Toyota Owners Jump Ship to Tesla

And how many car "buyers" complete the term of their 60 plus months loan before trading in their car? This is why leasing is popular, only pay for the time you have the car 3 years or so. Also the manufacture gets to sell it twice!

 

Leasing is definitely the way to go with new technology.
When a company ONLY offers leases and not purchases, it seems to be a ‘trial phase’. Which is fine, and frankly good in the case of hydrogen.

I do expect the GLC FCell to outsell the Mirai. Simply because SUVs sell better than small cars.
Since Mercedes has been working on this since 1994, and CA CARB offers such a large amount of credits I don’t see any reason Mercedes should gain what benefit they can from dumping so much money down this pit.

 

how is hydrogen gonna get me to florida and back? bev's are hard enough, i'd be better off with a dirigible.

 

Fuel cost per mile:

	Technology	$/mile	Fuel $ / unit	Miles / unit
1	battery EV	$0.025	$0.10	Ioniq EV
2	regular gas	$0.049	$2.65	Prius Prime
3	diesel	$0.086	$3.02	Cruze
4	premium gas	$0.092	$3.23	BMW i3-REx
5	fuel cell	$0.240	$16.00	Clarity FCV

• 10x cost - lowest, battery EV, to highest, fuel cell

Bob Wilson

 

in that case, i'll just tow a gas generator behind my model y.

 

bisco, what is the minimum range you would like/need your Model Y to be?

 

i only need 100 miles (for 60 minimum in winter) if it's not the trip car. it we were going to travel in it, as charging infrastructure stands now, 600 miles. (but maybe could work out more stops)

 

There are 600 mile gaps in the Supercharger network where you travel?

 

I can see where fleet users that have cars and heavy trucks that travel the same routes every day that anything electric or fuel cell will work out fine with out range anxiety.

By the way, if you are driving a BEV or fuel cell type vehicle and you run out of whatever powers your vehicle does your roadside assistance work? Maybe just a towing job.

 

I've been driving BEVs for eight years. My family's BEVs have been on trips to California, Missouri, Alabama, and many trips in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

I have never run out of fuel in a BEV (I have in gas cars). But yes, if somehow you manage to, roadside will come give you a tow to a charger. On the coasts I have heard AAA has some tow trucks that are equipped to give you a charge.

 

As it stands now, one of the issues with the supercharger network is that they're located on the busiest, mostly highly traveled roads. In CT, I've only seen them in rest areas along the I-95 corridor, which more often than not have several accidents and a half hour of delay associated with each one. Generally the Merritt Parkway is a better choice most of the time, and for where I go it's the more direct route, but no superchargers there.

So when I want to go visit my family, a Tesla would add an extra hour to my round trip time as I'd have to go out of my way to get into more traffic delays just so I could spend time at a supercharger because 300 miles of range isn't quite enough to give any reserve. 400 miles and I could make it there and back without charging and have some reserve even if the battery does lose a bit of capacity after 10 years.

 

Your family doesn't have electricity at their place?

 

When you are traveling that far, you are going to be stopping anyway. You have to stop for gasoline too. You can just charge your car for 15 minutes while you use the facilities. I think the problem is most people unfamiliar with Tesla don't understand how the supercharger system works. The supercharger system works best when you DON'T run your car down to 0% and then charge to 100%. A top every couple of hours and charge for 15 minutes works best.

As far as convenience of supercharger locations, Tesla will always locate them along major thoroughfares. That only makes sense and more are being added (some with solar power) on a monthly basis. For those that want to take the long way and use country backroads, Teslas can also charge at various non-proprietary charging location, even at a 110 outlet (but it will take forever if you want to charge to 100%)

 

it's not the gaps, it is the logistics. for the past 14 years, we have stopped for gas on the njtp, stayed in virginia, stayed in savannah, and stopped for gas in s.carolina.

we do make a few pitstops along the way, 5-10 minutes each. i'm not saying you can't do it, you asked what range i would need. we can make some changes, but not 'i want to drive a bev to florida so bad i'll do anything' type of changes.

 

see my reply to mark. it can be done, but you have to want to do it. and as you always say: swmbo.