Chrysler/ Fiat CEO: "Don't buy my car"

[Ron Burgundy]

I don't know about that... I see plenty of Teslas on the road, and it's not like they're all being driven by multi-millionaire NBA stars. $90K is tough to call a frivolous expenditure.

Tesla gets government subsidies. They don't sell the cars for what it costs to make them (plus a little profit), they sell them for below cost and the taxpayer makes up the difference. Sergio needs to tell Bomma that he needs more money.

 

[CharlesDavenport]

You're conflating separate issues. Part of the infrastructure that would need to be built out is more power plants, regardless of the fuel source. Old, dirty coal plants should be retired and replaced with more efficient plants - coal among them. Fuel mix diversity is important. I'm not arguing in favor of eliminating coal. In fact, if this were a discussion about the environment, my views would have me loudly denounced as a "denier."

Line losses are already factored into the cost of the electricity, it's not like plugging in your EV suddenly creates magical "losses" that make generating and distributing the electricity so much more expensive. Given that, it's not like you are paying for a dollar's worth of electricity and only getting 30 cents' worth. The inefficiencies of the grid are already built into the equations - they're a known quantity, and it's STILL that much cheaper for a power plant to produce energy and distribute it with efficiency losses than it is for you to burn your tank of gas. There are inefficiencies in all the processes that occur between the oil being pumped out of the ground to the time it's pumped into your tank, the difference being that the EV motor is highly efficient at converting the stored energy (batteries) into motion, whereas gas motors are still incredibly wasteful.

Actually, you are improperly equating batteries with gas tanks. If you look at that Tesla web page, what's completely ignored (in addition to your line losses, which are around 6% so lets call it a wash with gas distribution losses) is the efficiency of the power plant converting the fossil fuel to electricity in the first place. Most power plants are in the 30-40% efficiency range, so then apply that ridiculous 88% efficiency number Tesla is claiming.

 

[JupiterBnG]

Actually, you are improperly equating batteries with gas tanks. If you look at that Tesla web page, what's completely ignored (in addition to your line losses, which are around 6% so lets call it a wash with gas distribution losses) is the efficiency of the power plant converting the fossil fuel to electricity in the first place. Most power plants are in the 30-40% efficiency range, so then apply that ridiculous 88% efficiency number Tesla is claiming.

From a price perspective, the cost per mile you drive, you still lose. It doesn't matter how inefficient the power plant is, the cost per joule of energy consumed by the vehicle is less. Considerably less.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...efficiency-forget-mpge-it-should-be-miles-kwh

So if you pay the U.S. average of 12 cents/kWh, the Leaf will cost you $4.08 to go 100 miles (versus $16 in a 25-mpg car with gas at $4/gallon).

 

[Rod Farva]

Like I need someone to tell me not to buy anything Chrysler or Fiat related.