So far, Teslas seems to be mostly targeted at the sort of drivers who have dedicated garage space at home as well as a second car, for inter-city driving. Using a Tesla as your sole car, even once they finish rolling out their American "Supercharger" network, or keeping one with an apartment that doesn't give you the charging infrastructure, is just not where they're at right now.
Oh, definitely. It just doesn't make sense for MOST people right now. But infrastructure is what helps that. Cost reduction only helps so much, but at a certain point the logistics only make sense for people with garages (where the chargers can be installed).
A bit of Google searching and it seems the replacement cost of the 85 kWh battery is $12,000 (
link). In the next 5-10 years, you can expect that price to go down as batteries improve.
You know, I wish I were as optimistic as you are. Battery tech is easily the #1 tech area that could use improvement. I just don't see that part improving enough - even in a decade - without a major leap. I hope that happens, though!
The shell's value depreciates more like a car (a big loss, off the lot, a bunch in the first few years, and then probably slows down).
I'm very curious to see how this might change in the era of electric cars. Of course you're right about how cars depreciate, but it seems to me that electric car shells might have relatively less depreciation, considering there's less stuff in them to break down (isn't there). I remember one of the very minor parts of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" was a brief section where they talked about how easy it was to work on the car (for repair guys). There was no oil, for example. I don't know much about the internals of the Tesla, but is there less "stuff" in these cars that could break down? I'd imagine that would make the cars hold their value better, probably enough to offset the battery issue a little...
*edit*
ps- sorry for - as usual - talking out my rear end. I don't know what I'm talking about here, but I love electric cars and I'm dying to own one ASAP.
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