No it's not. The lower range, low number of charging stations, and long charging times make it quite inconvenient for long trips.
I bought a used car 3 years ago for less than the cost Tesla charges for replacing the batteries on its car (which you are estimated to need to do after about 8 years). This car is a station wagon, so has much more storage space than a Tesla. I go camping every year, about 550 miles from where I live. I can make that trip in about 10 hours including food and gas stops. For the same trip, I would need to make at least two hour long charging stops at Supercharger stations along the way (if I had the highest-end battery option). But there are no Supercharger stations along my route; so I would need to find places to charge with ordinary power sources. If I used ordinary 10 kW 240 V sources, it would charge at a rate of about 30 miles of range per hour, effectively tripling the length of the trip; now what was a long 10 hour drive has turned into a 30 hour trip, which means finding places to stop and sleep overnight (which hopefully can give you a charge).
Furthermore, I live in an apartment, without a dedicated parking space. I need to park on street. So there's nowhere I could charge my car at home; I can't exactly run a power cord down and across the sidewalk to my car. Neither is there anywhere to charge my car at work. There's no way I could even use a Tesla for commuting right now, let alone longer trips.
With a gasoline powered car, I just fill up at any gas station, my car holds the gasoline overnight so it doesn't matter where I park, and for the above describe trip, I need to stop for gas once before leaving and once on the trip, each a 5 minute stop.
The Tesla Model S is an amazing car. But claiming that it's more convenient, or is a better car in every way but range, is a vast overstatement. It would be absolutely awful for me, and many other people with similar needs.
Some of these problems are solvable; there will be more Superchargers installed, the price will probably come down, there will probably be more electric vehicle infrastructure. But it's still a gamble to say that they will completely eliminate all of these advantages that a gas powered car has over an electric car, at least unless the price of gas spikes dramatically.
> The Tesla Model S is an amazing car. But claiming that it's more convenient, or is a better car in every way but range, is a vast overstatement. It would be absolutely awful for me, and many other people with similar needs.
Obviously convenience is different for different people. The OP is probably someone who finds car maintenance very inconvenient and as the owner of a used station wagon I am guessing you are not. If you don't take frequent road trips and have the ability to charge at home, the Model S is indeed very convenient--never have to worry about fuel and hardly ever have to worry about maintenance.
I too find maintenance inconvenient; but my used station wagon doesn't require much of that either. In the past three years, I've only ever had to have it inspected, tires replaced, and oil changes. Now, the Tesla doesn't have oil changes, so that one aspect is removed, but it does have annual maintenance. So, I'm looking at maybe two oil changes per year, vs. one annual servicing; a small improvement in maintenance hassle, but not amazing.
But anyhow, I'm not claiming that there are no convenience advantages of a Tesla; just that there are also a lot of things that are quite inconvenient, especially if you don't have a driveway or need to take long trips. Claiming that the Tesla is better in every regard but range is vast hyperbole. For some use cases, it may be more convenient; for mine, far less.
Beyond that, the price is a major disadvantage; at 4 times the price of a new economy car for the entry level model, and twice the price of lower-end luxury brands, it's well outside many people's price range; and you don't even save that much because you're not buying gasoline, as the combined cost of electricity plus replacement batteries winds up being pretty close to the cost of gas you would pay for the same number of miles (depending on exactly how long the batteries last, and assuming that the relative costs of gasoline vs. electricity don't diverge too much; of course you could say that gas prices are likely to go up faster than electricity, but they may go down too).
The Model S may not be the best at everything, but it appears to be the best overall car you can buy right now. It just scored an almost unheard of 99/100 from Consumer Reports (I believe the Civic got in the high 70s to mid 80s this year)
>If you don't take frequent road trips and have the ability to charge at home, the Model S is indeed very convenient--never have to worry about fuel and hardly ever have to worry about maintenance.
Doesn't the maintenance bit kind of remain to be seen? It seems to me there are two factors working against each other there: the high failure rates in new product categories, and the low failure rates associated with a simpler engine. I don't know that you can say which will win out yet.
The Model S is much, much, much simpler than a gasoline car.
- No engine.
- No fuel system.
- No alternator, starter, or belts.
- No oil.
- Single speed transmission! No shifting,
no transmission fluid.
- No fuel system.
- Lower brake wear, thanks to regen braking.
The downside is that the battery costs ~$10,000 and has to be replaced every 8 years.
I suppose, but its not needing oil changes alone is a big win for convenience. Tesla also will come to you for all service (and leave a loaner), so if it turns out to need some time in the shop you should not have to waste more time than it takes to make a phone call.
If you have to go five minutes out of your way then spend five minutes filling up, that's fifteen minutes. That's not uncommon, not everyone has a gas station on their route to and from every place they go.
Look if you are comparing a station wagon to a Tesla, you are just not even close to their target market. A BMW M5 sucks for camping too, and it has nothing to do with the range.
And price, and convenience.
> more convenient
No it's not. The lower range, low number of charging stations, and long charging times make it quite inconvenient for long trips.
I bought a used car 3 years ago for less than the cost Tesla charges for replacing the batteries on its car (which you are estimated to need to do after about 8 years). This car is a station wagon, so has much more storage space than a Tesla. I go camping every year, about 550 miles from where I live. I can make that trip in about 10 hours including food and gas stops. For the same trip, I would need to make at least two hour long charging stops at Supercharger stations along the way (if I had the highest-end battery option). But there are no Supercharger stations along my route; so I would need to find places to charge with ordinary power sources. If I used ordinary 10 kW 240 V sources, it would charge at a rate of about 30 miles of range per hour, effectively tripling the length of the trip; now what was a long 10 hour drive has turned into a 30 hour trip, which means finding places to stop and sleep overnight (which hopefully can give you a charge).
Furthermore, I live in an apartment, without a dedicated parking space. I need to park on street. So there's nowhere I could charge my car at home; I can't exactly run a power cord down and across the sidewalk to my car. Neither is there anywhere to charge my car at work. There's no way I could even use a Tesla for commuting right now, let alone longer trips.
With a gasoline powered car, I just fill up at any gas station, my car holds the gasoline overnight so it doesn't matter where I park, and for the above describe trip, I need to stop for gas once before leaving and once on the trip, each a 5 minute stop.
The Tesla Model S is an amazing car. But claiming that it's more convenient, or is a better car in every way but range, is a vast overstatement. It would be absolutely awful for me, and many other people with similar needs.
Some of these problems are solvable; there will be more Superchargers installed, the price will probably come down, there will probably be more electric vehicle infrastructure. But it's still a gamble to say that they will completely eliminate all of these advantages that a gas powered car has over an electric car, at least unless the price of gas spikes dramatically.