[quote=patb]To go 500 miles, you probably need a 150 KWH Battery pack. WIth head room for life cycle and protection from “Bricking”, you probably need some 220 KWH.

at $700/KWH, thats a 150K in Battery alone.

a $300/KWH, that’s a 70K battery, plus motors, car, etc. it’s probably a 120K vehicle.

Teslas strategy has been to aim for about 200 Miles range, then stick Superchargers around at nodes and to cut up 400 mile legs.

I have to say Tesla’s strategy has been apparently sound.[/quote]If they can get 300 miles from 85kWh from the Model S, then they only need 140kWh to get 500 miles. 220kWh battery would be an over kill.

But you do bring up a very good point, and that’s the fact that battery is expensive and supply is limited so far.

How can you say Tesla’s strategy is sound when it hasn’t been implemented yet. Also, it’s one thing to convince the to 1% to buy a halo toy. It’s another thing all together to convince your average buyers in the $30-40k range to buy something that’s is as limiting as EV in its current form. I personally thing FCV would be much more likely to replace ICE cars than EV is. I’m not sure about you, but when I do road trip, I like to drive at night and I don’t want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere for at least an hour to charge up my EV. At least w/ FCV, you can refuel in the same amount of time as gasoline. EV has its place, for those who don’t do road trips or those who have a second car to do road trip (300+ miles one, not to LA from SD and back).

Anyways, only time will tell whether Tesla’s strategy is sound or not. It’s way too early to tell.