Quote:
Originally Posted by Patton250
I am personally glad Elon Musk is having success with Tesla. I think it’s awesome. I think it’s awesome to have something different than ice vehicles. I hope they also come up with other ways to make vehicles move. The more the better. I love competition. All I’m saying is that for now and especially Tesla it’s a niche market. Electric vehicles are not even close to being practical for the majority of Americans yet and they won’t be until there are charging stations everywhere there are gas stations and you can charge it in five minutes. Until that happens then it’s just going to be a neat car for most people and practical for very few. I have been in a Tesla and the quality of it does not impress me. My Toyota Camry hybrid feels more quality inside than a $90,000 Tesla. That’s my opinion.
|
If you have a home or some sort of access to overnight charging, EVs are actually quite practical today. You don’t need as many charging stations when most people can just plug in at night and top up at ~10-30 miles/hour. It’s like having to produce and shop for fewer AA batteries now that most devices are rechargeable. Speaking for “average people” once again, most drive less than 100 miles a day. EV owners with simple 240V dryer outlets at home regularly go weeks/months without charging at 3rd party stations.
The majority of recent Model 3/Y owners I come across definitely aren’t the early adopter type and use their cars as cars. We’ve come a long way from 65-mile range Nissan LEAFs from 2011 that charged at 3-5 miles/hour at home. Now those were niche toys for early adopters, barely a step past proof of concept (I bought one back then and had to pay over MSRP, too). Even that primitive Nissan made it obvious that we’d all be in EVs eventually - they are way too good at A-B non-enthusiast driving and are super cheap and easy to run.
I agree that Tesla build quality still leaves something to be desired.