Nice stuff - I sincerely hope Tesla succeeds. However, the Thread title is misleading. It should read "Texas won't let Tesla play by its own rules". It seems Tesla doesn't want to abide by the same laws that all other car manufacturers have to abide. The laws are in place to protect the franchise owned dealerships from manufacturers undercutting them & putting them out of business.
In the states that don't have the law, do they have that problem? And I have no idea why we'd want to protect the dealerships. In what other industry can we not buy directly from the manufacturer by law?
But, why is that good? If manufacturers can undercut dealership prices and sell directly to Texans at lower prices, isn't that a good thing?
I think with the standard charger it's approximately 6 hours on a Model S. The more expensive chargers can get the job done in about an hour or less http://www.teslamotors.com/goelectric#charging
I'm all for his stuff as well as those no emission hydrogen fuel cars but while you may be able to drive cross country you won't be able to drive to Corpus and back. The infrastructure for charging is going to take a long time. Also, I've heard to charge half the battery at one of these stations take thirty minutes. So, what, McDonalds is going to set these up and people order food while charging?
I think they do plan on people stopping for a bit (think the charge time for ~50% is closer to 20 minutes rather than 30 though). Go to the bathroom, stretch legs, get something to eat, etc., then move on with your trip (should take 20ish minutes to do that, if not more). I think the first stations are located at places where people could do all that. It can't match what gas-powered cars can do though (get hundreds of miles of range in ~5 minutes), but it is getting better, and of course there are other advantages (e.g., never have to "get gas" since you can just charge at home everyday for normal driving).
The convenience for a long trip can't compare. At least right now. Who knows what happens when the technology gets better. About a month ago some 18-year old girl won a national science fair when she created a supercapacitor that allowed her to recharge her cell phone in 30 seconds. I can see the battery technology catching up to the point that you can recharge the car in 5 minutes like it takes now to fill up gas. http://androidcommunity.com/student-wins-science-fair-with-30-second-phone-battery-charger-20130520/ Edit: Also, imagine this scenario. You know how they have ways for you to charge your cell phone just by dropping it onto a flat device? Imagine if they built that into the roads and you can charge as you drive?
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I never said it was a good law..but its the law and Tesla has to abide by it in order to sell cars here. The thread title makes it sound like Texas won't let Tesla sell cars in TX, but thats not the case. They are more than welcome to sell car here as long as they abide by the same laws that other car manufacturers abide by. I'll be honest..I don't know the answer to that. I think the law is outdated, but to lift it in one complete act has the potential to be very hurtful. Should it be repealed? Probably..but in a slow way that allows for the dealerships to adjust without killing their business. Don't get me wrong, I hope Tesla is successful. I hope Tesla sells a bunch of cars in Texas. I just think journalists need to be a bit more objective when writing stories, and the way the title is written is purposefully inflammatory and flat misleading. Tesla dealerships can be built..they just have to be franchise-owned like all the other dealerships in Texas.
thats a really interesting idea. But then you have to worry about the physiological side effects of driving on a charged road...and the people that will sue the State when blame the road for their cancer. :grin:
Echoing RC's remarks...technology will only get better. What's frustrating (And this isn't a knock on you) is when people have the mentality of "it's not perfect now, so it sucks!" It's the same with mass transit. It seems many people are spoiled, ignorant, and don't have vision beyond five minutes in the future.
I don't really understand why the law applies (in 2013, I mean) when the car isn't currently sold in a dealership. If there was local third party dealerships already selling Teslas, then I somewhat understand, you want to protect them, but there isn't. I'm also a little confused about the law. I can go into an Apple store and buy an iPod, why doesn't that fall under the law? Little bit confused by this whole mess. Who is this law really protecting in this case, when no one in Texas right now is currently selling Teslas (that I know of)?
Except it was being done in a slow, careful way. The proposed law only allowed manufacturers to sell a small volume of vehicles (5000) per year. So it wouldn't affect the dealerships, unless you think Ford is going to bother trying to sell 5,000 vehicles themselves while pissing off their franchise partners.
Because an iPod isn't a car. The current law refers specifically to the auto industry. It protects all the other brands who don't have to compete with Tesla right now.
The were loaned hundreds of millions of our money. We took all the risk and got no return, zero ownership stake in the company. And none of their cars are profitable without subsidies and/or eco credits. Other car companies are actually forced by law to purchase cars from Tesla if they don't make enough of their own electric cars. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324659404578499460139237952.html
