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Comment by FD3SA | Hacker News Reader

A little late for that. Tesla`s Model 3 is coming in 2017, and as great as diesels are, it won`t hold a candle to the efficiency of a pure electric drivetrain. Tesla`s supercharger network will be vast by then, so range won`t be a problem either.

A place like Canada could use diesel, due to our brutal winters, but most of the USA is basically tropical in comparison. Electrics just make sense there, because of the weather and the automobile culture in general.

The age of the fossil fuel personal car is entering its last decade.

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Nonsense. Modern diesel passenger cars can approach 1000 miles range on a tank of fuel. Tesla is nowhere close to that and probably never will be.

And I'm talking about nice cars, too. Not tin cans.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/25/bmw-320d-goes-over-1-000-...

Right. Remember that saying about underestimating the bandwidth of a station wagon loaded with magnetic tape?

Same applies to vehicle fuels. Do not underestimate the energy density of a conventional liquid container filled with hydrocarbons.

> Ford decided to drive from England to Munich and back to see how many miles he could squeeze out of a single tank. To extend the drive, Ford kept the windows up and the air conditioning turned off, but otherwise drove about 65-70 mph on the motorways and autobahns. By the time the tank ran dry, Ford had covered 1,013 miles and got to within 70 miles of Calais on the return route. That's an average of 57.4 mpg at 59.3 mph.

Since when do drivers optimize for max miles per tank of fuel? 57.4mpg is extremely low compared to a Tesla's 97mpge [1]. Diesels are great, they just won't make sense when the 35,000$ Model 3 comes out.

1. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2013_Tesla_Model_S.sh...

>>The age of the fossil fuel personal car is entering its last decade.

I wouldn't be so confident. Right now, Tesla addresses a small portion of the expensive sports sedans segment in a few lucky parts of the world. Even then, Tesla cannot make enough cars to fulfill demand. The grid as it is, cannot handle a sudden and drastic increase in demand for electricity and the additional infrastructure needed will be neither cheap nor easily obtained.

I do think the internal combustion engine (w.r.t. to cars) will be relegated to history, but I won't think the transformation will be quick or easy.

From a performance perspective you're right, but it will be quite awhile before Tesla's making cars that are cost-competitive with the currently manufactured Diesels.

> range won`t be a problem

If you don't mind having half an hour break every 200 miles, and only drive 60mph. Day to day it wouldn't bother me at all, but for long drives gas is far superiour.

You won't need to drive 60MPH. Model S owners don't do that now, and the 3 won't change that.

A reasonably short break every two or three hours is something you should be doing regardless of your car's range.

I have yet to have the pleasure in mine, but other Model S owners report that long trips are much more enjoyable than in gas cars, because the quiet, smooth ride reduces fatigue, and the breaks are spaced where you'd want them anyway. The only problem right now is that the charging network isn't fully developed. A common complaint goes something like, "I really wish I could take my Model S for this long trip, but there's a gap in such-and-such place, so we have to take an ICE car instead." I don't think I've seen one person say that they made a trip on electricity but wish they had had a gas car instead.

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