I had always assumed that electricity was far cheaper than gasoline
As you note, in many places electricity is far from cheap. Also you need to amortize the cost difference of a Tesla vs a conventional car. That's hard to justify as long as a Tesla costs in the neighborhood of $100,000.
But, perhaps generate that electricity on your rooftop! The utilities have lobbied effectively to lower the feed-in prices they must pay, so it may increasingly be cheaper to use that solar power yourself. I not up on the details, but perhaps this is one argument Musk is using to support Tesla's proposed acquisition of SolarCity?
many people, like my father, will choose to continue to drive gas-powered cars
I agree with you. I don't think the article made a very good case for electrics cars. The "gadget" market isn't that large for such an expensive item.
That said, I think I'd buy something like a Tesla once the pioneers have endured all the arrows in their backs and the bugs are worked out. So maybe 2025 might be the tipping point, as the article posits?
10 years from now you will have an electric car. An auto battery changing system where the batteries are charged with solar panels and changed automatically when you park your car at night all made by tesla of course. Currently the loss like battery life and power I feel are too high to make economic sense for using a home battery like powerwell charged with solar to top up your car. But swapping the batteries themselves might work.
You could feed power into the grid to offset your charging usage at night. (Perhaps even come out ahead of where you would be charging during the day, if your power utility has lower pricing off-peak.) Alternatively you could add a home battery.
As you note, in many places electricity is far from cheap. Also you need to amortize the cost difference of a Tesla vs a conventional car. That's hard to justify as long as a Tesla costs in the neighborhood of $100,000.
But, perhaps generate that electricity on your rooftop! The utilities have lobbied effectively to lower the feed-in prices they must pay, so it may increasingly be cheaper to use that solar power yourself. I not up on the details, but perhaps this is one argument Musk is using to support Tesla's proposed acquisition of SolarCity?
many people, like my father, will choose to continue to drive gas-powered cars
I agree with you. I don't think the article made a very good case for electrics cars. The "gadget" market isn't that large for such an expensive item.
That said, I think I'd buy something like a Tesla once the pioneers have endured all the arrows in their backs and the bugs are worked out. So maybe 2025 might be the tipping point, as the article posits?