chickensevil
Active Member
Tesla cars not a good fit for China, says scholar|Economy|News|WantChinaTimes.com
So this one hit on the 20th, but got missed so thought I would post it here since it was a summit in China. This guy's claims are pretty classic FUD spreading:
So first of all their "mini" electric cars are very limited in range... so it might be fine if you are just a city dweller who doesn't have to travel far, but that doesn't work as soon as you get outside of that short range... maybe in China the situation is different and perhaps someone who lives there can chime in on the range issue and how it might affect their willingness to buy an EV. But in the US for certain and even in the EU, people are not stuck "in the city" and frequently travel outside of that range. And especially in the US where it is hugely costly to live in the city, people commute heavily into work and need a certain amount of range... again, I don't know how that affects China and their living conditions... but if they are remotely like the rest of the world then of course range is going to inhibit your want to buy a short range EV over a conventional car.
Now onto the pollution claim. This actually *might* be true given the deplorable state of their Coal Power production in China and how terrible they are at controlling the emmissions. BUT! They are rapidly trying to fix that, so any claim of the pollution, say, this year, will be different next year... and in 5 years... and in 10 years... etc. The car gets better as China rapidly brings cleaner power online. So this is just the same FUD that is constantly being spread around in that regard.
Comparing the efficiency of the car, there is not doubt that a small light car is more efficient that a large heavy car. So by that fact alone the Leaf is more "efficient" than the Model S. I don't think anyone contests that. A Motorcycle is more efficient than a car... so by that logic everyone should drive a motorcycle to "save the planet"... A giant jumbo jet vs a small private plane is "less efficient" so we should all get private airplanes while we are at it as well. If you don't consider utility and user capacity you can always make silly claims like this...
replaced every three years? seriously? where does he get this information? I don't think anyone has experienced that level of degrade that would require any kind of 3 year replacement no matter how many miles they put on it. The warranty on the battery alone would tell you this is false.
Finally, the crux... 7 fires? where are these other fires? Have I missed something? To my knowledge there have been 4. Two from running over an object, 1 in Mexico (crazy high speed 100+ MPH), and the LA one (crazy high speed 120+MPH splitting the car in half)... Where are the other three? And even at that, the impact to safety here? There has been all of one death (to our knowledge) and that was again from a crazy high speed (120+MPH) and it wasn't clear that the guy would have actually died had he been actually wearing his seatbelt... So the claims to the safety of the car are FUD plain and simple...
So this one hit on the 20th, but got missed so thought I would post it here since it was a summit in China. This guy's claims are pretty classic FUD spreading:
US electric carmaker Tesla Motors is less of a good fit for China's market than mini electronic cars, scholars said at the Chinese New Energy e-vehicle Industry Summit on Oct. 18.
A Tesla car requires electricity equivalent to that generated by 5.5-6.5 kg of coal to travel 100 kilometers, he said. The amount of CO2 emissions from driving 100 km is equivalent to that produced by 7.5-9 liters of gasoline for conventional gas-powered cars. The energy consumption and CO2 emissions do not differ much from an average conventional sedan. "It's just like moving the pollution from the road to the electric power plant," Yang said.
Each battery costs thousands of US dollars and must be replaced about every three years
seven Tesla cars have caught fire since Oct. 1, 2013, making safety one of the major concerns for the public
So first of all their "mini" electric cars are very limited in range... so it might be fine if you are just a city dweller who doesn't have to travel far, but that doesn't work as soon as you get outside of that short range... maybe in China the situation is different and perhaps someone who lives there can chime in on the range issue and how it might affect their willingness to buy an EV. But in the US for certain and even in the EU, people are not stuck "in the city" and frequently travel outside of that range. And especially in the US where it is hugely costly to live in the city, people commute heavily into work and need a certain amount of range... again, I don't know how that affects China and their living conditions... but if they are remotely like the rest of the world then of course range is going to inhibit your want to buy a short range EV over a conventional car.
Now onto the pollution claim. This actually *might* be true given the deplorable state of their Coal Power production in China and how terrible they are at controlling the emmissions. BUT! They are rapidly trying to fix that, so any claim of the pollution, say, this year, will be different next year... and in 5 years... and in 10 years... etc. The car gets better as China rapidly brings cleaner power online. So this is just the same FUD that is constantly being spread around in that regard.
Comparing the efficiency of the car, there is not doubt that a small light car is more efficient that a large heavy car. So by that fact alone the Leaf is more "efficient" than the Model S. I don't think anyone contests that. A Motorcycle is more efficient than a car... so by that logic everyone should drive a motorcycle to "save the planet"... A giant jumbo jet vs a small private plane is "less efficient" so we should all get private airplanes while we are at it as well. If you don't consider utility and user capacity you can always make silly claims like this...
replaced every three years? seriously? where does he get this information? I don't think anyone has experienced that level of degrade that would require any kind of 3 year replacement no matter how many miles they put on it. The warranty on the battery alone would tell you this is false.
Finally, the crux... 7 fires? where are these other fires? Have I missed something? To my knowledge there have been 4. Two from running over an object, 1 in Mexico (crazy high speed 100+ MPH), and the LA one (crazy high speed 120+MPH splitting the car in half)... Where are the other three? And even at that, the impact to safety here? There has been all of one death (to our knowledge) and that was again from a crazy high speed (120+MPH) and it wasn't clear that the guy would have actually died had he been actually wearing his seatbelt... So the claims to the safety of the car are FUD plain and simple...