited to copper OZL, lithium PLS, nickel IGO, rare earths LYC, all ASX tickers.
I have others as well including those near to production where there should be good money to be made or has been in the past at least
Some things learnt on my travels.
The US has no sovereign capability at the moment to mine and process either rare earths or lithium. This is why companies like LYC are presumably getting funding from the US DOD for rare earths processing in Texas. There is also a potential play for lithium in Nevada in INR.
Imagine that, the US is totally dependant on foreign sources for these crucial resources.
The next points you will find interesting.
Cobalt is used in batteries and 70-80% of the world supply comes from the Republic of Congo where it is mined by child slave labor. So for those of you who have a EV, next time you start it up, appreciate child slaves helped make it happen.
At present there is insufficient mine capacity in the world for all the minerals used in EV’s such that it would be possible for all ICE cars to be changed over. The projections I have seen for the increase in copper mines alone is a 10 fold existing mine capacity, and so it goes on.
So understand it will not be possible for everyone who has an ICE car now to have an EV, there are just not enough mines. This is not a well understood point.
In most countries the electric grid is insufficient to charge EV’s if everyone had one.
The processing of lithium and rare earths is a poisonous process, that uses copious amounts of water and if not done right causes devastation to the environment like it has in China.
I am not aware of any battery recycling facilities, and they just don’t last very long.
I could go on with various countries banning lithium process due to water table concerns and other things but the more you look at these EV’s the less there is to like.
- The US has no sovereign capability at the moment to mine and process either rare earths or lithium. This is why companies like LYC are presumably getting funding from the US DOD for rare earths processing in Texas. There is also a potential play for lithium in Nevada in INR.
At this moment. A company is getting ready to mine and process lithium in NC.
