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how much of this reticence is due to EV charging infrastructure, or lack thereof? One of those where state intervention is needed - you got to lay the infrastru

how much of this reticence is due to EV charging infrastructure, or lack thereof? One of those where state intervention is needed - you got to lay the infrastructure out to service future demand - free market isn't going to do it

db48x 4y ago
Umm, Tesla built a nation–wide charging infrastructure from scratch on their own dime a decade before anyone else. That seems like a free market success to me. If we look further back in time we see the free market building zillions of gas stations without needing much help from the government. There is one important way that electric charging infrastructure differs from gas stations though. Most people who use an electric car as a daily driver will simply charge it at home. They might need to spend a few hundred bucks to upgrade to a 40A or 50A circuit, but they won’t need a supercharger every day of the week. I don’t think it will be very long before apartment complexes are advertising that they already have charging infrastructure installed, and eventually it will be ubiquitous. Everywhere you can park will have a way to charge your car, and gas stations will be few and far between.
- hunglee2 4y ago
  hmm....didn't Tesla do this via subsidy from government? The funds definitely didn't come from revenue of cars sold. We can see the clear chicken / egg challenge with EV - no one is going to buy a car if they can't reliably move it. State intervention is not a bad thing, 'free' market is not necessarily a bad thing
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    No, the billion dollars for the global Supercharger network came out of their own revenue. They only consider opening the network to non Teslas where required by law (EU) or where gov subsidies are provided (which is rare).
    - hunglee2 4y ago
      thanks - appreciate the correction!
      - toomuchtodo 4y ago
        I surface it only to highlight that these critical pieces of infrastructure don’t get built or paid for magically. Someone had to eat the cost and time. Electrify America only built theirs because the US gov required it as part of the Dieselgate settlement. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/vws-2-billion-penalty-for-diesel-scam-builds-ev-charging-network-across-us.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/vws-2-billion-penalty-for-di... This is not to say Tesla is without fault, it is to say if you want to build and sell EVs you should have to contribute to the shared capital costs instead of spending that revenue on share buybacks or other shareholder enrichment mechanisms.

db48x 4y ago

Umm, Tesla built a nation–wide charging infrastructure from scratch on their own dime a decade before anyone else. That seems like a free market success to me. If we look further back in time we see the free market building zillions of gas stations without needing much help from the government. There is one important way that electric charging infrastructure differs from gas stations though. Most people who use an electric car as a daily driver will simply charge it at home. They might need to spend a few hundred bucks to upgrade to a 40A or 50A circuit, but they won’t need a supercharger every day of the week. I don’t think it will be very long before apartment complexes are advertising that they already have charging infrastructure installed, and eventually it will be ubiquitous. Everywhere you can park will have a way to charge your car, and gas stations will be few and far between.

hunglee2 4y ago
hmm....didn't Tesla do this via subsidy from government? The funds definitely didn't come from revenue of cars sold. We can see the clear chicken / egg challenge with EV - no one is going to buy a car if they can't reliably move it. State intervention is not a bad thing, 'free' market is not necessarily a bad thing
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  No, the billion dollars for the global Supercharger network came out of their own revenue. They only consider opening the network to non Teslas where required by law (EU) or where gov subsidies are provided (which is rare).
  - hunglee2 4y ago
    thanks - appreciate the correction!
    - toomuchtodo 4y ago
      I surface it only to highlight that these critical pieces of infrastructure don’t get built or paid for magically. Someone had to eat the cost and time. Electrify America only built theirs because the US gov required it as part of the Dieselgate settlement. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/vws-2-billion-penalty-for-diesel-scam-builds-ev-charging-network-across-us.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/vws-2-billion-penalty-for-di... This is not to say Tesla is without fault, it is to say if you want to build and sell EVs you should have to contribute to the shared capital costs instead of spending that revenue on share buybacks or other shareholder enrichment mechanisms.