Will You Buy Electric?

Not any time soon.

Remember those cars cost $100K.

Illinois' Section of Route 66 to Get Electric Charging Stations

If not for 3 growing boys, I'd be a good candidate for one. 12 mile commute each day.

Extra car to drive. But, the cost is too much for me to justify.

Someday,they'll be cheap enough for me. Not yet.

I was just running some numbers...if you live near one of his supercharge stations the charge is free for life. that adds up, interesting stuff

I suppose if I could depend on the battery to provide heat at least as long as a tank of gas would, if stuck in a snowdrift on lakeshore drive, I would buy one.

For information on duration of heat for EV's:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/522496/electric-vehicles-out-in-the-cold/

Good point. I remember the joy of driving air cooled VWs during New England ice and snow storms trying to keep my windshield clear enough to see the road ahead. And what about AC, stuck in city traffic on a 90º afternoon. How long will that battery charge last?

what got me thinking was the amount of money spent on fuel in a year, 5 years, ...the life of the car. if you live near a free recharge....that's some serious coin that doesn't go out the exhaust pipe! if you currently spend 5 grand a year on gas, it can really add up on the life of ownership. enough to offset the purchase price of the car 10 years of free fuel is quite a bit

As was pointed out by kramarat, much of the electricity that is/will be used to power these EV's is generated by COAL.

And that doesn't take into account the pollution caused during the building of the car and the batteries.

I'm just old school. 3 vehicles, all with V-8s.

not all but some, yeshttp://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger note: solar canopies

In my locale, gas is still over US$3/gallon, and electricity ~$0.15/kwh unless the lake is low, in which case ~$0.30/kwh on diesel gensets. I drive about 15 miles/day. I could think about electric, but it might not compute if I retire southward in a few years.

At this point, most electric cars are about as exciting to drive as taking a morning commute on public transportation. I don't want a car just to get from point A to point B. I live near the mountains and I want a car that will let me enjoy a weekend drive through the little mountain tourist towns without having to worry about the charge remaining or the line of cars stuck behind me as I climb a steep curvy grade.

The Tesla is the only 'fun' electric car I'd consider, but for the price of one of those I can buy a sporty gas powered car (actually I just did) and a lifetime of gasoline for it.

"The Tesla is the only 'fun' electric car I'd consider, but for the price of one of those I can buy a sporty gas powered car (actually I just did) and a lifetime of gasoline for it."

So true!

A friend let me drive his Tesla and it was a gas (pun intended) to drive, but you can buy a whole lot of sports car for almost half that price and have room to actually carry more than just a lunch bag for luggage.

Tesla makes great cars, but people should realize that the target market are people with large amounts of disposable income.

With you living close to mountains, there is another thing to consider. The power consumed going up a hill is much greater than on level ground. Remember that not only are you pushing that two tons, you are also lifting it up each hill. That is going to shorten your distance between recharges.

Maybe in about 15 years, I might buy a 2014 model if I can find one with a good battery, cheep. Do you think they will have charging stations in Hell by then?

Why would you need a charger? Isn't it all downhill from there?

I hope so. A former girlfriend had a T-shirt that read "When Hell freezes over, I'll ski there too"

But there are a lot of good intentions I have to go through on the way there.

There are some EV units that have lifetime a warranted battery such as the Hyundai line.

I am not endorsing any particular brand however I believe sooner or later the EV manufacturers will have to provide much improved battery warranties if they want to sell the vehicles.

The cost of replacing a battery every 3-4 years to me is prohibitive.

I have always wondered what "Lifetime Warranty" really means

• The lifetime of the original purchaser ( in my case, not very long)
• The lifetime of the car, regardless how many times it is sold
• The lifetime of the battery, when the battery dies, the warranty is void.

II'll go with the last one.

Two good consideration were brought up. Heat and AC both very important. Another point is size. That car is tiny with zero utility I bet if they mad it big enough to transport 'stuff' or people that 400 miles would drop considerably. There may be a day electric will win but its not any time soon. For now we have hybrids and low displacement high boost turbo direct injected engines for the win.

The Tesla S gets about 300 miles per charge. The high performance 691 hp model drops to 253 miles.

That's not 400 miles, but it is a large car and the technology is still young. Still, that's five times better than the Chevy Volt was.

I read where the next version of the Chevy Volt chose not to go to a tiny turbocharged engine for charging-driving, but instead used an aluminum engine that seems larger, but has more low speed torque, and as such expects that it will produce the same electric power at a lower engine speed, lowering fuel consumption, and vibration-noise. Time will tell.