It's now possible for people driving Telsa's electric cars to drive on I-5 from San Diego to WA and the Canadian border. The article also says recharging stations are also complete on US-101 too.
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/tesla-owners-can-drive-from-mexico-to-canada-for-free/33059 (http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/tesla-owners-can-drive-from-mexico-to-canada-for-free/33059)
Take note that 101 services end north of SF. Fuggedaboudit for Redwoods, Oregon Coast, the dunes, Willapa Bay and Port Angeles.
200 miles. Wow, like I have nothing better to do than drive a 400 mile round trip to charge up an electric car. Until Tesla shows they are SERIOUS about making charging stations as common as Shells and Subways, they're just a bad joke for everyone who isn't within a few convenient miles of a charging station and I do mean a FEW. My best friend's brother's wife works for the LAUSD and has a 16 mile commute that takes two hours. Typical SoCal antheap...LOL!
Gas. It's everywhere. Besides who wants a half charge anymore than they want a half tank when it's road trippin' time?
Rick
Meh, it fills a niche market. I work in Silicon Valley where there are probably more Teslas per capita than anywhere else in the world. Most big companies here (including mine) have free charging stations at work. And most people rich enough for a Tesla seem to be rich enough to install their own charging station at home....
Quote from: citrus on October 30, 2013, 09:23:14 PM
Meh, it fills a niche market. I work in Silicon Valley where there are probably more Teslas per capita than anywhere else in the world. Most big companies here (including mine) have free charging stations at work. And most people rich enough for a Tesla seem to be rich enough to install their own charging station at home....
That's all fine and dandy so long as the Tesla driver stays around home. Out here in the West we have long distances between metro areas. A Tesla is not my idea of a good car for traveling here and going to the PNW, Boise, Reno. Vegas, SLC, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, the Bay Area and the Southland. 400. 500,.600 miles at a crack is how we roll out here!
Rick
Quote from: citrus on October 30, 2013, 09:23:14 PM
Meh, it fills a niche market. I work in Silicon Valley where there are probably more Teslas per capita than anywhere else in the world. Most big companies here (including mine) have free charging stations at work. And most people rich enough for a Tesla seem to be rich enough to install their own charging station at home....
Agreed. I've seen a grand total of two here around Chicagoland. Even with the range, I'd say it's more of a toy for the rich than anything else. Apparently they are still having problems with the shielding on the battery.
It's a few years away, but at least there's some plans for more recharging stations. Better yet (for Tesla, that is), how about faster battery swapping?
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-tesla-and-elon-musk-are-building-an-ev-infrastructure-feature
QuoteElectric cars face daunting roadblocks on the entrance ramp to mainstream acceptance, including matching or beating a conventional car's performance, stretching the driving range between recharging stops, cutting the time required for a recharge from several hours to a few minutes, and, most notably, lowering sticker shock to somewhere below electrocution.
QuoteThe financial aspects are more complex than the mechanical details. A Tesla S owner will pay $60 to $80 for a swap, plus the cost of shipping the battery back to a Tesla service center if going back to the same Supercharger station to re-swap is inconvenient. But the real return on ÂTesla's investment of $500,000 per Supercharger station will come from the valuable (and saleable) zero-emissions credits Tesla earns in California. During the first half of this year, Tesla earned $137 million selling its ZEV credits, more than enough to fund the 237 Supercharger stations planned for the U.S. and Canada.
Hoping not to get too far off topic here, but I've been talking with some engineer friends who've mentioned interest in buying an electric car in the future because they believe that electric cars will have less need for repairs than a gas-powered car. Of course, it's a theoretical discussion and they won't actually but one until the design significantly improves, the cost comes down considerably, and power stations become more frequent.
As far as current users, I can see that many families are multi-car. In my house, I have a car and so does my wife. We each use our cars to travel relatively locally to work, school, etc. But the long trips are almost always the whole family and we take the minivan. So, in 2 car families, it doesn't seem terribly impractical to replace a car with an electric car for local commuting trips, if they can take advantage of free recharging.
And if its really the realm of the rich, they likely have more than one car, anyway.