Anyone own a tesla?
- Thread starter Mdeer
- Start date
I own a tesla. It is a great car. you can go anywhere in the USA parts of WV as we have no Super Chargers (Bill Cole is blocking their expansion into WV). However a lot of hotels are putting them in. The Greenbrier has them for example. You can plug in at regular electric outlet but the charge is slow so as long as you stayed the night somewhere you would be ok. As far as using on a daily basis you cannot beat the car. Get about 250 miles on one charge. Then I have a standard charger in the garage that charges about 25 miles in one hour. FYI I live in Charleston. Tesla does have plans to put Superchargers in Morgantown and Wheeling. They do have one in Triadelphia.
Wait till the EPA comes down with a rule that says you can only charge for one hour due to using too much electricity.
Oglebay has charging stations as well. I saw 2 driving around Parkersburg a few weeks back and made me wonder if there was a charging station somewhere close to that area as well?
Elon Musk has badly oversold availability of the Model 3 to the public.....and on purpose.
He's already on record as saying he always oversells (and ultimately under-delivers) his newest products because it's that kind of pressure which drives his people beyond what they believe they can accomplish. He also needs time to drive his supplier base to deliver parts at a price which supports the $35K retail pricing of the vehicle. Currently, the Model 3 is being promised for late 2017; I myself think it quite unlikely we don't see first deliveries until well into 2018, and volume deliveries until 2019.
Also, his unique technologies are far from foolproof; for example, he's admitted the "falcon doors" on the Model X were significantly harder to develop than he expected.....he's already filed suit against some of its suppliers, and they've just been a roysal ***** to implement. Musk eventually said he would not have included them on the platform had he realized the problems he'd be facing.
I myself would not purchase a Tesla.....at least not anytime soon. And that's not because I question the technology, nor what Musk is trying to accomplish. And all evidence is the Company is responsible to its owners. But, I'm just not personally sold on pure electric vehicles (Tesla or otherwise) yet as a long-term ownership proposition; perhaps more due to the limited basic support infrastructure as anything else. I'm also conflicted personally on the design life of batteries.
I happen to think GM has the better current idea with the Volt's hybrid electric system, at least until such time as public recharging becomes far more widespread. But I wouldn't criticize anyone who liked Tesla's pure electric powertrain, or else had interest in supporting Musk as a visionary.
No doubt vehicles powered by electricity in one form or another are going to take over at some time in the future. I know nothing about Tesla but I do have a good deal of experience with heavy equipment powered with lead-acid batteries. Hydrogen gas which is given off when lead-acid batteries are charging is one of the most explosive gasses known, and is explosive in concentrations as low as 4% of an atmosphere - and it is still explosive when its concentration reaches 75%, and every where in between. Also many people don't realize that once a battery shorts out and catches fire there is no putting the fire out until the battery is fully discharged. I've seen it happen more than once. Hopefully Tesla has better battery technology than I'm familiar with, but I'm skeptical, at least for now.
I've known a couple of ham radio operators who wanted to run their stations on the cheap with lead acid deep cycle marine batteries find out about that off gassing problem first hand when charging those things, Buzzard.