Cars We Drive!

[HRoi]

Hmm, was it a bad idea to short Tesla stock?

 

[Hannerhan]



Hmm, was it a bad idea to short Tesla stock?

I just bought puts in lieu of actually shorting it, but it appears that I would have been better off smoking those dollars instead. I still have to Jan 2015 to see how it plays out, but clearly they're selling a lot of these bastards right now.

The problem comes in 6 months when everyone who is interested in an $80,000 electric car has already bought one, and the bloom is off the rose in terms of it being the hot new thing that nobody has seen before. 2014 sales, and the ultimate transition to building new models in the $35k range, will be the true test.

 

[Find Finn]

Hmm, was it a bad idea to short Tesla stock?

I just bought puts in lieu of actually shorting it, but it appears that I would have been better off smoking those dollars instead. I still have to Jan 2015 to see how it plays out, but clearly they're selling a lot of these bastards right now.

The problem comes in 6 months when everyone who is interested in an $80,000 electric car has already bought one, and the bloom is off the rose in terms of it being the hot new thing that nobody has seen before. 2014 sales, and the ultimate transition to building new models in the $35k range, will be the true test.

They have released one or two new cheaper models.



I'm yet to see one besides the roadster outside of the dealership.

 

[GreenFrog]

I'm still slightly skeptical about the short/mid-term future of full-electric vehicles. We just won't have the nationwide infrastructure to support them for a long, long time.

Hybrids make much more sense for now, in my opinion. But that being said, we definitely need the likes of Tesla to push the industry forward in the all-electric direction.

 

[clee1982]



I'm still slightly skeptical about the short/mid-term future of full-electric vehicles. We just won't have the nationwide infrastructure to support them for a long, long time.

Hybrids make much more sense for now, in my opinion. But that being said, we definitely need the likes of Tesla to push the industry forward in the all-electric direction.

I am not so sure all electric is THE solution. Every country has its own electric production mix. It makes sense for some to go all electric, while hybrid makes more sense for others (75% nuclear powered country can go all electric, while a 75% coal powered country will produce more pollution by going electric). I do admire what Tesla has done though, a friend of my bought it over 6 month ago, he loved it so far.

Most people see hybrid as intermediate solution (i.e. just a stop way before we go electric). I think hybrid is actual THE solution for a decent chunk of the world (existing infrastructure and energy source mix reason).

 

[sonick]



I'm still slightly skeptical about the short/mid-term future of full-electric vehicles. We just won't have the nationwide infrastructure to support them for a long, long time.

On a related note, Elon Musk announced he will be taking a cross-country road trip on a Tesla with his family in 6 days with only 9 hours of charging time.

 

[GreenFrog]



I am not so sure all electric is THE solution. Every country has its own electric production mix. It makes sense for some to go all electric, while hybrid makes more sense for others (75% nuclear powered country can go all electric, while a 75% coal powered country will produce more pollution by going electric). I do admire what Tesla has done though, a friend of my bought it over 6 month ago, he loved it so far.

Most people see hybrid as intermediate solution (i.e. just a stop way before we go electric). I think hybrid is actual THE solution for a decent chunk of the world (existing infrastructure and energy source mix reason).

That's a great point. Most, if not all, developed countries should be able to support electric vehicles in the long term.

Third world countries will probably rely on traditional fuel-based vehicles for a long long long long time.

 

[HRoi]

The problem is that the premise of the personal automobile is that it gives us the ability to go anywhere, anytime. For a full electric vehicle to do that, it can't stop after 300 miles and then need to be charged for half a day.

Musk knows this, obviously, and he's taking steps to rectify this by creating infrastructure in....California. But unless he can invent a cheap, fast charger the fixed costs will be massive.

 

[GreenFrog]



On a related note, Elon Musk announced he will be taking a cross-country road trip on a Tesla with his family in 6 days with only 9 hours of charging time.

The fixation on 9 hours is slightly misleading because he'll be using supercharging networks, which fully charges the car in I think half an hour? Don't quote me on that.

What he's really saying is that he'll have to fully recharge his car around 15-20 times.

 

[Find Finn]

We had something called better place (which went belly up), where electric car owners could drive in to a station an have the battery replaced for a fully charged one for a fee.

My money is still on hydrogen.

On a related note, Swedish city busses run on gas created from composte.

 

[clee1982]



We had something called better place (which went belly up), where electric car owners could drive in to a station an have the battery replaced for a fully charged one for a fee.

My money is still on hydrogen.

On a related note, Swedish city busses run on gas created from composte.

Tesla has this as well, though supposely you need to return the battery after swap, so makes it a hassle for non round trip.

 

[Find Finn]

Is it only on my phone my post ends with "my money is still ..."

Wtf happened to the rest of it?

Back on topic, you didn't have to return it, you sort of rented the battery and the swap was part of the service.

 

[zippyh]

Seattle area is crawling with Teslas. I see a few on the road every day.
I think it helps there's no sales tax on electrics.

 

[Dragon]

Electric is probably just the temporary transition fad until hydrogen becomes viable.

 

[poorsod]

MG Wagon at Laguna Seca. So ridiculous that it's great!



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