Tesla accelerated the adoption of EVs by 2-3 years: a great boon to humanity. But that was in the past. I don't see what Tesla can do in the future that can't be done by somebody else at about the same time. It's just another car company, now. Elon Musk is a genius self-promoter, but is not a genius engineer. Most of his other enterprises (SpaceX aside) have been flops, if not pure vaporware.
Tesla accelerated the adoption of EVs by 2-3 years: a great boon to humanity. But that was in the past. I don't see what Tesla can do in the future that can't be done by somebody else at about the same time. It's just another car company, now. Elon Musk is a genius self-promoter, but is not a genius engineer. Most of his other enterprises (SpaceX aside) have been flops, if not pure vaporware.
Musk's real genius was in setting up a lot of charging stations. There was a chicken and egg problem. No one would build chargers until there were enough electric cars, and no one would buy electric cars with places to charge them. Tesla had a half billion dollar government development loan, and I'm guessing a good chunk of it went to build the Tesla charging network. Once the deadlock was broken, people started buying electric cars.
(Charging was a real problem. One day I was picking up some stuff at the local dry cleaners, and there was an electric VW Beetle out front with an extension cord running into the store. The car belonged to the proprietor's daughter. She was in town visiting the family and needed to charge. Nowadays, she could charge at the Safeway or Walmart, though there are obvious advantages to charging at dad's place of business. What's family for?)
The UK did not build charging stations that way with a single private player. So I don't think this idea is "genious". Clever maybe, in getting publc support to buld put the charging network. The lack of H2 stations has certanly symed hydrogen cars the US, although not in Iceland.
In some ways it was like GE and Westinghouse setting up broadcast networks to encourage the sales of radios. In England, the government did it. In the US, it was the private sector.
Or the BBC broadcasting the televised coronation of QEII in 1953 (from Alexandra Palace in London) to push the sales of tvs. ( Just as rationing was about to end)
The US TVA was a public that included the build out of electric transmission lines to spur take up of electrcty. The UK did the same on a national basis before the CEGB was privatized by Thatcher.
The problem with private infrastructure like charging stations with a single owner is lack of regulation over charging rates. If multiple owners do the same, unless a standard is enforced on physical form of the sockets, then owners can control vehicle sales.
We've seen how vested companes can pervert computer related standards when there is no public control with teh consumer being paramount.
Tesla accelerated the adoption of EVs by 2-3 years: a great boon to humanity. But that was in the past. I don't see what Tesla can do in the future that can't be done by somebody else at about the same time. It's just another car company, now. Elon Musk is a genius self-promoter, but is not a genius engineer. Most of his other enterprises (SpaceX aside) have been flops, if not pure vaporware.
Musk's real genius was in setting up a lot of charging stations. There was a chicken and egg problem. No one would build chargers until there were enough electric cars, and no one would buy electric cars with places to charge them. Tesla had a half billion dollar government development loan, and I'm guessing a good chunk of it went to build the Tesla charging network. Once the deadlock was broken, people started buying electric cars.
(Charging was a real problem. One day I was picking up some stuff at the local dry cleaners, and there was an electric VW Beetle out front with an extension cord running into the store. The car belonged to the proprietor's daughter. She was in town visiting the family and needed to charge. Nowadays, she could charge at the Safeway or Walmart, though there are obvious advantages to charging at dad's place of business. What's family for?)
The UK did not build charging stations that way with a single private player. So I don't think this idea is "genious". Clever maybe, in getting publc support to buld put the charging network. The lack of H2 stations has certanly symed hydrogen cars the US, although not in Iceland.
In some ways it was like GE and Westinghouse setting up broadcast networks to encourage the sales of radios. In England, the government did it. In the US, it was the private sector.
Or the BBC broadcasting the televised coronation of QEII in 1953 (from Alexandra Palace in London) to push the sales of tvs. ( Just as rationing was about to end)
The US TVA was a public that included the build out of electric transmission lines to spur take up of electrcty. The UK did the same on a national basis before the CEGB was privatized by Thatcher.
The problem with private infrastructure like charging stations with a single owner is lack of regulation over charging rates. If multiple owners do the same, unless a standard is enforced on physical form of the sockets, then owners can control vehicle sales.
We've seen how vested companes can pervert computer related standards when there is no public control with teh consumer being paramount.