Game changing idea to greatly reduce the cost of a new Tesla

[evme]

One more advantage, of course: If you are worried about battery degradation / replacement costs, a battery rental model renders that worry moot.

Not saying I want that! But you can't leave that out of the equation. Many people (mostly those neanderthals who are still driving an ICE) worry about that. Lord knows there has been enough FUD over recent years. Doesn't matter if it's a legit worry or not - for some, it is a barrier to adoption.

Then they can just lease the entire car, no reason to lease just the battery. That will only put a larger financial burden on Tesla with no real benefits.

Many of the people replying to this idea don't "get" it, unfortunately. Listen, I have two electric cars and I charge them at home regularly, an option I would never want to give up. But when I talk about electric cars with my co-workers, most of whom are younger than me, they have literally zero chance of getting one for themselves because of two primary problems: 1) cost (a generally Tesla-specific problem...the only electric car the want to consider, due to range anxiety and the ability to take long trips because it would be their only vehicle), and 2) recharging ability (they often reside in a rental apartment or condo and there is no convenient way for them to charge). I was trying to find a way that regular folks (i.e not someone who can afford a Tesla and easily charge it at home) could actually be able to afford and live with a Tesla. An electric car that costs the same as a comparable gasoline car, and costs about the same to refuel/recharge (and is just as convenient and speedy as purchasing gas) solves those problems for them.

This option also overcomes another fear I often hear from non-electric vehicle owners: it is going to cost a fortune to replace that battery when it goes bad.

It it is wonderful that you guys love your Teslas. Now open your minds a bit and try to figure out a way to give some form of that satisfaction to the other 99%.

1) And the cost will be solved with economies of scale and bringing down price of the battery. Leasing it will not decrease overall cost, it would increase it. Leasing pretty much never works out financially.

2) The percent of the population in the US that makes up apartments and condos is what like 12-14%?

Quick Facts: Resident Demographics | nmhc.org


The largest density of population that lives in apartments and condos is District of Colombia at 35.7%, followed by New York at 23.7%, then California at 16.8%.

All pretty small portion of the population. Even if you were to do battery swaps you would be better off just limiting it to a few large cities. And even then, I think it is better to convert street lighting to EV chargers. Much cheaper and more efficient method.

 

[jerry33]

As for #2, I think this crowd will be the last the EV market addresses. First we should focus on switching over the 50+% that have access to home charging. When that happens, it's only natural public chargers will be built. Right now EVs are well less than 1% of the market and governments/private parties are already moving to install more public chargers. Grow that by 50x and the incentive would be extremely high to do so.

Agreed that it's an easier sell for folks that have their own homes, but if an EV has a decent range, they'll likely never use public charging except on trips. That's actually likely to lower the demand for public charging except for destination charging.

 

[Asymmetry]

I was thinking of a thin Faraday's cage bonded to the panels and covered with paint so that you could not see the weave (basically wireless charging). Resulting in the car being able to absorb EM fields and charge the battery. Have to do some calculations to see if resulting power generated is worth the hassle including parking under power lines overnight.

 

[deonb]

I was thinking of a thin Faraday's cage bonded to the panels and covered with paint so that you could not see the weave (basically wireless charging). Resulting in the car being able to absorb EM fields and charge the battery. Have to do some calculations to see if resulting power generated is worth the hassle including parking under power lines overnight.

If you want to steal power, you can just run a wire over to your neighbor. Much less hassle.