As my loyal readers know, I’ve been a fan of the Tesla electric cars, both the Roadster and the Type S Sedan.
It does appear that they do appear to have a serious design flaw.
If it hits that state, it’s a very expensive brick. Has to be carted back to the factory and have the batteries replaced.
Cost estimates for that procedure range from $30,000 t $40,000.
It is flaws like this that are blocking widespread acceptance.
Oh, and that high end luxury car price tag. You won’t see a lot of electric vehicles until they are price comparable with a used mini-van. That is what it’s going to take to have soccer moms drive them.
Filed under: alternate fuel cars | Tagged: alternate fuel cars, electric car, Tesla |
Urbin Technology 
Any first release is bound to be screwed up, but that’s a wowser.
The $100K Roadster was the first release product. The Type S sedan is second generation. I was hoping for better.
Ya, I know you can “brick” a gas engine car if you leave it sitting long enough without draining the oil and disconnecting the battery, but that would take longer than it does to drain the battery on a Tesla.
That is probably part of the IC engine being a very mature technology compared to modern electric cars. Electric cars are still luxury item. They aren’t robust enough to be in common use yet.
Of course, they’re talking about leaving the car alone for several weeks before the problem occurs. I can’t imagine that very many cars are used less than, say, once a month.
Battery technology just isn’t there, yet.
You nailed it shut. The problem is battery tech. The performance of today’s electric cars isn’t too far off from electric cars built a century or more ago.
Whoever builds the better battery will have a license to print money.
Yeah, it all comes down to batteries.
I’d bet on nanocapacitors, myself.
We need more nuclear pltans. The government needs to stop giving tax breaks and incentives to coal-fired pltans and start giving them to utilities who will build new nuclear pltans.