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Of course. I fully recognize that the Tesla is a great car for a lot of people. I take issue, though, when those people start saying that it's so much better th

by kylec 11y ago

Of course. I fully recognize that the Tesla is a great car for a lot of people. I take issue, though, when those people start saying that it's so much better than other cars, pointing out the ways in which the Tesla is better but ignoring the ways in which the Tesla is worse.

greglindahl 11y ago
And do you find that such postings lead to productive discussions? Because it causes the same discussion every time. And every car has both pluses and minuses.
mikeash 11y ago
Ways in which it's worse: range. Interior is debatable and subjective. The only concrete thing where it's worse is range. And everybody acknowledges that as far as I can see. The problem is that a lot of people don't understand how the stuff works, and imagine that the ways in which the Tesla is worse are much worse than they really are. Edit: range and price, actually. But everybody mentions the price too. Don't mistake "nobody mentions the flaws" with "everybody mentions what flaws there are, there just aren't that many flaws."
- kylec 11y ago
  Here are the downsides that I see. Maybe not all of these are downsides for you, but they are things that might prevent people from buying one as their only car: - price - range - needing to have a charging port at your residence - charging time - charger availability Some of these are related. If refuel time and fuel availability were improved to be comparable to gas cars, range wouldn't be a big issue, and people wouldn't need to have a charger at their residence. If range improved to, say, 500 miles, then charging time and charger availability would become less critical.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    That's reasonable. Just a matter of what you consider to be the root cause, I suppose. I will note that general availability is extremely good, but it's availability of fast charging that is currently somewhat problematic. If you're patient, you can charge just about anywhere. If you count 120V exterior outlets (and why not, they do work, just slowly) then there are a lot more places to charge an EV than fill a gas car in the US. If your average daily driving is under 50 miles then you can get by on that, although I wouldn't recommend it if there are alternatives.

by kylec 11y ago

greglindahl 11y ago

And do you find that such postings lead to productive discussions? Because it causes the same discussion every time. And every car has both pluses and minuses.

mikeash 11y ago

Ways in which it's worse: range. Interior is debatable and subjective. The only concrete thing where it's worse is range. And everybody acknowledges that as far as I can see. The problem is that a lot of people don't understand how the stuff works, and imagine that the ways in which the Tesla is worse are much worse than they really are. Edit: range and price, actually. But everybody mentions the price too. Don't mistake "nobody mentions the flaws" with "everybody mentions what flaws there are, there just aren't that many flaws."

kylec 11y ago
Here are the downsides that I see. Maybe not all of these are downsides for you, but they are things that might prevent people from buying one as their only car: - price - range - needing to have a charging port at your residence - charging time - charger availability Some of these are related. If refuel time and fuel availability were improved to be comparable to gas cars, range wouldn't be a big issue, and people wouldn't need to have a charger at their residence. If range improved to, say, 500 miles, then charging time and charger availability would become less critical.
- mikeash 11y ago
  That's reasonable. Just a matter of what you consider to be the root cause, I suppose. I will note that general availability is extremely good, but it's availability of fast charging that is currently somewhat problematic. If you're patient, you can charge just about anywhere. If you count 120V exterior outlets (and why not, they do work, just slowly) then there are a lot more places to charge an EV than fill a gas car in the US. If your average daily driving is under 50 miles then you can get by on that, although I wouldn't recommend it if there are alternatives.