Tesla to make pickup truck after Model Y crossover

Let me see. Probably going to drive the Colorado another 2-3 years. Its replacement will probably go 10 or so. Based on Tesla's track record on production schedules, it might go from vaporware and warrant consideration when I've used up the replacement...
 
I'm watching how the crossover Model X performs on the market. For just under $80k if it's priced the same? That's a nope.
 
Here's what I don't get...CA is already in an energy crunch with rolling blackouts/brownouts during the heat of the summer. The rest of the US grid is said to be marginal at best. Building new electrical generating facilities seems to be a challenge in almost every state, regardless of the energy source. Where are we going to get the power to plug in a few hundred million vehicles?

I'm pretty sure my old neighborhood (early 70's era tract homes) doesn't have a grid that will support every home having a car plugged in at the same time, throw in a few hundred electric dryers and water heaters, along with AC units in the summer time...recipe for disaster IMO.

I'm sure people smarter than I am have considered this issue, but I haven't seen many answers for those questions.
 
jbezorg said:
I'm watching how the crossover Model X performs on the market. For just under $80k if it's priced the same? That's a nope.
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A guy I worked with had a Tesla Model X. Nothing but issues with it. You'd look outside and it would have opened it's doors. Or powered up to leave. Randomly. All on it's own. Weird gremlins in that thing.

For that price, I could buy a brand new 200 Series Land Cruiser :cool:
 
Dave said:
A guy I worked with had a Tesla Model X. Nothing but issues with it. You'd look outside and randomly it would have opened it's doors. All on it's own. Weird gremlins in that thing.

For that price, I could buy a brand new 200 Series Land Cruiser :cool:
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Yeah. That's what I keep coming back to.

This
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Or this (source)
Looks like it's based off the Tesla Semi
screen-shot-2017-11-17-at-1-13-18-am.jpg


screen-shot-2017-11-17-at-12-55-19-am.jpg
 
Which I guess would make it more along the lines of a Ford F650 and probably way more expensive then $80k
 
I'm holding out for 2017 to get here and the flood of Tesla 3's to hit the street...wait a minute, I just looked at the calendar...
 
bob91yj said:
Here's what I don't get...CA is already in an energy crunch with rolling blackouts/brownouts during the heat of the summer. The rest of the US grid is said to be marginal at best. Building new electrical generating facilities seems to be a challenge in almost every state, regardless of the energy source. Where are we going to get the power to plug in a few hundred million vehicles?

I'm pretty sure my old neighborhood (early 70's era tract homes) doesn't have a grid that will support every home having a car plugged in at the same time, throw in a few hundred electric dryers and water heaters, along with AC units in the summer time...recipe for disaster IMO.

I'm sure people smarter than I am have considered this issue, but I haven't seen many answers for those questions.
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The goal is to use power during off peak hours. That's done with a home charging system like the Tesla PowerWall. Ideally, the consumer also buy Tesla's solar shingles for their roof, thus eliminating any need for the electrical grid. Charge your home and battery bank during the day with solar (or I guess off-peak electrical grid power midday) and then power your home and charge your car at night. The powerwall could also charge from the grid at night during low energy use hours and then power your home during the day (not including AC).

What you're considering is that everyone will get home, plug in their car, turn on the TV, kick up the AC and keep opening the fridge to get more cold brews, right? That's peak time. We all know it and that's when brown outs occur. Or the unexpected hot days where everyone runs their AC. Some solar systems can handle AC as well. The up front cost is enormous though. You're more likely to reap the benefits of solar in a place like AZ or down by you when it really IS hot in the summer and you use all that energy.
 
In addition, Tesla is investing heavily in charging stations that are solar powered. The point is that in the sunny areas of the country, solar powered chargers will eventually be the way to go. A good comparison is a small 100w solar panel plugged into your "overland" rig vs running the engine for 10-15 minutes. What's more efficient? What costs less? There are lots of variables (price of fuel, cost of solar panel, overcast days, etc), but the point is that solar is the way to go (with backup battery power), at least in CA, AZ, UT, NM, TX, etc...
 
ArkansasDon said:
I'll stick with the internal combustion engine. Its proven to be reliable.
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The majority of the reliability of the IC engine is from the support system that's built around them and the body of knowledge each of us have accumulated. Not from some mechanical advantage in reliability the IC engine has over an electrical motor. The bottleneck isn't the support for the electrical motor. As you mentioned. It's the power supply. That's slowly changing*. A sad inevitability is that once a critical mass in support infrastructure is reached for the power supply it'll be the death of the IC engine.

There is a very strong motivation for the change. Large electrical motors offer about a 90% efficiency in electricity to mechanical energy conversion. Smaller electrical motors are around 65%. With the chemical/electricity conversion of a battery of about 90% as well. IC engines on the other hand are about 25% efficient in the chemical/mechanical energy conversion with a lot of waste energy going into the chemical/thermal conversion. You could maybe recover 5% of the energy with a thermal/electricity energy conversion** on the exhaust. But as Tim (@TangoBlue) would say. The juice isn't worth the squeeze. Thermoelectric materials are expensive, degrade over time with use, and technology exists now that already far surpasses the IC engine's theoretical limit of energy conversion.

I seriously doubt that I'll every get a Tesla*** but I hope Tesla and others like them are very successful and not for completely altruistic reasons. I'm not going to see the death of the IC engine but maybe I will see a drop in demand for petroleum products and, whooohooo!, cheaper road trips.

* Daimler delivers first Fuso eCanter electric trucks to UPS (Sep 14th 2017)

** Alphabet Energy goes from B to C round (July 18 2016)
The waste heat-to-energy technology developer has raised $23.5m in a series C round led by Schlumberger and backed by GM Ventures.

*** Unless they make them sound like a Tie Fighter :D
 
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jbezorg said:
A sad inevitability is that once a critical mass in support infrastructure is reached for the power supply it'll be the death of the IC engine.
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Very true, but I think this may take another 20 years. The rest of the world lags far behind in the infrastructure required even for current offerings.

I'd certainly be down for a Tesla that sounded like an X-Wing :D
 
Overland bling of the future will be how many different methods you have to recharge your conveyance, and how quickly you can do it...not to mention you can plug your blender and icemaker in to the conveyance and make Marguerita's for everyone!:cool:
 
bob91yj said:
Overland bling of the future will be how many different methods you have to recharge your conveyance, and how quickly you can do it...not to mention you can plug your blender and icemaker in to the conveyance and make Marguerita's for everyone!:cool:
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Kang_and_kodos.jpg

Silence! You mean you can't convert fossilized hydrocarbons and organic compounds extracted from sedimentary rock into electricity!?

Kang and my sister Kodos laugh at your pathetic Overland bling!
 
I like the fact that Elon Musk is willing to take some risks, think out of the box, etc. The problem I see is he tends to over promise and under deliver. I'd be a little pissed if Tesla had been holding my deposit on a Model 3 for 2 years now and being told my car would be delayed yet again.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-production-goal-as-deliveries-miss-estimates

There are enough other electric cars out there now that the Model 3 may find itself irrelevant in the grand scheme of things once it does reach full production numbers. I've been reading a little about Hybrids and electrics hitting the full size trucks and even the Jeep Wrangler in the next couple of years. I think the established and known (be it good or bad) dealership business model is what most people are comfortable with and will continue to buy as more of them become available.
 
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