The i3 and the E30

[Northern]

Maybe you forgot the purpose of what a clutch and gears are for. When your car can produce 100% torque instantly with one gear, the need for a clutch and multi gear transmission goes away. I love manuals but after driving the Tesla S, I'll take the 100% instant torque any day over a multi gear transmission. Way for fun.

Fail.
Nothing in that entire paragraph tells me how to clutch kick an electric car.

[BlackbirdM3]

Huh? They already can make electric cars RWD. Most of, if not all of them are single speed - so manual with a clutch wouldn't really do much. The Model S is RWD and in its fastest form goes from 0-60 in 4.2 seconds. Not bad for a midsize luxury sedan with 1 gear. It's not what I would buy with ~100k, but it's still interesting.

Look - it's a small city car. It's about maximum interior volume in a small exterior package. I don't love the exterior, but it avoids the cardinal sin of blandness, and the interior is fantastic. Modern and minimal - great materials, textures and finishes that you don't usually find in a car.

A Tesla is not a midsize car. Its a whale of a car. I could put my M3 in the the thing. Its also got no range. If I need to drive 10 hrs straight, I need to drive 10 hrs straight. 300 miles is about 4 hours of driving. That means it takes me 3 days to make a 10 hr drive. Fail! Electric cars are worthless. The batteries are hard to recycle and harder on the environment than driving a regular car in the long run.

Why anyone would buy an electric car is beyond me. Other than a "look at me" thing, they fail on so many levels. Perhaps if there were a way to make a nuclear car that ran on both fusion and fission (theoretically producing no waste) it might be viable, but until that time, electric cars are little more than a fad. Ultimately somewhere along the lines, fossil fuels are being burned to power your electric car.

Still that I3 is quite possibly the ugliest looking car ever produced.

Will

[Hooffenstein HD]

Fail.
Nothing in that entire paragraph tells me how to clutch kick an electric car.

This man gets it.

[Ether-D]

I think it's attractive. Flamers gonna flame. Flamers!

[word is bond]

A Tesla is not a midsize car. Its a whale of a car. I could put my M3 in the the thing. Its also got no range. If I need to drive 10 hrs straight, I need to drive 10 hrs straight. 300 miles is about 4 hours of driving. That means it takes me 3 days to make a 10 hr drive. Fail! Electric cars are worthless. The batteries are hard to recycle and harder on the environment than driving a regular car in the long run.

Why anyone would buy an electric car is beyond me. Other than a "look at me" thing, they fail on so many levels. Perhaps if there were a way to make a nuclear car that ran on both fusion and fission (theoretically producing no waste) it might be viable, but until that time, electric cars are little more than a fad. Ultimately somewhere along the lines, fossil fuels are being burned to power your electric car.

Still that I3 is quite possibly the ugliest looking car ever produced.

Will

Well - it's meant to compete with "mid-size" luxury cars. 5 Series, A6, etc. It's about 3" longer than an F10 5er. Obviously the definition of midsize has really been stretched by OEMs lately.

The Model S may not be the right car for you, but it's a completely legitimate option. Americans are aspirational people. We daily drive SUVs and pickups we don't need because we think we'll be towing stuff or going off-road. In the same sense, we think of ourselves as adventurous people who go on long road trips on a whim. Statistically, most drivers spend 90% of their time in the same 50 mile radius, and most of those SUVs only see mall parking lots. There certainly are people who need a pickup or an SUV, and there are people who need range. But just as most SUVs are going unibody, the market is giving consumers a desirable car in exchange for range.

I am totally with you on the often unreported environmental impact of electric cars. The battery manufacturing process is obviously a tremendous toll on the environment. Likewise, I believe ~40% of US electricity if coal. So, yet another tax on the environment. That has to change. Hopefully this a part of that.

As for the fad. In a way, that's the best part of the Tesla. It's an electric car sold on style and emotion, instead of some false piousness or world-saving ego-trip. It's a luxury car. It's ridiculously expensive. It's fast. People love it. It's an aspirational object. That's the only way to explore alternative energy sources in the consumer space. You can't just sell it to the self-righteous, you have to make it desirable beyond its powertrain.

[Wh33lhop]

This thing could run off a perpetual motion machine and make 2000hp and I still wouldn't give a shit.

[GillesBigCowboy]

The opposite of love is indifference.
Truly, I used to HATE e30s.