[Wilton2ParkAve]

If you don’t think that renewables can be as large an industry as big oil you are a goner. As for a 200 mile for Detroit Electric - a bit of a stretch given a 20 mile per hour speed. Range at 55 was 60-80 miles. Tesla marks a much bigger improvement than ICE motors over the same timeframe.

[easymuny]

Part of Teslas huge appeal is no advertising, no dealerships. When you see those commercials and huge shiny ice dealer buildings, know that you are the one paying the overhead and salaries there. Go Tesla, better by design and philosophy

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by easymuny

Part of Teslas huge appeal is no advertising, no dealerships. When you see those commercials and huge shiny ice dealer buildings, know that you are the one paying the overhead and salaries there. Go Tesla, better by design and philosophy

Indeed. And you don't become a billionaire like Herb Chambers by selling vehicles for "hundreds below invoice"

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Speegleagle

There was no need to” bail out” the automakers with millions of taxpayer dollars. Just like there isn’t any solid reason to dump hundreds of millions to try and get a product to market that can’t stand on it’s own 4 wheels. That’s Obama and the Democrats.

MPG in a modern car is just part of the story. Care to compare emissions output from ICE engines 100 years ago? How about drivability ? Reliability?

Stae and local governments have been pulling in boatloads of money from petroleum taxes , so don’t even think that any investment in them by the government is an argument. Herein CT, they even added a tax on top of a tax. Greed. And you want to reward th incompetence of politicans by taxing the people even more. Super. Tax it high enough so they can consider an all electric, then you’ll get nothing.

There isn’t any mechanism in place to tax electric vehicles. Why allow a manufacturer to skirt existing law to sell a product that will result in each vehicle sold responsible for a loss of revenue ?

Regardles of the continued inefficiencies of an ICE engine, at the present time, under the present circumstances for the vast majority of Americans, it is superior to an all electric vehicle. Don’t we have a Free market System? Isn’t that the goal? They don’t sell well. They don’t sell well because there is a lack of desire to buy them. For many reasons.

So typical of Government policy , if tons of money is being spent on failure, just go ahead and pump more money into it, then make excuses. Outside of California , the sales of electric vehicles are what, single digit percentage? How about CT ?

“ no great difficulty” . If it was true, more people would purchase them. It isn’t true. And the answer? Dump more money for charging stations so people have to wait in the middle of a trip to get going again. Yep, that’ll do it.

Hey. Electrics are the future. But not here, not now. Instead of trying to force it down American’s throats, wasting billions, have some patience. Nope, can’t do that. There is an agenda you know.

Like I said , there aren’t any compelling reasons to change the Law. Emotional responses aplenty, which always is expected.


Thanks everyone for the debate. I am moving on. Spend as you wish, enjoy whatever vehicle works for you.

Right, it's possible the US automakers did not need bailouts or that it was not better for the US economy overall, but it's hard to tell. What we do know though is that tens billions of dollars were put into ICE automakers over a decade ago and far, far less was put into EV automakers in that period, so it's not really like there was some amazing unfair advantage there.


Right, mpg is just one part of the modern car story. That was my point about how your arguments lack internal coherency. You can ascribe to that logic for vehicles, but yet somehow single out and simplified things to that EVs have over a century only improved a few times in range--though even there you were lacking in just basic facts and understanding of physics and force diagrams since you neglected to mention that those range estimates for the century old car, aside from all the many differences between century old and modern vehicles, versus a modern electric vehicle are comparing very different conditions where the former is going at hypermiling speeds of ~20 miles per hour that yield several hundreds of miles of range for the modern EV you mentioned.



CT can draw on several examples of the levying of alternative taxing for EVs. This is not difficult at all, and besides, CT does draw sometimes from the general fund and not having any sales tax from Tesla not selling in CT certainly doesn't help that.



For the majority of Americans and their vehicle usage patterns, EVs probably work better for many reasons. The only thing is, the purchase price is higher in most automotive segments compared to their ICE counterpart and there are many automotive segments that don't currently have a competitive EV. That's certainly been changing more and more, and will continue to do so as there are a large slate of new EV models releasing this year and the coming two already announced. Of course, this would be more available for CTers to see for themselves if there wasn't this restriction on direct sales from automakers. The same with more CTers purchasing them. That's a great argument for why we should end this restriction on direct sales and force consumers to deal with dealerships. Let's hope the Hoffman Auto Group loses this cases and this becomes precedent for multiple automakers to implement direct sales in CT.



We aren't trading DMs, so it doesn't matter if you say you're done

[tsek]

Dealerships successfully fought Tesla stores in New Jersey so there are a few Tesla boutiques in which you can try but not purchase the vehicles. The boutiques are located in wealthy areas and are busy. In CT I pass by a Tesla store pretty often in Greenwich and I'm not sure if it's a showroom only or if they are able to sell as well.

In the end the consumer's preference will probably win no matter what the dealerships try. They will have to change. There are some dealerships that have become no-haggle. I personally like to buy cars through Costco's program where the price has been set and you show up at the dealership to take delivery. You still have to sit with a finance manager who will try to sell you high-margin services like wheel and tire warranties, which is still unpleasant.

The dealerships may score a temporary victory against Tesla's model but it will be just that - temporary. The new big internet-based car companies are making big inroads and it's clear what customers prefer. I've found that women in particular are terrified of the traditional car-buying process. And even those of us who are more comfortable would rather just cut to the check-writing and be done with it.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by tsek

Dealerships successfully fought Tesla stores in New Jersey so there are a few Tesla boutiques in which you can try but not purchase the vehicles. The boutiques are located in wealthy areas and are busy. In CT I pass by a Tesla store pretty often in Greenwich and I'm not sure if it's a showroom only or if they are able to sell as well.

The Greenwich location is considered a “gallery”. The Milford location is a “gallery” and service center.

I believe they were somewhat recently allowed to lease from these locations but selling is prohibited. You used to not even be able to test drive, not sure if that’s still the case.

[JayCT]

I smell a major lawsuit. I can’t see why a local planning and zoning should be involved in this. The East Hartford P & Z are opening themselves up to litigation. I don’t think it’s their job to judge a businesses compliance with state law. Tesla has been able to open similar facilities in Milford and Greenwich so it can’t be illegal. It seems like the Hoffman family is using their clout in town to stop Tesla. Jay

[brownedbits]

Originally Posted by JayCT

It seems like the Hoffman family is using their clout in town to stop Tesla. Jay

This. The Hoffman group is very well connected and I am sure they would love to retain their auto monopoly in the greater Hartford area without Tesla giving them competition. The Hoffman group obviously (and not surprisingly) has sway with East Hartford politicians.

[WouldLoveTo]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I smell a major lawsuit. I can’t see why a local planning and zoning should be involved in this. The East Hartford P & Z are opening themselves up to litigation. I don’t think it’s their job to judge a businesses compliance with state law. Tesla has been able to open similar facilities in Milford and Greenwich so it can’t be illegal. It seems like the Hoffman family is using their clout in town to stop Tesla. Jay

Here's the link to the article https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/art...service-center

I had no idea this happened. Too bad, East Hartford could use some high end business in town.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by WouldLoveTo

Here's the link to the article https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/art...service-center

I had no idea this happened. Too bad, East Hartford could use some high end business in town.

I think Milford is still the only service center in the state. Good thing they have a pretty robust mobile service offering.