@Octavious I'd think that the future prices of Oil would dictate how high the demand for electric cars would be. Higher oil prices mean demand for more efficient vehicles. More demand for efficient vehicles means more supply of the electric cars coming from Tesla and other companies that can now use the publicized patents to get in on the electric car revolution. The more companies making electric cars the higher the supply would be and in turn have a lower cost because of the higher selection and lack of monopoly held by Musk. Correct me if my thinking is wrong.

It's a valid argument, certainly. Whether it turns out to be correct or not remains to be seen. Either way the internal combustion engine will remain the supe

rior option for some time yet.

Tesla's pricing is never coming down. They will be the higher end of the market.

S550 4matic.

there is one major benefit to buying a tesla........you don't have to pay for gas and you don't even have to pay for the electricity needed for the car. Theres a tesla charging station 3 minutes away from my house and you can charge it up for free!

For you, yeah, that's a benefit. In my opinion states need to mandate at least one charging station be placed at every gas station.

Tesla is building an electric car battery factory and wants to increase demand for their batteries.

Also with more electric cars will come more charging stations. Right now only a few countries are requiring the stations be built instead of market forces.

yeah, if you look on their website, they are stating basically that there will be twice as many charging station in 2015 as there are now

Even if you don't live near a charging station you can be the hippie on your street and set up solar panels on your house to charge your car.

If you can afford solar panels, you ought to have them anyway.

If you can afford a Tesla you can afford solar panels. In the long run you'll still be saving a hell of a lot of money.

That would be a tough choice. E350 4Matic loaded, Corvette ZR-1, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Black Ops Edition, or Tesla S. I guess it would depend on my needs and Teslas rear seat leg room. I really would have a hard time deciding...

Exactly, Neyadav.

You can lease solar panels through Musk's other company, SolarCity. How they work it is instead of paying a monthly electricity bill to PG&E, Pepco, or whomever, you pay a monthly lease fee to SolarCity, which is usually about half of what your monthly electricity costs.

Based upon that, anyone who lives in a reasonably sunny area can technically afford solar panels.

As for the cost of a tesla, don't forget all the fewer things there are to maintain. There's no need for an oil change. No need for an alternator, a transmission, and most of the other dozen parts of an engine that can break. It is the ultimate low maintenance vehicle.

A transmission is still required, dude. Low end torque requires higher engine RPMs even in an electric vehicle. Some oil type product is also required for lubricating the parts, be it grease in the suspension or transmission fluid. Now those can be synthetic but cost a lot more than traditional carbon based fluid or grease.

There is no transmission in Tesla vehicles, Draug. For proof.

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/forum/forums/would-model-s-be-more-efficient-transmission

An electric propulsion system’s mechanical parts consist of the propulsion motor, the fans in the speed controller, radiator fans, a coolant pump (if there is a liquid cooling system, which I think the model S does), and that’s it.

There are no gearboxes, no pumps, no belts. Brakes last at least twice as long due to regenerative braking.

Interesting. I'll have to look with more detail at it. I know the hybrids like the CR-Z have a continuous variable transmission. I just figured, knowing that electric motors don't generally have much torque without the momentum of higher RPMs that they had some kind of transmission. Thanks for the link.

I'm out on my phone so will read it later, but I'm guessing instead of a central motor, they have multiple motors at the wheels to avoid the need for a differential as well.

That's an interesting discussion, although it sounds like they still have some kind of gearing and don't tale the direct output from the motor to the wheels. It leads one to wonder if the variable speed system in the Hondas (no distinct gears) might help it achieve better towing capacity and higher top speed without a true multigear system.

Further research shows that there is a single stage gearbox (incorrect when you say there isn't one) and a differential I'm the rear end of the model S.