Elon Musk He has given a clear explanation of why he considers that electric cars with autonomy of regarding 1,000 kilometers do not make much sense. It has been from a tweet which reads: “Lucid made the first car with 800 km of autonomy. Tesla will be the first company to produce them on a large scale.”
The CEO of Tesla responded: “Last year we might have sold a Tesla Model S with a range of regarding 1,000 kilometers but that would have made the product worse, in my opinion. 99.9% of the time I would be moving a battery with unnecessary mass, making it slower on the throttle, worse driving experience and lower efficiency. Even our 400-mile range car is more than most will use.”
When Tesla announced the renewal of Tesla Model S, explained that they would do it in three different configurations: great autonomy, Plaid and Plaid +. The latter with a range of almost 1,000 kilometers, acceleration from 0-100 km/h in less than two seconds and a price of almost $200,000.
But shortly before the electric car update went on sale, Tesla revealed that it would only offer two versions: long range and Plaid. The latter with an acceleration of 0-100 km / h in 2.1 seconds, 630 kilometers of autonomy and a price of regarding 140,000 dollars.
The fear of the lack of autonomy with electric cars
The fear of the lack of autonomy with electric cars is one of the main reasons why consumers do not finish adopting them. It is because, compared to an internal combustion vehicle, it travels less distance with a charge.
To this we must add that the electric charging infrastructure is not as present as gas stations, causing fears of being left lying in the middle of the road without a battery. As more charging points are installed and these are fast, the fear will dissipate.
But logic pushes you to want an electric car with ranges of more than 800 kilometers to “avoid having to stop to charge.” Even when trips of that distance require periodic breaks, which might well be used for recharging.
Data published by the European Union show that the average trip per person is between 7.2 and 15.8 kilometers. In the United States, the average driver travels 16 miles a day. This, of course, does not count trips, but it explains how practically any electric car solves the vast majority of a citizen’s transportation needs.
In 2020, Elon Musk explained in an article published on the Tesla website how the number one enemy of efficiency and performance in an electric car is mass, as an argument for the need to reduce it in two of its largest vehicles, the Model X and Model S.
This they determined following all the lessons learned with the Model 3 and Model Y, electric cars that have smaller batteries but higher levels of efficiency, allowing them to go further with less energy.
The next step in this journey is, of course, the structural batteries that companies like Tesla and WORLD. In this way, the total weight is reduced even more and you take advantage of a component to function as an integral part of the electric car.
Of course, I am afraid that we will continue to see competition between brands to offer the greatest possible autonomies as a commercial claim, even though in the vast majority of cases, it will not be necessary.
