Tesla’s Model S has held my interest in a way no other cars have. Gas or electric (still love ya, Chevy Volt). But it’s early days and there are a lot of myths and questions that I hear about this car, and EVs in general. Here are my answers to the most common ones.

FAQ

“I don’t know a thing about these cars. How are they quiet and fast? What else is special about them?”

Model S cars are quiet because there is no gas engine, yet they are pretty quick: my entry-level 70D will run 0-to-60 mph in about 5 seconds (the P85D does it in about 3 seconds). What makes this amazing is that the car is a 5–7 seat sedan with 30 cubic feet of luggage space between the rear trunk and the front trunk (no engine!). The car handles amazingly well for its weight and is very quiet since it uses two 3-Phase AC induction motors, one on the front wheels and another on the rear wheels. Those motors (when considered together) produce about 514 horsepower and an ungodly amount of torque instantly to all 4 wheels, since there are no gears to shift (and the P85D is even more insane). Yet Model S has the lowest rate of injury from NHTSA, and is among only 3 cars to be safety-rated 5 stars in every category. Consumer Reports rated the car 99/100, Automobile magazine gave it the Automobile of the year award, and it is also Motor Trend’s 2013 Car of the year. The interior is very minimalist and clean, with a 17 inch screen that controls everything and there are only 2 buttons outside of the screen.

“How far will Model S go on a charge?”

My model will go about 240 miles, while the 85 killowatt-hour battery can get about 270 miles. Depending on driving-style and other factors, that range can be a little more or a little less. Fortunately, Tesla provides quick-charging (Supercharging) on major highway routes which allows my car to drive to most any US city for free.

“What about range-anxiety? I hear that’s a big deal with electric cars.”

Most battery EVs are in the 80+ mile range right now, with more 200 & 300-mile EVs on the way. Most EV drivers live in the city and never run out of juice. Driving my Chevy Volt around town I had 40-miles of electric range, yet I rarely used the gas range-extender. Honestly, range-anxiety just isn’t a big deal as quick-charging infrastructure develops and long-range EVs come out.

And, hey, with gasoline vehicles isn’t is easy to run into cost anxiety? You know, that feeling that the car literally burns up your money when you’re stuck in traffic? No cheap home-charging, and no regeneration of gasoline back to the fuel tank when braking sounds like economic madness — especially given that so much gasoline is imported from abroad!

Just kidding, but I think range-anxiety really is just a construct of the energy industry and the few car companies that cannot innovate their own EV tech. I have yet to see reasonably-intelligent drivers get stranded driving an EV, though I am sure it happens the same way people can run of gas (not watching the needle and driving a lot). “Aren’t you worried a major purchase like this will strain your finances?”

Who doesn’t have this worry when financing a new car? And it isn’t any easier with a Model S, but affording one doesn’t have to break the bank. When I started to get serious about the car I ran the numbers a hundred times, under a few different scenarios, and with different finance instruments. I probably explored every way to sanely obtain the car, short of theft, until I was confident I arrived at the most affordable arrangement for me. Life is unpredictable, for sure, but I feel good about my purchase. And total cost of Model S drops dramatically if I end up driving it for a decade, which I am considering doing.

“Are you anti-oil? Do you really think electric cars will disrupt the energy industry?”

No, and no. I’m not anti-oil and I love cars. I don’t expect EVs to completely end our dependence on that fuel source anytime soon. I do, however, believe personal sustainable transport will slowly shift away from gas cars over the next 50 years. Commercial transport, however, will largely remain oil-based for longer. I am a realist, and refined oil is a highly mobile, energy-dense fuel source that practically supports anything that moves in our world. It’s a tall order to even conceive of replacing it entirely within a few years. Oil supports society in ways that have nothing to do with transport in our economies: plastics, clothing, even some medicine is produced using oil. But there is no debate for me that sustainable transport will eventually supplant oil for personal vehicles. Although I personally want to try to never buy a gas car again, I know oil-based products are easily us another 100 or 200 years. Plus Elon Musk needs to get his rocket fuel from somewhere!

“Do you think Tesla will really disrupt the car industry?”

Tesla’s stated mission and intent is to help develop the market for sustainable transport, not specifically disrupt the car industry. And Tesla does not see EV growth as a zero-sum game with Detroit and traditional car makers. Tesla is trying to create a market for sustainable transport that is successful enough, long-term, so that traditional car makers will profit with their own EV offerings. This will net us sustainable transport over time. It is happening very slowly and progress is fragile, but it is happening (Volt, Bolt, Leaf, i3, etc), due much in part to Tesla’s first Roadster EV. And EVs are persisting in a year of record-low oil prices, overflowing oil reserves, and with cheap gas at the pump. Most of the car industry is on a solid course to participate in the shift to EVs, not be disrupted by it. Car-dealerships, on the other hand, might have something to worry about.

I’m not so worried about dealerships’ failing business model or the period of adjustment for car makers. This 20-year generational shift to EVs has one industry that will be hugely disrupted: Big Oil. Somewhere between 40% and 50% of extracted fossil fuel is processed and sold for personal transport. Expect a lot of resistance from the oil industry on EVs, just as they have done in funding climate change denial.

“Why aren’t you waiting for the Apple Car?”

It’s true I am known to enjoy a Cupertino gadget or two (or ten), but I don’t always buy Apple. As an IT industry nerd I like to think I buy the best widget, no matter the widget-maker. But I also love pure, focused, design and Tesla has that in spades right now. Nobody really knows if Apple is really developing a car, except Apple, and we wouldn’t know it for years. So I am quite satisfied and happy with the Model S! I think Tesla is pretty much the “Apple of cars” right now, anyway. But I will be watching with high interest to see what cool things Jony Ive & company might come up with, if Apple does a car.

“Aren’t you afraid the 70 kWh battery could make it difficult for emergency crews to save you after a car crash?! What about floods and high water and the car battery?” Zero concern. Model S has the the highest safety-rating of any car on the road, and the car’s systems respond an accident by cutting-off the battery pack power, essentially making it inert to nullify any risk of electric shock to me or rescuers. In addition to turning off the battery, the battery’s construction mitigates the chance of any immediate Lithium-ion thermal heating or fire. In a gas car-crash, leaked fuel can be exposed to any number of hot flash-points to cause a fire. With my Tesla, the only scenario where there could be a fire ranges anywhere from 20 minutes to several days after an accident and long after the car is empty.

As for water, I know that the highly-sealed battery and car components have had deep water testing, with the car driving through deep swaths of water. But this is an electric car and I can also imagine components like fans, etc taking some damage in a high-water situation. I honestly think Tesla would seriously have a tough time selling this car if people got fried every time it rained a lot!

“Did you get Tesla’s Autopilot feature, where the car can drive and park itself?”

I’m a nerd, what do you think? Hell yes I did!! ;)

Myth-Debunking

“You burn more coal and other energy to produce the battery, the car components, and other materials with Model S than traditional steel gas cars — so you would need to drive the car for decades to recover the energy spent building it.”

We have heard this ridiculolous falsehood, based on questionable analysis, many times before. In response Tesla performed a lengthy study of their entire production process right down to each individual lithium ion cell in the car, and the energy expended to build a Model S is actually very close in comparison to that of building gas cars. Less in some ways.

JB Straubel, CTO of Tesla Motors, has gone on record about recovering energy expended on building a single Model S:

“The energy payback of driving Model S happens quite quick. We have looked at it in terms of how many miles you have to drive it, before you basically recover the energy that it took to build it, and it’s a small number of miles. Less than 10,000 miles.”

Myth. Busted.

“People with electric cars get stranded all the time, and have to be towed. You have constant range-anxiety and must plan all your trips down to the last mile.”

Nope, and nope. Tesla and other EV manufacturers track this and, with the exception of a few foolish non-attentive EV drivers, this just never happens. With 200+ mile range, Model S drivers tool around town without any range-anxiety. On long trips, our Navigation system routes us through all Supercharger waypoints, where we charge for free enough miles (plus extra ) to get to the next charge-point. The Nav also warns you if you’re straying out of range from a Supercharger so, unless you’re just wanting to get stranded, it virtually impossible to find yourself stuck on the highway due to a discharged battery. Sure, driving a Model S long-distances is a bit of careful rally to specific places to refuel, but it isn’t the cold sweat that EV detractors make it out to be. Myth busted.

“Electric Cars can’t succeed without government tax-credits. Tax-payers are subsidizing your EV.”

Oil is one of the most profitable industries in the world and gets massive subsidies. And you expect me to be outraged about some electric subsidies? Tell you what: let’s end all the energy subsidies and allow alternatives to fight on an even playing field, but I’m betting the oil (and ethanol) industries love their tax payer billions too much to give them up.

“Lithium ion batteries for transport are unsustainable, there will be lithium shortages.”

Wrong. If we never found another lithium deposit ever again, we would have enough lithium for approximately 1.5 million giga-watt hours of batteries. And that’s not counting any future discoveries or the 230 billion tonnes of lithium in the ocean, which would bring that total to 26.5 million gigawatt hours of batteries.

“The electric car is a fad that will eventually fade away.”

The best answer to that would be a quote from the most anti-EV, pro-gas car guy on the planet and one of the people behind the BMW 3-Series, Bob Lutz:

“I would say the electrification of the automobile is a foregone conclusion.”

By the way, that is the same Bob Lutz who went on to launch a little car at GM called Chevy Volt.

Myths. Busted.

Full disclosure: In addition to owning a Model S I am a long-term investor in Tesla Motors (TSLA).

Originally published at julianwest.me's previous blog in 2015.