I had a phonecall from a Tesla man last week. Naturally, I was interested in what they had to sell, but to me the economics are simply not there - yet. Range is obviously a problem, towing or not. Then you have to recharge and this is where it gets awkward. Using a 10 amp outlet, a 1 hr recharge will get you about 14 km, so it is going to take a long time to recharge fully. Using the on-board unit, you get a faster charge. Depending on which battery system was used, a full recharge would need 60 to 100 kWh of energy. At a cost of 28 cents per kWh, this means $16.80 to $28 per charge. Naturally, if you had a full solar system on your roof at home and also had a Tesla storage battery, you could probably charge it at home for free. Mind you, it is going to cost you around $150000 to buy the Tesla car in the first place, although the Tesla man did say that they are bringing out a cheaper model (about $55000) next year. It will have less battery capacity in it for sure.

And then the journalist above talks about recharging as you go along, with on-board solar panels. Great idea. Not feasible. I have a significant area of my house roof covered with solar panels - total 3.2 kW. I have 18 panels, each 1.8 m by 0.9 m or thereabouts. They cover a large area. Tesla man said that you need about 15 kW to drive on a flat road at 100 km/h, so I need about 5 times the area of my solar panels to do that. On a flat road. If you start going up hills you use a lot more. To be fair, the Tesla car uses regenerative braking on dewnhill runs and the system can generate up to 60 kW on a steep downhill run.

All of this ignores what you would actually have though. You would have a car which could potentially out accelerate a Ferrari F40 (if that is your want). You would have a superbly quiet car, and certainly one which was unique. Sadly, it is all well beyond my budget to buy, has a hopelessly inadequate range and then the recharge facilities would have to be beefed up a lot to allow recharges in a reasonable time. Sorry, not for me at present. And finally, I would probably hit a kangaroo every trip simply because they would not hear me coming. Give me my rattly old diesel Pajero every day....

Imagine how cheap the new Hyundai Ioniq is going to be with only from around $30.000 you can get 5 of them for the the price of one Tesla

Cruising Cruze wrote:

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Imagine how cheap the new Hyundai Ioniq is going to be with only from around $30.000 you can get 5 of them for the the price of one Tesla

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 you can drink cheap wine and warm beer too, Cruze - but don't go thinking they represent a Hermitage Grange or a fine cold one........................................