SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
posted by
cmn32480
on Friday August 28 2015, @07:20PM
from the vroom-vroooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmm dept.
from the vroom-vroooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmm dept.
A score of 103 out of 100 could be called kind of... Insane. This is exactly what the Tesla Model S P85D in 'Insane' mode received during testing by Consumer Reports (CR), a score so off-the-charts good that it actually broke the scale and forced CR to revise how they measure things. The official score with the new, updated methodology will be 100/100.
What made the Tesla break the ratings was the combination of supercar performance and extreme energy efficiency. These things haven't historically been found together, and so CR never had a car that go such high scores in both columns.
Impressive, but alas...traffic.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The New Tesla Broke the Consumer Reports Rating System With a Score of 103%
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 59 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday August 28 2015, @08:37PM
That 270 miles is more than my weekly commute of ~200 miles. Then add on small weekend trips and I normally do about 250-300 miles per week. The difference with the Tesla is I can fill my car up *EVERY* night. Sure I could do the same with my car but the gas stations are packed at rush hour and I just want to go the hell home. The tesla allows me to pull into my driveway, plug in, and go in my house. So in theory every day I can have a 270 mile range without going to a gas station. Long trips? Very rare. And if I do they are usually within a 300 mile range. If my destination were further, I'd either rent a car or fly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2015, @08:55PM
You do not live in the American (perhaps Canadian, too) West.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 28 2015, @09:16PM
I grew up in the Rockies, and I call shenanigans on that. Distances are long, but even in rural places you don't drive more than 60 miles one way to work. Why? Because the speed limits don't permit it. There's no place in the American West where speed limits are 100 mph and traffic is non-existent, such that you could live 100 miles away from your place of work and have no problem driving that distance 2x per day. Because that's about the only scenario for Americans who commute daily where an EV wouldn't generally work for you, although a Tesla Model S still would.
Suggesting otherwise, even now at this early stage of the game, is FUD. Intentional FUD or not, it's FUD.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday August 28 2015, @09:38PM
So you are saying that everyone one in the US/CAD west drives further than 270 miles per day? This claim is dubious at best.
(Score: 2, Informative) by tftp on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:50AM
I would say that there are individuals who drive 50-60 miles per day - like those who live in SF but commute to Silicon Valley. At the same time there are many more who drive 15-20 miles per day, if even that much. On average maybe you can get to 20-30 miles per day.
But the problem is that long drive at, say, 70% of the daily range of an EV - that is the most efficient way of using an EV - is rare, just as I said and as you imply. Sure, if you buy an EV and drive it nearly non-stop, like a taxicab, it becomes a great investment because every mile costs you so little.
But that's not the case. Most people drive little most of the time - and on occasion they drive quite a lot. A gas car does not care about such uneven usage, as long as you add gas to the tank now and then. But an EV cares.
First of all, an EV must be always fed with current, even if you are not driving it. EVs had been bricked by neglect. This is something that gas cars just don't do; you can park it for winter, and it will be good to go in spring. So an EV needs constant maintenance. Then the next issue is the distance. If an EV is driven very little, it will never pay for itself because savings on gas would be too small. For example, someone drives 20 miles per day in the city, in a 40 mpg car. That costs 0.5 gallons per day, or 52*5*0.5 = 130 gallons per year. At $3.50/gal that costs $450 per year. A car typically serves for 10 years; YMMV, but that's a good number that we can pick. This means that the EV purchase price - assuming free electric power - must not exceed an average purchase price of a gas car by more than, say, $5K. Bringing it down to reality: a new Prius costs $24,200. Drop the $4200 as you get them back in a tax credit. Add $5000 to the effective price of base Prius. You get $25K. Can you buy an EV for $25K?
A Leaf is one candidate; it will cost you $21K in the same base configuration. That will save you $4K over 10 years, or $400 per year. But the charger will cost you $2K, so perhaps the savings are not that high; and we have to presume that you assign no cost to the inconvenience of care and feeding of your new Tamagochi :-) Take Volt now; it's a hybrid, but it can run in plug-in mode just fine. You can buy one today for $26K, also after the tax credit. It is already borderline, but you may find it profitable to own one if you drive not 20 miles per day but, say, 30.
Does Tesla have anything to compete? No. Their Model S is sold for $75K before tax credit; this becomes about $70K after. You have to drive a lot - quite a lot - to realize the advantage of cheaper electric power. But so many people here and elsewhere are claiming that an average driver in the USA does not drive that much. This means that Tesla's cars will not work for them. They are aimed either at people who don't see $70K as money, or at people who intend to drive these cars hard, like taxicabs. Nobody else can get out of red after buying them - the gasoline is still much cheaper than $45K lump sum that you pay to Tesla on day zero instead of investing it.
What's the executive summary? It's simple. Leaf will save you money if you meet the conditions to drive it properly - a daily range of 20 miles, and a garage to charge it at home, and no need for much longer trips. (You can rent a gas car for those, but the rent will kill you financially if you intend to stay for a week.) A Volt is another candidate, a bit more costly but still viable, especially if you drive a bit more daily and if you need longer trips. As a hybrid, Volt has no range limit. Tesla is not a player outside of the small group of people who have more money than brains. I do not know much about other EVs, but ones made by BMW had been mentioned by others. Perhaps they will provide calculations of their efficiency.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 28 2015, @09:22PM
Even long trips, man. Are you older than 35? You probably want a break from the driving every couple of hours to go to the bathroom and stretch your legs. That's plenty of time to top off batteries at a supercharger. Have kids? Guarantee you, they have to go pee every 45 minutes.
The counter-argument of gas-powered cars vs. the supposed shortcomings of EVs has crossed the frontier into the ridiculous. "Oh, but if I had an electric car I wouldn't be able to drive 30 hours in a stretch with no stopping..." because gas-powered cars never have to stop to re-fuel or accommodate the needs of their human drivers.
Mind you, I'm not arguing with you or disagreeing with you, so much as riffing off what you've reasonably said.
Washington DC delenda est.