What are the cons in buying a Telsa?

[Jazzy]

What cons can you think of?

 

[Lamb]

There are probably a ton of cons...

High Price
High Price to Repair
Expensive battery replacement

Those are just off the top of my head.

 

[Albion]

Have we noticed that in addition to the short driving range before you'd need a recharge, the lack of available charging stations, the time that that process takes, the dangerous nature of the batteries, and of course the high cost of the vehicles in the first place...

no advocate ever mentions what it costs to recharge your car when it runs low on power, if and when you can make it to a recharging station that's convenient to the highway? I don't know, but I'm going to assume it's not free--not in an era when even the air for your tires comes with a charge of a couple of bucks at almost every gas station.

 

[Josiah]

There are probably a ton of cons...

High Price
High Price to Repair
Expensive battery replacement

Those are just off the top of my head.

Also...

+ Don't work well in cold weather
+ Limited range.
+ Typically NOT low carbon or "green" since the electricity they need is typically generated by burning fossil fuels.
+ Lithium is a very rare commodity
+ "Pencils out" only because tax payers subsidize rich people buying them.


My brother loves his Tesla... and he can charge it at work (FOR FREE!) via solar energy his company put out on the parking lot. And his income meant he could take full advantage of the government subsidy.



.

 

[tango]

What cons can you think of?

The price of buying one, the price of batteries if they need replacing, the planning if you want to drive further than the range of the car.

From what I've read the build quality isn't as good as you'd hope, given the price.

Over the air updates mean features can be added but also means features can be taken away. Who knows how long it might be before your car becomes a subscription service?

 

[Lamb]

I read an article yesterday about a couple who bought a pickup truck that was electric and they went to haul something and they had to constantly stop to recharge the battery. They weren't told ahead of time that if they were going to actually use the truck to haul that it would reduce their mileage per battery charge!! No thank you.

 

[tango]

I read an article yesterday about a couple who bought a pickup truck that was electric and they went to haul something and they had to constantly stop to recharge the battery. They weren't told ahead of time that if they were going to actually use the truck to haul that it would reduce their mileage per battery charge!! No thank you.

In a situation like this it doesn't seem surprising that the battery range would diminish, so it's perhaps not really an oversight that they weren't explicitly told about it.

If you tow something heavy you get lower fuel economy in a regular gas-powered vehicle. If you drive like a F1 driver you get lower fuel economy. If you drive up lots of big hills you get lower fuel economy. Lower fuel economy means fewer miles per tank of gas. It doesn't take a genius to figure that if the car is powered by a battery the same things result in lower fuel economy and that means fewer miles per battery recharge.

 

[Albion]

In this case, the range was about 100 miles, as I recall. In many instances, that would render the idea of taking a trip while pulling a small trailer or its equivalent almost impossible for most people.

 

[tango]

In this case, the range was about 100 miles, as I recall. In many instances, that would render the idea of taking a trip while pulling a small trailer or its equivalent almost impossible for most people.

What was the range without the trailer, and how big was the trailer?

ICE vehicle manufacturers at least have some kinda-sorta standards to quote even if they don't mean a whole lot. I think my car is rated 19/26mpg for city/highway with an average of 21. My average over the last few years has been a whisker under 23, but if I'm overtaking up the side of a mountain it goes to more like 3.

EV manufacturers sometimes seem to have taken broadband providers skill of quoting "up to (speed)" and ramping it up a notch or two.

 

[Fritz Kobus]

In this case, the range was about 100 miles, as I recall. In many instances, that would render the idea of taking a trip while pulling a small trailer or its equivalent almost impossible for most people.

Not impossible at all. In fact pulling a small trailer with an EV is the best option--if, and only if, that trailer houses a substantial electrical generator that can be constantly run to keep the EV well charged, especially if one wants to use AC in the summer or have heat in the winter.

Yeah, AC and heater are using the same batteries as the engine. Have to think that reduces the EV range to about the local grocery store.

EVs are a waste IMO.

 

[Joshua1Eight]

The only con I can think of is that I can’t afford one.

One major con would be if you can’t charge at home. If you have a home and can charge in your garage, then it’s great. You just charge through the night. But if you live in an apartment and can’t charge through the night, then you have you charge up at a Tesla super charging station. That can be annoying, especially if the charging stations in your city are really busy.

The best thing to do is listen to people who actually own a Tesla. People who have never owned one, or haven’t done any research on it, typically don’t know what they’re talking about. The only thing holding me back right now is the outrageous price. I wouldn’t be able to afford the monthly payments.

 

[Joshua1Eight]

In this case, the range was about 100 miles, as I recall. In many instances, that would render the idea of taking a trip while pulling a small trailer or its equivalent almost impossible for most people.

I’m pretty sure it’s more than 100 miles.

 

[Albion]

I’m pretty sure it’s more than 100 miles.

Well, now you've gone and made me look up the report I was referring to.

As I indicated in the earlier post, I was going by what I had remembered reading, but if you take a look at the following link, you'll see that my memory was surprisingly good in this case. LOL

Doc's FidoSysop Archive « Fidonet BBS Access Since 1991

Welcome to Doc’s FidoSysop Archive, my little piece of cyberspace. DocsPlace started off in 1991 as a front end for my Fidonet BBS in 1998 after upgrading providing net access via www and telnet. It's still online today 31 years later which is a long milestone!

www.docsplace.org

 

[tango]

Well, now you've gone and made me look up the report I was referring to.

As I indicated in the earlier post, I was going by what I had remembered reading, but if you take a look at the following link, you'll see that my memory was surprisingly good in this case. LOL

Doc's FidoSysop Archive « Fidonet BBS Access Since 1991

Welcome to Doc’s FidoSysop Archive, my little piece of cyberspace. DocsPlace started off in 1991 as a front end for my Fidonet BBS in 1998 after upgrading providing net access via www and telnet. It's still online today 31 years later which is a long milestone!

www.docsplace.org

From the article it looks like the truck weighs approx 8000lb and the trailer was about 6000lb. The range dropped from a quoted 314 miles to somewhere more like 100 miles.

As the article says it's not unreasonable to expect a truck to be able to do truck things but it's also not unreasonable to expect that when you double the weight of your combo your fuel economy goes down. I'll bet that if they had towed it with a gas-powered truck the fuel economy would have taken a huge hit. My gut instinct (based on never having towed anything heavy) is that it seems like more of a drop than I'd expect.

Of course when "refuel" means sitting at a charger for a couple of hours rather than standing at the pump for 10 minutes it changes the dynamic.

Now I'm curious, maybe I'll try to remember to ask my friends what happens to the fuel economy on their oversized SUV when they use it to pull their camper.

 

[Albion]

From the article it looks like the truck weighs approx 8000lb and the trailer was about 6000lb. The range dropped from a quoted 314 miles to somewhere more like 100 miles.

As the article says it's not unreasonable to expect a truck to be able to do truck things but it's also not unreasonable to expect that when you double the weight of your combo your fuel economy goes down. I'll bet that if they had towed it with a gas-powered truck the fuel economy would have taken a huge hit. My gut instinct (based on never having towed anything heavy) is that it seems like more of a drop than I'd expect.

Of course when "refuel" means sitting at a charger for a couple of hours rather than standing at the pump for 10 minutes it changes the dynamic.

Now I'm curious, maybe I'll try to remember to ask my friends what happens to the fuel economy on their oversized SUV when they use it to pull their camper.

"The approximate weight of the loaded trailer was a bit over 6,000 lbs, a standard load to tow. "

"The couple spent an estimated 10 to 20 hours charging their Rivian during the cross-country trip."

 

[tango]

"The approximate weight of the loaded trailer was a bit over 6,000 lbs, a standard load to tow. "

It may be considered a standard towing load but still nearly doubles the weight of what is driving.

Even at its most basic, F=ma. If you double the mass you double the force needed for the same acceleration. If you use a gas powered vehicle to tow something that weighs 75% of the original vehicle you'll take a hit to the fuel economy too.

"The couple spent an estimated 10 to 20 hours charging their Rivian during the cross-country trip."

Yes, they recharged lots of times.

 

[Albion]

If you double the mass you double the force needed for the same acceleration. If you use a gas powered vehicle to tow something that weighs 75% of the original vehicle you'll take a hit to the fuel economy too.

SO,.,.I guess the relevant questions are these:

1. Does a comparable gas-powered truck get only 100 miles to a full tank of gas when pulling the same load on a highway?

and

2. Does it require the better part of an hour to refill the truck's power source each 100 miles or so of travel if it's a gas-powered vehicle?

 

[tango]

SO,.,.I guess the relevant questions are these:

1. Does a comparable gas-powered truck get only 100 miles to a full tank of gas when pulling the same load on a highway?

and

2. Does it require the better part of an hour to refill the truck's power source each 100 miles or so of travel if it's a gas-powered vehicle?

1. Presumably not

2. Definitely not. Hence comments from me and others about the planning required if you want to drive further than the battery range.

 

[atpollard]

I’m pretty sure it’s more than 100 miles.

About 300 miles is typical for a new EV on a full charge (without a trailer) … about 10 hours at typical city driving.

The issue becomes time to recharge:

• Overnight at home
• hours at a commercial charging station
• less than an hour if you purchased a vehicle with the fast-charge option and can locate a fast charge station.

 

[atpollard]

Here is an interesting fact …
We have a client that wants to add an EV “gas station” to his Auto Dealership complex. The 30 proposed chargers require enough electricity that the power company is talking about locating an electric power generating station on the site just to meet the demand for the EV fast chargers.