tesla – Revv Reviews

With the global fossil fuel reserve to run out in a stubby 55 years (estimated) the question is drawn – ‘What will be the future fuel for cars and other vehicles?’ The first thing which comes to our mind is electric-vehicles. There is no doubt about the fact that EVs (Electric Vehicles) would be the future but the dilemma is whether to produce electricity on the go or store electricity in lithium batteries and recharge them. More to that in a bit.

We tend to draw a parallel between Teslas and electric vehicles because of the massive head-start Tesla has had in the EV industry but other manufacturers have started to catch, investing millions and billions of dollars in the research and development of EVs. Tesla has been controlling a chunky 60% of the US zero-emissions electric car market but that accounts for only 2% of the entire US car market. Tesla is like the Maruti Suzuki (India) of the US electric car market.

Now we know that EVs are the future but as always there is further division in the group i.e. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs). Tesla has gone the BEV path yet many other manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, etc. have gone the FCEV way. Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla) has openly condemned the FCEV technology in the past and has gone to calling them ‘Fool Cell’ instead ‘Fuel Cell’.

It is important to know the basic difference between the two. In a BEV the electricity is stored in lithium-ion packs which make a battery, This battery could then be charged at a charging station by plugging the car just like plugging in your phone to charge its lithium-ion battery before it exhausts. A Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle uses hydrogen to generate electricity on demand to run the electric motors and hence the car. A FCEV is filled up with pressurized hydrogen gas from a hydrogen station just as one would fill up his/her gasoline car. This hydrogen from the storage tank is made to react with oxygen for the air, this produces electricity which powers the electric motor while the only emission being water vapors. The electricity isn’t stored in FCEVs like BEVs but is produced on demand.

Hydrogen + Oxygen = Electricity + Water Vapours (emission)

Seems quite magical and great doesn’t it, you must be pondering about why isn’t this actually being used instead. Well, that is because of its disadvantages such as lack of required infrastructure, etc.

Why doesn’t a daily commuter want to try out a BEV?

1) He/she is so used to the 2 min pitstop to get refueled that waiting for the car to charge for an hour doesn’t seem feasible to them.With a gas car, one can always get it filled up in minutes from any of the nearest gas stations but this is not the case with BEVs as range anxiety is always an issue. Even if you do have plenty of charging stations nearby, waiting for the car to charge in the middle of a commute is sort of inconvenient as an easy 5 to 6 hour trip by a gas car could become a 7 to 8 hour trip with a BEV including the charge time.

2) The average BEV has a range of 240 miles. For example, Chevy Bolt (259 miles), Kia Niro EV (239 miles), Nissan Leaf (226 miles). Even the best of Teslas have a range of 300-370 miles which is a lot but that comes with a price bringing us to our third point.

3) The average cost of an Electric is way more than that of a gas car with the Nissan Leaf starting at $30,000, the Tesla Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt starting at $36,000 and $37,000 respectively.

The FCEVs tackle most of these problems such as reducing the fill-up time to 3 mins, the same as an ordinary gas fill-up. The range anxiety is gone as fill-ups are quick and the FCEVs have an average range of 300-380 miles. Such as, The Toyota Mirai (312 miles), Honda Clarity (360 miles)and Hyundai Nexo (380 Miles).

FCEVs too have their disadvantages and limitations-

1) The infrastructure isn’t yet ready for Hydrogen Fuel Cell. For comparison, there are 1600+ Tesla Chargers in the US but only a weak 44 in number Hydrogen stations for Fuel Cell owners.

2) Even the pricing for a FCEV is much more than that of a BEV with all the 3 FCEVs cars mentioned above starting at about $59,000. This exuberant cost is due to the lack of production and market for these cars which is a result of the lack of infrastructure. Where only a few 100 FCEVs are produced every year.

3) Another disadvantage to the FCEVs is the efficiency i.e. the cost to run per mile which is way more than that of a BEV.

4) Also, Hydrogen is highly inflammable and very risky to handle but also Lithium batteries are highly inflammable so that debate ends there and the need is to improve infrastructure to handle such a potential rich fuel.

Elon Musk gave his reasoning for not considering FCEVs feasible as – “Hydrogen does not occur naturally on Earth, so it is *not* itself an energy source. Energy is required to make hydrogen, and then even more energy is needed to compress it to very high pressures or liquefy it.” He also said, “except for the upper stage of a rocket, hydrogen makes no sense.”

According to me, FCEVs hold great potential in becoming our future fuel assuming the infrastructure has been developed until then. While BEVs are limited in their range, it is just a numbers game for FCEVs. To get more range out of a BEV a bigger battery is needed which adds more weight as well. After a point adding a bigger battery doesn’t yield more range due to the law of diminishing returns as the bigger battery keeps on adding more weight to the vehicle. FCEVs don’t have this limitation and having more hydrogen stations equal more FCEVs and that equals more affordable Fuel Cell vehicles. This is an experiment to see which type comes out on top overcoming its limitations. Only time can answer this question yet Hydrogen does have a greater potential, unlike Musk claims it to be absolutely stupid.

***An Electric Charging Station in India***

News is there that Hyundai might be launching its Fuel Cell vehicle, the Hyundai Nexo in India. While the Kona has failed it won’t be a surprise to see the Nexo fail in the Indian market as well because of the unavailability of hydrogen stations. India needs to up its EV game and install charging stations creating a good network for EVs, only then can the automobile industry move ahead. Hydrogen Stations in India is a very far-fetched dream.

The EV industry might get serious next year with the launch of Tata’s EVs which include the Nexon, Tiago and Tigor EV and many more. Many EVs can be spotted running as taxis such as the Mahindra Verito EVs etc.

***Mahindra e Verito (Used as cabs usually)***

Tesla, an American automotive company specializing in electric car manufacturing has just revealed its electric pick-up truck line up. The electric vehicles which are a brainchild of Elon Musk have revolutionized the automotive industry with electric sedans, roadsters, and semi-trucks being much better and faster than their gas-counterparts.

Elon Musk (CEO,Founder of Tesla) has literally been referred to as Tony Stark in real life as many of his ideas have helped change and form the world we now live in! Even ‘PayPal – the online payment system’ was his invention. It doesn’t end there but now let’s talk about the new truck from the future which has taken the automotive as well as the tech media by storm. It is none other than the Cybertruck. I would be coming to the prominent bit that is styling in a bit but first about the pricing (value for money) and the variants.

Tesla’s vehicles have always put up a good value proposition like the Model 3 which on paper is a BMW M5 for the price of a mid-range BMW M3. The Cybertruck just doesn’t live up to the value-for-money concept as it has been priced exorbitantly. It competes with the Ford F150, Silverado 1500 and other pickup trucks in specs but is priced as a super-heavy-duty pickup truck such as a Ford F250, Chevy Silverado 2500D and 3500D. For a much better view on the topic let’s compare the base price range of the 3 trucks – Silverado 1500, Cybertruck, Silverado 2500D.

-Silverado 1500: $30,000 – $58,000

-Silverado 2500D: $37000 – $73,000

–Cybertruck: $40,000 – $70,000

The 3 Cybertruck Models are as follows-

1)Base Model (single motor) – price $40,000 / 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds / 250 miles range / 7,500-pounds towing capacity.

2)Mid Model (dual motor) – price $50,000 / 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds / 300 miles range / 10,000-pounds towing capacity.

3)Top Model (triple motor) – price $70,000 / 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds / 500 miles range / 14,000-pounds towing capacity.

For comparison, the base Silverado 2500D has a towing capacity of 14,500-pounds which is almost double than that of the base-model Cybertruck.

Although towing capacity isn’t the only thing, Tesla has failed to understand the mentality of a pick-up truck owner because having an EV isn’t gonna be a USP for selling pick-up trucks. The 0-60 times are crazy for a truck yet these numbers sell cars not trucks. The truck would be launched in late 2021 until then many other companies would be able to catch up to Tesla. Ford has an all-electric F-150 on the way, General Motors confirmed it will put an electric pickup on the market in 2021, and EV start-up Rivian — which is now backed by both Ford and Amazon — is scheduled to release its electric pickup in late 2020. These are potential threats for the cool new truck.

The autonomous driving feature may help it sell but to an average (pick-up truck) customer , the so-called bullet-proof glass and door would just remain a gimmick. During the launch event, Elon wanted to show this bullet-proof glass and door to the public but it ended in a rather uncanny manner as the door did withstand a sledgehammer without breaking a sweat but the same can’t be said for the bullet-proof window which cracked by the metal ball thrown at it.

Reacting to this Tesla’s stock did take a hit of about 6% (just like the time Apple’s stock took a hit when the Face ID didn’t work at the launch of the new iPhone), The stock did go back up though. The tug-of-war stunt with the Ford F-150 was completely pointless due to the pricing issue.

Even the sales figures are a let-down as compared to other Tesla launches wherein they would get 200,000 bookings on the first day. The Cybertruck got 200,000 bookings in 4 days, the number is great but there is a trick behind it. Earlier bookings took a $1,000 and still the bookings reached 200,000 on the first day but this time a $100 was needed to pre-book the truck. Many of these people may back out because chances are that they booked the truck just to show-off to their friends and family.

Coming to the styling of the vehicle, it is simply out of this world and looks like a future Mars rover to me. There are only 2 extremes for this sort of design i.e. either you like it or you don’t like it. I do like it because it stands-out in the crowd where all the other trucks look almost the same. It is ugly but in a unique way. The product design may change a bit till the launch as per Tesla. The design is the only reason that the Cybertruck is all over the place from memes to the tech and automotive news. This is a clever marketing strategy according to me because you get free advertisement, Elon even tweeted this out. Tesla would be offering a built-in solar panel at the rear as an option which will add 15 miles of range daily.

Well, these were my thoughts on the Cybertruck and let’s see how this thing plays out for Tesla as these aren’t the only problems the Cybertruck might face. One such problem could be range depletion due to load carrying. My suggestion is to decrease the price of the truck so that it competes in the Ford F-150 price segment instead of the super-heavy duty one.

Tag: tesla

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