TESLA Electric Truck?

[two_bit_score]

Just like you need the beater for towing when your only other vehicle is a motorcycle. Or a Jeep. Or anything lightweight - that gets 3x the gas mileage compared to the beater. Many families have more than one vehicle.

The idea that you are recommending anyone keep an extra car just to tow their Tesla speaks for itself.

 

[California]

The idea that you are recommending anyone keep an extra car just to tow their Tesla speaks for itself.

Who tows a Tesla? I think think there is something here you don't understand.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

All I know is I am 95% sure I will never have an EV vehicle in my lifetime

I think this may be true for many here.

Unless one needs a better vehicle trading for an EV may never make $$$ sense for many. For a one car person/family I can not see an EV as a good fit for most.

 

[Grumpycat]

No you can get one with a solar panel on the bed cover. It adds 15 miles to the range per hour in direct sunlight. So you would only have to charge it 10 hours to gain 150 miles!

15 MPH requires 5kW. 300W is reasonable output from a 80 inch by 40 inch PV panel. Your claim will require 16.7 of these panels. They weigh 50 pounds each not including the mounting brackets. Over 800 pounds.

I claim B.S.

 

[Grumpycat]

And then if they actually got popular, and then the grid failed due to over consumption

Why would the grid fail over consumption? You are suffering from Gas Station Mentality. Thinking an EV must mimic an ICE. The correct use of an EV is to have sufficient range for most days, then charge at night when there is so much surplus the utilities beg for T.O.U. (Time Of Use) billing to soak users during peak daytime use, to motivate shift of consumption to night. Utilities love street lights as a means of donating power in exchange for tax credits.

Heat plants such as nuclear and coal have very slow throttles. Takes days to weeks to come up to full temperature so they can not reduce much for lower nighttime loads. So they have the heat, might as well make electricity with it. But cannot because electricity costs more to store than generate.

 

[lilranch2001]

Ok? So let痴 say every ICE is replaced with EV, you are making the point NO infrastructure will get overloaded?

 

[Grumpycat]

The supercharger concept is ridiculous. If it takes me more time to charge my car than fill it up with gas then it is a step backwards and just a waste of time. Show me an electric vehicle that has BETTER range and quicker refueling than the gas/diesel counterparts then I will give it a look.

Your thinking is limited by believing a Supercharger is a gas station, that one is expected to be dependent upon Superchargers.

New V3 Superchargers are capable of 250kW initial charge rate. A newer Model 3 Long Range can start at that rate with a low battery. All Teslas slow the rate as battery charges. My 6 year old S starts at 120kW. But at home it charges at 40A @ 240VAC, 9.6kW. At home I get 29 miles into the battery per hour. Doesn't slow until the last 5 miles. I do not charge to 100% because I do not have to.

I spend about 30 seconds per day charging. Connecting the cable. Disconnecting the cable.

What you fail to understand about Superchargers is that their only purpose is to facilitate travel of more than 200 miles in a day. Makes travel not only possible by put practical. I can and have driven 540 miles in one day stopping 3 times for about 35 minutes each. While I have driven that route nonstop in ICE vehicles, it is not a good idea. What is the Federal regulation for OTR drivers? Stop every 2 hours?

 

[California]

15 MPH requires 5kW. 300W is reasonable output from a 80肺40 PV panel. Your claim will require 16.7 of these panels. They weigh 50 pounds each not including the mounting brackets. Over 800 pounds.

I claim B.S.

A college friend of my daughter was on a team that built an experimental 'car' for a solar-only competition. It looked like a manta ray or experimental aircraft, large, and very thin. Very lightweight. The operator was reclined nearly flat to cut wind resistance. It could barely move in direct sunlight.

Rooftop (on the car) solar isn't going to work given present solar panel capability.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Who tows a Tesla? I think think there is something here you don't understand.

Hey Tesla's being towed by another vehicle happens on Youtube more than I thought.

Tow-charging the Tesla Model 3 (part two). CRAZY results!!! - YouTube

This guy was towed by son's C-Max for 1 mile and added 10 miles of range driving at the towed rate of speed. Regen is a huge feature on an EV to charge the battery and save the brake pads. One pedal driving is becoming the norm for some EV drivers. The new Nissan Leafs have the totally one pedal driving feature.

Towing with a rope may not be legal in many places and Tesla I am sure cringes over these YouTube videos.

On our Leaf regen can go up to 30,000 watts rate of charging power when taking the foot off of the pedal stopping or going down a hill. Not needing to use the brakes until at very low speeds is awesome.

In the Leaf 22 MPH gives best miles per kWh so on small hilly 1.5 lane roads one can build the battery up sometimes. Getting back in an ICE and having to use the brakes to stop seems like a lost of energy.

 

[DK35vince]

What is the Federal regulation for OTR drivers? Stop every 2 hours?

Believe its more like a 30 minute break after 8 hours of driving, with an 11 hour max driving per day.
How long can truck drivers drive before they have to take a break? - Cordisco & Saile LLC

 

[lilranch2001]

Believe its more like a 30 minute break after 8 hours of driving, with an 11 hour max driving per day.
How long can truck drivers drive before they have to take a break? - Cordisco & Saile LLC

Yea, but that screws up ole grumpies logic!

 

[Grumpycat]

First drive: the first-ever hybrid Toyota RAV4 | Top Gear

Toyota RAV4 EV Models, Generations & Redesigns | Cars.com

Do you know why Toyota did not make a go of it with the Rav4 EV and Hybrid the first time around?

Toyota Mirai - Wikipedia

While this Toyota was able to match Tesla's Model 3 range and cost for some reason they only sold several thousands per this info in the USA. My take they are coming with hybrids again as a stop gap measure until they develop the skills to compete with EV's from other sources. While not so much in the USA currently but in the rest of the world if major car companies can not figure out how to do EV's the Chinese EV's I expect will own more and more of their current market share.

Toyota makes excellent hybrids. But awful EV and alternate energy vehicles.

The Mirai is no competition for an EV. It is a wet dream of socialist bureaucrats who are afraid to change anything but trying to solve problems they imagine. The Mirai requires creation of a gas station infrastructure. Creation of H2 production. Does not upset the current gas station community because consumer dependency on their services is assured. And best of all, an easy point of use for government to impose taxes. Conversely most EVs will operate 99% of the time from overnight charge at home using a $500 adapter.

Hybrids still burn fossil fuels which is more and more of a no no in Europe and China. Hybrids were a good hack until EV battery costs started dropping and the event of fast EV charging stations. Because hybrids are a hack their days are numbered as are more and more cars with IC based engines.

Where do you think H2 for the Mirai comes from? Uses more electricity to split water than an EV would use, so today 97% of H2 cones from natural gas.

EV's are so much less expensive to build than ICE's now that battery prices are dropping. Robots bring quality at a lower cost.

No, they are not. Engines are very inexpensive to build after 120 years of practice. You can not build one in the garage anywhere near as cheap. Really good batteries are not falling in price nearly as fast as you allude. Plus no one is mass producing as dense, efficient, and powerful electric motors as Tesla.

Because Ford has a bad track record with EV's and Tesla has such success I expect we will see the first 100K EV trucks from Tesla before we see the same number from Ford.

I dont agree. Ford didnt do bad, no worse than a Nissan. Its just that they were trying to buy components off the shelf. The key to a successful EV is control over battery production. An automaker can not excel if buying engines from another manufacturer. While we are led to believe Tesla owns their battery production, it is really Panasonic, who isnt terribly happy with Tesla.

The Tesla Super Chargers are world wide so why would a traveler look at any other brand of cars and trucks. Sure my Leaf is fine for 90% of my driving but not all of it. With ICE development stopped it is just a matter of time EV's will be our only vehicle option it seems.

This is where Ford is failing. In State Capitalist (Socialist) Tradition, Ford us depending on government financed (via VW fines) Electrify America charging network. Musk has said many times everyone is welcome on the Suoercharger network so long as the manufacturer joins under equal terms. Originally that meant 1) free lifetime use and 2) capable of 120kW rate and 3) at least 200 mile range to reach the next Supercharger. And presumably the manufacturer must contribute to cost of construction and operation. New Tedla owners pay about $0.26/kWh to use a Supercharger.

Today there are many unknowns and few if any knowns other than ICE's are going away.

Lots of unknowns but the ICE wont be the minority on the road for another 50 years.

This site wont let me use a tick in contractions. Noticed others with garbage code in posts and now I know.

 

[Grumpycat]

Once they get EV to the point where I can either drive 1000 miles on a charge or charge it up from empty to full in 3 min I will consider it. Until then it is just an inconvenience. Sure we could have a EV charging station at every corner...but if it takes an hour to charge it then useless.

Ditto! Im convinced! Thanks to your insight I will not buy another vehicle until I can get one for $10,000 or less that doesn't require fuel for 10 years!

But back to reality, you suffer from the Gas Station Delusion. The notion that we have gas stations, therefore all solutions must have gas stations on every street corner.

 

[Grumpycat]

Also, what about those people who refuse to pay attention to their fuel gauge and is always running out of fuel?

Charge every night and that problem goes away.

 

[Grumpycat]

And that's a problem. Around here most apartments don't even have a place a charging station r outlet could be set up. Even townhouses and condos with a car port don't have outlets in them to keep people from working on their vehicles. I don't see many landlords upgrading their apartments without funding from the state. For those who do have a garage most don't have 240v in them. Then you have the class of people who think of their garage as a storage shed. Their cars haven't spent a day inside it in decades. Certainly things will get better but to get the bulk of people to bite it can't come with added upfront costs and an impact to how they live their lives.

Time once was that apartments often had shared public restrooms and showers. Tenants moved when completion offered private bathrooms. Those tenants moved when other apartments offered swimming pools, tennis courts, gyms, etc.

And you think landlords will not provide EV charging to keep tenants?

Look into the Tesla Destination Charger program. Restaurants and hotels offer Tesla charging to attract clientele. Not to provide public infrastructure. Tesla will give the equipment away, and has been known to help pay for installation. Will even provide J1772 hardware for other brands. The business must provide space and electricity, and is allowed to restrict use to customers but not to levy a charge for use.

The market will provide. No need for government.

 

[Grumpycat]

This is so true. Until one can see an application for an EV in their travel needs it may be best to pass on ownership of an EV at this time. Battery care and treatment does have some learning curve and once damaged the damage is not self healing. It is not that hard and the software does most of the management but there are some do's and don'ts when it comes to charging, etc.

Anyone who owns a electric golf cart, solar storage batteries, etc should have a head start understanding the batteries are the tail that wags the dog.

A Tesla is not nearly as hard to operate as a golf cart. Try to set greater than 90% charge and the car will caution against routinely charging that much. Also starts complaining when range falls below 50 miles. If navigation is active then it shows estimated battery SOC at destination. If it thinks you will arrive dangerously low it tries to reroute to a charge site. For a regular 540 mile trip i set the far destination then it inserts stops at Superchargers along the way. Lists expected SOC at each, and how long to charge to safely reach the next Supercharger. Even displays how many charging bays and how many are currently in use.

Years ago this system was buggy. In Birmingham it tried to send me 150 miles to Chattanooga Supercharger rather than let me drive 116 miles home to my own EVSE. And then home was another 130 miles from Chattanooga. Stupid computers.

 

[4570Man]

If it cost $10-15 a day to charge one there’s no way the apartment is going to give that much away in electric.

 

[two_bit_score]

Who tows a Tesla? I think think there is something here you don't understand.

So why would someone have to have a ‘spare’ vehicle with a 100k Tesla in the driveway?

 

[Grumpycat]

Who tows a Tesla? I think think there is something here you don't understand.

Mine going to the spa to be spoiled. That is a Tesla employee and Tesla owned and operated rig picking up my car to take is 92 miles in, and 92 miles back.

 

[two_bit_score]

Time once was that apartments often had shared public restrooms and showers. Tenants moved when completion offered private bathrooms. Those tenants moved when other apartments offered swimming pools, tennis courts, gyms, etc.

And you think landlords will not provide EV charging to keep tenants?

Look into the Tesla Destination Charger program. Restaurants and hotels offer Tesla charging to attract clientele. Not to provide public infrastructure. Tesla will give the equipment away, and has been known to help pay for installation. Will even provide J1772 hardware for other brands. The business must provide space and electricity, and is allowed to restrict use to customers but not to levy a charge for use.

The market will provide. No need for government.

I don’t care what kind of amenities commercial business offers tenants or clients or customers or even to the public at large for EV’s as long as they aren’t getting grants, subsidies or any other tax scam to pay for it.


TBS