People don't want to wait 30 minutes. 5 minutes and I start getting impatient for a fill up.
yeah but after driving for 240+ miles you need a break....30 minutes is perfect.
yep.....and for day to day driving, there is plenty of range. all you have to do is plug it in when you get home, and its ready by the next morning. I've had one on reservation for a while, but I actually thought about cancelling it and buying a used Roadster. I saw one on the tesla owners forums for ~50k
Thought the Roadsters weren't compatible with the new super charging stations?
People are so hung up on the power generation tech that they're ignoring what dictates that tech.
That's where the power comes from. Batteries still, frankly, suck. We need majot improvements there. No one will argue that an electric motor has far better potential than an ICE, but right now, gasoline/diesel >>>>>> batteries.
You can poopoo away that fact (oh, but you can 80% recharge in 30 minutes if you happen to have one of these stations on your route, ignoring that 80% of short range is even shorter range, and the infrastructure doesn't exist), but it's still the major hurdle for electric vehicles, and why, at the moment, they're really just luxury items.
EVs are more than just luxury items. They are effective vehicles for commuting in. I am seriously considering an electric vehicle for my next car, I commute about 1 mile to work on a road that is unsafe to walk or bike on. An EV would suit 98% of my driving needs perfectly. EVs fit a role the same way a truck, SUV, or van does: they perform one specific function very well, but having another vehicle to round-out the motor-pool capabilities is still a very good idea. No one is going to be effectively driving cross-country in an EV for a while, I don't know of anyone deluded enough to believe that. But how many times does the average person drive for more than 150-200 miles a day? I do that maybe once a month. I take extended road trips 3-4 times per year. Heck, for the fuel savings alone it would probably be more cost effective to rent a car for those trips. TL;DR: EV's are not a luxury item just because they can't do everything an ICE vehicle can do (i.e. range), they have their place and I believe they fit it very well. Edit: from Tesla's website: "A fifty-percent charge in thirty minutes can be achieved with a Tesla Supercharger."
How is a $50k ($70k for the good range) second vehicle anything but a luxury item? Get the cost down to $20k and I can see that argument working.