I'll wager that JB Straubel will be Tesla's CEO in 3-5 years and Tesla will no longer be a car company but a battery/infrastructure company.
And for me personally I am dubious about electric being the future solution. The world can live without Tesla and even BMW. Far harder without Toyota.
Tesla opened up their patents but I doubt current non-Tesla electric cars can actually be charged by them without over-heating.
I also doubt they will just let anyone use their superchargers because they are currently paying the power bill... but you'd have to be on the pay from some dubious source to turn this fact into anti-tesla spin.
Yup, Tesla would love for other companies to use and pay for their superchargers.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184141-tesla-reveals-plan...
Even if the future is eventually electric, which I think it is - just when is the question. Who is going to win? The guy selling pricey luxury cars or Toyota, Chevy, and others who are already beating him on price today, let along 5-10 years from now.
Last time I checked, California electric companies were concerned that a neighborhood that got more than 1 electric car needed a new transformer, since they're sized to cool down during the night when they're normally under a minuscule load.
Please don't get any ideas that this is the case. Most of OPEC requires $100/barrel or more to balance their budgets. The only reason we're seeing oil prices plummet is because OPEN is attempting to play chicken with US tight oil ("fracking") plays. Fracking in the US, in some cases, is profitable all the way down to $42/barrel.
Several tight oil companies have already cancelled their dividends, and there are concerns they won't be able to obtain financing to continue operations (depending on the company).
This ignores the elephant in the room that is China, that is ramping up filling their strategic oil reserves at these low prices.
Sidenote: Tesla adds 1-3 Superchargers to their network per day.
this is more than an issue of financial costs it is also a quality of human life cost
do you live in a city? i live in downtown sf and if i leave the windows of my apartment open for an hour the sill and any items inside will begin to have a coated layer of what i assume is a combination of exhaust particulate and dirt kicked up from tires
if you live in a city then the next time you are walking down the street rub you fingers on a leaf of a sidewalk tree and you will see what i am talking about
zero or positive emissions need to be here now
i am waiting with bated breath