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Just thinking about the headline.

Turning EVs into a rich persons lifestyle is a good way to start a boom down the line.

The rich people will often be positioned to put pressure on politics and businesses as well, and they want to be able to charge their shiny toy, right?

Suddenly everyone wants a big screen in an EV cause’ it’s cool; ”Oh, look at this rich, happy dude in his awesome toy on insta!”

Queue really, really cheap long range model 3... cough

Changing an already put in place lifestyle where needed (US? Europe). I personally can’t tell yet if EV is the way to go, but at least it’s something. Musk is obviously convinced.

So, what I’m saying is that Elon might very well be going for climate/environment, not to say there’s better ways. Awesome public transit for example.



Article says Singapore is already uniquely positioned to do 100% EV but has no solution on where to put enough charging stations

So when the solutions arent obvious, reality is: rich people will have the charging stations.

Thats more what the article is about.

Regarding your point, isnt that already whats happening? People want shiny cars, people want expensive things, they want to attract mates with those particular material goods, and enough of the leanest and attractive mates still come out the woodwork for shiny expensive cars and also like environmentally conscious activities. So that part is already working. Mass proliferation is not.


But it left out the bit that says car ownership is maybe 20% of households. The electricity is generated from fossil fuels anyway..a tesla is like a lpg car with storage n conversion losses in singapore. Moreover the bigger concern is congestion..theres really not much point encouraging a few rich people to switch from a bmw to a tesla. The goal is to not have so many cars.


So, _they_ are in in fact not the “target” of Musks crusade maybe?

Many other places are in my opinion.

Around where I am people are looking for a silver bullet. They might actuallyneed a car, but they want one that gives them 100% of the trips, not 99.99. Many are not willing to compromise, even a tiny bit, with the lifestyle. The car must fit in, not the other way around. Personally I choose to compromise.


Queue really, really cheap long range model 3

Let's not exaggerate. We might not be talking Ferrari money, but we're still talking BMW money as opposed to Hyundai money.


I agree that prices must go way down in order to become attractive to the mass market. Hyundai's fully electric BEVs are roughly the same price as the base Model 3 though.


You are only comparing Tesla. However, if Tesla prove to be a success, the GM or Hyundai of the world would start pushing even harder to get their EV cars into Singapore.


I'm not much of a Model 3 fan, but the 35K model is definitely not BMW money. Factoring in lower fuel costs, it's cheaper than an average new car.


The long range model 3 is $48k, and well over $50k if you want all the fancy autopilot software extras.


Well sure, you can option many cars up to absurd prices. You can also buy a basic $35K Model 3 if that is all you want.


But we were specifically talking about the long range version.


Well, true. But the vision! The vision. :)


> Turning EVs into a rich persons lifestyle is a good way to start a boom down the line.

Yes and the exact same thing happened with Hybrids 10 years ago. Leonardo Di Caprio got one, then a whole bunch of other celebs did, now your Uber driver has one.


My Uber driver has a one not because they want to be Leonardo Di Caprio. I think it's because they want to drive around London without paying the Congestion Charge but with the convenience of fast fill-up times and the range of petrol.


Well in Dublin approximately 100% of taxis are Prius (it's mad, you can see the lines of them in the street, it's Clone Wars), and there is no Congestion Charge or toll or zones of any sort, so…

Could be they are more efficient (in energy cost) for city driving ? Dunno.


The Toyota Prius is considered one of the cheapest cars to own and maintain with high reliability. Exactly the sort of car you want as a taxi:

https://www.yourmechanic.com/article/the-most-and-least-expe...


Hybrids made “business sense” from a motor company perspective. Pushing EV’s when the charging stations are few and far between is bold.

Seems like musk puts vision before business, something that will be no doubt required by us all in the future. IMO.




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