Why so much hype over Tesla Motor's?? There's no where near enough electrical infrastructure to support this?!

Question

Electric vehicles - no matter how efficient - will require large amounts of power from the grid, above and beyond what we have available today. How much pollution will be generated from coal to produce electricity - this isn't a good alternative, just media-brainwashing and public misdirection at its best!! I Eco-green friendly brain-washing at its best!!

Answer 1

(sigh) so it starts. Congratulations--you're the first I've seen to come up with this particular fake argument.  Your boss at Exxon,  Texaco, or whatever should give you a bonus.

Here's the answer. First--look at history. In 1909 there were a few thousand cars-no filling stations , etc. No infrastructure to support millions of gas powered cars.  That was the Year the Model T was introduced--and in 15 years there were millions of cars and a filling station on practically every street corner.

And it set off a massive surge of economic growth as people tore down livery stables and built service stations and garages to maintain cars.  Hundreds of thousand s of jobs, incresed productivity.

Same thing now--replacing the outmoded infrastructure we have now with what we need for electrics will create opportunities for entrepreneurs all over the place. They will start new businesses, create jobs, and spur economic growth (or recovery, given the current mess).

Now--as to the "pollution" fake argument.  If someone is driving an electric, they are not driving a gas-powered car. That eliminates the fossil fuels and carbon emissions from that source. Now, even if you burn coal to produce the electricity for an electric car, you cut emissions in half.  Why? Because (if you had bothered to get the facts you'd know this) electric motors are about twice as efficient as internal combustion engines. So you need half as much power input.

Finallly--since you think you know so much about infrastructure, did it ever occur to you that we can change how the electricity is roduced--by build ing nuclear, wind, and solar power generation plants. ALLL of which are now cheaper to operate than coal powered plants.

Oh, duh---didn't thinkof that?  Well, a lot of very smart businesspeople already have--and in Silicon Vally alone last year put $3.5 billion into  new start-ups and technology development to do exactly that.

They (and I, since I''m investing in advanced technology) will be getting rich in the new economic boom while you are whining about "infrastructure."  

Where did you think the infrastructure we nave now came from, genius? Your Fairy Godmother?  People BUILT it--and made money adncreated jobs in the process.

Answer 2

to true to true

Answer 3

Tesla is for the rich. 150,000$ they need make a cheap car.

Answer 4

The case for all of the alternative mobile energy sources is clouded by the urban-rural division in the U.S.   The alternative approaches, ex natural gas,  to gasoline will never be adaptive to the rural sections of the country.  At least not in the lifetime of most adults.  Without getting into this single idea,  the Green movement should, I submit,  select the best compromise alternative.   There are many bright Green thinkers; however, I just would like to see one alternative selected by the Green community that is its "gold standard."  Which would include a factorial analysis of the consumer cost to adopt.   Plus some type of realistic time line for the general population to transition over to the "gold standard" fuel source.  As it stands, there are just too many ideas floating in the debate even among the Greens.  I hope there is movement  of Green strategists from cognition to an action plan that conforms with economic common sense.

Answer 5

It's a system.  You also build nuclear, wind, and solar power plants.  Of course one doesn't make sense without the other.  That's not the issue.

Answer 6

A major complaint against electric cars is that they lack power, speed, and range.  The Tesla answers all of these questions, though the price is way out of most people's range.  I do agree that it is not a practicle alternative right now, but it does show technological progress towards making electric cars mainstream.  In the future, these cars may be charged by solar power at the owner's house rather than pulling power off of the grid.  Right now, you are right, they are just hype.

Answer 7

There is plenty of spare, unused capacity at night, when electric vehicles will be charged.  By the time there are enough of them to actually impact our capacity, we will be charging them with photo-voltaic panels.  You are mixing two issues - Ecology and the fact that we are an oil-driven economy that is about to run out of oil.

Answer 8

Your first statement is not necessarily correct.  Studies have shown that even if a large percentage of people were to purchase plug-in hybrids and EVs, if they recharged them at off-peak hours (i.e. overnight), it wouldn't require many new power plants to meet the demand.

http://gas2.org/2008/03/14/plug-in-hybri...

You could have a smart meter monitor the power grid and only charge the batteries during these off-peak hours.

As for your second point, even when most of the power is produced by coal, EVs and plug-ins still produce lower CO2 emissions than gas cars.  And the benefit is that of course we can reduce their emissions as much as we want by making the power grid greener.

Electric vehicles are going to be the mode of transportation of the future, and for good reason.

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/electr...

Answer 9

We won't need much of an increase in the capacity of the grid to support a car that costs over $100,000.00 each, because they won't sell that many of them. If Tesla Motors wants to help reduce emissions they will need to mass produce an affordable car so that the average consumer can afford them. Other manufacturers will most likely beat Tesla in that regard. Tesla is focusing on the high end with the Roadster. They are also developing a family car for around $50,000.00.

Cars like the Aptera will be more affordable to the average commuter. They have a totally electric version and a 300mpg hybrid. They plan to start selling them in California first(2008-2009) for under $30,000.00

http://www.aptera.com/details.php

Answer 10

There is not enough electricity now, but if a large number of Nuclear plants are built over the next two decades there will be a surplus of electricity. Nuclear plants cannot be throttled down at night when demand is low like conventional boilers. So it is good to see battery technology continuing to evolve while the grid catches up.