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Comment by jlgreco | Hacker News Reader

The "MPGe" thing seems very silly, particularly since if I were using this car 99% of it's power could be coming from hydro/nuclear/wind. Surely there must be a better way of comparing efficiency and environmental friendliness.

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> if I were using this car 99% of it's power could be coming from hydro/nuclear/wind.

Actually, solar, since that's what is powering the free Supercharger network going up over the next few years: http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger

Fair enough, though with my usage patterns most of the charging would be done in my garage. ;)

Which is why they will probably partner with solar city to get people hooked on solar panels for the home. The convergence of falling costs for solar panels and falling costs for electric cars with increased range will probably reach a critical mass similar to the Internet in the 90s and an enormous boost to the economy from the recaptured opportunity cost being consumed by internal combustion engines.

Not to mention, the super chargers are an excellent testing ground for newer technology like super capacitors that use graphene. They can dog food improvements to the storage mediums without actually risking it in the power train.

they can dog food improvements

What?

Software term. Means they can work the bugs out themselves before integrating it into a product sold directly to the customer. At least, that's what I would do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food

Agreed. There are quite a few motorcycles that can get around 95 mpg. It would still cost around $18 for a full tank of gas in a motorcycle, but probably only $3 for a full tank in the tesla. If they based mpg on dollars spent per distance provided, the tesla would get around 550 mpg.

Well on a cost basis you can use this formula to compare the cost to a gallon of gas: ((kwh electricity cost)/(charging efficiency percentage))*34.02 . Then on a real cost basis you can compare the cost of an 'electric gallon' and an electric cars MPGe to your 'gas gallon' and your gas car's MPG.

In the bay area, ironically enough, with residential electricity being around ~0.30/kwh, an 'electric gallon' is around the price of a 'gas gallon'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_per_gallon_gasoline_equi...

In reality, once you get to a certain level of efficiency, it's something of a moot point anyway. Both money-wise and emission-wise, there are likely much costlier areas to focus your efficiency increasing efforts than your vehicle.

(Range, on the other hand, still has large gains to be had.)

Yeah, I guess an issue is getting consumers to understand that while a high MPG is better than a low MPG, having no MPG is even better. Consumers want easy presentable numbers to compare, so they can feel like they have a grasp on the difference.

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