Actually, I had read that Peterson article. He wasn’t arguing that battery manufacturing capacity would not allow Tesla to operate as a niche product… He was arguing that there was no way to scale up EV’s beyond ~100,000/year without significantly increasing battery costs.
It was a sobering article for me, as it fully struck home the fact that there is a market potential for a few tens of thousands of these highly polluting monstrous waste machines.
I realize you like these things.. and I thought about my off-the-cuff post and was worried it was a little harsh… But in the end these are extremely expensive pieces of equipment that are heavily subsidized, and in almost all markets result in more emissions than similar performance vehicles that are far far lower costs… they are exempt from HOV requirements, and in cases where this is taken advantage of they result in far more pollution even then many larger SUV’s, all while contributing to traffic congestion… they damage the public roadways without contributing to their maintenance, they force large investments into improving last-mile transmission infrastructure – which is amortized by the commons… I just don’t get how any environmentalist could support these.
If the people who buy solar panels and a Tesla would instead buy a Prius and MORE solar panels, they would eliminate many times as much CO2, SO2, NOx, Hg, Cd, Pb, and other emissions for the same amount of money.
Here’s an 
Craig,
Actually, I had read that Peterson article. He wasn’t arguing that battery manufacturing capacity would not allow Tesla to operate as a niche product… He was arguing that there was no way to scale up EV’s beyond ~100,000/year without significantly increasing battery costs.
It was a sobering article for me, as it fully struck home the fact that there is a market potential for a few tens of thousands of these highly polluting monstrous waste machines.
Craig,
I realize you like these things.. and I thought about my off-the-cuff post and was worried it was a little harsh… But in the end these are extremely expensive pieces of equipment that are heavily subsidized, and in almost all markets result in more emissions than similar performance vehicles that are far far lower costs… they are exempt from HOV requirements, and in cases where this is taken advantage of they result in far more pollution even then many larger SUV’s, all while contributing to traffic congestion… they damage the public roadways without contributing to their maintenance, they force large investments into improving last-mile transmission infrastructure – which is amortized by the commons… I just don’t get how any environmentalist could support these.
If the people who buy solar panels and a Tesla would instead buy a Prius and MORE solar panels, they would eliminate many times as much CO2, SO2, NOx, Hg, Cd, Pb, and other emissions for the same amount of money.
NP whatsoever about being harsh. Please see: http://2greenenergy.com/2013/09/13/validity-electric/.