July 21, 2021: Related: 33 million Americans don’t have health insurance. Also: local woman might get fired + local woman gets promoted + Durham library (finally) opens + the dirty part of clean cars
On Tesla: The base model is $40k, not $50k. That's still not affordable for most Americans but it's a lot closer to the average new car price of $35k. I think it's also important to view them as an energy company, not just a car company. Their solar and commercial energy sales may ultimately have a larger impact than their vehicle sales. Replacing natural gas peaking plants with Tesla's Powerpack products is a huge win for clean energy and grid reliability. At the same time, Tesla need to be pressured to use the more expensive and environmentally friendly methods of extracting the metals they need to make those packs. There are much better alternatives for mining methodologies and we still have a chance to get that right in the U.S.
I realize that Tesla fanboys and Musk defenders are a notorious part of life on the Internet these days. I don't intend for this to be that. Tesla is, however, the company that finally pushed EVs into the mainstream and the only one with a stated mission of transitioning the world to sustainable energy. I worry that the (extremely justifiable) hate for Musk will cause otherwise well-meaning people to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think there's great potential at Tesla. It'd be really nice if someone else was running the show there.
On Tesla: The base model is $40k, not $50k. That's still not affordable for most Americans but it's a lot closer to the average new car price of $35k. I think it's also important to view them as an energy company, not just a car company. Their solar and commercial energy sales may ultimately have a larger impact than their vehicle sales. Replacing natural gas peaking plants with Tesla's Powerpack products is a huge win for clean energy and grid reliability. At the same time, Tesla need to be pressured to use the more expensive and environmentally friendly methods of extracting the metals they need to make those packs. There are much better alternatives for mining methodologies and we still have a chance to get that right in the U.S.
I realize that Tesla fanboys and Musk defenders are a notorious part of life on the Internet these days. I don't intend for this to be that. Tesla is, however, the company that finally pushed EVs into the mainstream and the only one with a stated mission of transitioning the world to sustainable energy. I worry that the (extremely justifiable) hate for Musk will cause otherwise well-meaning people to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think there's great potential at Tesla. It'd be really nice if someone else was running the show there.