This past Tuesday, Tesla introduced its third vehicle, the SUV/CUV
Model X. Priced between $85,000 and $145,000, depending on features, this isn't a car for the masses. Like the also-expensive Model S, Tesla is using revenue generated by these supercars in order to fund development of its upcoming mass-market Model E (scheduled to be introduced early next year, and supposedly in customers' hands in 2017). And with a 0-60 mph time of 3.2 seconds, in the range of million-dollar super cars by McLaren, Lamborghini, and Ferrari, the Model X certainly qualifies as a supercar. The price tag clinches it.
But for now, we have a billionaire entrepreneur CEO making muscular, American-engineered and made cars for the richest Americans. You'd think the right-wing would be ecstatic! But, there's one thing conservatives hate more than successful American businessmen, and that's anything that smacks of helping save the environment. It offends them so deeply, in fact, that they've turned Tesla into their latest boogeyman, driving them irrationally insane. Let's check out the reactions from Breitbart's latest story on the Model X unveiling.
Strange how all the leftists rally behind this 1%'er car. Base price of $132k? Totally for the masses right? Where are the Black Lives Matter crowds on Fremont Blvd? Nowhere to be seen.
"Leftists" have rallied around the idea of a clean-energy future. It drives conservatives crazy that Tesla has proven that electric cars don't have to be wimpy, weird-looking anemic vehicles, and that there is a bright future beyond petroleum. The company is making electric acceptable (heck,
desirable) to the mass market.
As for #BLM, the day Tesla kills an unarmed teen, we'll all join #BLM in Freemont. So far, that hasn't happened, but no worries, we'll remain vigilant!
Head below the fold for more.
YOU PLUG IT INTO YOUR HOUSE TO CHARGE. Yep it's not a coal burner at all! What a CROCK!!!!!
I want to see how much the peoples electric bills go up to charge the POS enviro not friendly things!
According to the US Energy Information Administration, 39 percent of US electricity is generated by coal. Renewables are 13 percent, but given the profile of a Tesla owner (rich person who gives a shit about the environment), the percentage of owners with solar at their homes is undoubtedly high.
But even if you get your electricity from dirty sources, the Model X would have the equivalent gas mileage of 90 mpg city, 94 mpg highway. Driving electric cars is just far more efficient than driving a dramatically inefficient internal combustion engine.
It's genuinely amazing how angry conservatives get at something that simple facts and reality prove is far superior ...
When Tesla doesn't rely on taxpayers subsidies, then I'll take them seriously.
And, oh yeah, get rid of oil subsidies as well. No subsidies period
Remember when Tesla was the only company to benefit from government subsidies? Well, except for the
entire Big Oil industry, and the companies that
make the planes they use to fly around, and what the heck,
Donald Trump!
Not to mention, in the top 10 recipients of government largess we have GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Nissan. Tesla is way further down the list.
I'd be more impressed if they could build a $30K electric car that gets 250 miles per charge and can be charged in 5 minutes. That would be practical. Any Tesla is not a practical car. A 10K Nissan Versa would beat one of these 100K toys in a race from Maine to Florida.
When do American tax payers get their $500 million back? How does this POS benefit anyone. Elan Musk! P.T. Barnum would be proud. This turd is a failure without tax dollars.
The $500 (actually $465) million was paid back years ago, though the the PT Barnum quote is quite appropriate given this audience.
So, to get a decent electric vehicle, you still have to pay too much and ignore the true environmental costs.
Brings a tear to my eyes seeing conservatives so concerned about the environment, until, that is, they actually need to do something to preserve the environment.
Wow, only $132k,
for the slower model,
I think I'll get two ... oh wait, my significant CFO says NO!
So,
for $37k I can get a ford focus RS,
0-60 4.6,
seats 5,
AWD and 21-30 MPG.
BINGO!
Wow, only $37,000? I can get a Schwinn bicycle for $250. Bingo! I can also get a burrito for $5. And a pair of jeans for $50.
Comparing apples to oranges is fun!
Anything who thinks battery manufacturing is a "green industry", is wrong.
Ah yes, the "batteries are dirty" trope. Lithium is a common mineral, and in fact, a great deal of Tesla's lithium will be mined in Nevada
near its battery-producing Gigafactory, further reducing the carbon cost of vehicle production. Furthermore, Tesla can recycle old car batteries into its Powerwall product line, used for utility and residential energy storage, where reduced capacity isn't a problem.
And by all means, lithium mining is cleaner than the extraction, refinement, and delivery of gasoline and diesel.
For a balanced look at the environmental costs of electric vehicles check out this Mother Jones article.
But really, if these guys think EVs are so polluting, why do they hate the industry so much? I know why ... because they don't believe their bullshit. If they did, they'd be celebrating its earth-destructing abilities.
A tracking joke, the company owner got rich and the company has never made a penny. Stealing off the tax payers.
It can be genuinely breathtaking how little these pro-business people understand
business. Musk got rich at PayPal, which made plenty of money. He is now running what is still a startup, using investor money to, well, invest in the company's future. It's like every other startup in history that never made money, until they did.
And the people funding these investments? Investors! They have weighed the challenges and risks, looked at potential future rewards, and have decided to make the bet. Tesla itself is spending billions building infrastructure to support future growth, from the Gigafactory to build batteries, to new production lines at its Fremont factory. That's the way business works. People get investors, companies spend money to fuel growth, and sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn't.
Funny that we need a liberal to explain this shit to conservatives.
We are killing the country and gutting the middle class over a lie. There has been no global warming in 18 years. GW is a natural phenomom. The second greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind.
Sigh ...
The environmentally CONSCIOUS part!
You people commit the greater "sin"
with the insanity that somehow,
all this extravagance,
govt subsidies,
total enviro-impact,
expense and
reduced utility (max distance and charge times)
is ACTUALLY progress!
Seriously, this shit drives them insane. But the charging times thing ultimately betrays their idiocy like nothing else.
In short, having an EV is like having a gas station in your driveway. You pull up, you charge overnight, you get up in the morning and your car is topped off! I wish my Mazda5 did that every day.
The range of various EVs:
Smart: 68 miles (and costs just $18,000 after rebates)
Ford Focus EV: 76 miles
BMW i3: 81 miles
Chevy Spark: 82 miles
VW e-Golf: 83 miles
Nissan Leaf: 84 miles
Fiat 500e: 87 miles
Kia Soul EV: 93 miles
Tesla Model X: 257 miles
Tesla Model S: 270 miles
Take out the high-priced Teslas, and you still have a decent selection of reasonably priced EVs that will allow for 95 percent of all trips. Trips over 70 miles account for just 1 percent of all trips.
If someone regularly drives more than that, then sure, EVs are not quite there unless you have 100-G to spend on a Tesla. Otherwise, you're good!
If Obama has his way, we will either be forced to buy a $132K auto or pay $40/gallon gas imported from Iran. Either way, the average American will be able to afford neither. But that was the plan all along, right?
Fuck, this guy discovered Obama's plan!
132K? That's enough to educate 10 illegal aliens in a tax payer supported public school for a whole year!
It's also enough to pay for three people in jail for minor drug offenses. So let's see ... education or prisons ...
And since when do conservatives care how rich people spend their money? Oh yeah, when those spending decisions cleaned up our air. Sure is infuriating!
I for one am glad this vehicle is staring production. Now I call on lawmakers to begin a national program of nuclear reactors to power them. Six hundred Palo Verde sized reactors (200 installations) would end dependence on foreign oil, end need for diesel trucks (note HP of the Tesla, quadruple it for semi trailer vehicles) and its quick charge capacity. Add a bit of hydro-electric and deep crust geothermal you have a 10 to 12 cent per Kwh system instead of more than double this under Obama and Jeb Bush's ideas.
... or we can just add solar and wind capacity instead of nuclear. But actually, this guy is at least thinking about the benefits of going to an all-electrical transportation grid. Let's call that "progress."
Good luck opening that gull-wing door inside a garage...
I guess one doesn't take a Telsa to the mall, you wouldn't be able to open the doors in the parking lot!
I bet conservatives are used to guessing wrong.
WOW!!! Only $132,000.00 for the stripped down model! Now, even minimum wage burger flippers can go green! Oh...wait...even at $15.00/hour, that would still take every penny they earn, before taxes, for the next 4+ years...never mind.
I love this sudden concern for burger-flippers. Refreshing! And what do I see, an admission that $15 should be the minimum wage?
And yeah, not the "stripped down model," which will be in the $80K range. Not cheap, but seriously, do these guys ever get anything right?