Problems plaguing Tesla Roadster

No, a better analogy would be if the manufacturer told you that gasoline deteriorates with age, and leaving the car parked with 1/4 tank for two months would gum up the works, and that it was critically essential to add gas to it; and you then ignored that requirement, and negligently left the car, and then complained because your negligence ruined it.

Remember that we're not talking about something that happens overnight, or even in a week. We're talking about a new technology, with new requirements, and these people had weeks to get the cars plugged in as they were told must be done.

Another analogy would be failing to check your oil in a car that you know burns oil.

This is true. EVs are not yet ready for the majority of Americans. But the point you may be missing is that manufacturers, even Nissan, which is presently the highest-volume EV maker, are far from able to supply the majority of Americans.

New technologies always go through an evolution, from extreme niche uses where the old technology would be ponderously expensive or undesirable, to outliers, to forward-thinking people willing to accept some limitations in return for real or perceived benefits which may be monetary or non-monetary, then gradually to the mainstream, and finally, in some cases, to being nearly universal. As this evolution happens, manufacturing starts out very small and expensive, and very gradually increases in volume and decreases in cost. And infrastructure goes from nonexistent to ubiquitous.

EVs are now at the stage where it's no longer just outliers, and forward-thinking people are just starting to buy in. Cost is still higher than gas cars, and there are very real inconveniences which a small but growing number of people are willing to accept.

So, no, EVs are not yet ready for the mainstream, but it's a process which is proceeding rapidly. The present limitations are not inherent to EVs, but merely a consequence of the stage we are in at the moment.

If this is aimed at the Tesla Roadster, it is indeed an exclusive, high-cost car aimed at the fortunate few. But it is not a PR gimmick. It is a well-considered and very smart business plan for a start-up company to break into a market where economies of scale and market share make it virtually impossible for a small, new company to break in with a low-cost, low-profit-margin car that requires high volume sales just to break even.

The Roadster is a showcase for Tesla to demonstrate radical new technology and to prove that it has the engineering and managerial skills to make it in a very competitive and mature market by opening a new niche and gradually pushing that niche wider.

The Tesla Roadster compares favorably to other sports cars, and stands on its own merits. People who love sports cars love the Roadster. The only thing it lacks is the noise. And the pollution. Other than that, it is an outstanding car of excellent value.

Definitely not a PR gimmick.

People in the family-price class will have to wait for Bluestar, in probably two or three years, to get a car from Tesla. Elon Musk announced recently that a $30,000 car will be the next offering from Tesla after the Model X.

 

The NYTimes has a good synopsis:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/a...-Bricking-a-Buzzword.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all

 

Maybe Tesla should change the warning to say something like, "If you don't charge this car for 14 days you will have a BRICK that is very expensive.". Of course, I really don't think that would satisfy everyone.

 

Regarding the bricking problem, the Roadster is a specialty car with special needs.

I'm having trouble understanding the target market, not sure it's car guys in the traditional sense. Traditional car guys worship their cars, know the racing history back to the beginning of the marque, etc.

Traditional car guys know about fuel stabilizer, how to store a car for winter, etc.

In the case of the Roadster, I think it's more early adopters, looking for the latest and greatest. And the latest and greatest could be an iPhone, or the Roadster.

Those folks, for better or worse, it seems to me to have shorter attention spans, as they're constantly seeking the next newest best thing.

Also, Tesla has no racing history, the company doesn't have a tradition of anything, it was founded not by a car guy but the man who brought us PayPal and who has yet to prove that he's...well, a car guy.

The Lotus connection—which Tesla bought straight out—is its only claim to fame. And it's not even theirs, it's borrowed interest.

Meanwhile, Lotus' roots go back to the great Colin Chapman.

Lets see...Elon Musk...Colin Chapman...they don't come from the same place regarding automobile design. Elon Musk is a tech dork with a lot of money. Colin Chapman was...Colin Chapman, an automotive engineer.

Ferdinand Porsche was...Ferdinand Porsche. Enzo Ferrari was...Enzo Ferrari.

Elon Musk is...Elon Musk.

And the Roadster is...the Roadster.

 

When the Tesla Roadster was still in the design phase, and even in early production, I believed, and often said, that its target market was people who wanted a Ferrari but a Ferrari was not quick enough. Electric torque, I often said, allowed an electric car to appeal to people who wanted a car with powerful acceleration.

I wanted an electric car because I hate gasoline. I hate everything about it. But the early design prototype I rode in was too uncomfortable and too noisy (the cooling system, which continues to run even after the car is shut off). I decided to buy the Xebra instead because it was available a couple of years before I'd have been able to get a Roadster if I had ordered one at the time I visited Tesla headquarters and saw and rode in the prototype, and because of the cost difference and comfort.

I continued to say that the Roadster was aimed at sports-car enthusiasts, not EV enthusiasts, even though Tesla's long-term objective was to build an affordable family EV. Their initial offering had to be a hand-built high-performance sports car because that was the market segment they could compete in.

But now that I have my Roadster (which I finally bought because I was tired of the power limitations of the Xebra and I wanted to be able to go on the freeway and drive farther, and because Nissan screwed me over for six months until I finally said the hell with them, and because the 2.5 Roadster I test-drove was worlds above the prototype) I can say that there are two kinds of Roadster owners: The fast-car people and the EV people. As a high-performance sports car, it can hold its own against anything in is price class and can compete on its own merits; and as an EV it's got more power and more range than any other EV available, several times over.

It's an engineering marvel, a joy to drive, and the pinacle of the EV world.

And with 2,500 Roadsters, yes, there will be a few too careless to be bothered with the niceties of its requirements as an electric car, and no, it does not have a history, nor do the company founders have automotive engineering backgrounds, but based on the conversations at the teslamotorsclub forum, the vast majority are very knowledgeable about the car, and care very much about their car, and take pains to take care of their car.

 

The Roadster just doesn't have enough battery capacity to be flogged mercilessly for long periods of time, without concern about recharging. It's that simple. This is not about how quickly it'll go from zero to 60 once or twice.

The idea behind supercars is to get as close as possible to not being power limited. And that includes the size of the "fuel" tank. If you can't drive it hard for a couple hundred or more miles—and I mean 9/10ths—then dump more fuel (or electrons, or whatever) into it and repeat, it's not appealing to car guys, I contend.

It also won't work in a track environment, where a decent number of supercars end up. Didn't some car show kill the battery in, like, 70 miles under track conditions? As I recall, Tesla was going to sue because they were so upset. As a fast car, it might hold its own for a brief period, then it's done.

Finally, I'd say that most car guys—and I—would much rather listen to the ripping sound of a Ferrari V-12, or the snarl of an air cooled 6-cylinder Porsche, than the whine of an electric motor. It's not noise, it's music.

That's where we differ, I guess.

And, as I said before, heritage and the engineering prowess of the company's founder(s) counts for a lot, too. Musk has zero street cred when it comes to that.

 

I "flog" mine pretty hard, and I can drive it for a couple of hours and still have plenty of range left. More than a couple of hours sitting in a car is too much for me.

True. You cannot drive it hard and fast for 200 miles. You can drive it 245 miles at 55 mph. At 70 mph you drop below 200 miles. That's a limitation for road trips. But for me, it's not a road trip car anyway. Not comfortable enough for more than a couple of hours driving (which I CAN do hard) and not much luggage space.

Top Gear drove it on the track for 70 miles. Then they shut it off with LOTS of range still left in it (probably another hundred miles or so) and claimed it had run out of juice. It had not. It was a lie.

Tesla sued because Top Gear LIED about the car running out of juice. Tesla lost the court case because the Judge said that Top Gear is a comedy/entertainment show, not a serious journalism show, and "everybody knows" that what they present is comedy, not factual information.

Yep. We differ there. I hate loud noises. Always have. The quiet "whrrrrr" of my car's electric motor is gentle and soothing.

A car's engineering should speak for itself. Elon Musk didn't design the car. Engineers did. And they do have background and prowess, as demonstrated by the car itself.

Obviously, the Roadster is not for everybody. But it holds its own and it stands on its own merits. To place the founder's street cred above the qualities of the car itself is just cult of personality. The real cred of the founder lies in the finished product. The people you mentioned produced fine cars. Elon Musk and his company and his engineers have produced a fine car. Yesterday some guy driving a Miata asked me for a ride. I took him out for half an hour and he was extremely impressed. He said he is an engineer, or has an engineering background, or something, and he thought the Roadster was a beautifully designed and engineered car.

Criticizing the Roadster on Elon Musk's lack of car background is just silly.