Jay Leno loves his Tesla: ‘There’s almost no reason to have a gas car’ | Hacker News Reader

Jay Leno loves his Tesla: ‘There’s almost no reason to have a gas car’

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27 pointsrmason21 comments

I used to own an Audi TTS, which is a fantastic little car, very fun to drive. Then I bought a Model S, which my girlfriend ended up driving. Great acceleration, but between the size and the air suspension, not sporty enough for me. I stuck to the Audi. But every time I drove the Model S (if we went out together, or to keep the battery in condition if she was away), switching back to the Audi felt like traveling back in time. The car shook at idle, it was noisy, it always needed some fluid or other topped off. I took to calling it the clackety-bang machine (hyperbole, it ran great). Eventually I traded it in for a Model 3 Performance. The TTS was the finest internal-combustion engine car I've ever owned, but it felt like a relic. I'll never buy another gas vehicle again.

Yeah except I don't own my own home so I can't install a car chargers or live in a city with chargers and electric cars can't drive half as far as a gas car and cost twice as much as a gas car...

But almost no reason. #sarcasm

Yeah, those are the three pain points, for sure. Public charging infrastructure is unevenly distributed and mostly terrible. Level 1 chargers for (14-20 mph of charging) are completely inadequate for public use and yet we keep adding more of them (every Level 1 charger is a wasted space/opportunity to install an actually useful Level 2/3 charger). But range is improving rapidly. The new Model S is up to nearly 400 miles of range. Even the long range Model 3 gets 300 miles. And prices are approaching reasonable when you factor in total cost of ownership. We're still in the early adopter part of the growth curve, but rapidly approaching the tipping point.

Level 1 charging is traditional wall plug / electrical outlet. The chargers you are complaining about are always Level 2 or higher, and most people are ignoring the opportunities in Level 1 charger build outs, because 7-10 miles per hour charged for every hour a car is sitting in a parking lot can still be a big deal for a lot of use cases (for instance, the 8 hours you should be parked at work, that's 56-80 miles added during the average work day).

We really could add Level 1 charging everywhere, because almost everywhere has power. It's Level 2+ chargers that require all the extra new infrastructure, higher amperage circuits, and fancy charging hardware. (Level 2 itself is the next most potentially ubiquitous as it is "just" dryer plug, though I've never seen a dryer plug Level 2 charger like you can find Level 1 chargers with traditional plugs. Level 3+ is where you start to leave the range of ordinary homes and businesses.)

My mistake. Apparently there are stratifications within Level 2, and I've mostly encountered 240V 3.8KW chargers, which are about 12 mph, but there are also 240V 7.6KW chargers at about 26 mph.

Level 1 charging makes sense at an office park if it's nearly ubiquitous. If it's a crap shoot whether you'll get a space or not, it becomes much less valuable. And it's still useless for public charging (mostly confined to mall and store parking lots) because you can't leave your car there for the 8+ hours it takes to get a decent charge. BTW, my research says 4.5mph for Level 1 which makes even 8 hours of charging underwhelming.

For any space where you can only park for a few hours (3 hours is a commonly enforced limit), then anything less than Level 2 7.6KW is a waste of space.

Level 3 chargers are huge and expensive, as you point out, and will probably be limited to dedicated charging stations for the foreseeable future.

You'd be surprised how liveable it is with plugging into a power point while at home and use of superchargers and shopping center chargers.

I own my own home, so my main concern is travel.

We visit family 2-3 times/year, and I don't really want to charge at their house since it's a fairly significant cost. There aren't any charging stations near their houses (my family all live in relatively small towns). They also live fairly far away, so we'd have to stop a few times (10-14 hours driving). Stopping once or twice is reasonable (need to stop for lunch anyway), 3-4 times would be annoying.

So, we're probably going to have a gas car for the foreseeable future. We could have an electric car as a second car (for local trips), but that means having a second car (we're a one-car family) which has its own set of expenses and inconveniences (car seats, insurance, etc).

I've thought about getting an electric car and renting a gas car whenever we need to go on a trip, but so far the numbers haven't worked out. I'm definitely keeping an eye out.

No manual transmission = dealbreaker. And I mean a stick, not paddles.

I insist on a manual, and have declined to buy cars I otherwise liked because they didn't make a manual transmission model.

I don't have a lot of experience with fully electric cars, but I've always read that the torque on electric cars makes the transmission unnecessary.

Is that not so? Have you had a bad experience?

I only want to drive a stick. It’s about being involved and engaged in the experience.

Might go look at a Toyota GT86. RWD, normally aspirated, supposedly underpowered, all good! A slow car driven fast is way more fun than a fast car driven slow.

I'm the same way, but I'm also conflicted. I see the many advantages of an electric engine and an automatic transmission. However, whenever I am forced to drive even an ICE automatic, I feel so disconnected. I am willing to concede that this is likely a result of the fact that I first learned to drive in a manual. Do long time automatic drivers feel the same way when using things like adaptive cruise control or lane change assist? Obviously these things make driving easier and less stressful, but when I encounter them it just feels wrong. To me it isn't a that I believe as a human I can do these things better than a computer, but rather that giving up control also reduces my respect for the reality that I am directing a 2 ton hunk of metal in a river of similar potential death machines.

I imagine if I do look back on this comment in the future, it will be in the same vein as someone who derided the rise of email versus the tactile pleasure of a written letter. All the advantages of email didn't matter to those who loved writing letters at the time.

Don’t Teslas have a few fluid systems, like coolant and brake fluid?

Coolant for the powertrain, yes. Electromechanical brakes on Model S and X (since 2014), Model 3 does have a hydraulic brake system though (suggestion is to replace brake fluid every 2 years [1]). Coolant is to be replaced as needed, no interval specified. Tire rotations, air filters/air conditioner system, lubricate calipers ever 12 months in cold climates. That's it.

[1] https://www.tesla.com/support/car-maintenance

Disclaimer: Model S/X owner.

A subcompact car with a 10-gallon gas tank can store the energy equivalent of 7 Teslas, 15 Nissan Leafs or 23 Chevy Volts.

http://www.menloenergy.com/?p=535

Jay Leno paid to say: ‘There’s almost no reason to have a gas car’

He may indeed be friends with Elon but you think Tesla is paying him to say that? Where's your proof?

Friends I know that own a tesla have said similar things. It's not really a surprise or cause for suspicion of being paid to say that.

Also, Jay Leno for decades has been an outspoken proponent for electric cars, in his ownership and restoration work on electric cars from the early 20th Century.

That's fine to be cynical about it, but Jay is a well known Electric car fan (owns a Baker Electric).

Well, he's a well known car fan and has an impressive collection of all varieties of car. He's also fabulously wealthy, so I doubt he's interested in being paid to say things.

Source?

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