Comments on: Is It Smart to Buy a Hybrid or Electric Car?

By: kent beuchert

kent beuchert — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:06:12 +0000

The Tesla is already obsolete - it uses crappy 1st generation flashlight (!) li ion batteries - 8671 of them!!! Cost; about $30,000
and they will last about 5 yeasr. Battery-only electrics make nosense, have never made any sense, and Tesla proves that to sell these things you need 1) a few friends with more money than sense
2) to bring lawsuits against competitiors like Fisker, who is going to clean tesla’s clock when he launches his plug-in hybrid that looks better, costs less, and can actually take you anywhere you want to go, anyytime you want to go there, which the Tesla simply cannot do.
You also won’t have to replace a $30,000 battery pack in five years -
his willlast more than twice as long and cost less than half as much.
With 50 miles of pure electric driving, the Fisker can easily match the Tesla in terms of gasoline/emission avoidance (95% while commuting), while costing $20K LESS than the much less atractive and impractical (two seater) Tesla. Tesla tried to build a serial plug-in but didn’t have the negineering ability to do so. They have designed virtually nothing on the Tesla except the battery pack. They are pure amateurs - look at the nonsensical idea of theirs : trying to sell their car without a transmission - it would have been half as fast.
Tesla is long on promises and short on delivery. It’s not much of an improvement on the crappy EV-1, a total flop in the marketplace. Tesla is mostly noise and no substance. A totally impractical car.
Either wait for a practical battery or go buy the much better Fisker Karma.

By: Lazy Man and Money

Lazy Man and Money — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:06:08 +0000

Also, you need to have a place to plug the electric cars in. Not everyone has a garage. Many people have to park their away from any existing outlet.

By: Danny Tsang

Danny Tsang — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:06:02 +0000

Hi Kent, thanks for commenting. I agree the battery packs are extremely expensive thats why I don’t think pure electric cars are ready for prime time at this very moment. I do think however that companies like tesla will get them popular. Perhaps its not tesla themselves that’ll put an electric car in every garage but they are making a big push. I think what will happen is if these pure electric cars or hybrids become the norm, battery prices will come down. And yes, that Fisker Karma is absolutely stunning. They win hands down on design, since the tesla roadster is no more than a lotus in terms of design.

By: Lazy Man and Money

Lazy Man and Money — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:06:24 +0000

So what happens when I want to take a six-hour drive to Los Angeles or spend a whole day up in Napa? There needs to be a way to immediately renew your energy supply while on the road. I don’t see how we get around having gas at least as a back-up option. Well maybe if gas stations can swap out my low battery for a full-charged one, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.