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Geoff Ralston has an interesting essay explaining why is likely that electric car penetration in the US will take off at an exponential rate over the next 5-10 years rendering laughable the paltry predictions of future electric car sales being made today. Present projections assume that electric car sales will slowly increase as the technology gets marginally better, and as more and more customers choose to forsake a better product (the gasoline car) for a worse, yet "greener" version. According to Ralston this view of the future is, simply, wrong. - electric cars will take over our roads because consumers will demand them. "Electric cars will be better than any alternative, including the loud, inconvenient, gas-powered jalopy," says Ralston. "The Tesla Model S has demonstrated that a well made, well designed electric car is far superior to anything else on the road. This has changed everything."
The Tesla Model S has sold so well because, compared to old-fashioned gasoline cars it is more fun to drive, quieter, always "full" every morning, more roomy, and it continuously gets better with automatic updates and software improvements. According to Ralston the tipping point will come when gas stations, not a massively profitable business, start to go out of business as many more electric cars are sold, making gasoline powered vehicles even more inconvenient. When that happens even more gasoline car owners will be convinced to switch. Rapidly a tipping point will be reached, at which point finding a convenient gas station will be nearly impossible and owning a gasoline powered car will positively suck. "Elon Musk has ushered in the age of the electric car, and whether or not it, too, was inevitable, it has certainly begun," concludes Ralston. "The future of automotive transportation is an electric one and you can expect that future to be here soon."
(Score: 2, Informative) by Absolutely.Geek on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:35PM
I live in New Zealand......turns out we are not important enough to have a dealership here.
I could buy one from Australia; but at $120kAUD plus all the taxes to get it here the Model S ends up being around $200 - $240kNZD depending on exchange rate. When compared to a really nice brand new petrol / diesel car at $90kNZD or a top end car at $120kNZD it is just not on the option list. Then comparing that to a low end but nice new car (Mitzy MIrage, Suzki Swift etc) at $25kNZD it really puts into perspective how much getting a Tesla is in NZ.
If the Model S with the 85kW battery was around $130 - $150kNZD; they would sell here. I would serriously consider getting one.....really serriously.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:15PM
One further problem with owning a car like that in NZ is that, once you pass Christchurch on the way south, wages crash fast. I work for a business that has two offices, one in Chch and one in Dunedin. I found out yesterday that one of the junior employees in Chch was moaning that he was low paid at $55k+ a year for 40 hour weeks, and he was complaining about it to the guy who did the same job in Dunedin for $28,600/year for 50+ hour weeks. (Yes, that's less than minimum wage.) This is standard for Dunedin.
My brother earns $60k for a job lesser than my previous one, where I earned 32k/year but worked double the hours.
The difference? He works for the council, I work for a private business owned by a multimillionaire and run by a sociopath.
(Score: 3, Funny) by arslan on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:26PM
You guys get Denny's.. we get Tesla.. fair dinkum mate.
(Score: 1) by Absolutely.Geek on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:42PM
Dennys WTF! crappy food vs the best electric car in the world (for now). I'll take the car; there are plenty of places where I an buy a crappy meal.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday July 31 2015, @05:25AM
Contact Tesla and see if you can be a dealer
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek