Elon Musk Tweets New Details About Tesla's Model Y Electric SUV (mashable.com) 204
"For anyone who thought that there was too much Tesla news this weekend, I've got some bad news for you," writes long-time Slashdot reader Rei, sharing new information gleaned from a series of tweets.
"Elon Musk just announced the unveiling of the Model Y SUV on March 14th at Tesla's LA Design Studio." A surprising number of details were revealed, including non-falcon doors, a similar appearance to the Model 3, and pricing about 10% more than a Model 3, with slightly lower range, due to the increased mass and cross section.
The unveiling will not include the Tesla pickup truck; that will be later this year. Model Y is to share 75% of its hardware with Model 3 to simplify the development process, with volume production targeted for late 2020, and initial production in early 2020. Musk also stated: "First public Tesla V3.0 Supercharger Station goes live Wed 8pm" (V3 is the much awaited new generation of higher power, cheaper to operate Superchargers).
"Personally, I'm most excited by the Tesla Truck," Musk posted on Twitter. "Maybe it will be too futuristic for most people, but I love it."
"Elon Musk just announced the unveiling of the Model Y SUV on March 14th at Tesla's LA Design Studio." A surprising number of details were revealed, including non-falcon doors, a similar appearance to the Model 3, and pricing about 10% more than a Model 3, with slightly lower range, due to the increased mass and cross section.
The unveiling will not include the Tesla pickup truck; that will be later this year. Model Y is to share 75% of its hardware with Model 3 to simplify the development process, with volume production targeted for late 2020, and initial production in early 2020. Musk also stated: "First public Tesla V3.0 Supercharger Station goes live Wed 8pm" (V3 is the much awaited new generation of higher power, cheaper to operate Superchargers).
"Personally, I'm most excited by the Tesla Truck," Musk posted on Twitter. "Maybe it will be too futuristic for most people, but I love it."
Pickup Truck? (Score:2)
Next, do a partnership with Jeep and build a trail rated Jeep/Tesla doodad.
Re:Pickup Truck? (Score:4, Interesting)
An electric 4WD should use wheel motors and completely avoid the whole differential and drive shaft clearance issues.
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An electric 4WD should use wheel motors and completely avoid the whole differential and drive shaft clearance issues.
Imagine the extra clearance - damn.
I managed to get high centered in my wife's Jeep a couple days ago. Her interior is similat to mine, but she has less clearance.
Re:Pickup Truck? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wheel motors are a terrible idea. What you gain in clearance, you lose in on-road handling because you've added a great big block of of unsprung weight to each wheel.
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Wheel motors are a terrible idea. What you gain in clearance, you lose in on-road handling because you've added a great big block of of unsprung weight to each wheel.
None of the big makers are using wheel motors. But I think that is more because wheel motors are more costly and susceptible to damage.
I agree that unsprung mass is an issue but not an insurmountable one; increased damping and the ability to control each wheel independently probably adds stability in the long run.
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"What you gain in clearance, you lose in on-road handling because you've added a great big block of of unsprung weight to each wheel."
Your handling is determined almost entirely by your frame, sway bars, shocks, and struts, plus your tire spacing (and tread type) and size.
Wheel motors tend to weigh less than the fucking rotor they'd replace on most vehicles.
Try again when you actually work on vehicles.
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You could place the motors in the rear and have a short axle shaft, which would also avoid the whole differential and drive shaft clearance issues.
Depending on the design of the vehicle, the axle shafts and rear motors may have their own clearance issues.
But lets be honest - a pickup is a symbol of a certain type of lifestyle, more than it is actually used as a truck by most people. As
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Look closely at those four trucks. Are they the sort of vehicles optimized to make the owners money? Or the sort of vehicle optimized to make the dealer money?
I've lived
V3 is not going to help that much. (Score:3)
But, when the Tesla Semi hits the roads, it might be able to soak it all up. Semi is supposed to be 600 mile range on a 1 MW battery. It could soak up SCV3 at full blast for 2 hours may be.
It would be better if Tesla designs a charger that send down super chilled coolant and the battery gets a heat exchanger to keep it cool. That can charge 325 miles in 35 minutes. But very complicated, and will involve lots of expenses.
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The supercharger V3 is going to 256 kW. Cars can this rate only for 10 minutes or so.
That's 43kWh, good for 300km or so. Not bad on a 10 minute charge. Plus, every minute you shave off a top-up charge brings you closer to the current petrol experience. 10 minutes still constitutes a wait, but if you get that down to 7 it's more like a regular stop at the petrol pump. Hook up, visit the restroom, grab something from the forecourt shop, and by the time you're back the car is ready for the road. In Europe, a few companies are already upgrading CCS charging stations to 175kW, with a few at
Model Y is a game changer. (Score:3)
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Model Y and higher trims of Model 3 will provide the margins to sustain the operations, and the 35K Model 3 will provide volume and the economy of scale. It will eventually get the cost of basic to 28K. The leaked email of Oct 2018 said it is 38K. I would guess it is probably at 35K right now or a
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At minuscule market share Tesla has (200K total sold in USA that has 300 million vehicles) its network is vast. There is a supercharger within 60 miles
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My biggest worry is that I will detour and the charging station will not be there, will be broken, or there will be someone else ahead of me already. Yes sometimes it happens with gas stations but not very often. The wait for the fill automatically increases the risk of havi
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Putting on 300 miles of charge when you sleep is easily done. It takes a sudden flash to realize, in the BEV universe, every outlet is a gas station.
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looks like there is a solid route between Vancouver and Edmonton, and also Ottowa and Quebec. Toronto to Calgary is a bit of a dry stretch though. Their map shows the rest of that section should be complete sometime by the end of this year, supposedly.
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Range Wankery (Score:2)
Even a puny Nissan Leaf will do most daily driving for most people. If you're like some people and have a four hour commute each day - any Tesla should get you there and back on a single charge. A Tesla will help you plan longer trips, with routes and stops for charging stations. The rest is the fallacy that EV's have to be all things to all people. But you wouldn't rubbish a Honda Civic just because it can't drive you through foot deep snow on a trip to the Northwest Territories, would you?
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Perhaps (Score:2)
Perhaps this means they are finally going to admit that the Model X is a minivan? Let's just say that a search of pictures of the Model X actually being used off road results in a lot of very flat terrain...
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It's a crossover.
The whole "an suv is not a car"-thing is stupid anyway.
Not unexpected... (Score:5, Funny)
S 3 X Y
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Does that mean the Truck will be Model ; and the Semi will be Model D?
Re:Not unexpected... (Score:5, Funny)
Has anyone noticed the model names for the Tesla? (Score:2)
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Elon wanted to call the Model 3 the 'Model E' but Ford complained about trademark infringement so he compromised with the number 3 instead. He explicitly said at the time that he wanted the initialism to spell 'SEX'.
Using it wrong (Score:2)
he's got the hair implants.
When men get older and no amount of sildenafil helps them anymore
If you're trying to solve your hair problems by using Sildenafil [wikipedia.org], I think you're doing it wrong.
SUV or CUV? (Score:2)
If this is going to be based on the Model 3, then is it actually going to be an SUV, or a CUV? Even the "SUV" Model X had rather unimpressive ride height and ground clearance. It was much closer to a CUV than a proper SUV in that respect.
Re: Pumper gotta pump (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet they just paid a 900+ billion dollar convertible bond and have Shanghai going online. Oh, and they also went profitable last quarter. People naysaying every day, but Tesla is doing it.
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They did just issue a profit warning though. It seems like their plan to get the $35k Model 3 out the door is to forego profit for now and hope to cut costs enough to get back into the black. Hence the closing of stores, with more cost cutting presumably to come.
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The guidance for Q1 was previously "We're not sure if we can turn a profit in Q1". This was not a major revision. It's due to a lot of one-time charges - for example, severance costs, the start of international shipping (which leaves you with more inventory in transit), etc.
The base model cost $38k to produce in December. They've now trimmed 7% of the workforce (plus more when they close the lower-traffic stores and convert the others to galleries, which should roughly halve their SG&A - although tha
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So it's a compliance car. Losing money on every one unless they upsell, exists purely to fulfil Musk's promise.
Similar to "Full Self Driving" that is nothing of the sort, and is only called that to try to stave off lawsuits from people who bought it three years ago but haven't had it delivered yet.
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is that with or without the cars sold outside the US ?
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They're only quoting US figures, even though the vast majority of what Tesla has been producing this quarter is going to China and RHD W. Europe + Scandinavia, with around a dozen RO-RO ships sent so far.
They also of course picked the low estimate for US February figures (InsideEVs), rather than AlphaHat or Edmunds, and then rounded it down.
They also neglected to mention that January and February are strong annual seasonal low months for Tesla in the US, being in the lowest-volume quarter and with respect t
Re: Pumper gotta pump (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep, they're shipping 3-4000 cars to Europe per week right now, and those are all still the high margin long range version.
US demand was fully expected to go down to almost zero temporarily when the federal tax credit was cut in half. Many people ordered earlier in december rather than wait for january or february. 6000 cars in february is actually a lot better than I would have expected.
Meanwhile, I think it's clear that they delayed the short range model not because they couldn't make it, but simply because there was still so much demand for the more expensive version and they would be fools to throw that money away. Looks like that demand was stronger than they had expected, so they kept pushing the cheaper version back until finally, just now, they are reaching the point where demand for the expensive version is less than max production rate.
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More to the point, IMHO, they had to unveil it before they unveiled the Model Y (which Musk stated nearly a year ago would be unveiled around 15 March). Otherwise, they'd have no credibility when discussing the price point for the Model Y. On the other hand, they very much don't want to delay the Model Y, as SUVs/CUVs are more popular in the US than sedans.
All that said: the $35k Model 3's unveiling clearly had been planned well in advance. You don't spontaneously generate new vehicle models, new interior
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You mean LHD (Left-hand drive) in Western Continental Europe. The UK is still waiting for RHD (Right-hand drive) Model 3s to start production which is expected to start in the 2nd quarter this year.
Re: Help me, Rei, you are my only hope! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, companies with billions of dollars of cash on hand and expanding much faster than even Amazon did into a market that most people consider to be the future of transportation and energy storage should totally declare bankruptcy. That makes a ton of sense; I don't know why we didn't think of it before!
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"Yes, companies with billions of dollars of cash on hand and expanding much faster than even Amazon did into a market that most people consider to be the future of transportation and energy storage"
Energy Storage and generation - NO. Tesla couldn't even get us to produce their utter garbage panels. We took one look at their shit roof tile design and laughed them off our production floor. So much blank space in those panels that you'd need $20,000 of their shit to match $2,000 of ours.
No wonder Solar City is
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What about Solar City? Did Solar City have a cash pile of billions of dollars and no looming major debt payments?
BTW, I never cared about Solar City (their business model was fundamentally based on the concept of solar panels being expensive, which is sort of an anti-cleantech-advancements play). Not that you care, of course. I do like the solar roof idea a lot, however. But obviously vehicles get first dibs on investment money, since they're higher margin.
Re: I hope its better than the Model X. (Score:5, Informative)
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The point is that they do have a trailer hitch (as an option), and a roof rack. And I bet it outperforms a lot of other so-called "SUV"s off road.
The gull wing doors make the Model X unfortunately an impractical vehicle for a lot of things on roof-racks. It's a case of trying to make the vehicle look fancier and taking away functionality. Tesla has done some great things, but unfortunately, I think they sometimes place style ahead of function.
I'm excited about the new Rivian models as they look decidedly practical. (but still not bad-looking).
Not that I can afford a Rivian or a Model X.
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Please don't use that example. Pretty much anything can tow an aircraft including a person. Better to point to actual specs such as the shitton of torque (that's metric for "a lot") the Model X produces.
Also good is more calling out of bullshit from the GP. The Model X has a spacious boot so you can carry a spare tire. The Model X has general ground clearance of 8 which can be electronically raised an inch as well putting it inline or exceeding the clearance of other SUVs to say nothing of the fact that a s
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"The Model X has general ground clearance of 8 which can be electronically raised an inch as well putting it inline or exceeding the clearance of other SUVs:
In other words, fucking up that center of gravity even more and making the vehicle even more prone to flipping over.
There is a reason most SUVs are dropping the ground clearance, and it ain't because of grannies buying them.
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and making the vehicle even more prone to flipping over.
except that the model X is very resistant to flipping over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Torque is just one aspect of a tow rating. Though your example is one that doesn't actually require a lot of torque and is only good for show to the naive, EVs do have much better low-end torque than other technologies. This is one of the reasons virtually all trains are diesel-electric hybrids.
But, the towing capacity is also dependent on how much weight the vehicle can hold and control at the hitch when doing crazy things like slamming on the brakes while going around sharp curves or weaving left and righ
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You can drive most cars off-road. It's getting them back on the road afterwards that's challenging.
Re:I hope its better than the Model X. (Score:5, Informative)
Model X tow package here [tesla.com].
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I'm curious how far it could actually tow something like a camper without having the battery totally die on it anyway.
That's close to a non sequitur as it depends on the normal range of the Electric and the curb weight of the camper. Same as with an ICE.
Most camp grounds worth my while are over 200 miles away with no place to charge.
Most RV campgrounds have at least 30amp service, and usually 50.
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Most camp grounds worth my while are over 200 miles away with no place to charge.
I'm not talking about a campground though. I'm talking about wilderness.
Sorry, your use of the word camp ground made me think you were talking about a campground. My bad.
Do you find many gas stations in your wilderness?
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What you need is a camper made for a Tesla. It could have its own battery pack. Of course, Tesla would have to provide some sort of kit to allow the connection of a trailer battery somewhere near the hitch. But, it would be cool.
Speaking of campers, every time I pass a camper struggling on a grade or pulled-over to cool the transmission and/or brakes, I scratch my head as to why the great American motor home was not the first type of vehicle to go full-on EV. Neither weight nor space is near the concern tha
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Re: I hope its better than the Model X. (Score:5, Informative)
Where in the warranty [tesla.com] does it say that? Under "Warranty limitations", "Towing the vehicle" is an exclusion, but not "Towing with the vehicle".
Re:I hope its better than the Model X. (Score:5, Funny)
Why would anyone want to take their SUV off road? It might get scratched.
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Hey grandpa! Top 5 SUVs last year:
1) Toyota Rav4
2) Nissan Rogue
3) Honda CR-V
4) Chevrolet Equinox
5) Ford Escape
It's not the 80s anymore. Only poor people take their SUVs off road.
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The Model X is hardly unique in terms of being labeled an "SUV" even though it has no off-road capability and no roof racks and no towing...
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No off-road capability except for 2-3" more clearance than the GP suggests as well as 4WD and the option to add roof racks, add a tow hitch and a lot of spare space in the trunk if you want to carry a tire.
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No true scotsman...
My 66 VW did just great off road without any extra lift or anything. It just got some more aggressively-treaded tires.
The Model X has a little better clearance and shares a nice, flat undercarriage. Unless you want to define "off road" as some arbitrarily difficult to overcome hurdle, the X should be fine off road.
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Model X is very popular for towing, and frequently fitted out with a roof rack. No, it's not good for offroading - but neither are most SUVs today. It has by far the largest interior space of any of the EVs today calling themselves "SUVs", and in the mid-to-upper range of the interior space of SUVs in general.
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One of the largest markets for the Model X is Norway. Is your weather worse than Norway's?
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Re:I hope its better than the Model X. (Score:5, Insightful)
Welcome to Slashdot, where mountainous, arctic Norway is treated as a tropical paradise, if that's what you need to make an argument against Tesla.
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Make sure to a have full thank of fuel, there are no petrol stations on convoy stretches
Bring rope, flashlight and shovel
Bring food and warm drink
Bring winter clothes and shoes
Flash the emergency light when the convoy starts moving
Keep close to the car ahead
Stay in the convoy, keep a steady speed
Don't leave the convoy or try to turn back
Stay in the car if the convoy h
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Yes, they do, despite your disbelief. Around 50% of all vehicle sales are now electric in Norway. Model X is one of the more popular models.
Your refusal to believe something doesn't make it not real.
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In -40 an EV would make it through a range of 150km at best, then you're stranded. If you look at a mountain highway like the Ququahalla in BC it is mostly all treacherous in the winter and is 543.3 km long.
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at : -36C : yes.
https://youtu.be/capOgUHPz9Q?t... [youtu.be]
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I drive my SUV in 2-3 feet of snow regularly without a problem.
Dude, stop. Unless you're SUV is a Monster Truck, you're lying.
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Never heard of knobbies and chains, retard?
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That's because you misunderstand what an SUV is. SUV did not originally mean "off-road".
The SUV was born with the Ford Explorer, not especially an off-road vehicle, where the "Sport" was in contrast to its most obvious competition---minivans. At the time, station wagons fell out of favor due to government regulations that favored truck platforms. Families started buying minivans and the SUV was born as a "sporty" alternative.
Once the category mattered, true off-road vehicles were lumped into it. Jeeps n
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"no weight on the roof is going to affect its' friction force by anything substantial."
Says the chair-bound idiot that has never loaded a couple of tons of rocks onto an SUV after a nice rockhounding trip.
Only dumb ass is your dumb ass. Go outside and try doing something with your pathetic life.
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Says the chair-bound idiot that has never loaded a couple of tons of rocks onto an SUV after a nice rockhounding trip.
Really? A couple of tons? I smell bullshit!
Cargo capacity of a model X is around 1900 lbs, that's people gear, and cargo. Most SUVs I searched are right around 2000, and again, that's people, gear, cargo, and fuel (where applicable). In order to get anywhere near "a couple of tons" capacity you need to get into a 3500 class pickup truck. Towing is a different story, but then we have to figure out how a couple of people hand loaded two tons of rocks onto a trailer. And if we somehow managed to convin
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Truck drivers are generally only allowed to drive a certain amount of time before they have to take a break and rest.
If Telsa can put a big enough battery in the truck to last the full distance before the driver has to pull over (or close enough) and build these super-fast superchargers at truck stops everywhere so the driver can pull in, plug in and take their break before moving on, I bet the Telsa Truck will be popular. (I dont know all that much about long haul trucking but I do know that an electric tr
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Musk promised the Tesla Semi top-line trucks would have a 500-mile range and an 80,000lb maximum load. But working the math a good while back it seems to me only 40,000lb is usable after subtracting the 40,000lb weight of the battery pack, assuming the current energy densities. And let's not point out the energy costs of hauling that 40,000lb' battery pack around.
Most conventional semis have onl
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If Telsa can put a big enough battery in the truck to last the full distance...
It would be silly to put a massive battery in the tractor. They won't need nearly as much juice as when they have a trailer, and there's room on (most) semi trailers for several enormous battery modules in front of the trailer wheels. Bonus: From that location, they'd be easy to forklift in and out in a few minutes, and the trailers tend to sit around somewhere they can charge a lot more than the trucks do.
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I'm everywhere.
I'm everyone.
I'm you yourself.
The matrix is real.
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Seriously... S3XY? Beavis and Butthead give it two thumbs up...
I think I read an article a long time ago where Musk was interviewed about his planned vehicles- and he always planned it that way- and for exactly that reason. The 3 was originally going to be an E.
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And it fits with the planned objective of starting Tesla to begin with. That is making electric vehicles sexy enough for the mainstream.
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Sorry Rei, Tesla is done. Game over man.
To be fair, I think you also predicted Tesla would never produce the model 3: would be bankrupt within a year (years ago), the electric car would never take off, no one besides rich people would buy electric cars...etc
You've been wrong on every other prediction about Musk and Tesla so far.
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So cool, more nuclear/coal powered oversized vehicles on the road, with drivers thinking they are greener than anyone.
Nuclear IS greener than ICE. Even coal power-plants are. It is much more efficient to produce power at a centralized location than individually in each little car on the road. Not to mention, most are charged during off-peak hours when excess production would have meant wasted energy anyway. (you can't just turn power plants on and off exactly at peak demand).
That's not to say that there are not ecological problems associated with producing power of any kind. Certainly the batteries themselves aren't e