I've visited a local plug in day as well, and I drive hybrid so here are my two cents
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And they were represented by their owners, not sales droids. Huge difference. You get to see real people who are happy with their cars and can tell you their real life experience. I am not at all surprised that a given sales droid from a stealership was clueless.
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Model S was designed from ground up as an electric car. That's why when you see a bunch of EVs at a car show, all but Teslas have engine-like things under their hoods. That's the space they had to jam electronics. Tesla has a "frunk" instead '
Here is a bit of information deliberately left out of the conversation so far, to see where this would go. (It is a RANT after all. i wanted to see what other people, informed and uninformed think about it. i use this information to get a better view of how people look at these cars.)
I also talked to OWNERS of Nissan Leaf ( 3 of them and this was AFTER my interaction with the official dealer ) and the FIRST thing all three told me is that it is ONLY a COMMUTER car. Don't expect it to be able to become your only car. One even admitted that he drives from San Francisco to the lower bay area every day and HAS to charge it where he works. Frequently he has to send emails to his colleagues or chase em down if they will please move their electrics when done charging so he can charge to get home.... sometimes he works late because the car is still charging...The actual owners were honest.
I also talked to Volt owners and Tesla owners. Those guys seem to be the happy crowd without the range anxiety. So are the plug-in hybrid owners. The Rav4 EV .. there was only one and he had mixed feelings about it.
And yes, you are right. ALL electrics that were on show had all the stuff crammed in the area where the normal combustion engine would be. Only the Tesla is engineered to be electric from the ground up.
So this leads me back to another question i keep on asking :
Why can't the other car makers do that (engineer it from the ground up)?
- Are they so set in their ways they can't change ? They have become dinosaurs that have lost the ability to evolve ?
- They can't innovate ?
- They are simply not interested in it ?
- They are scared of it ?
- They want it to go away ?
- They are technologically retarded ?
- they are afraid the higher price will turn people away ? ( the Tesla outsells basically all other cars in its price category like BMW M5 and 7 series , Audi A8 and many others ... so that can't be it)
- it is a deliberate attempt at sabotaging it ?
- it is a conspiracy because the manufacturer-dealer-petrolpump business model is threatened ?
What is it ? one , multiple, or all of the above ?
It CAN be done. the Tesla is living proof of it. I drove one yesterday at the plug-in event and i drove one at the factory this morning (yesterday was rush rush and they didn't go over all the things the car has, so i went to the Tesla store at the factory to get the full details).
Technologically this car is completely different and the end result is something unlike our perception of an electric car. It does take off like the enterprise going into warp. The charging technology is unlike anything out there. It's got the range and it is a very comfortable luxury car on top of that.
It really leaves all the old stuff behind. Both in the technology and engineering of the machine and at the stoplight...