Featured August EV Sales

Wasn't speaking on Tesla, and the Model S and X in those photos are far from @bisco's "smaller prices".

 

I'm sure it's all photoshopped.




.

 

And a F150 for half, or even less, the price of a Model X can tow twice the amount of the Tesla.

My point above is that most that could support owning a BEV aren't going to see it as a replacement for their ICE car. The current public charging infrastructure and their own concerns will limit their view of a BEV to that of a local only car, and will have the ICE truck or SUV for their towing needs. Considering the current infrastructure and BEV costs, I think that is fine for making progress in plug in adoption.

Tesla is way ahead of everybody else in terms of charging and capabilities, and I think it's great they have tow ratings* for their actual cars, but the short range Model 3 that directly competes with the Bolt isn't available at this time, and any potential sub $30k car they might offer is years off.

*Does anyone know if Tesla is using SAE J2807 to determine the tow ratings or not?

 

Would it be in the Owner's Manual?

Bob Wilson

 

Checked the F150 2018 manual, and it does specify the SAE standard.
The Model X one doesn't.
Checked the Model S first, and the current manual says no towing.

 

Of course some folks just do it. Source: Tesla Model X Easily Tows a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner Down Australian Runway

Bob Wilson

 

I'e been on the rope towing a 727 down a runway. If it is flat enough, a group rope pull can do that.

I've also towed a 20 foot boat and trailer 50 miles with a 1.6 litre Alfa from the 1966 era. More impressively, I got them out of the water with that little engine.

 

The Tesla isn't carrying any of the jet's weight.

 

Update:

So it turns out the lizard pack fixes started with the 24 kWh Leaf batteries were real and sustained in the 30 kWh Leaf batteries, so we got a free battery replacement in our Leaf for reasons virtual and not real.

Just a few months ago (shortly after our battery replacement) Nissan released a firmware update of the Leaf's Lithium Battery Controller for the 30 kWh vehicles manufactured from December 2015 to August 2017. Further testing (see link) shows that most or all of the reported excess degradation (compared to 24 kWh lizard packs) was the result of instrumentation error rather than reduction in actual energy holding capacity of the 30 kWh batteries.

30 kWh Nissan Leaf firmware update to correct capacity reporting - FlipTheFleet

This portends significantly better news for the 2018 and 2019 40 kWh Leaf batteries without active BMS.

 

That is still bad. My Rav has 68k miles with 6 years from manufacturer's date. 5.5 years in service.... lose only 5%.

 

Yeah, not as good as active BMS for sure. But only point was that essentially the same as prior lizard packs which is a big improvement and keeps the Leaf an excellent second vehicle for many, especially for reasons of cost.

To your topic, although the Rav EV has active BMS and superior battery capacity longevity, the cost was much higher per kWh (subsides and corporate losses backed out). Hence why only a few of these were made and Toyota had no intention of continuing to sell these after a quite limited batch.

 

I don't think the cost was why Toyota didn't renew the contract with Tesla.

 

To be clear, was saying that they were not interested in passing on the true cost to the customer so would only built so many. (trying not to get into other reasons they even put it out in the first place like CARB)

 

I figured it was 'not invented in Japan.'

Bob Wilson

 

Like the hydrogen FCEV.
The Mirai was the Rav4 EV replacement.