Tesla to build $35K Model 3 for 2017

[MarchHare]

I'd very seriously consider buying a $35k Tesla for my next vehicle. My wife and I don't drive much as it is (less than 10,000 km/year on average), and almost all of that consists of short trips within city limits. For the relatively few times that we want to go further than the Tesla's range (camping/hiking trips in the mountains or road trips out-of-province), we'd just rent a conventional gasoline car.

[Tyler]

You guys slagging this for range are hilarious. How many of you drive 300km a day?

Calgary is great spot for EV adoption. Suniest city in Canada and I'm sure we can convert a ton of our winter-plug in parking lots to EV compatible relatively easily.

Also note, that it's $35K US.. So it'll be at least 10 grand more expensive here.

[ranchlandsselling]

How much of the power used to charge these vehicles (in Calgary) would come from Coal fired power plants?

Is the Canadian power grid modern and diversified enough that using an electric vehicle is more or less carbon intensive than a fuel efficient internal combustion engine?

[Mazrim]

We hit -30 about as often as we hit +30 in Calgary. I really doubt temperature would be a big issue with this car.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Tyler

You guys slagging this for range are hilarious. How many of you drive 300km a day?

Calgary is great spot for EV adoption. Suniest city in Canada and I'm sure we can convert a ton of our winter-plug in parking lots to EV compatible relatively easily.

Also note, that it's $35K US.. So it'll be at least 10 grand more expensive here.

No one drives 300km in the city.

However, if you want to go camping or to the mountains, like many thousands of Calgarians do, you might want to consider another / 2nd vehicles just to head out of town. The range just isn't good enough to convince me to go camping for a long weekend in the Rockies. At least not yet.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Tyler

You guys slagging this for range are hilarious. How many of you drive 300km a day?

I do quite often. Hence why I mentioned it. A day trip to ski at Lake Louise is over 300km. Upper kananaskis lakes is way to close to 300km for me to feel comfortable trusting battery range down to a few kms of advertised range.

Not slagging it at all. I'm sure it will be a great car for what it is, but what it isn't is something that's going to be able to manage as a single car for a lot of people in this city that go outside of the city.

[Nehkara]

This will be my next car and my first new car!

[Nehkara]

For those concerned about range, Tesla's supercharger network will be extended into Alberta by 2015. By 2017 it should cover most of Canada. Also, it's FREE. Once the superchargers are all over the place, there is nothing really to restrict its range.



Current:



2015:

[ericschand]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

For those concerned about range, Tesla's supercharger network will be extended into Alberta by 2015. By 2017 it should cover most of Canada. Also, it's FREE. Once the superchargers are all over the place, there is nothing really to restrict its range.

Actually, it's not free on the base models. If you look up the Model S 60, for example, it's $2,800 on the base model. The Model S 85kwh and performance both have the supercharging included.

ers

[Ozy_Flame]

Is this map off or something? There are no supercharger stations physically in any major Canadian city except Toronto??

[IgiTang]

I started this thread in the tech talk too. I'll kill mine.

But ya, its too cool. I'm curious if this is gonna start a serious push on EV's

[Muta]

Holy crap! We're going to be on the supercharger network by 2015? That's it, I'm sold. That's awesome, I thought we were atleast 10 years away from that. Really cool how they see Calgary as important enough to go this far into west-central Canada.

Awesome how it looks like they'll have a charging station in Canmore / Banff too. And this is only 2015, there could be more in a couple years.

That $35K vehicle is something I will definitely look at as my next vehicle purchase.

[Maccalus]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Is this map off or something? There are no supercharger stations physically in any major Canadian city except Toronto??

No, The idea behind the superchargers (currently) is to connect cities, not be a gas station in a city. They are being placed first to allow you to drive from city to city. In the farther future that will likely change.

[IgiTang]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Is this map off or something? There are no supercharger stations physically in any major Canadian city except Toronto??

In Victoria/ Langford we have them at select Chevron stations, some restaurants and at a select park'n ride locations.

I would be very surprised if we had em and Vancouver did not.

Edit: or are they just a standard EV charging station. Is there a difference?

[Muta]

Originally Posted by fotze

Do you have to pay the charger stations? How does that work?

I believe Elon Musk has said they will be free.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by ericschand

Actually, it's not free on the base models. If you look up the Model S 60, for example, it's $2,800 on the base model. The Model S 85kwh and performance both have the supercharging included.

ers

Thank you! I missed that.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

Perhaps for 4 months out the of year...but how long will it last in -20 to -30 weather?

curious why you don't think these will work at -30?

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

curious why you don't think these will work at -30?

I read some articles last year that claimed the battery life was substantially shorter in cold weather. Nevermind that now if there are people driving it year round in Calgary with no problems.

[Bob]

Superchargers are all well and good, but the ability to use one is not free unless you 1) pay $2800, or 2) get the 85 kWh battery for $9000 more. They also have limited stalls (lineups are not uncommon in popular areas), and currently only work with Teslas.

A bigger issue is if electric-only vehicles become a significant factor in the marketplace, and I don't see how Alberta can do much beyond burning more coal. It seems like a majority of people charging electric vehicles would do so at home overnight, as I think most companies are not going to subsidize employees by paying for power or installing solar-powered charging stations. Add in potentially many thousands of EVs all simultaneously charging and you've created what is presumably a big headache for the transmission grid.

In any case, Tesla has a range calculator, and if you run in cold weather + use the heater, you get about 60% of the rated range in the worst case. Still entirely fine for most city commutes, but problematic if you want to go anywhere without stopping for (potentially hours) to charge up. You also lose a big benefit of gasoline-powered vehicles: the ability to just go somewhere (anywhere, really) far away with minimal planning. Try organizing a lengthy road trip when you need to site charge locations every few hundred miles and also account for the time to charge.

I'm not convinced plug-in EVs are a viable path away from oil dependency for the majority of people, unless we can provide a significant amount of power generation that isn't just more coal/oil/gas -- all we've done is shifted the emissions somewhere else. Something like the recently announced Ammonia cracking news is more promising.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

I read some articles last year that claimed the battery life was substancially shorter in cold weather. Nevermind that now if there are people driving it in Calgary year round with no problems.

interesting. got a link? not trying to challenge you or anything, just curious.

they should be in spec from -40C-150C to 6 sigma