Niche Player Tesla Motors Bashes Volt and Range Extension

April 6, 2009 by admin 

I like the Tesla electric vehicles a lot, but I don’t have much faith in the company’s ability to find more than just a niche audience for their vehicles. That belief was reinforced by an article today on the GM-Volt blog.

In the GM-Volt.com post, Tesla’s CEO and former Paypal founder Elon Musk was critical of range extension technologies found in GM’s upcoming Chevy Volt.  Sadly Tesla is making nearly every mistake GM made ten years ago with the EV1.

Before we go any further, don’t even think about buying a Tesla unless you live in California. Tesla’s dealer infrastructure is slowly building (Chicago and New York dealerships are opening this summer), but right now you can’t buy a car unless you live reasonably close to one of their two California locations. They won’t even sell it to you if there’s no dealer nearby.

It’s probably with good reason. If the car runs out of juice you’re stuck for a very long time. Because of the massive amount of battery power the car needs to operate, you’re likely waiting for eight or ten hours (or more) just to limp home. 110 charging from a standard wall outlet on the Tesla is just not a feasible means of fast fueling. This same reason is exactly why the EV1 failed: people are not going to buy a car that has the potential to leave them stranded when the battery runs out.

And then of course is the hardware. Part of the Tesla package is for an electrician to come out and install a hefty charging station in the garage. It’s the only way to get enough juice in the vehicle to make it remotely feasible for daily use.

I really do want Tesla to succeed. But they are making every one of the mistakes GM made with the EV1 and assuming the market will go along with it this time. They’re even down on Shai Agassi‘s plan for a hot swappable battery infrastructure (something that would actually make the Tesla vehicles practical). They were so eager to criticize Agassi that their PR people logged into this low traffic blog to comment when I wrote about it a few months ago.

People simply won’t buy an electric car that can’t be quickly refueled. End of story. Anything else is going to be a toy for wealthy buyers who will drive it short distances as a secondary vehicle. Hopefully Tesla will wake up and develop a practical vehicle that will keep their innovative company operating.

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Filed under: Automotive
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Comments

  • Bill Foster
    There was an interesting show on cable which seemed to indicate that CARB (California Air Resource Board) deep sixed what was a viable solution. The people who loved their EV1's and were very upset when GM took them away and destroyed them.
  • Was it the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

    I watched that a year or two ago. The car was definitely ahead of its time
    and there's no question the people who owned those EV1s adored them. It's
    funny though, for the entire length of the movie there was not one comment
    on the practicality of these electric only vehicles.

    There's always going to be enthusiasts, and I suppose there will always be a
    niche market for electric vehicles without a backup power source. But most
    people buy a car because they need to get to the places they need to go. If
    the trip runs beyond the range of the car, a simple five minute fill up is
    enough to keep going.

    In the case of every electric car that's been sold or leased in this country
    to date, when the battery dies the car doesn't move for hours. Most people
    are not going to buy a car that can only take them 100-200 miles from home.


    The Volt is an exciting project. It will significantly reduce my dependence
    on foreign oil but still give the flexibility to drive beyond its battery
    range. This might be the car that finally helps electric vehicles hit a
    critical mass.
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