NEWS

Is Tesla 'Getting There' Or Has It Already Arrived

Part 2 in a series of the state of the electric-car business in the United States, primarily seen from the perspective of Tesla’s Model S sedan. Part 1 is at, “Are Tesla’s Electric Cars Niche Vehicles? Is Your Gas-Powered Car One Too?“

When you’re trying to reinvent something that everyone already knows a lot about, you inevitably meet with a lot of negative reaction in the press and public. Look back to 2007 when Apple introduced the iPhone to an already “mature” cell-phone industry: “I can’t believe the hype being given to iPhone. I just have to wonder who will want one of these things,” said Microsoft’s Richard Sprague. More than 300 million iPhones later the answer is, “pretty much everyone.” It’s perhaps wise to keep that in mind as Tesla attempts to convince people to abandon cars powered by petroleum products for purely electric cars. That mission is “dead on arrival” if you are among the many who agree with Business Insider’s Henry Blodget., not to mention countless others.

As this space discussed in Part 1, no one car can do everything, but pretty much all cars sold today — even partial plug-ins like the Chevrolet Volt — have a common attribute that’s so simple and routine we all take it for granted: When the needle is approaching “ E”, we find a nearby station, pump all the gas we want and are back on the road. We’re good to go for the next 200-500 miles or so, depending on the car we drive, and the whole process almost always takes less than 15 minutes, even at a busy station.

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