13 ms·

The side of history that can't afford a Tesla S anyway. Small-minded of me, I know.

• grecy 13y ago
  > The side of history that can't afford a Tesla S Yet. There were millions that couldn't afford an automobile when they came out too you know..... Give it time, stop thinking a new product has to be everything to everyone so early on.
  • r00fus 13y ago
    Range is a significant factor of the Tesla's cost, and it'd require a order of magnitude of efficiency increase to both support a cheaper model while also keeping the same charging range and keeping Tesla's profit margins in place.
    • grecy 13y ago
      uh-huh, and you can say exactly the same thing about the first cars, computers, commercial (or private) planes, and about 10 million other things. Why do you think complaining about the Tesla is somehow different from complaining about all those other things when they were in their infancy?
    • toomuchtodo 13y ago
      The more you make of something, the cheaper it gets to make each one. The price will come down.
    • revelation 13y ago
      Posting this on HN, of all things... processing power improved hundredfold in just 20 years. With every step, Intel just sold more of the things with better margins.
    • tjmc 13y ago
      Tesla's deal with Panasonic [1] should bring their costs down by a hefty margin. Current battery tech is improving at around 7% per year. So even without a true "order of magnitude" breakthrough like lithium-air batteries, you're looking at battery efficiency doubling every decade, plus additional savings from economies of scale. My personal suspicion is that electric cars will hit mainstream sales levels by around 2020 and by 2025 they'll dominate new car sales. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/11/06/teslas-big-earnings-news-nothing-can-rid-the-world-of-gas-powered-cars-very-quickly-but-its-going-to-try/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/11/06/teslas-b...