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Electronics whiz Elon Musk is now the world's richest person
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vad:

--- Quote from: tom66 on January 09, 2021, 06:46:42 pm ---Bubbles can and do happen.  Just look at the first Bitcoin crash or the Dot-Com bubble.

--- End quote ---
Right. And what is today’s Bitcoin price?

The reason why TSLA, Bitcoin and house prices on my street are surging is because there is too much liquidity on the market. Investors can take loans at record low interest rates and put the money where they believe there is growth potential. And it looks like the investors prefer Tesla to VAG.
vad:

--- Quote from: BravoV on January 09, 2021, 04:27:26 pm ---Hmmm ... you're right, I stand corrected as just realized the current "developed narrative" lately is stealthily shifted where its now white (as in caucasian) versus the evil China and the dictator Xi Jinping, while Putin no longer carry the dictatorship name tag anymore, and the calling is slowly fade away.  :-DD

--- End quote ---
The form of government and economic system is not the same thing. You can have dictatorships with free market economy (Singapore) and you can have socialist dictatorships (Soviet Empire).

The developed narrative also shifts the other way. Russia’s GDP per capita at nominal values is now below China’s GDP per capita. What an insult to Russian chauvinism.
vad:
In fairness to VW and petrol car manufacturers in general, I do believe that EV industry is driven by marketing hype. Investors are trying to follow the hype, ignoring the facts. And the facts are - the current EV technology, which is based on Lithium-Ion battery packs, does not provide significant advantages over cars with internal combustion engine.

EV is not the future of transportation, but rather one of the types of vehicles that will exist on the market in the mid-term future. Similar to lawn movers and pressure washers. You can have a fancy battery mover, that is underpowered, has short range, is expensive and short-lived (been there done that), or you can have a Honda mover. You can have electric Karcher, or a powerful gas pressure washer. Both types of products exist on the market, and both types have their uses.

I considered buying Model 3 for my wife a year ago. Did some math, decided against it, and bought her similar sized compact car VW Jetta that is as expensive to run as Model 3, half the price of Tesla, does not require hiring electrician to install 50 A outlet, and can be refilled in minutes anywhere.

The most surprising part was electricity cost.

Model 3 has rated economy of 26 kWh per 100 miles. Some users reported on forums 0.33 - 0.36 kWh/mile of actual economy, higher in winter, but let’s forget about that for a moment, and use the official 0.26 kWh/mile rating.

I pay 23 cents per kWh for electricity (11 cents for actual power, and 12 cents is delivery charge).

Putting charger efficiency and wiring power losses aside, 5.98 cents would buy me a charge that is good for 1 mile of travel (23 cents/kWh * 0.26 kWh/mile = 5.98 cents/mile)

Today gas price at the nearby station is $2.16 per gallon. So for the price of a gallon, I can charge Model 3 enough to travel 36 miles (216 cents/gallon / 5.98 cents/mile = 36 miles/price of gallon of petrol)

So thanks to greedy power distribution companies and low petrol prices, where I live the running cost of Model 3 is equivalent to running cost of petrol car with 36 MPG mileage rating - typical rating of a similar sized petrol compact passengers car.
tom66:
You have 'unreasonably' cheap fuel in the USA, though!

Here, I can charge my PHEV on off-peak tariff at 5.5p/kWh (5 hours from 8.30pm).  A full charge of ~6.8kWh costs 37.4p and goes ~20 miles.   Cost per mile is therefore about 1.8p.   Even on normal electricity rates at 15p/kWh that cost per mile is around 4.9p.

When I have a BEV and put a 7.2kW charger in I would be able to charge up to 36kWh or ~125 miles per night on the cheap rate, depending on my use profile this could easily cover all of my typical driving with on-peak usage only being needed for the occasional road trip or mid-day charge.

Whereas on petrol at £1.10 per litre (US$6.60 per gallon!!)  my cost in the petrol-hybrid mode at ~45 mpg is about 11p/mile.

So in the worst case electricity is half the cost and in the best case it's a sixth the cost.

Now the other benefits:
- I don't have to worry about annual oil and filter changes,  nor being careful not to drive the car too hard when cold
- My car 'de-ices' and 'pre-heats' in the morning from the electricity supply, so I've never got to scrape ice from the windshield,  and I can pre-heat it remotely if I need to
- My car 'fills up' overnight and unless on longer trips,  I never need to visit a 'fuel station' and stand in the freezing cold for 5 minutes getting ripped off
- I have instant torque - EVs are really nice to drive - and regenerative braking means less brake wear
- I'm doing less damage to the environment and not causing health effects from pollution which harm the lungs of city dwellers
nctnico:
I don't think we need another pro / con EV thread here.
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