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Comment by oinksoft | Hacker News Reader

Is this car only regionally popular? I have yet to see a single Tesla on DC area roads.

It's amazingly popular in the SF Bay Area; I see several each day on my 2-mile commute to work (right next to Google, but still). However, I also saw one when I was in New Orleans a couple weeks ago, so it's not just SF.

Of course, the SF Bay Area is its own special little bubble. Inferring nationwide vehicle choice based on the SF Bay would be like living in Boulder and assuming the rest of the nation is also Prius-crazed.

Hah! Before this I lived in Boulder and did indeed feel like everyone drove Priuses. (Although, my current office of 40 people has three people who drive Priuses of the same color… but point still taken.)

> It's amazingly popular in the SF Bay Area

That shows how many early adopters live in the SF Bay Area.

I don't think you can generalize it to Bay area.

I see them all the time on 101 as well.

So, near the Bay Area?

Yes, I believe general_failure meant, "you can't generalize 'near Google' to 'Bay Area'", so I elaborated to say that I've seen many in the Bay Area, not just near Google.

Ah, I totally misunderstood.

I saw one in Toronto!

There's 5 within two blocks of my house in Oakland.

Tons of them in Chicago as well

Really? I'm on the Blue Line down the Kennedy most mornings/evenings, often looking out at the gridlocked traffic, and have yet to see a single one.

Really? I live in DC and see them fairly often. Because Tesla is installing power stations primarily between NYC and DC, I would think this is one region where you would be most likely to see them, actually.

Ours was in DC back in April. :) We took a road trip from Salem, NH to DC for school vacation. We visited the DC Tesla store and charged up there and I saw one other Model S "in the wild" valet parked while walking the town.

They are not as commonplace on the eastern side as they are in California. Back in June, there were somewhere between 300 and 400 in the New England area. Probably about the same in the states surrounding DC.

I'm in Austin TX and I've seen at least 5 of them here on Loop 360. Then again, there is that whole dealer issue thing in Texas: http://www.chron.com/cars/article/Texas-lawmakers-won-t-appr...

Cambridge, MA unsurprisingly loves them.

Could be. Here on the Eastside of Seattle, I parked next to one at Cougar Mt. Park on Friday, and saw one driving around today. It would be a stretch to say that I see one every day, but there are plenty around here. (And, yes, some sightings are probably repeats.)

I've never seen one on the road. I think they are mostly a California thing right now.

More a Northern California thing. Here in the Los Angeles area I've seen only one on the road.

I've only visited LA once for about 3 days. I saw at least 12 different Model S'.

In Santa Monica it is not unusual to see several at the same traffic light.

I spent a day driving around LA recently - saw 5 Model S's.

It would be interesting to know how good they are outside of the warm California.

I find that hard to believe because I see LOTS of them in Baltimore. Baltimore

The only one I've ever seen in DC was the one I was test driving.

Strange considering that there is a showroom on 11 & eye

In CA you see them everywhere, but I live in OH/WV/PA area and I've seen a handful. There is one heading the opposite way of my commute every day.

Besides the one in my garage :), I've only seen 2 in the wild around DFW area. (excluding the ones I see parked at the service center)

I saw one in St. Louis a couple weeks ago; it even had MO plates, so it wasn't someone traveling cross-country.

Traveling cross-country would be pretty difficult with the Model S right now. It requires a full recharge every 200-300 miles, which takes several hours except at special Tesla-operated "supercharger" stations (which take about 35 minutes to recharge the car, v. 5 mins to refill a gas tank), which are currently quite scarce.

I see one every few days here in Atlanta. Of course I see about twenty times as many Nissan Leafs.

I saw a Model S here in Roswell Georgia (~20 minutes North of Atlanta) a couple weeks ago.

There are at least two on Southern Methodist University's campus in Dallas.

I see one just about every other day cruising downtown Denver.

There's a dealership near Evans & Monaco. Weird place for it, right next to a McDonald's and a dispensary.

Also one in Park Meadows where I live. Slightly less weird...

They're popular in the Seattle area, certainly.

I see one probably once a week in Austin.

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