Tesla Model 3

Deleted User wrote: »

The Model 3 gets Autopilot.

It seems that while the Model 3 has the Autopilot hardware, the base model only has the Autopilot safety features by default (i.e. auto braking). Self driving, summon, etc. will be costly extras.

Which is totally fair IMO, what this car is coming with even in the base model is a helluva lot of car.

I expect, AWD, insane/ludicrous mode, bigger battery/range and full autopilot to be costly extras. I'd expect it to reach 60k with all extras. Really no different then a BMW 3, etc. but much more interesting IMO.

Indricotherium wrote: »

How much net emissions does it eliminate though?

The electricity has to come from somewhere, and in most of Europe and all of Ireland this means fossil fuels, coal, oil, natural gas and so on.

As a general rule of thumb, EV's produce about 1/3rd of the CO2 per KM travelled, as petrol/diesel cars do in Ireland.

There are a few reasons for this. Typically ICE are far less efficient then power stations.

Also the make up of the Irish power grid is actually quite clean. About 25% wind and hydro, about 50% gas (which is much cleaner then oil) and about 25% dirty coal/peat (but still better then oil in a car).

Finally EV's tend to be mostly charged at night when the wind typically blows the hardest and lots of electricity is being generated by the wind turbines, but currently goes to waste as their simply isn't the power requirements at night.

Indricotherium wrote: »

I appreciate that eliminating exhaust fumes from the roads is probably a good thing, but I wonder if it just increases the load on power stations and just moves the carbon around rather than meaningfully reducing it.

And this is a very important point. Not only do EV's greatly reduce the amount of CO2 being released, but they also release ZERO NOx.

NOx is one of the terrible substances that comes out of the back of Diesel cars and causes cancer, asthma, etc.

If EV's eliminated just NOx, that would make them worth doing on their own.

But to answer your question, if all cars were EV's, then we would be producing 2/3rds less CO2 and vastly less NOx.

Indricotherium wrote: »

Obviously if all the carbon is being released in one place it is much easier to mitigate it's effects or even stop it being released but in real terms will this happen.

Exactly, our power generation grid has gotten much "cleaner" over the last 30 years and it is likely to continue to do so.

Wind is increasing all the time. The government is being forced to close the awful, dirty peat plants and it is only a matter of time until Moneypoint is converted from coal to biomass and more cleaner gas power.

So if you buy an EV today, it will be relatively "Clean" and it will only get cleaner over it's lifetime. An ICE car will just be as dirty (likely even dirtier due to failing filters, etc.) 20 years from now then it is today.