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The big problem lies still in the fact that most electricity is generated from coal and nuclear. Every Tesla on the road today is effectively a coal powered car

The big problem lies still in the fact that most electricity is generated from coal and nuclear. Every Tesla on the road today is effectively a coal powered car with the potential to be converted to green energy. Solar panels likely being the equilibrium. But the decline in battery cost is good, means it won't be long before they stop losing 1k on every car sold

dmix 10y ago
Depending where you live and draw energy from it could very well be 90%+ renewable energy (such as a few European countries and most of Ontario/Quebec from hydro). The IEA/OCED world energy production sources for 2015 [1]J: 41.3% Coal 21.7% Natural gas 16.3% Hydro 10.6% Nuclear 5.7% Other 4.4% Oil And given the improvements in batteries and solar these numbers will continue to shift away from coal. Additionally, you could also invest in a solar setup at your own house and Tesla is working on converting Supercharger stations to solar [2]. [1] http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/key-world-energy-statistics-2015.html http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication... [2] http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096926_teslas-first-solar-powered-supercharger-store-service-center-is-almost-ready http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096926_teslas-first-sol...
will_hughes 10y ago
You seem to be repeating the same falsehoods commonly quoted around Tesla stories. > Every Tesla on the road today is effectively a coal powered car Assuming that your energy is entirely produced by brown coal power plants, then even powering your electric car is still more efficient (and thus cleaner) than running a petrol car. Power generation sources varies wildly depending on region - Nuclear, Gas and Hydro are big contributors in many areas. Wind and Solar in others. > losing 1k on every car sold you're conflating the profit on selling cars vs company profit. They make a profit on the sale of each Model S/X, they're investing a lot of money into expanding production.
hetman 10y ago
Power plants are a lot more efficient at extracting energy out of fossil fuels than your internal combustion engine. Even factoring in the efficiency of power generation, power distribution and your EV's electric motor... you're still polluting the environment less with an EV than pouring petrol directly into your traditional car.

dmix 10y ago

Depending where you live and draw energy from it could very well be 90%+ renewable energy (such as a few European countries and most of Ontario/Quebec from hydro). The IEA/OCED world energy production sources for 2015 [1]J: 41.3% Coal 21.7% Natural gas 16.3% Hydro 10.6% Nuclear 5.7% Other 4.4% Oil And given the improvements in batteries and solar these numbers will continue to shift away from coal. Additionally, you could also invest in a solar setup at your own house and Tesla is working on converting Supercharger stations to solar [2]. [1] http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/key-world-energy-statistics-2015.html http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication... [2] http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096926_teslas-first-solar-powered-supercharger-store-service-center-is-almost-ready http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096926_teslas-first-sol...

will_hughes 10y ago

You seem to be repeating the same falsehoods commonly quoted around Tesla stories. > Every Tesla on the road today is effectively a coal powered car Assuming that your energy is entirely produced by brown coal power plants, then even powering your electric car is still more efficient (and thus cleaner) than running a petrol car. Power generation sources varies wildly depending on region - Nuclear, Gas and Hydro are big contributors in many areas. Wind and Solar in others. > losing 1k on every car sold you're conflating the profit on selling cars vs company profit. They make a profit on the sale of each Model S/X, they're investing a lot of money into expanding production.

hetman 10y ago

Power plants are a lot more efficient at extracting energy out of fossil fuels than your internal combustion engine. Even factoring in the efficiency of power generation, power distribution and your EV's electric motor... you're still polluting the environment less with an EV than pouring petrol directly into your traditional car.