No. of Recommendations: 1
There is some incredible irony, this being TSLA's board, and ZERO contributions to it for over ten months after being initiated. Given all the daily headlines in the news, as well as being a primary source of wealth of one of "the world's richest men".
The primary drawback to the EV model, at least for this writer, is the EXTREME limitation of its 'refueling' scenario.
1. Long trips: (>~200, 300 miles.) Unacceptable delays that, under the best of conditions, likely will always entail stops of 30 to 90 minutes. Twice that in worst case conditions.
2. Around town/local: Away from home location, charging at 'conveniently' located charging stations. At work, at school, shopping who/what/when/how is the vehicle plugged in / unplugged while you're off to do your business, attend classes?
Its useful employment?: Around town, here and there, work/school/shopping and then in the PM the vehicle always returns to its AM starting point (e.g. "home"), where you have adequate capacity to recharge the battery while you sleep. All good. (Or alternately, at the end of your day, stopping where you can depend on convenient access to adequate power, charging while you sleep.)
To me, these are INSURMOUNTABLE limitations to the model of using EV's. And are all on top of all the 'other' problems people have voiced. They, too, are significant.
(A nice touch, about which I have seen no discussion? The EV's battery itself. The battery in all models weighs over half a ton! Every trip, every minute, every mile, you're hauling around over a half ton of dead weight. That, all by itself, gobbles up big chunks of your energy, cutting into your miles-per-kilowatt. To get a feel of just how bad the 1000 pound penalty is, try driving your gas-powered car or pickup with 1000 pounds of sand in the back and keep track of your MPG. The decrease will be significant.)
