While the difference between zero and hundreds is infinite, it's also the same number to about six significant figures. (350 people per year buying a new car from 3 500 000 000 people is 0.0000001 of the population)
However I was just saying that there would at most be hundreds of new car buyers in the world each year, not that there would be hundreds of New Tesla buyers.
When I googled "cheapest car in the world" the Tata Nano came up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano. I could see a misguided person in that income bracket thinking that stumping up 2 years income to create a taxi service in his village might be a good idea. Certainly India is full of people trying to get you to ride in their Maruti 800 (which is about 4 years income).
]]>1) A Tesla is only "affordable" if you want to put some greenwash on your car usage habits and you would normally buy something like a new BMW 7 series, Mercedes S class, Lexus LS400... 2) Even when you have one, if you want to drive more than 1 full battery charge in a day you have to plan your trip around stopping where the car needs you to stop rather than when you, the driver, want to stop. As a worked example, most members of the Glasgow SF fan group who drive to SF conventions in England choose to stop at Tebay services on the M6. Northbound, this site has a Tesla supercharger (no mention of other EVs though) but Southbound there's nothing for EVs (source being their official website).
]]>We're still early in the hype cycle for ecars, but leveraging elite taste to finance the development of a mass-market capability has been a standard play since Wedgewood and Musk is obviously aiming to pull this off with ecars. I think he's got a fair chance of doing it, especially given the synergies Tesla has with the SolarCity string on his bow.
If affordability gets addressed then practicality follows, since charging points will proliferate in response to the increased penetration of ecars into the fleet.
The concern that was raised upthread about the absence of an aftermarket for 100% depreciated ecars is more interesting I think and that might drive a fairly significant change in ownership patterns. Lease or HP contracts on battery packs is the obvious way that this market segment could be serviced however.
Regards Luke
]]>The original points were:
That the tech (400 mile battery) is now in place that you CAN do the virtually any 1 day drive, since whilst you may have to stop to charge it, the battery is large enough and quick enough to charge that you can do that on at a meal stop, and charging points are now widespread enough to make this practical (in the UK, other countries YMMV) for the existing and immediate future numbers of ecars.
Following on from this, with the tech now fully in place, that although it is CURRENTLY in the "greenwash for your executive car habit" zone, we can now hope/expect the early adopter->mass market transition to take place, to make them cheap enough for the mass market (that's the new car mass market, second hand mass-market will follow later, assuming the battery issue is addressed).
The big assumption that I've been making here being that said transition will actually occur...
]]>Midrange Tesla (base spec but big battery) 56400 GPB Cheapest 7 Series 58115 Cheapest S Class 66910 Cheapest Lexus LS460 (400 is discontinued) 71995
There's no greenwash required. The Tesla is substantially cheaper to buy than the petrol competition as well as having a level of smoothness that even 8 speed auto petrol cars can't match (good NVH is a big part of cars like this's cache, Tesla wipes the floor with them)
]]>Oh and we should also be comparing it with a Citroen C5 diesel (closest new equivalent to a Xantia).
]]>There isn't any competition for it in the UK. No-one makes a 4 door saloon that goes 0-60 in 3.1 seconds. You could get a Koenigsegg CCXR but they're only 2 doors. Oh, and it needs a special fuel to be able to do that. You can't buy it from a pump. You'll have to have it delivered. They're also 3.4 million GBP.
I don't think a Citron Diesel is actually an equivalent car...
]]>An ecar doesn't need to be capable of a 10 hour driving day sans pit stop before it can make the transition into the mass market. That's just silly.
Indeed there are some pretty compelling arguments against providing that sort of capability. Other road users don't appreciate having people falling asleep at the wheel in their vicinity and a deep vein thrombosis isn't something a driver should be trifling with either.
Regards Luke
]]>By going for that high top-end, Tesla are going for the halo effect. Right now not many people can afford one of their vehicles. But car makers find it much easier to go down market than up. Also the halo effect affects all electrics: once there's even one highly desirable electric car, people will be much more willing to consider ones from other manufacturers.
It's what Audi did with diesels. When they started racing and winning with diesels at Le Mans, that type suddenly got a lot more credibility.
(Tangentially, the car my Dad bought new when he was 18 is now worth about £60-80,000. It was the fastest production car in the world when it left the factory in the early 50s. Now? I reckon my current car is faster, with a factory gate price (adjusted for inflation) of half what his was.)
]]>For my contribution to the white noise (unless someone else has done so already...and probably has)...
Perhaps the supersonic business jet ?
]]>Ah, welcome to the thread. Yes, yes, someone probably has already discussed that. I don't know how I'd find out though, short of reading the thread.
]]>(I didn't bother with the contraction - both 'supersonic business jet' and 'suborbital business jet' had already been mentioned. And comment #1 linked to a supersonic business jet)
]]>