27 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars”

  1. I remember when I was a TRULY POOR college student, I drove my manual transmission 1969 VW Bug so as to squeeze every last mile out of the limited gasoline I was able to afford. Every downslope, I would put the car in neutral, or on longer downslopes I’d cut the engine off and coast. I would NEVER punch the accelerator, but would gently increase power. I would carefully shift gears to keep the car running at a constant 2500 rpm. My pedal footwork on clutch and accelerator were a thing of beauty … as good as any professional race car driver. All because I was POOR … and had to stretch my mileage to the maximum range possible.

    Then I graduated, and got a full time job, and actually could drive like a NORMAL person. I finally got to drive … comfortably … relaxed … and not constantly stressed over maximizing the range of my tank of petrol.

    Reading the comments of these “true believer” Tesla owners reminds me of my POOR college days. They scold Tesla drivers for complaining about their eco-saloon’s lack of “advertised” range because they …
    – drove over the speed limit
    – were running the air conditioning
    – were listening to the radio
    – operated the power windows
    – had “sticky” tires
    – had ‘wide’ tires
    – had under inflated tires
    – hadn’t waxed their car
    – accelerated too fast
    – added an air dam that created more wind resistance
    – overloaded the car with 4-passengers who all exceeded Federal BMI guidelines
    – failed to turn down the brightness of their touch screen control panel
    – changed the range reading from miles to battery percentage

    If Tesla drivers want an automobile that FORCES them to drive like a POOR college student … then I wish them luck. Seriously … luck … I hope they’re LUCKY enough to make it to their destination.

    1. I had a VW van for a few years in school. I wanted to accelerate moderately, but the lack of power meant the pedal was either idle or full on. And the “on” was less than moderate.

    2. There’s a sucker born every minute.
      I have always thought that Tesla cars were pretty exotic tech on a dead end branch of the automotive evolutionary tree.
      You have to be able to refuel in minutes, not hours.
      The Chevy Volt is far superior for a daily driver.

      1. I completely agree. I am an Elon Musk fan (the entrepreneur/futurist Elon. Not the shitty CEO/subsidy whore Elon) and really like Tesla cars but they are just not realistic with present battery technology. Come back to me when they can do 1000km on a charge and be recharged in 5 minutes. Hybrids (like the Volt) are the better way forward until battery tech improves. If it ever improves that much (and still keeps a realistic price point)

        Because what I don’t think the enviro weenies understand is that Joe Lunchpail doesn’t give a flying fuck about what we put into our tanks. It could be liquefied kittens for all I care. I want a good looking, high performance vehicle that is cheap to fuel. If that is super efficient diesel, great. If that is electric, great. Whatever. If they want to save the fucking polar bears it is on THEM to provide what the rest of us want.

        I just wish Elon would sell Tesla to BMW or Toyota or whoever wants the fucking thing and concentrate on SpaceX (dump Solar City/The Boring Company/Hyperloop too).

        I wanna see a man on Mars before I kick it. And at the rate I drink, it’ll be a close race.

        1. The physics of all that are pretty unforgiving.

          So, let’s do the math.

          60kWh, that is one hour of 60kW, OR, 600 100 watt incandescent lightbulbs on for an hour. That is a lot of heat and light, right!!

          Practically speaking, a lot of houses have 100A service, or 100A * 120V * 2. So, all total, such a household has a theoretical max of 24kW. So, to full charge that 60kWh batter, you are still talking about over 2.5 hours, with nothing else turned on in your house, not even a lightbulb.

          It will be interesting to see how the local grids hold up as more and more electricity is going into transportation.

        2. “… wish Elon would sell Tesla to BMW or Toyota or whoever wants the fucking thing …”

          No successful car manufacturer wants the thing. They already know how to build cars well. They can apply that ability to work out how to build them with battery powered electric motors if they want to without reimbursing Elon Musk for his expensive experiments in an alternative system of manufacturing defective cars.

  4. I have driven my Tesla back and forth from Calgary to Phoenix twice in the last year without any problems. I use the Supercharger stations along the way for free fill ups. ( Mind you I paid for that upfront). I get 300 miles or about 450 KMs between charges which is driving for 3-4 hours. When at a supercharger we go for a walk, have a coffee or a meal or stay overnight at the end of the day.

    Unlike my Audi where I would drive for 4-5- or 6 hours I don’t need a forklift to get me out of the car as I am not all gibbled up. The theory for EV’s is that for 95% of your driving you charge your car at home and use superchargers or destination points when travelling. How many of you regularly put on 400 Km a day (unless you are a politician).
    I installed a KWHR meter for my Tesla and have compared the electricity costs versus 2 years of gasoline costs in my Audi and my cost is just under 1/3 compared to gas. And that was when gas was $1.00 / litre or less . Gas in Calgary is now 30% more.

    Once you drive a high end EV you won’t go back to gas. In Montana the speed limit is 80 Miles and hour and when I come up behind a semi I just touch the accelerator and it jumps like a jack rabbit instantly, no waiting for the gears to shift down to the lower gear and no roar like the engine is going to take off. The torque on an Electric Induction motor is the same at all speeds unlike the ICE engine. I would never go back to ICE just because of the performance. In Phoenix and California Tesla’s are so abundant that they look like the new Chevy. They are everywhere.

    I didn’t buy the Tesla because of CO2 as I don’t believe in that MSM and Government crap about Global Warming. I always say if you want to control the climate, control the big yellow ball n the sky. I bought it for the performance. You just can’t compare it to an ICE. Totally different and better. It is like driving a moving computer as everything is controlled by computer. I receive updates for the car about once a month and these are done at night when the car is in the garage and these will include anything like having the side view mirrors fold in faster when parked, or other enhancements to the auto pilot, etc…. this of course is at no extra charge like having to update your O/S for your phone, laptop etc….

    I have driven to Vancouver, then to Phoenix and back to Calgary twice, no issues. Superchargers west and south of Calgary are situated every 150 to 200 miles apart. see the below link

    https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/findus#/bounds/70,-50,42,-142?search=supercharger&name=Canada

    I can understand not owning one in Saskatoon as the superchargers haven’t hit there yet.

    All the big auto makers, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, etc. are coming out this fall or next spring with their own versions of Teslas.

    As far as maintenance is concerned, none except for tires and after 100,000 Km they want to see it to check the brakes. The only fluid is the windshield washer fluid.

    1. As a person who is outdoors oriented, I need a truck. The most popular vehicles in North America are trucks. Show us a truck that is an EV, goes through the snow, pulls a trailer and hauls a load of wood, sand whatever and we will go for it. But today, and for some time yet, I suspect, there is nothing. Repeat, there is no EV for people like me and I’m not a lone voice in the wilderness.

    2. “…use the Supercharger stations along the way for free fill ups. ( Mind you I paid for that upfront) …”

      Free, after you paid for it. I can see theTesla logic in that.

      I fuel my vehicles with gasoline. Most pumps let you have the gasoline for free after you pre-pay with a credit or debit card at the pump. Some let you have it for free before you go inside the shop and pay for it at the ’till with cash or with a credit or debit card.

    3. Fallacy alert, you can certainly drive the Audi the same way as the EV, that is with the *HUGE* breaks in travel, and not be cobbled.

      The difference it, with the Tesla you don’t have a choice.

      And here’s the rub, I have a good paycheck, but not nearly a good enough paycheck to afford an Uber high-end luxury car. So good on you Mr. Paycheck. And good for you to be able to take twice the time to travel somewhere.

      When I travel, I like to be able to go anywhere, and take breaks where I want to take them. If I want to take a break for an hour at the top of Pike Peaks, I can do that, I don’t think there is a charging station up there yet.

      Further, it is funny how people want fair, and right now no one talks about the absolute lack of road taxes EV’s are paying. EV’s are an absolute subsidy machine.

      Oh, and as far as the monthly updates, that is because they are still working out the bugs. I am amazed that the regulators are turning a blinds eye to the safety. A car when purchased is supposed to be a finished product. Monthly updates for software doe not denote that at all!

      Yes there are advantages to EV’s. But it drives me nuts for people to not have a critical eye.

      It is like Cognitive Dissonance is the new black. And every disadvantage is somehow turned into an absolute advantage, like your forced 2 hours walks every 250 miles.

      1. Thomas E.- Excellent point on road taxes, which the entire EV crowd seems to wilfully ignore. Essentially, all taxes included in the purchase of gas/diesel are road use taxes. I pay about $.07/mile in road use taxes with my work truck, and our personal use vehicle about $.04-.05/mile. The roads don’t require less maintenance just because the cars on them are electric powered. At some point, there needs to be some form of road use tax applied for EV’s.

    4. RL- Just for curiosity’s sake, we’ve driven Red Deer- Vegas many times. Our current DD cruises comfortably at 85, with a four hour + range. We can do Vegas to Red Deer (closing the hotel room door to the garage door opening at home) in 21 hours, including fuel stops and one proper sit-down meal (Famous Dave’s, Idaho Falls), plus two eat-in McDonalds breakfasts. My guess is that your Tesla adds 2 1/2 to 3 hours to the same jaunt. Our door to door is only 9 hours longer than the last time we flew, non-stop.
      The other area where I’ve seen some conversation is among the people who live in Edmonton and have vacation property in the Radium Valley area, or Calgary and Kelowna. Even the Calgary-Invermere crowd get serious range anxiety on the Invermere to Calgary jaunt, in their Teslas, in the winter. The couple who rig out for Kelowna in their Escalade already have steaks on the grill and half a bottle of wine done before the Tesla drivers who left Calgary at the same time show up. If it’s a winter jaunt, it’s way worse.
      Obviously you like yours. It’s just that it’s still a given that range anxiety is still a real thing, for SOME people.

  5. I always thought if these things became really popular, they would have ways stations like the old stage coaches, every 200 miles /stage coaches every 20. There would be fist fights as people didn’t charge fast enough. Charging stations would be huge as say for L.A., with thousands of people trying to charge at the same time. I’m no brain surgeon, but even I can see the logistics would be a nightmare.

  6. So, 2.5 hours of highway driving followed by x hours of recharging. May as well go full enviro-turd and buy horses and a covered wagon.

  7. Just anecdotal but now that there are enough electric vehicles on the road to notice them daily, I often find out it’s one of them sitting in the left lane doing just 100km/hr holding up traffic. I suspect their range based on these data points is not as good as advertised and drops drastically if they try to get that performance the manufacturers brag about.

  8. The first practical electric car will not de designed by a pothead draft-dodger from once free South Africa, but an IDF veteran with the foreskins of no less than seven hajjis under his belt.

    The success of Startup Nation is literally a life-or-death issue. That’s why the Israelis are leaving the snowflakes of Silicon Valley in the dust.

  9. ANY system that needs so many conditions and constant attention and management for it to be even moderately successful needs to be dumped and replaced.

    Let’s say, just for the moment, that electric vehicles are wildly successful when it comes to their direct impact on the earth’s environment. No more pollution, blah, blah, blah.

    That they require so many conditions and constant attention and management very likely mean that the ultimate gain we get from them is a big fat zero.

    This means that someone is laughing all the way to the bank and it ain’t us.

    I’m writing a new book: Peak Lithium.

  10. Speaking personally I like jumping into my F 150 and on a full tank of gas drive from Edmonton to Kamloops non stop. Or from Edmonton to Fort Mac and back without having to buy the higher priced fuel in Fort Mac. I doubt that an electric cars would give me 12 hours of run time on a fill up.

  11. One liter of gasoline weighs about 750 grams ( about 1.7 pound ) and it contains as much energy as 100 kilograms ( 225 pounds) of Lithium-Ion batteries which are the best batteries we have now and that are used in electric cars ( and cell phones )

    I repeat

    1 liter of gasoline has the same energy as 225 pounds of lithium-ion batteries

    google it, it is science, it is fact, it is a scientific fact

    it does not matter if you measure the energy in calories, joules, or Watts or horsepower

    1 liter of gasoline contains as much energy as 225 pounds of the best batteries out there

    if we were to use good ole’ lead batteries, we would need about 550 POUNDS of lead batteries to produce the energy or power that is in ONE liter of gasoline

    1. I forgot to mention

      the energy in ONE liter ( 1.7 pounds ) of gasoline is at least 10 KW/hour ( it can go as high as 12 if it is better gasoline )

      to get that same 10 KW/hour you need 225 POUNDS of lithium-ion batteries

      now imagine the day hundreds of millions of humans drive electric cars ( because the government has made gasoline illegal or something crazy like that…oh just wait it ll happen ) that have far more than only 225 pounds of lithium-ion batteries , a Tesla has 1200 pounds of those batteries…( a truck would have 2 to 10 times more batteries ) once those batteries are done, finished or the cars are finished, imagine the billions of tons of dead batteries we will need to dispose of or recycle…recycling uses a lot of energy as well…

      we need smaller more efficient batteries, electric cars are not ready yet, the technology is not ready yet

      1. I live an 8 hour drive north of civilization, yes, 8 hours. I use roughly 100 litres of gas to drive one way, that means I need 22,500 pounds of batteries to go one way without refueling. A train uses roughly 125 litres of diesel per MILE, but would be less as diesel has more energy per litre, so about 25,000 pounds of batteries per mile.

        I rode electric busses in the ’70’s, they had a power pole hooked directly to the power supply wire, way more efficient and no weight penalty.

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