[Mgs] OT : Tesla - in the flesh!!

[Aaron Whiteman]

On Feb 27, 2009, at 3:04 PM, Max Heim wrote:

> The factory showroom is about 10 miles from here. I see them driving  
> around
> from time to time.
>
> Personally, I think the world needs a 4-passenger subcompact EV for an
> affordable price, a lot more than it needs a high performance 2-seat
> roadster for $100K. But I know why they did it -- it's the  
> publicity. The
> guys in Berkeley trying to market cheap electric runabouts can't get  
> any
> press.

The other aspect is range.  I won't consider any pure EV at this  
point, because my driving makes them a nogo.  Most of my trips are  
less than 15 miles total, some of them might be as high as 30.  I make  
such a trip once or twice a week (I walk or ride the bus to work).

When I get the chance, I take 'pleasure drives' in the MG, or long  
distance drives to visit my parents.  Such drives can easily exceed  
300 miles a day.   Since these longer drives dominate the miles put on  
the car (30 miles a week is less than 1600 miles a year; I can do that  
in one round trip to the other side of Washington), I need to make my  
car purchases with distance capabilities in mind.

The Tesla, with it's 250 mile range is considered to be a pretty good  
EV.  In the relatively remote place I inhabit, it's not enough.  A  
subcompact would be expected to be able to go 300 or even 500 miles in  
a day with little trouble, but you can't charge a battery like you can  
refill a fuel tank.  With a sportscar, the whole point of it is to be  
pleasurable, so the distance sacrifice is less of an issue.  That's  
why the Volt is so intriguing.  It has all the urban goodness of an  
electric car, with the distance capabilities of a gasoline powered car.

Of course, I expect to be able to drive *my* sportscar on marathon  
drives.  When I drove to Petaluma in 2007, the shortest day was quite  
doable by a Tesla, at 133 miles.  The rest ranged from 230 to 410  
miles per day, for 7 days, with no place to charge during the night.   
Even my camera battery was going dead on me.

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pkcs7-signature which had a name of smime.p7s]