We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Following a tumultuous year for Tesla including a company relocation helmed by CEO Elon Musk, viral reports of cars on fire and other self-admitted quality control issues…

The electric car manufacturer now ranks 27th out of 28car brands on Consumer Reports’ list, above only Ford-owned legacy luxury brand Lincoln. Much of it has to do with the overall instability of electric vehicles in general — especially SUVs — which Consumer Reports’ Jake Fisher said during a presentation are the “absolute bottom in terms of reliability,” according to Reuters. […]

Among the concerns Consumer Reports had for the Tesla Model S, X and Y lines, according to CNBC, were issues with “heat pumps, air conditioning” and notoriously, misaligned panels. It’s also worth noting that Tesla’s Model X ranked dead-last among all cars for reliability, scoring a 5 out of 100.

h/t Raymond

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

  1. Let me know when an EV can manage 350,000 miles with out major restoration, battery change, tow 12,500 lbs and in winter, go
    1000 miles on a charge when it’s a balmy -20.

    I Shant hold my breath…
    For some odd reason, I still prefer the smell of diesel as opposed to burnt electrical wiring…

    1. Let me know when an ordinary gas powered vehicles can manage 350,000 miles without major restoration and I will agree with you.

      Noticed I said “ordinary gas powered”.

      1. johnbrooks, I currently have a 98 Accord coupe, 4 cyl 5 speed with 335,000 MILES on it, original engine and tranny…. still going strong. I know of many stories of ICE vehicles that have made it well past 500,000 MILES. I have a friend with a Dodge truck which was nearing 1,000,000 KMS two years ago(don’t be a racist, diesels are ICEs, too 🙂 ).

        ” It’s also worth noting that Tesla’s Model X ranked dead-last among all cars for reliability, scoring a 5 out of 100.”

        That is a brutal condemnation of both Tesla as a company and Musk as a manager. There is no positively spinning a rating THAT bad…. none.

        1. Nice. 1994 Toyota land-cruiser 320.000 miles and no mayor repairs.
          And it sees plenty of off roading

          1. Also have a 2000 Honda CRV just over the 600,000 km mark.
            Same engine and tranny.
            Easy to work on and obtain parts for.

  2. Ah, the pleasure and elitist mindset of paying $90k for a piece of shit car.

    But hey, they’re saving Gaia from itself!

  3. I read that the old battery packs are becoming a concern, since the current methods in foreign countries of poisoning thousands to reclaim the precious metals is generally frowned upon in the United States. Maybe we can just hook them up in a series, connect them to the chairs of some congress critters, and watch them go see their maker.

  4. If fools want to buy over-priced natural gas, nuclear, and coal-fired cars (because that’s what charges those batteries) then go nuts.

    However, if you are a politician who wants to give my taxes to fools to help them buy over-priced……

    1. Agreed! Once you have paid your taxes, you can do anything with your excess money – that is the beauty of a Western capitalist system.
      However, when you ask me, as a taxpayer, to fund your virtue (I am looking at you CBC, I am looking at all of the car manufacturers), then “the computer says no!” (reference to Little Britain)
      I will also add all of the social programs which have developed in the last 60 years. Our father used to say that there were more homeless people in Vancouver than in Edmonton (where we lived) because the winters were kinder! Now, cold cities are trying to outdo one another with housing street people in hotels, hostels etcetra.

  5. Soon, there will be true believers stranded on the sides of lonely roads. The batteries will not hold 400 mile charges after a year or two. That’s when they’ll realise virtue signalling is stupid.

    1. “That’s when they’ll realise virtue signalling is stupid.”

      Nah! Likely join a warranty class action

  6. Politicians, greens, and the media would have us believe that we’ll all be driving electric cars in the near future. Not going to happen.

    1. There are not enough raw materials to allow everyone to have an electric car. I’m speaking of batteries.

    2. Greens will oppose/cancel the new mines required to provide said batteries.

    3. The electric system does not have the capacity to distribute sufficient power to charge all those ‘planned’ electric vehicles.

    4. There is not enough electric power generation to supply all those vehicles.

    No the intent is to get everyone to take public transit for all their commutes. Politicians, wealthy greens, and senior bureaucrats of course will be exceptions. They’ll still drive regular cars.

    1. Joe. You are wrong on 1. There are plenty of raw materials available. Nickel, cobalt and lithium for batteries, plus aluminum to house them – all in plentiful supply.

      The problem is your #2. For some stupid reason, people in western culture hate mining, forestry and oil & gas, yet they use minerals, pulp & paper and oil & gas in huge amounts. So much of what we buy comes from countries that try and control the supply to maximize their profits (countries that have learned from western culture).

      I also think the government is not being malevolent as you suggest – I think they are just that incompetent. They cannot see more than 2″ into the future (2″ being the length of their nose).

      We (the government) will increase the use of electric vehicles until our electricity grid collapses because the government can only act in times of a real crisis, where it rewards itself greatly in the process.

      1. I guarantee the city of Ottawa is looking far ahead and has some Hugh Jazzed ideas about electric buses and mass transit.
        They are making roads narrower, making intersections narrower – bizarre , making speeds slower – 30k on some portions of arteries.
        https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/electric-bus-deal-ottawa-auditor-request-1.6092892

        Grid collapse will be “caused” by too much demand by the proles therefore limiting their access to private vehicles while also raising the price of electricity.

        1. Joe. The link is about converting from oil and gas and has almost nothing to do with minerals or mining. But Willis is right. Converting to renewable will be impossible without reducing overall energy use.

  7. As society has “progressed” we have become less and less aware of reality. Things that barely function or don’t function at all al pushed and lauded as the best thing since sliced bread. Electric cars, wind turbines, solar panels, vaccines, climate change, all are a waste of time, energy and resources. I wonder, does the world really have to collapse and the loss on billions of lives have to occur before people realize they are WRONG.

    1. “I wonder, does the world really have to collapse and the loss on billions of lives have to occur before people realize they are WRONG.”

      A beer drinking buddy and I have speculated at length over the years what catastrophe it would take for these Prog idiots to realize their coming-to-Jesus moment. Despite many gallons of beer and many hours of conversation our imaginations, although vivid, have fallen short.

      1. Back in the early ’80s, James Burke had a TV series called ” Connections ” on the BBC.
        It dealt with that exact scenario, that the average human takes for granted our modern society with no regard for how we got here or what would happen if the lights just went out.
        An excellent series along with its subsequent follow up shows.
        Don’t know if it was brought up in discussions here.

        https://youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ&feature=emb_rel_end

        What is unnerving is in the opening scenes he waltzes into one of the World Trade Towers on the ground floor and the aircraft in trouble is labelled ” Flight 911 “.
        Watch for it.

      2. I would like some beer, but I don’t think you’ll be able to get it to me. So I will give you some help with imagining: Don’t think of a singular catastrophic event, think the medieval period, also known as the “dark ages”. The Greeks calculated the circumference of the Earth 2000 years before Columbus, but you would have gone to the inquisition for saying the Earth was round. We have a new religion about to plunge humanity into a thousand years of darkness. Lots of suffering will happen, but eventually history will see these progressives as a horrible group of people, like we see the priests of the inquisition. Granted, humanity needs to survive, there were no nuclear weapons in the medieval period.

      3. Yes DB as a beer drinker with lots of practice I too have not been able to visualize the point where the fools and morons actually realize what they are.

  8. In today’s news it is reported that Tesla suffered an outage of it online app which prevented owners from unlocking or starting their vehicles.

  9. Kate, you believe Consumer Reports? I’m surprised that you even posted this click bait.

    CR has Ford and GM suits on board. Remember CR said the Apple was junk compared to the PC.

    Tesla is light years ahead of the crowd and expect big competition when Chinese electric cars get here, akin to the Japanese car take over in the 70’s.

    Oh BTW, many of the Tesla’s battery parts are recyclable and they are moving away from rare earth materials.

    Consumer Reports have been caught in error, here is a recent one regarding credit checks:
    https://www.cdiaonline.org/consumer-reports-story-includes-false-misleading-information-on-credit-report-errors/

    1. John – come on man. You’re not even trying. You criticize Kate for posting a Consumer Reports article on Tesla (which is fine), but then you link to something totally different – credit reports. I can tell the article you linked to is bullshit right away when I read…

      “the last nationwide empirically sound studies of accuracy conducted by both the FTC and PERC found accuracy rates of 98% or higher and those files that had errors, were often inaccuracies that had little to no effect on a consumer’s ability to get a loan such as the misspelling of their street name or wrongly spelled first name”.

      So basically 100% accurate. Credit reports. That is like saying there are no car accidents. Post something on Tesla you dumb ox-bone and don’t post something that is total crap like there are no errors on credit reporting – and if there are errors they were just little inaccuracies. Holy crap are you a dumb rabbit.

    2. John, further to your criticism that the host posts articles critical of Tesla that are sponsored by other car companies …

      Your link is on the accuracy of credit reports, as reported by the CDIA. And what is the CDIA? From their web-site …

      “The Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) is the voice of the consumer reporting industry, representing consumer reporting agencies including the nationwide credit bureaus, regional and specialized credit bureaus, background check companies, and others.”

      So, the voice representing the consumer reporting industry, is here to report that “their” consumer reports are 98% accurate, and that the 2% inaccuracies are little things like spelling mistakes – so they are basically 100% accurate. Hmmm…. and they are critical of Consumer Reports which produced an unflattering article about them.

      John, aren’t you missing something?

  10. While watching aerial footage of the BC floods, including the washed-out highways and seeing the hundreds of motorists left stranded, I could not help but acknowledge the insanity of risking being stranded in an EV in the ‘wilderness’. IMO, these vehicles are simply not suitable for any task in Canada but warm, sunny, city driving.

    Also, how long before the Tesla-bots show up in this thread, too? It is incredible how efficient they are at finding anti-Tesla conversations and then bombarding them with pro-Tesla propaganda. More than any other activist group, their reach and efficiency makes me wonder if they are not directly organized and well-funded by Musk himself. Good luck spinning anything positive out of these abhorrent quality ratings, dudes, this is a stunning indictment of how horribly overrated these “virtuousness vehicles” are.

    And, good luck trying to blame Tesla’s rock-bottom ratings only on CR being totally corrupted.

      1. I think the bigger concern is that to put out a Tesla fire you have to immerse the entire car into a pool of water for a week, you know to make sure the fires out. Let’s not even get into the fact that Tesla doesn’t want you leaving them charged overnight, or even inside a garage (fire hazard), how’s that work in Canada? It’s why we have heated garages, would love to watch someone start their Tesla after it’s been outside in -30 weather all night, void the warranty?

  11. An even greater issue is the value placed on electric vehicle makers. Rivian, for example, hasn’t delivered a single vehicle and its market cap is $110 Billion.

    https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/chamath-palihapitiya-rivian-tesla-ev-startup-investing-amazon-underwriters-2021-11

    I sometimes wonder if these companies are given the ridiculous market cap so that the people who brought them public can cash out a small percentage and make a fortune. Imagine convincing a group of extremely rich people that they are brilliant for seeing the value in a company with no orders, and then quietly taking a very small piece of the pie that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and plowing that into single family homes.

    1. Steve – Rivian was delivering cars or trucks as of mid Sept. Octobers deliveries : Rivian reports that as of the end of October, it has produced and delivered respectively 180 and 156 Rivian R1T electric pickups. New data emerged by the way of the new IPO-related document. The first R1T rolled off the assembly line in Normal, Illinois on September 14, which means that over about 48 days, the company was producing the R1T at an average rate of nearly 3.8/day (including weekends). That sounds reasonable for a startup and such a complex product.

      Info from here: https://insideevs.com/news/544860/rivian-r1t-production-delivery-october2021/

      1. Rivian is worth more than General Motors after delivering a couple hundred vehicles in a couple of months of operation. Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

  12. I see more and more Teslas around. Even though they’re rockets, they always seem to be travelling at average or sub-average speed on the #417. I don’t know if that’s the drivers or what.
    Frankly, I don’t care what you drive, electric car, diesel truck, pedal bike.

  13. I noticed at our local plug in station the other day 4 cars pulled up to the charging sight This was odd because I’ve never seen a car plugged in there.Upon closer inspection people are just using it as a place to park.

  14. We followed a Tesla for about 10 minutes at 140-160kph on a toll road in Italy. Thought it might slow due to range but nope.

    1. As long as….

      You know where all the charging stations are.
      You stay in range of those stations.
      You have plenty of time and patience for multiple charging stops of at least 1/2 hr each.

      …. then there is little limit to enjoying the real plus of today’s EV technology…. they are damn quick!

  15. Still looking to see the solution of charging EVs at homes without a driveway as many homes do in central Toronto. The on-street parking for your car may change daily.

    1. Try getting everyone in an EV and charging at home overnight.
      Their are going to be a LOT of blown transformers on the poles.
      Be interesting to watch them burn at night, the wood poles.

  16. But, the batteries are prone to spontaneous combustion. What will the EV owners do when their vehicles are banned from underground and inside parking due to the danger of the lithium batteries uncontrollable burning? Also, if an EV is in an accident and the occupants are still inside, the emergency responders may not be able to rescue them due to the fact that every brand of EV has a different high voltage cable routing that may not be readily available in an emergency. Before they use the jaws of life or a metal cutting device they have to be sure of the locations of the high voltage sources in each individual vehicle to prevent accidental electrocution.
    https://spectator.org/electric-cars-battery-fire/

  17. “… and other self-admitted quality control issues…”

    People like to dump on Tesla, but name me one other manufacturer whose cars are capable of self-admitting their quality control issues.

    Owners of Yugo’s had to take them for counselling.

    1. I think the East German Trabant had them beat for worse quality.
      Imagine a car with a paper roof and a 2 stroke engine.
      The British Austin Mini seemed like a Rolls Royce compared to that piece of junk.
      And yes I did ride in and peruse it on a trip to an unfortunate relative that owned one in Hungary back in 1976.

    2. Remember the Lada, back in the 1970s. It was the only car under (was it $4,999 or $3,999). Anyway, it came with its own tool box including a manual start (hand crank) in case your battery died. Now there’s an honest car maker. Plus, it was based on a Fiat chassis, one of the first environmentally friendly, “auto-bio-degradable” cars on the road. It literally bio-degraded while you drove it. No need to take it to the auto-wreckers. Just add a little salt.

      1. A friend of a guy I carpooled with for a few years remembered his Lada 4×4. One morning he looked out his window and saw it had multiplied; there was a second one parked on the street at the end of his driveway. Rather puzzled, he went outside and examined it. It was unlocked, the license plates had been taken, the keys were on the seat, and the only explanation was a note underneath them: “You’re going to need this more than I do.”

  18. For the most part, I like Elon’s work in space, but you’ll never see me buy a Tesla.
    Also, they way he trolls Bernie Sanders is epic.

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