Take your flat-tax shit someplace else. The difficulty in earning each marginal dollar is vastly more progressive than the tax code.

I noticed an odd commonwealth-centric line in TFA:

"Now a new version of the Tesla - the Roadster Sport version has been clocked accelerating from 0-60mph faster than a Ferrari F40 - is being built with a right-hand drive configuration, meaning new prospects for the car to be seen gliding somewhat quietly on roads outside the United States."

Uh...right hand drive gives it new prospects for roads outside the United States? Hey assholes, you fuckers are the ones on the wrong side of the road. Try not to make it sound like the US is the only place on Earth that drives on the right.

Thank you! It's starting to get really annoying hearing people point out these common little conceits as though they were unique to Tesla.

Are you on drugs or something? You think the A/C is going to cut the range in half? I mean, sure, A/C takes some juice....but I really don't think it's comparable to the motive force for the whole vehicle. I'm thinking maybe 10% range reduction, tops.

As most posters here seem to realize, the battery isn't the limiting factor here. The problem is getting enough power to it.

Funny, I've driven my EV into many gas stations, and have never had anyone give me trouble about it. Actually, that whole concept is downright laughable. What, they're going to have some guy running around checking for tailpipes?

Problems with this line of thought:

.

1)Where in TFA did it say 80% in 10 minutes?

2)You use the Roadster pack for your calculations even while admitting the pack we're really talking about is smaller. Obviously it takes fewer watts to charge a smaller pack.

3)Where do you get 440V? Hint: your wall jack isn't really "one-ten."

4)You calculated the amperage as though it was a single-phase source even while you specified three-phase.

.

Leaving the first two alone and using your assumptions, the correct current for a 480V three-phase source would be 187.5A. Which is well within the grid's capabilities.

I understand the Model S has a single "pan" under the vehicle for the whole battery. Assuming the right equipment (special dolly, air-tools, fast service staff) 5 minutes is just barely believable. No word on standards yet...but since Tesla is kind of the only game in town right now it's hard to fault them for that.

I think you guys underestimate the size and expense of a generator powerful enough for this.

That's going to be one hell of a heavy gas can.

"This is the insurmountable problem with going to the moon. You physically cannot stuff enough energy into a rocket to get there."

In 1960, that statement would have been just as true as yours. Sounds silly now that it's been done, doesn't it?

Your argument looks great...but you try to prove that up is down. There is a clear positive correlation between an electric motor's power and its efficiency. I'm not interested in a convoluted argument that's contrary to fact.

If I had the money, it would be a no-brainer for me. Since I don't have the money, it's still a no-brainer, but on the side of "no".

HA! Yeah, count me in on that one...

This whole conversation is a great example of why car companies don't have the engineers design the cars.

I don't know the economics of these for the average person, but right now America is consuming a big chunk of the energy the world produces and is way far ahead per capita than most other countries...

"Per capita" is the wrong benchmark for energy consumption. Per-GDP is far more appropriate. And since the U.S. currently accounts for nearly a quarter of the world's GDP, we're actually not that inefficient all things considered.