Why should people
think about a Tesla for their next car?
For people
who haven’t heard about Tesla Motors yet, this startup headquartered in Palo
Alto, California, has been creating all-electric vehicles for about 10 years.
The company started in 2008 with the Tesla Roadster, a sports car especially
designed to carry lithium-ion batteries and an electric engine in order to show
what electric cars could really do. Today, the company offers the Model S, a
luxury sedan (which has been its most successful car), a SUV called Model X,
and will introduce the more affordable Model 3 on the market in 2017.
Sustainability
With more
and more people raising concerns about global warming and overuse of
non-renewable energies such as fossil fuels, some automakers have been trying
to adapt their range by proposing hybrid cars. However, they are not
all-electric cars and still use gasoline-powered engine and emit greenhouse
gases.
Each model
of Tesla has been designed to be 100% electric. To propel its engine, a Tesla car
uses a lithium-ion battery pack made of hundreds of batteries like the one in
your smartphone. In other words, there is absolutely no fuel engine in the car.
And no fuel engine also means no need for using oil, no CO2 emission, and no
pollution.
This allows
Tesla to propose cars without any CO2 emission, whereas, on average, a
post-2006 vehicle emits about 146g/km.
Cost
Let’s be
fair, a Tesla is expensive. The Roadster had a $109,000 price tag. The Model S
starts at $59,000 for the 60kWh entry model and goes up to $134,000 for the
P100D high end model. Finally the Model X is displayed at $75,000 as well as at
$150,000 in its most expensive configuration.
However, as
the automaker sells more and more vehicles, it makes economies of scale and is
able to reduce prices. Also these very expensive models are displayed at those
prices only to introduce the future Model 3, which will be a far more
affordable all-electric family sedan. Indeed at $35,000, the Model 3 has
already registered more than 400,000 pre-orders since its release in March
2016.
This is the
price of a BMW or a Mercedes, but with a 100% electric car you don’t have to
pay a tremendous price for gasoline. A full charge of electricity costs around
$20, when filling a gasoline tank at the gas station costs at least twice that
price.
Performance
Tesla
Motors’ strategy was to create a sports car to show how powerful electric cars
could be. They did it with the Roaster and went further with the Model S. Today,
the Model S P100D is the fastest accelerating production car reaching 60 miles
per hour in only 2.5 seconds. This is faster than a Ferrari or a Porsche. On
top of that, Tesla cars top up at a speed of 150MPH which can be pretty cool on
the German autobahn.
Security
Thanks to
their frames especially design to carry the batteries, the cars’ gravity centre
is very low. This prevents the car from rolling over in case of accident. Also,
the lack of front engine allowed Tesla engineers to reinforce the frame around
the frunk to make it safer for the passengers. Once again the Model S is the
best in the market thanks to a 5.4 stars crash test ranking, on a basis of 5
stars! The Tesla Model X succeeded in security tests with 99.9%, making it the
safest SUV in production.
Another
noticeable fact is that Tesla models are full of technology. With their
captors, sensors, radars, cameras, Autopilot function, auto braking, the cars
help the driver to check its blind spots or to stay aligned with the road.
These features certainly make the driving experience safer and better.
It is sexy
Most
electric cars look strange with futuristic shapes. A Tesla sedan or SUV looks
like a British or German car: luxury, sportive and cool. Actually a Tesla looks
sexy with its shapes designed to be aerodynamic and so to reduce energy
consumption. We could even say it looks S.3.X.Y. Indeed a funny plan of Tesla
CEO Elon Musk was to create a range named S.E.X. with the Model S, the Model X
and the Model E. Unfortunately, as Ford trademarked the Model E, Tesla changed
it for Model 3. Soon will be announced the next SUV, likely to be named Model
Y. And here is the S.3.X.Y with these all-electric cars that look really
attractive and create desire for all-electric cars.
Florent Montoya
Hello Florent,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your article which is really interesting and made me discover this American automaker. I believe that there will be more and more such vehicle in the coming years and that it is an alternative to the pollution problem. Unfortunately, they are currently too expensive. Do you know how many cars have already been sold since the creation of the brand?
I wish you good day !
Hi Pierrick, there are actually some automakers proposing EVs such the Renault Zoe, VW e-golf, BMW i3, Nissan Leaf. Some more startups are coming like Faraday Future.
DeleteThe company has sold over 100,000 Model S since 2012, 2,800 Roadster and approximately 40,000 Model X since its launch in 2016. The Model 3 has received over 500,000 pre-orders and deliveries will start in the early 2017.
About the price, yes it is "expensive". But not that much, $60,000 for a Model S is the price of a Mercedes, and $35,000 is the same as a Renault Megane with all the options. Also, you can save up to $300 per month in gasooline because of the lower price of electricity! My next car will probably be electric.
Thanks for commenting Pierrick!
Hi Florent,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great article ! I am sure that the electric car is the car of the future. But I was wondering, what do you think of hybrid cars ? You wrote that they still use gasoline-powered engine and they consequently emit greenhouse gases, but I think they are a good compromise for people that are aware of environmental issues but don't have that much money to put into an electric car...
Have a nice day
Hi Clarisse,
Deleteyour comment is interesting and can be discussed. Indeed hybrid cars have an electric motor in addition to a gasoline-powered engine. But their are two types of hybrid cars then:
- the electric motor can be charged on an electric plug
- the electric motor is supplied in energy with gasoline (a little exlosion creates electricity)
So even though it is an electric motor, the second one still uses gasoline.
Then we must take into account the purpose of such electric motors. They are not design for long drive, but just to help the engine to start the car or to drive either low speed or for short distance in all-electric mode. For instance, with a Toyota Prius, you can drive up to 18km in all-electric, and reach a maximum speed of 100km/h, with the BMW i8 it is about 37km... This is much less than a Nissan Leaf with about 200km of range and a top speed of 135km/h.
Then let's talk about the price. Ok a Tesla is expensive, but the Model 3 is coming at $35,000, a Nissan Leaf costs about $32,000 and a Renault Zoe a bit less than $28,000. A Toyota Prius is $31,000, a Volvo x60 hybrid is $57,000, and Cadillac and Mercedes proposes their luxury hybrid car between $60,000 and $90,000 (same as Tesla does).
So to answer your question, I think hybrid cars are just the very first step for automakers before producing all-electric cars. From a customer perspective, they are about the same price as an all-electric car, proposes less range and speed when in all-electric and obviously emit more CO2. So I'd rather buy all-electric instead of hybrid.
Hi Florent !
ReplyDeleteIt's a very interesting article and I have to admit that I have never heard of Tesla before. Honestly, as an avid fan of cars, I can say that Tesla produces very powerful engines.
But the problem is that nowadays the second-hand market in the automotive industry is exploding. People buy cheaper cars because it's never a good investment. A brand new car always loses its value as time goes on. Governments should help us in order to encourage us to buy environmentally-friendly cars.
Do you know any example of a government which had put in place measures, so that sustainable cars become more affordable?
Abdurrahman.O
Hi Abdu, in France their are already some incentives to buy an all-electric car. You can receive up to 6,000€ from the government when buying an electric car which costs less than €34,000. Norway, Germany, California have incentives as well.
DeleteAbout the second hand market, electric cars don't lose their value as fast as gasoline cars because the engine is made of only 200 parts, instead of over 1,000 for a gasoline-powered engine. Also because the motor speeds down when you release the pedal the break pads don't get old as fast as an usual car. So EVs are better second hand cars than gasoline cars!
Hi Florent !
ReplyDeleteGreat article!
I'd like to try a Tesla car to see what kind of sensation you could feel with electric cars.
I love the design of those cars! I'm just wondering about the power they have (horse power). Do you have any information about it ?
Laurenti K.
Hi Kevin, thanks for commenting!
DeleteTesla cars have different powertrains: Dual Motors (rear+front) for instance a Model S 85D, or just Rear Motor Model S 70, or the performance Dual Motors like Model S P100D. Then the company proposed the 40kWh and 60kWh motors, and now the 70kWh, 85kWh, 90kWh and the 100kWh motor. The higher the number, the faster the car. So if you take a Model S P100D, you basically have about 500hp at the rear and 200 at the front, so 700hp available INSTANTANEOULSY!
A really interesting article!
ReplyDeleteI think even if these cars are today quite expensive, it's not for a long time ( as you wrote in your article), and, why not, Tesla cars could be a good solution Grenoble's ecological issues.