odanny
Diamond Member
This guy has owned a brand new Tesla S since 2013, and shares his thoughts. I'll cut and paste part of what he writes about.
As far as cons, there are only two. First, charging times are still a little long when on a road trip. Sure, after driving for 3+ hours, I’m ready to stop, go to the bathroom, and maybe get something to eat. In the time it takes to do all those things, I can charge up for another 3+ hours of travel. However, if I’m in a huge hurry and want to just stop, pee, and get something from a drive-thru, the charging time will frustrate that. But charging times are dropping swiftly. Today, there are 800V cars available that will charge from 10% battery to 80% in about 15 minutes. That is not going to add substantially to the time it takes to travel long distances. Even now, the record for an EV traveling coast-to-coast across the US is under 44.5 hours. Granted, that’s a full 17 hours or so longer than the gas-powered record, but that was set using a specially prepped car with extra gas tanks and travelling at hyperlegal speeds topping 130mph in places. So probably not a reasonable comparison. Safe to say, even today, you can get anywhere you need to be in the continental US in a reasonable amount of time in an EV. But, as mentioned, we will need to keep expanding EV charging infrastructure if we’re going to keep up with consumer demand.
The second con of having an EV is dealing with bigotry, especially from those who fear change. Video of diesel pickup trucks maliciously coal-rolling electric-car drivers are easy to find. Some self-proclaimed “car guys” proudly proclaim they’ll never own an EV because they somehow believe that an exhaust note is awesome. Sadly, they don’t realize that that noise is just wasted energy. Why they would prefer converting the gas they’re burning into noise and heat instead of torque and horsepower escapes me, but they apparently can’t let go of the historical characteristics of performance cars. That’s despite the fact that the quickest (0–60 mph) production car in history is now an electric car or that the record-holder for the quickest sprint up Pike’s Peak is also an electric car. The future is electric, but some are resistant to let the past go.
Tesla charging stations
As far as cons, there are only two. First, charging times are still a little long when on a road trip. Sure, after driving for 3+ hours, I’m ready to stop, go to the bathroom, and maybe get something to eat. In the time it takes to do all those things, I can charge up for another 3+ hours of travel. However, if I’m in a huge hurry and want to just stop, pee, and get something from a drive-thru, the charging time will frustrate that. But charging times are dropping swiftly. Today, there are 800V cars available that will charge from 10% battery to 80% in about 15 minutes. That is not going to add substantially to the time it takes to travel long distances. Even now, the record for an EV traveling coast-to-coast across the US is under 44.5 hours. Granted, that’s a full 17 hours or so longer than the gas-powered record, but that was set using a specially prepped car with extra gas tanks and travelling at hyperlegal speeds topping 130mph in places. So probably not a reasonable comparison. Safe to say, even today, you can get anywhere you need to be in the continental US in a reasonable amount of time in an EV. But, as mentioned, we will need to keep expanding EV charging infrastructure if we’re going to keep up with consumer demand.
The second con of having an EV is dealing with bigotry, especially from those who fear change. Video of diesel pickup trucks maliciously coal-rolling electric-car drivers are easy to find. Some self-proclaimed “car guys” proudly proclaim they’ll never own an EV because they somehow believe that an exhaust note is awesome. Sadly, they don’t realize that that noise is just wasted energy. Why they would prefer converting the gas they’re burning into noise and heat instead of torque and horsepower escapes me, but they apparently can’t let go of the historical characteristics of performance cars. That’s despite the fact that the quickest (0–60 mph) production car in history is now an electric car or that the record-holder for the quickest sprint up Pike’s Peak is also an electric car. The future is electric, but some are resistant to let the past go.
Tesla charging stations