.... Bad news is that China gets 70% of its electricity from coal. ...
... A Tesla weighs three tons, meaning it takes thousands of pounds of batteries to equal the energy of 15 gallons - about 80 pounds - of gasoline. Highly inefficient. ...
Either way Tesla stock will go up
Actually, Tesla is down about 6% this morning..they're talking plateau of Model X and S demand. Sales actually fell Q2 despite having inventory on hand.
That is a bummer, but even in grids that have tons of coal, electric vehicles produce about the same amount of emissions as gas-powered cars. The term to google here is "long tailpipe theory". So even with China's dirty grid, emissions work out about even with 30mpg cars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_long_tailpipe#Carbon_footprint_in_selected_countries
Huh, do people measure efficiency based on weight of fuel sources? It's true that for a given volume of gas it's super energy dense, but less than a third of that energy actually moves your car forward; the rest is lost to heat etc. Electric cars turn over 75% of the energy in their batteries into forward motion, so it's definitely more complicated than just comparing the weights:
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml
Not saying electric cars don't have a ways to go before they've got a shot at being mainstream, but they're improving incredibly quickly and I'm pretty psyched to see where things go over the next few years.
I hear what you are saying but you also need to be a bit realistic. You are not going to find comparable requirements in a gas driven vehicle either.I will buy an electric car when, and only when:
I can buy a used one with 50k miles for the same price I paid for my last car with 50k miles.
A five minute charge on a nearly dead battery will go 500 miles on the Interstate.
The battery can withstand a 3-5 minute charge every 200-400 miles for the life of the car. (300k miles or so)
Taxes to pay for roads are collected at the charging station when you charge the car, and not at the DMV once a year.
The car will go 300 miles, fully loaded, at night with the headlights on, in 20° weather.
As things currently stand, I think that means never.
'Cept for the 500 mile non-stop, I've done all of those things with the different cars I've owned. It takes about 5 minutes to fill an empty tank on my Caravan (20 gal). Several of my most recent cars could go 500 miles on a tank of gas if I had to, but I usually refill before 300 miles. I've done the trip from Boise to Ogden at night in mid-winter, while it was snowing, with the whole family aboard. And I pay for the roads every time I fill up, which the current charging infrastructure isn't set up to do. So I'm not asking the electric to do anything that I haven't already done with my other cars.I hear what you are saying but you also need to be a bit realistic. You are not going to find comparable requirements in a gas driven vehicle either.
you have to give credit to Elon Musk though....he has become a billionaire despite none of his businesses ever making a profit on their own....
Never say never. Battery technology is always improving, and charging infrastructure will follow as more electric cars hit the road. The Chinese may decide that electric is the way to go, then electrics will be as cheap or cheaper than gasoline cars.I will buy an electric car when, and only when:
I can buy a used one with 50k miles ...
As things currently stand, I think that means never.
Anyways, I think it's weird that people can be so pessimistic about electric cars. I feel like Space X / Blue Origin / etc have shown that once private companies get involved, technologies can progress incredibly fast. I'm not saying electric cars are the best thing ever right now, but man, there's so much cool stuff that a cleaner, more distributed grid backed by more efficient batteries is going to enable that I don't see how you can not be excited by what the next ~20 years are going to bring. I'm glad Volvo is throwing their hat in the ring and helping move things along.
High performance? Electric and hybrid motors are already lapping the gas guzzlers. I am actually excited to see what the possiblities are with these motors. With Tesla sedans already doing 0-60 in 2.28 sec...just wow.I guess that I will need to buy my high performance gas guzzling monsters while I still can. What do I need to do to offset that carbon footprint?