Consumer Reports isn't giving all-electric cars and climate change a lot of attention

-
Image
Honda will be the next automaker to market an all-electric car as Toyota continues to sit on the sidelines. -- HACKENSACK, N.J. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Consumer Reports seems to have a blind spot for all-electric cars. The magazine's annual Auto Issue, just out, picks the 10 best new cars for 2017, but all of them use gasoline. For a full report, see: Consumer Reports smells (of gasoline)
Post a Comment

315-mile range of new Tesla leaves plans of German luxury carmakers in shambles

-
In this image from Elektrec.co, Porsche's Mission E all-electric concept with suicide rear doors bears a strong family resemblance to the German automaker's sports cars. 


By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When the Porsche Mission E -- the first all-electric car from the German automaker -- appears at the end of the decade, it will have less range than a Tesla you can buy today.

The story is the same at Audi and Mercedes-Benz, two more German carmakers who are loudly talking up their plans for purely electric luxury vehicles.


Tesla says its Model S P100D has a range of 315 miles on a full charge and accelerates from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds.

P100D

Tesla Motors has unveiled the first all-electric car with a 100kWh battery, which is available in the Model S four-door hatchback and the seven-seat Model X SUV.

The California-built Model S P100D has an MSRP of $134,500, including a $1,200 destination charge, before a $7,500 federal tax credit.

In New Jersey, buyers don't have to pay the 7% sales tax, a savings of $9,415.

You get performance all-wheel drive, 315 miles of range, a top speed of 155 mph, and 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds.

Ludicrous Speed Upgrade and Smart Air Suspension are included, according to the company website.

Mercedes-Benz

You can't escape those annoying Mercedes-Benz TV commercials for the cramped CLA and the AMG performance line of gas-guzzling sedans and sports cars.

What's especially galling is that the Mercedes B-Class, the automaker's lone electric car, uses a Tesla power train and gets only 87 miles of range on a full charge.

"The best or nothing" -- a motto you hear repeated in Mercedes commercials -- turns out to be "nothing" when it comes to EVs that can challenge Tesla.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How can Chevrolet sell an electric car with a 200-mile range for less than the Volt?

-
Image
The Chevrolet Bolt EV Concept has an ambiguous name to go along with an ambiguous production date. Many auto writers are reporting it will be available as a 2017 model with a 200-mile range, but haven't you seen many concepts that never lived up to the splash they made at the auto show?  By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR A bolt is a fastener. Now, Chevrolet is calling an all-electric concept with a 200-mile range a Bolt, which rhymes with Volt, the plug-in hybrid with a limited EV range it has been selling since December 2010. A new Volt is to be unveiled today at the auto show in Detroit. The official press release calls the 4-door Bolt "a vision for an affordable, long-range all-electric vehicle designed to offer more than 200 mile of range starting around $30,000." Chevrolet officials haven't explained how the Bolt can be sold in two years for thousands of dollars less than the current Volt, which has an MSRP of $34,345. In what appears to be a shot at Tesla's Model S
Read more

Do auto writers really think EV buyers would choose a Bolt over Tesla's Model 3?

-
Image
The Chevrolet Spark EV, above, and the Bolt EV Concept, below, bear a family resemblance. The Spark is available only in California and Oregon. The Bolt is scheduled to be produced as a 2017 model with a battery that will give it a range of more than 200 miles, General Motors says. The Chevrolet Bolt EV Concept. Compare the forthcoming Tesla Model 3 to the Chevy Bolt Concept. This photo is from Auto Express. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR If you treat an auto writer to an espresso and pastry before a splashy press conference, he or she will write almost anything. That must be the explanation for all of those stories out of the Detroit Auto Show, setting up a confrontation between all-electric cars from Chevrolet and Tesla. Yes. Chevy is the GM division that gave us defective ignition switches, the Nova or "no va" (Spanish for "doesn't go") and the Corvair's dangerous swing-axle rear suspension. Tesla, the upstart maker of all-electric luxury cars, is working on
Read more