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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday January 15 2015, @01:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the rolling-thunder dept.

Reuters reports that Elon Musk, speaking at an industry conference in Detroit, said Tesla may not be profitable until 2020 but that Tesla plans to boost production of electric cars to "at least a few million a year" by 2025. Musk told attendees at the Automotive News World Congress that "we could make money now if we weren't investing" in new technology and vehicles such as the Model 3 and expanded retail networks.

Musk does not see the Chevrolet Bolt as a potential competitor to the Model 3. "It's not going to affect us if someone builds a few hundred thousand vehicles," said Musk. "I'd be pleased to see other manufacturers make electric cars." On another topic, Musk said he was open to partnerships with retailers to sell Tesla vehicles, but not until after the company no longer has production bottlenecks. "Before considering taking on franchised dealers, we also have to establish (more of) our own stores," said Musk adding that "we will consider" franchising "if we find the right partner." Musk did not elaborate, but said Tesla "is not actively seeking any partnerships" with other manufacturers "because our focus is so heavily on improving our production" in Fremont. Last year, Tesla delivered about 33,000 Model S sedans and said the current wait for delivery is one to four months. Tesla has already presold every Model S X that it plans to build in 2015. “If you ordered a car today, you wouldn’t get it until 2016."

[Update] The above links presented conflicting reports as to whether it was the Model S or the Model X whose 2015 orders were sold out. According to Tesla Motor's own web page, it was the Model X :

The delivery estimate for new reservations is early 2016.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Friday January 16 2015, @09:23AM

    by RedBear (1734) on Friday January 16 2015, @09:23AM (#135318)

    The problem is that you have to waste energy to accelerate and slow down an extra thousand pounds of stuff every single day. This is energy that you waste to accelerate and partly burn, partly reuse during braking. As energy for an EV still has to come from somewhere, from a place that burns coal, natural gas or fissile materials, it is not free. You want a light car. Gasoline just happens to be a light fuel with high internal energy, whereas an EV needs a heavy battery.

    If you bothered to do the actual efficiency calculations you'd soon realize that it is a very bogus conclusion that the gas vehicle is either more efficient or somehow better for the environment just because the Tesla is much heavier. Turns out in the real world the Tesla uses energy so much more efficiently that you will produce significantly less CO2 even if you always charge with electricity produced 100% from the dirtiest coal plants you can find. Yes, gasoline is energy-dense, with several times the energy density of any battery per pound, but the internal combustion engine wastes at least 70% of that energy simply creating heat and overcoming the inertia of the various heavy metal engine parts and drive shafts. At best, only 30% of the energy in each gallon of gas actually does anything to move the vehicle. So the effective difference in energy density between gas and batteries isn't nearly as large as many imagine.

    Don't forget to include in your calculations the fact that it takes approximately 4.5kWh of electricity from the "dirty" grid to refine every gallon of gasoline. So when one looks at the big picture every car on the road is actually an electric car, at least partially. The difference is that a real electric car uses the same electric energy massively more efficiently. Meanwhile electric vehicles also have the ability to be powered by clean, renewable energy if such is available in your area. Fossil fuel vehicles will never have a way to be clean.

    Opposition to electric vehicles as being somehow just as bad or even worse than fossil fuel vehicles is very ill-informed. If you are worried about the environment at all you really have no rational choice but going electric.

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  • (Score: 2) by cafebabe on Sunday February 01 2015, @02:41AM

    by cafebabe (894) on Sunday February 01 2015, @02:41AM (#139962) Journal

    Electric cars compete at a significant disadvantage to hydrocarbon cars. This is because electric cars carry the deadweight of discharged batteries whereas spent hydrocarbons (mostly) become vapor. This disadvantage doesn't apply to electric trains because they don't carry the deadweight.

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