Posted March 1, 200718 yr Electric cars gather speed Key -- France's postal service uses some electric cars for deliveries and is 'pleased' with the vehicles overall. It also hopes to order more. Several automobile makers believe electric cars will find their niche in today's marketplace because of high gas prices and the rising environmental movement, however, the price tag is still too costly for many. Alternatives such as hydrogen may come into play in the future. Article information: "Electric Cars Gather Speed, By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS, February 26, 2007; Page A8, Wall-Street Journal" -- Electric Cars Gather Speed Experiment in France Shows Promise, But Cost Remains Considerable By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS February 26, 2007; Page A8 PARIS -- In late 2005, France's state-run postal service began a trial of eight experimental electric-powered mail-delivery vans in an effort to meet a government requirement to reduce pollution. Not only did the vans work well and prove cheaper to operate than gasoline-powered ones, but the mailmen who drove them reported higher job satisfaction. Now, La Poste is working on a five-year plan to replace the bulk of its 48,000-vehicle fleet with electric cars.
March 6, 200718 yr 1. There is excess capacity at night so the vehicles could charge at night 2. Although the charging would create pollution, it is less than petro-fueled cars produce 3. This is an ultimate protection against oil shortages. In a few decades, the world's oil fields will be producing less oil than they produce today, so we are going to need something. 4. I think battery technology needs a bit more development. Cold weather is a problem. Electric vehicles certainly address the real transportation needs that people have: commuting, shopping, and going to school. As for "needs" like going on vacation trips, well, maybe those are not really "needs" after all. The whole world is going to have to accept some sacrifice.
March 7, 200718 yr 4. I think battery technology needs a bit more development. Cold weather is a problem. This one is key to many of our energy problems. If we invested all of those misplaced ethanol dollars into energy storage research, it might prove to be a game changer for electric cars, as well as sporadic renewables like wind and solar.
May 3, 200817 yr http://marketplace.publicradio.org/i/slides/2006/tesla/tesla_stock.jpg http://www.teslamotors.com/ Once my midlife crisis kicks in and I can afford it, look out! *0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds *220 miles per charge *135 mpg equivalent (less than $0.02 per mile!) *Full charge in 3.5 hours *Base Price - $109,000
May 3, 200817 yr I just read about the Tesla earlier today. Pretty awesome car i'd love to own one of those bad boys!
May 3, 200817 yr I talk about this w/my wife all the time. I'm 41, she's 38--when we were in school we read about electric cars, solar power, wind, etc. What happened? I gather the same thing that will happen during the current "energy crisis" big oil and automakers will flex their muscle and our gov't will capitulate. We don't want alternative transportation enough for it to happen.
May 3, 200817 yr Once my midlife crisis kicks in and I can afford it, look out! Agreed, this is my dream car too.
May 4, 200817 yr I talk about this w/my wife all the time. I'm 41, she's 38--when we were in school we read about electric cars, solar power, wind, etc. What happened? I gather the same thing that will happen during the current "energy crisis" big oil and automakers will flex their muscle and our gov't will capitulate. We don't want alternative transportation enough for it to happen. I'm now in my 40s also and I remember the 1970s. You need to read the Peak Oil thread (see http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,2706.0.html) to see the difference between the geopolitically induced energy crises of the 1970s and the fundamental supply/demand energy crisis of today. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 4, 200817 yr My first reaction is that I can't believe the only electic car available (that I'm aware of) costs over 100k but it is an attractive, high-status car. Hopefully it will eventually increase the demand for more affordable electric cars. I just don't buy any excuse as to why we haven't converted to electric. The industry claimed batteries explode too easily making them too much of a liability but if the effort was truely there in R&D to develope efficient, safe yet cheap technology, it would be a non-issue. Most of the environmentally friendly vehicles they've come out with are gimmicks, they don't save consumers any money and they're not as environmentally friendly as we thought they were. They also don't cater at all to the design tastes of Americans when they easily could have.
May 6, 200817 yr Well...the Volt started out costing around $30k. Then it was revised to $30-40k. Now it looks like it's $48k. Any guesses on where it'll settle out? Nevermind, I'm sure my tax dollars will subsidize the hell out of it. I'm gonna say it'll cost $30k with subsidies, GM will make out like a bandit, and people will save their suburban lifestyles.
June 28, 200816 yr AMP Electric-Powered Car Ready For Road Testing http://www.wcpo.com/content/news/localshows/living_green_two/story.aspx?content_id=5509c4c7-eb2b-4f08-8c3c-ee84d11698ea
June 28, 200816 yr "We don't want alternative transportation enough for it to happen." A major issue it that is takes a lot of energy to run the A/C and heat. Heat is a by-product of the internal combustion engine, so it's relatively simple to put a blower on it and send some of that heat to the passenger compartment. Electric cars don't have that by-product. Want heat and A/C at an affordable price? Buy a conventional car. Electric cars have been around since cars were first developed. It is said that Henry Ford's wife drove an electric car, and liked it better than her husband's product.
June 29, 200816 yr Heat is a pretty easy issue to address, A/C not so much. In the late thirties, Ford offered a Stewart-Warner gasoline heater as an option for those who wanted instant heat without waiting for the engine to warm up, or for drivers in extremely cold climates. The Corvair used a similar technology, and it probably would be fairly easy to design something similar using propane, like a scaled-down version of the heaters used in RVs. So far as I know, the combustion heaters were safe enough; I never read any reports of them starting fires or causing CO poisoning. Drivers got along without air conditioning until the 1950s, just about the time a lot of people were abandoning transit for private autos. Put in plenty of vents, and windows that open all the way. We're talking urban transportation, here, and if it gets too hot to drive, take air-conditioned transit. There were several builders of electric cars in the early 1900s -- Detroit and Columbia (the same company that made Columbia bicycles) probably were the best-known, and Milburn was another popular one. They were more refined in their design and appointments than the noisy, smelly, hard-to-start-and-drive gasoline autos of the time. Those characteristics made them appealing to many women who found gasoline autos crude, obnoxious and hard to handle (just like their men). Standard interior features included elegant touches like flower sconces. The basement garages in many finer city homes of the early 1900s were created for electric autos. One certainly wouldn't want to start a gasoline auto of the time in a space attached to the living quarters; gasoline engines of the time belched oil smoke and gasoline fumes when starting, and a careless or unskilled individual could cause them to catch fire.
June 30, 200816 yr ^great summary, Rob :type: I would be happy with a battery powered automobile with heated seats and a heated grid for the lower part of the windshield to clear "a lot of" the frost and fog. The previous design of the Dodge Caravan had three electrical heating grid wires across the lower part of the windshield to warm the area where the windshield wiper blades would park and a bit of the viewable area. I think the heated seats would be a sufficient solution for my 23 minute commute. I already drive the first six minutes with *no* heat. My solution is akin to the heated vests and heated suits that motorcyclists wear. There are battery-powered heated vests that sub-Arctic truckers wear to keep them warm if they have to leave the cab to do repairs. Skiiers buy battery-powered heated vests, too. A motorist could always preheat the car for five minutes with electricity sourced from the grid before they disconnect and drive off. Contemporary electric automobiles have heater modules that heat the cabin through radiation or convection. I don't know how many motorists would be happy with my frugal solution, though. I have heard that the book on electric cars by Sherry Boschert is very good.
June 30, 200816 yr ^great summary, Rob :type: A motorist could always preheat the car for five minutes with electricity sourced from the grid before they disconnect and drive off. Good idea; I hadn't thought of that. If the AC heating element had sufficient mass, it could continue to provide heat for a little while even when unplugged. People seem desperate to hang onto the concept of private auto transportation by any means possible, like battery power, hydrogen fuel cells, etc., when the real problem isn't the on-board energy source. Excessive dependency on private autos is the root problem, and many other issues stem from it. Batteries have to be charged somehow or energy has to be expended to isolate hydrogen. Manufacturing automobiles and their tires, and paving roads where they can be driven and spaces where they can be parked for most of their existence consume tremendous amounts of energy and create chemical and heat pollution of air and water. As automobiles become more technically sophisticated, they become more expensive, and efficient cars are least affordable for the people who need them most. More efficient cars don't address the social inequity that results from bad land policies that result from or are even required by excessive use of private autos. Sorry. I'll stop now. :oops:
June 30, 200816 yr ^ Eat some oatmeal and it will warm your innards. I foresee that these electric automobiles and pluggable hybrids are going to be expensive solutions to the transportation challenge. They will never supplant the 20th century motorized dreamworld. The travel industry is going to shrink. There will be other "adjustments" as people begin to plan to walk to the market &such. I could go on...
December 9, 200816 yr Author Hawaii to be 1st state with electric car stations By Audrey McAvoy, AP, December 3, 2008 HONOLULU -- Hawaii has unveiled plans to be first in the nation to roll out electric car stations statewide _ a move the governor hailed as a major step toward weaning the islands off oil. Hawaii imports foreign oil for almost 90 percent of its energy needs. One-third of that oil is used to power cars and buses on island streets. Gov. Linda Lingle said Tuesday the program would help Hawaii meet its goal of slashing fossil fuel use 70 percent by 2030.
December 9, 200816 yr Author Bay Area Stakes Claim as the "EV Capital of the U.S." By Jason Sattler, Wired, November 21, 2008 The Mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose got together Thursday afternoon to declare their intention to morph their collective communities into the “Electric Vehicle Capital of the US.” The mayors’ Nine-Point Plan was bolstered by Palo Alto start-up Better Place’s announcement that they would begin building the commercial infrastructure that will be necessary in the region by the time EVs begin to hit the market in 2011.
June 13, 201411 yr Tesla vows not to fight anybody using their patents in good faith in order to further production of electric cars. http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you
June 21, 201410 yr Electric motorcycles from Harley Davidson They don't go far but it'll get ya there quick... http://www.jsonline.com/business/harley-davidson-electric-motorcycle-prototype-to-be-launched-b99294676z1-263792061.html
September 4, 201410 yr http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/09/03/tesla-gigafactory-nevada-carson/15029233/
June 24, 20159 yr Bump. Well, I was sadly unable to convince my wife of the advantages of the Tesla Model S (<a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/28/best-overall-car-win-tesla-model-s-consumer-reports/">notiwhtstanding</a> <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/13/tesla-model-s-99100-on-consumer-reports-test-best-score-ever/">the fact</a> <a href="http://planetsave.com/2014/12/08/tesla-model-s-most-loved-car/">that it</a> <a href="http://www.motortrend.com/oftheyear/car/1301_2013_motor_trend_car_of_the_year_tesla_model_s/">is f***ing awesome</a>), so as of two days ago, I became the somehow less cool (and less mobile) owner of a used Nissan Leaf. I had kind of hoped to grind my old '01 Altima along to 2017 when the Tesla Model 3 is slated to arrive, but there is always the risk of production delays with that (though Tesla has been executing with incredible precision so far) and the old Altima was starting to show a little too much car-thritis for my liking. And that first moment of driving away from the dealership, seeing the BP across the street, and suddenly realizing "wait, WTF do I care?" was a magnificent moment. One of the first things I did was download an app called PlugShare, which also has a regular Web site presence here: http://www.plugshare.com/. This revealed something that I kind of wish I'd known before I bought the comparatively short-range Leaf. While downtown Akron is actually surprisingly progressive with electric vehicle charging stations in publicly-owned garages, and Columbus has reasonably dense coverage as well, Cleveland is actually something of an EV charging desert. That's unfortunate and I hope to see that change. I occasionally need to commute from Akron to my firm's downtown Cleveland office and it would be nice to have somewhere nearby where I could charge for the return trip--the Leaf's biggest shortcoming relative to the Model S is range (not as many people care about the 4WD and the ability to go 0-60 in 3.1, though those benighted fools didn't have the test drive experience I did ... but I digress). It's a 60-mile round trip. The Leaf is rated for 80, but that's cutting it a little close for my comfort, given that electric cars actually flip the strengths and weaknesses of regular cars. Regenerative braking and the 0-rpm peak torque of an electric motor mean that it's actually great in stop-and-go city street traffic and anything else an internal-combustion engine (ICE) car would do in a lower gear (the electric is great on hills as well), but it loses power and efficiency at higher speeds, whereas ICE cars are often at peak efficiency at around 55 MPH. Therefore, you can't count on it getting the full 80 miles if you simply get in I-77 north and put it in cruise control at 55, whereas that would be the ideal range-maximizing setting for many ICE cars. Anyway, Dear Cleveland: The electric car is going nowhere but up, so you might consider taking steps to make your downtown more welcoming to them, especially considering that we already managed to do it down here.
June 24, 20159 yr Hah! I recognize that video; I've watched it a couple of times already. Let's just say that showing that to her probably wouldn't have helped my case. Likewise this one ... because I'm not 100% sure which of the two women she'd be:
June 25, 20159 yr Gramarye you should turn in your Republican card, because you sound like some kinda 'Merican flag hatin' granola loving eco-commie right now. P.s. LOL @ car-thritis.
June 25, 20159 yr Gramarye you should turn in your Republican card, because you sound like some kinda 'Merican flag hatin' granola loving eco-commie right now. P.s. LOL @ car-thritis. Typical Democrat, behind the times :-) : http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/this-kentucky-conservative-owns-a-tesla-lives-off-the-grid-a#.plpGWb5KQn My old company made wheels for the Volt, so I can't be against them either.
June 25, 20159 yr Gramarye you should turn in your Republican card, because you sound like some kinda 'Merican flag hatin' granola loving eco-commie right now. P.s. LOL @ car-thritis. Typical Democrat, behind the times :-) : http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/this-kentucky-conservative-owns-a-tesla-lives-off-the-grid-a#.plpGWb5KQn My old company made wheels for the Volt, so I can't be against them either. This. I'd read that before, and that sounds like someone I'd get along with. surf, blame my cheapskate wife. If it weren't for her, I'd be in a Tesla right now, not this affordable, emasculating hippiemobile that tops out at 90MPH and 90 miles on a charge (with no climate control, "eco" mode enabled, and no highway driving). :shoot: :-o I actually have real concerns about how this thing will hold any value at all because electric cars are in such a technological growth spurt that this thing will look like a dumbphone purchased in 2005 looked in 2008 (after the iPhone). The flip side is that the Teslas are also likely to get substantially better and cheaper, so if I'm really up for paying $85,000 for a car, that will buy even more car in 2017 or 2018--and of course, the Model 3 might prove to be exactly what I'm really looking for.
June 25, 20159 yr Gramarye you should turn in your Republican card, because you sound like some kinda 'Merican flag hatin' granola loving eco-commie right now. P.s. LOL @ car-thritis. Typical Democrat, behind the times :-) : http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/this-kentucky-conservative-owns-a-tesla-lives-off-the-grid-a#.plpGWb5KQn My old company made wheels for the Volt, so I can't be against them either. This. I'd read that before, and that sounds like someone I'd get along with. surf, blame my cheapskate wife. If it weren't for her, I'd be in a Tesla right now, not this affordable, emasculating hippiemobile that tops out at 90MPH and 90 miles on a charge (with no climate control, "eco" mode enabled, and no highway driving). :shoot: :-o I actually have real concerns about how this thing will hold any value at all because electric cars are in such a technological growth spurt that this thing will look like a dumbphone purchased in 2005 looked in 2008 (after the iPhone). The flip side is that the Teslas are also likely to get substantially better and cheaper, so if I'm really up for paying $85,000 for a car, that will buy even more car in 2017 or 2018--and of course, the Model 3 might prove to be exactly what I'm really looking for. Tesla is to electric cars what Hebrew National is to hot dogs. A separate category.
June 25, 20159 yr Meaning I just purchased a big pile of Oscar Meyer. Well, fair enough. Could've had a worse Oscar Mayer purchase:
June 25, 20159 yr Meaning I just purchased a big pile of Oscar Meyer. Well, fair enough. Nathan's maybe. The Volt is Oscar Meyer.
June 25, 20159 yr Gramarye[/member] I'm curious what your thought process was in going full electric (Tesla notwithstanding), vs. a hybrid.
June 25, 20159 yr I tend to agree with Elon Musk's own answer to why he never considered designing a hybrid as a stepping stone rather than going straight to fully electric vehicles: A hybrid tends to be not a great electric car and not a great gas car. Most hybrids have a very limited fully electric range. Also, while you do have plug-in hybrids now, the main source of the electricity to power the hybrid car is also from running the gasoline engine, which means you're still dependent on stopping at gas stations, which is one major reason to get an electric in the first place. Or maybe I agree with Mr. Miyagi: "Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later ... [squish] get squish just like grape. Here, car, same thing. Either you electric do "yes" or electric do "no." You electric do "guess so," [squish] just like grape. Understand?" The primary cost savings of having an electric car come from (a) the dramatically smaller number of moving parts, which lessens expensive under-the-hood maintenance, and (b) the fact that electricity from the grid is far cheaper than the same amount of power stored in a tank of gasoline. The hybrid forfeits both of those advantages. It still has a transmission, a filter system, alternator, distributor, and of course the internal combustion engine itself. In many ways it's actually more complex than a purely gasoline-powered car rather than less. You will still need oil changes, transmission fluid, and much more, on top of the non-powertrain components that both ICE and electrics still have (shocks, struts, etc.). It also still runs on gasoline, either to actually drive the car sometimes or to charge the battery (using the engine like a generator). The whole point of an electric is that you don't need to haul around a small portable generator with you under the hood; FirstEnergy's generators a hundred miles away are much better at it, as long as you can store enough of it locally. (Hence, storage has always been the bottleneck technology for the electric car.) That's why the average cost of energy to drive an electric car 12,000 miles (a typical year) using grid power is usually somewhere around $400, and the cost of energy (fuel) to drive an ICE car that same distance is probably $1500-$2000.
June 25, 20159 yr (Hence, storage has always been the bottleneck technology for the electric car.) Storage is a bottleneck, period, where electrical power is concerned. A major breakthrough in storage efficiency will be of massive benefit to the electric car business.....and to so many other things that it's research they don't need to fund. They'll piggyback on it..
June 26, 20159 yr Tesla's business model (and share price) are built around that thought: That they will be both a car company and a power company. The PowerPack that they just announced is their first foray into that, though under the packaging, its specs are pretty lackluster and wouldn't keep a whole home (even a relatively small condo, let alone a typical suburban house) going for long enough to grant real grid independence even paired with a solar installation. They could, however, allow for serious load redistribution by drawing grid power at night and lasting long enough to power a decent-sized home during the day. And of course, down the road, it's expected that solar installations will be cheap and strong enough so that a typical suburban roof's worth of square footage can absorb enough power to fuel both the house (including through the night, with storage) and the car.
June 27, 20159 yr Tesla's business model (and share price) are built around that thought: That they will be both a car company and a power company. The PowerPack that they just announced is their first foray into that, though under the packaging, its specs are pretty lackluster and wouldn't keep a whole home (even a relatively small condo, let alone a typical suburban house) going for long enough to grant real grid independence even paired with a solar installation. They could, however, allow for serious load redistribution by drawing grid power at night and lasting long enough to power a decent-sized home during the day. And of course, down the road, it's expected that solar installations will be cheap and strong enough so that a typical suburban roof's worth of square footage can absorb enough power to fuel both the house (including through the night, with storage) and the car. I remain skeptical that Earth based solar power is ever going to be a major player for high density applications, though space based is a different matter entirely. It's one of the few technological predictions Heinlein missed on, so far. The problems are more physics than engineering: too much atmospheric absorbtion. Though super efficient storage methods (like Heinlein's "Shipstones") will make any and all means of producing energy potentially relevant.
June 27, 20159 yr Density is a storage issue more than a production issue where solar is concerned, though. Cost-per-kWh is the dominant metric with respect to production. A 5% efficient panel is better than a 50% efficient panel for most purposes if the 50% efficient panel is 10x as strong but more than 10x as expensive (e.g., because of a rare-earth metal requirement). We've got plenty of usable surface area in most developed areas, especially in the suburbs where there tends to be a lot of inefficiently used dead land; 100% efficiency is a sci-fi ideal but doesn't in any way need to be the practical polestar for widespread adoption.
November 24, 20159 yr The U.K. Is Testing Roads That Recharge Your Electric Car As You Drive http://ow.ly/UYG3M "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 30, 20159 yr A Car Dealers Won’t Sell: It’s Electric By MATT RICHTELNOV. 24, 2015 More than seven years ago, President Obama called for one million electric cars to be on the road by this year, and the vehicles have gained a large fan club. Environmentalists promote them as a smart way to cut dangerous emissions. Owners love their pep and the gas money they save. Apple and Google have jumped into the race to build next-generation battery-powered cars. So why are only about 330,000 electric vehicles on the road? One answer lies in an unexpected and powerful camp of skeptics: car dealers. They are showing little enthusiasm for putting consumers into electric cars. Some buyers even tell stories of dealers talking them into gas cars and of ill-informed salespeople uncertain how far the cars can go on a charge or pushing oil changes that the cars do not need. And industry officials themselves acknowledge a hesitancy to sell cars that may not suit drivers’ needs. MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/01/science/electric-car-auto-dealers.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&smtyp=cur "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 30, 20159 yr Tesla has known about this issue for more than a decade, and it is why they have been willing to spend so much to not only build their own retail network, but to pay top-notch legal and lobbying money to protect it against establishment dealerships and the statutes and regulations protecting them. They sell only through company-operated stores because they know that dealers are both less than enthusiastic and less than knowledgeable about electric cars, and more importantly, are fundamentally conflicted when making the real pitch for an electric car because it means essentially denigrating (or at least waffling on) 95%+ of the traditional dealer's inventory. Tesla has also long known about the fact later in the article: that electric vehicle customers are often better marketers for electric vehicles than traditional vehicle dealers. Even with lower-end electrics like the LEAF and Volt, that is often the case. With Tesla, it's beyond insane, owing to the fact that financially successful creatives form a large part of Tesla's current ownership base. Tesla's YouTube fan videos often get hundreds of thousands or even millions of views, and often have surprisingly high production values. Tesla doesn't spend a dime on advertising, and yet videos like this somehow still exist: At the end of the day, car dealers are just very, very powerful middlemen. They can be useful, but they are not essential.
January 6, 20169 yr Things perhaps getting interesting in this space! http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2016/01/06/chevy-bolt-ces-electric/78349028/ And while it's still not in production and won't be until late 2017 even assuming GM (Chevy) holds to that production schedule, at least they've put together a tangible concept car for CES, so this is at least one notch more than just promiseware. I predict that this will be a very interesting year for electric car news. Nissan and BMW are hinting at more to come as well, and Volkswagen might get into the game following its rather dramatic emissions cheating oopsie. And of course, we expect significantly more detail about the Tesla Model 3 this year as well. This thread may well be quite a bit larger on December 31, 2016.
October 1, 20168 yr Electricity from the grid is far cheaper than the same amount of power stored in a tank of gasoline. ...assuming that grid electricity is available. There are millions of parking spaces out there without available electricity.
November 7, 20168 yr http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2016/11/07/1107-tesla-ends-free-charging-stations.html Tesla will end free charging at its super-charge stations. Very Stable Genius
March 16, 20178 yr Yet another issue with the company that refuses to scale in the slow, careful manner that the grownup car companies did. What this means for you is that if you try to use a Tesla Model 3 as a daily driver your insurance will be through the roof if you include rental car coverage. The insurance company does not want a $35,000 bill from the rental car company. Tesla's Potential Body Shop Backlog Nightmare With production of the Tesla Model 3 supposedly coming soon, the automaker’s ability to successfully bring the sedan to production has been the subject of intense speculation. But after a financial analyst published a disaster account last week of how it has taken eight months to repair his Model S, another question has been front-and-center: Can Tesla and its repair network fix these cars in a timely fashion, especially when it’s counting on mass sales of the Model 3? http://jalopnik.com/teslas-potential-body-shop-backlog-nightmare-1793269803
March 16, 20178 yr The modern marketplace doesn't allow for slow scaling, especially for tech companies (which Tesla is, much moreso than a car company). Also, Tesla was founded in 2003. Their growth since then has obviously not been linear and the Model 3 represents essentially a bet-the-company risk (they won't have the revenue to survive if this product flops), but that was part of the company's express plan since at least around 2006. The body shop issue is a problem, but a solvable problem.
March 16, 20178 yr Self-driving cars are going to have so much radar and other expensive stuff in the bumpers that every knick will total them.
March 16, 20178 yr Most of the camera equipment is mounted up top on self-driving cars. Although even "dumb cars" these days have backup cameras mounted much lower.
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