I personally wouldn’t give Tesla the credit of “pushing” the other car makers to speed up their EV. I think the CAFE standard is a much bigger force in pushing car makers to look into other tech. The way I see it is, European are going all in w/ EV while Japanese are going all in w/ Fuel Cell. It will be very interesting to see which technology win out. I’m personally rooting for Fuel Cell due to the speed of fuel up. It’s much easier to pull up into a FC fueling station (like a gas station) and after 5 minutes, you’re back on the road. Both technology uses electric motor to drive the car.
I hope the next model S is as big of a disruption as the current one is. If they can solve the range issue (going 500+ miles per charge), then I’m totally sold. I think you’re giving Tesla too much credit for EV. Model S is not the first all electric. The way I see it is, they take what is done w/ the Nissan Leaf and apply it to a higher end car. Regardless, competition is great. As a gear head and a tech geek, all of this is really exciting. I can’t wait to see which technology win out.
As for the Model X, I think you’ll probably love out it’ll drive. I don’t expect it to drive too much different than the Model S. Just more room. I’m only disappointed that they stuck w/ the 85kWh battery. I love the space design. I actually like the Model X more than the Model S, based on the interior space.
Did you look at all the concept cars from Frankfurt autoshow that’s going on right now? There are A LOT of alternative fuel vehicles, from the cheap low end eGolf to the well over $100k Audi electric sport car. Exciting time is definitely in front of us.
