I should clarify—it wasn’t that blatant. More like an optimistic comparison with the very real maintenance costs of a car with a combustion engine and transmission.

And I’m really not kidding about this part: Tesla has the sales part figured out. It was as easy as ordering takeout. No haggling, no negotiating, no surprise charges, no up-selling, no “oh, man, you’ve really got me over the barrel, let me check with my manager, we’re already losing money on this transaction.”

My significant other is leasing a Model 3. It's pretty fun to drive I must admit. I don't love that everything is shown through the ipad-like display interface in the center, but that's a small quibble. She gets free charging from a Supercharger at work, which is pretty rad.

Curry Pervert wrote: Mon Dec 20, 2021 3:48 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Mon Dec 20, 2021 3:46 pm When the salesperson suggested that there wouldn’t be any maintenance costs, we thought, “Sure, there won’t be.”

Haha, I know salespeople are supposed to be full of shit but that takes the biscuit.

We have friends who've had a Model S for I think almost 7 years now. The dude is a car nut and mechanic. Owns like 17 cars or something. Only their Tesla and another car are everyday vehicles. According to him there has been ZERO maintenance in that time.

Wood Goblin wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 10:29 am Funny timing re: my last post: I just saw a Bolt yesterday.

twelvepoint wrote: Sat Dec 18, 2021 9:31 am An EV would be great for me 345 days of the year, but talk to me about using one for out of state trips.

The price is ridiculous, but FWIW, the Lucid Air has a battery life of 500 miles. Of course, the bigger the battery, the longer the charge time.

500 miles is pretty great. I think for us, our in-laws are 430ish miles away. I imagine with most EVs there'd be fast-charge needed somewhere. I wonder what that experience is like? I guess if there's a 7 hour trip a couple times a year, then a one-hour pit stop somewhere is fine to build in to the plans.

My husband has had the 3 for 18 months. He got the long range battery. Started out at 322, and is now down to around 275. Even less in cold weather. Bummer. That's the only complaint. Never going near a gas station is pretty incredible.

jeff fox wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 9:50 am My husband has had the 3 for 18 months. He got the long range battery. Started out at 322, and is now down to around 275. Even less in cold weather. Bummer.

Is that degradation typical, and will it keep degrading at that rate? I'm not sure I'd go the EV route if long trips were a routine thing for me, but that seems like an issue that would've been worked out better by now.

I'm surprised there's no infrastructure model yet where an EV can go to a recharging station and swap out a depleted battery for a charged one. Drive your car into a bay and slide the old one out and pop a charged one in? Seems crazy that this isn't a thing.

Tesla recommends charging it to 90% or less for daily driving and to 100% only for trips.

jason from volo wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 1:18 pm

twelvepoint wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 12:11 pm I'm surprised there's no infrastructure model yet where an EV can go to a recharging station and swap out a depleted battery for a charged one. Drive your car into a bay and slide the old one out and pop a charged one in? Seems crazy that this isn't a thing.

It's currently being done in China.

There are startups in the USA working on it.

I don't know exactly the reason *why* Tesla is not doing it, but they'd have to design a vehicle specifically around that purpose. I don't think it would work on any vehicle they've mass-produced to date due to how integrated the battery is in the vehicle.

Maybe it's more compelling for Tesla to have a proprietary battery system and be able to boast about a 500 mile charge. Although I'd rather have, say, 250 miles if it meant they were quick-swappable, and perhaps even better, meant I was renting batteries and not owning them.

jason from volo wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 1:47 pm Perhaps.

If I were to speculate, it probably has more to do with dealing with the necessary infrastructure to not only swap out batteries but to do so safely at each swapping station, rather than more or less just needing to provide a ~ 240 VAC connection with ground fault protection.

Yeah that makes sense. It' s almost as though you'd need a major progressive infrastructure bill to get some traction with this!

I think Elon Musk is reprehensible, but lays his cards on the table with his contrived edginess. I don't need a big ass truck, but the electric F-150 is intriguing. It will be able to serve as a home generator.