How many potential buyers worry about roadtrips?

[wk057]

I'm personally on yet another road trip from NJ to western NC. Just hit 16k miles on the Model S yesterday. I drive all over the place around here and never worry about range. I do have a HPWC where I'm staying, and it is on PlugShare if anyone else needs it 240V@80A. I drove to south of Charlotte and back TWICE in one day. Drove to Canton and back. (The Tesla loves coming down Black Mountain...) Did some driving on the Blue Ridge Pkwy while up there. Always fun and scenic. No superchargers anywhere near any of these areas, yet, but still easily doable. I actually didn't charge on either of these trips away from the HPWC where I'm staying.

Basically, I have very limited complaints about road trips in the Model S or about the Model S in general. Not because I'm a fanboy or even close, but because it really is just a great car.

When it comes down to it, if you're going to spend this much time arguing against all of the positive points people have made about road trips in the Model S and nitpicking very minor things.... just don't buy one. It's obviously not for you for whatever reason. Save that spot in production for someone who is actually going to enjoy it... while you keep pumping that gas.

 

[N4HHE]

How about the environmental impact of a GAS guzzling SUV? Sure, a 6 hour road trip becomes a 7 hour road trip in the Tesla, but what about the fumes that your kids are inhaling from filling up on gas, or the byproducts of running on oil?

Look at the entire picture. Sometimes you have to make compromises for a better future. Tesla has compromises but all of the positives outweigh the negative.

You need to open your closed mind and accept that not everyone will tie their shoes the same way as you. You do not know The One Best Way.

In the past 2 years my bad old SUV has not used one gallon of gasoline. It gets 29 MPG of diesel. Other than being capable of going 700 miles between fuel stops I own the SUV specifically because there are many things it can do that my Model S can not. It carries much more stuff, is AWD, and the hitch is rated for 7200 pounds towing. Not to mention there are no Supercharger construction permits yet issued within 500 miles of the directions I travel.

I could do the things I expect to do owning only the SUV. I cannot if the Model S was my only automobile. That is exactly why so many Americans chose an SUV as their only vehicle. The added cost in fuel is less than the added capital expenses, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation of a 2nd vehicle. I am consuming more resources in owning an SUV and a Model S than an SUV only. Revisit your own words, "Look at the entire picture." Obviously you are not looking beyond your own preconceptions. That or your are letting someone else do your thinking for you.

As for mean old evil petroleum: So long as petroleum exists it will be used. Every drop until its gone. You will not prevent China, India, Africa, or Russia from using it. So the best thing I say is that we should use it without shame. No one has cleaner burning automobiles than the USA. No one has cleaner burning coal-fired electric power plants than the USA.

 

[green1]

@N4HHE: I have had this same argument on here many, many times. there are a lot of fanbois on here who refuse to admit that there are not superchargers on every street corner everywhere you go. As it is, there is no possible way for many people to live with only a Model S. Sure some people can do it, those who never stray off their main routes, those that only travel very specific supercharger corridors, those who only ever commute back and forth to work and never go anywhere else.

But for those of us who actually leave the city on occasion, and where no superchargers exist, or are even planned, anywhere near our common destinations, who go places that have no electricity at all, let alone fast charging, The Model S can not, and in the foreseeable future, will never be able to be, our only vehicle.

I love Tesla, I want a model S, but there is no possible way our household could function without an ICE vehicle. The only way that will change is if Tesla doubles the range of the MS, and installs a few hundred more supercharges in my country (there are currently a grand total of 1, with less than 10 total planned for the future, for the second largest country on the planet.)

I will have a Tesla, but we will not be giving up our second car.