I'm sure that all of you, like me, have received a laundry list of dumb questions about your car. My typical list is: Can you drive it in the snow? "It's a 4,000 lb AWD vehicle. What do you think?" Did you know it can easily catch on fire? What happens if the starter fails? What happens if you run out of power? Today I had a new award winner that takes the cake for me. I buy 6 pizzas for my guys at work every Thursday. My Aunt works in the office for me. Usually she goes to pick up the pizza but since it was snowing I figured I'd go get it. Of course she started off with "Oh you can drive it in the snow?'" When I basically laughed at her about that question she responded with: "Do Teslas have room in the cabin or the trunk for 6 pizzas?" I was so stunned by her question that I couldn't come up with a sarcastic response for ten seconds. In the meantime everyone in the office laughed her out of the room. She walked out in tears but I think it was deserved. Some of you must have some doozies. Please share!
That pizza room one kinda makes sense actually. For years, the batteries in hybrids took a lot of storage space. Imagine a vehicle that had 10x the batteries, no space left! The only "dumb" question I get, and I get it often, is "did (or why didn't) you get the performance version?!". Everything else is in jest, like being careful to not get electrocuted when we drive it in the rain.
While I would understand if someone hadn't seen a Tesla first-hand, my Aunt has parked right next to my car for the 4+ months that I've owned it.
What happens if you run out of battery? - You don't. Where do you plug in? - My garage. What's the top speed on that thing? - 120+ - Wow really? I expected about 50-60mph. Isn't your electric bill high now? - Not really, went up $20-$40 a month, and I'm saving over $150 a month in gas.
Obvious response. They might even fit in the frunk. And there's plenty of space in the trunk to put you
Someone asked me if my Tesla has a heater. I guess they assumed that since in an ICE car the heater works by pumping hot air generated by the engine, Teslas must not have a heater. Another one was "How many batteries does it have?"
More cute than dumb, years ago my 9 year-old son heard me say that using the brakes in our hybrid recharged the battery. He asked why I didn't drive with the brakes on all the time to keep the battery fully charged. I considered explaining about entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, perpetual motion machines, and the like, but ended up just saying that it was an interesting idea ;-).
I got the usual, “What do you do when it runs out of charge?”, but was asked once “It doesn’t have a gas tank?” I think that was a result of the Chevy Volt. I will give that question some credit because most people don’t even know that much about hybrids.
After a few mins of convo...Him: so it’s electric and It’s fast? 6 or 8? Me: yeah it’s fast, what? Him: 6 or 8? Me: 6 or 8 what? Him: v6 or v8? Me: neither, it doesn’t have a gasoline engine. But It does have two electric motors. Him: really? Me: yep. Some days I think the dumbest question I’ve gotten is “so how do you like it?” I mean come on...it’s ****ing epic. (This is a joke). The honest to God worst I’ve gotten was “So what are you gonna do when it has electrical problems...cause you know it’s gonna”. My response “if it’s out of warranty, I’ll sell it.”
It wasn’t a question, but more of a lecture. A random guy at a store in Salt Lake City told me how he and his brother had this invention for an electric car that could drive forever without charging. Only they never got around to actually building it. What you do is attach a generator to each of the four wheels, and pump the generated electricity back to the battery that makes the motor go. Okay, there was a question involved. He asked whether Tesla was going to get smart enough to try this idea. Yes, perpetual motion is alive and kicking.
It was the non-Tesla drivers who were the douches. I sat there in stunned silence lol. She has criticized me buying a Tesla from day 1, so it was nice for my co-workers to have my back