Remember that if an EV has a range of 200 miles that means you can only travel 75-85 miles away from home since you need power to get back and a margin for error or a detour.

Well, that's only if you aren't running the air..or heat...or listening to the radio...or have the headlights on. God forbid you need to drive 150 miles on a muggy summer night and you need the radio to keep you awake and alert.

The pending changes in our energy infrastructure resulting from 'battery cost and capacity' appear to be eluding a lot of people here.

It goes way beyond cars. Only the timeline is in doubt, not the outcome.

We Generate our electricity from OTHER sources of power.

Batteries are simply a VERY expensive "fuel tank" for power that has been generated from other sources.

All that "pending changes" are theoretical and about as reliable as Elon Musk production estimates. What's eluding you is that these supposed pending changes will cost big buck to do and YOU will be paying for the equipment, retooling, and system upgrades.
As an example, back around 1970 LILCO promised cheaper power once they built a nuclear plant on Long Island NY. Instead, the LILCO customers had 3% rate increase for 30 years to fund the building and decommissioning of the plant but the power rate never went down one penny.
The promised rate reductions you are wishing for is akin to "I will still respect you in the morning" or, for the USA folks, “If you like your (health care) plan, you can keep your plan,”.

Anyone surprised?

Will the Roadster have "Autopilot" ?

and will it seek out big red fire trucks?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1516685687.jpg

Yikes.

Clearly the Tesla had a BAL of .05.

Edit: I found the driver:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Rodriguez.png

... and they don't last forever regardless of the advertising hype. How many charges before the batteries get tired?

These cares will be true "appliances". I can't see how it would make any sense to keep one longer than 5 years.
That's not a bad thing if you know that going in but don't kid yourself, they'll be just as expensive as owning any gas car in the end. (probably more)

It will be interesting to see what actually happens in the real world.

Having said all that. I think it's only a matter of time before most of us will own a plug in electric car.
And I can't wait to see what MB & Porsche comes up with.

I like how Tesla has pushed the rest of them along.

Another of Musk's promises recounted as the vaporware it always was...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/29/steve-wozniak-i-dont-believe-anything-elon-musk-or-tesla-says/

The new all electric Porsche looks cool. I just wonder how much the German vehicles will cost without the billions of tax subsidies Tesla received. They will have to be priced competitively, at least within the market price range.

Zero doubt, every major manufacturer world wide will be bringing out an plug in electric, and hybrids. There is a place for both, just not in my garage.

TO be clear, the ONLY competitive advantage of electric cars is found in the bureaucratic cost of petrol cars.

That is, with the CAFE standards ever tightening, the sales of electric cars buy the manufacturers bureaucratic credits. But on their own, electric cars are much less efficient machines to manufacture. --electric cars consume massive resources to build, and then use motive power often generated by carbon-based fuels. This is essentially gaming the CAFE standards; laundering the massive inefficiencies.

In related news, the competition is gearing up, I mean charging up.

Cummins acquires Johnson Matthey’s automotive battery business
Posted February 12, 2018
https://chargedevs.com/newswire/cummins-acquires-johnson-mattheys-automotive-battery-business/
https://chargedevs.com/wp-content/up...g-1-1000px.jpg

AND the massive amount of money the feds throw at you to buy one. When that well runs dry it will be game over.

Yea, oil isn't subsidized. :rolleyes:

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/10/6/16428458/us-energy-subsidies
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Fk-z...comparison.jpg

lg chem batt technology will allow for approx. 3600 full discharges for the life of the batt.

Being taxed less ≠ subsidized.

Imagine if every day I punch you in the stomach and take $10 from your wallet. Then I give $5 to a friend. I do this every day for years. Then one day I only take $8, I still give my friend $5, and he screams: "No fair! You're GIVING him money!"

You are wasting your breath. I've tried to explain this to him (and the others here who think "big oil" takes more subsidies than renewables) several times. They are simply uninformed and apparently like to stay that way.

Botom line: Renewables as a whole get WAY more in direct (cash) AND indirect (tax) subsidies than "big oil" has ever received. They also seem to forget that "big oil" actually pays taxes, to the tune of billions of dollars.

Some very interesting ramblings. There's a nice video on this page, worth watching:

https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/11/the-church-of-elon-musk/

If social is the big "thing" today, it appears that AI might be the big thing tomorrow. I'd like to delve into it more. Seems fascinating.

Musk rambles on about government on Mars, too. Something for everyone :)

Does he ever sleep?