There is no alternative reality in which automotive pollution is a minor contributor. All you have to do is get bogged down in heavy traffic to understand how overwhelming that influence is in urban environments.

Batteries do better than internal combustion engines in real life, and are similarly costly. 200k miles is not at all uncommon.

Hey, WTH do you do with your phone? Stick it in your back pocket?

A proper figure of merit for propulsive effectiveness is the power and result per unit of noise and pollutant.

Why do you suppose Bolts are going to offer “self-driving”? What does that have to do with being a viable EV, apart from being more straightforward than with a balky internal combustion engine and transmission? Why would I pay for that if I’m trying to get the lowest cost long range EV I can obtain? Mysteries without…

The two cars are clearly targeting two different scenarios.

Trite! Same thing was said about the Model S before it did exist...

Guess you haven’t heard that hours are no longer necessary with 100 kW charging (500+ km/hour). It's down to tens of min.

Can we all agree on just how much better things would be for Tesla if only they didn’t have the albatross of 400,000 people out there clamoring for their model 3?

This is nothing but ridiculous denial and FUD. Oh and that makes it despicable, especially from a publication like Jalopnik that delights in “hooning”.

Hard to believe the first version was as bad as 0.32, but they certainly did put in an air dam and probably other features that made a difference. But that was before they shipped any significant number and not as late as 2014. I bought mine in late 2013 and it has that stuff. Just quibbling; this is an interesting…

Please repeat the link in this context as I could not find it. Are you referring to the recent refresh? I don’t think they got 50 miles from that!

They may have made 100 of those VWs, but they are nowhere near a practical car that people would plunk down deposits for in quantities. Maybe Evannex will sell some skirts for the Model ☰ and get it to 0.20 or better.

Disagree: that Mazda 3 is ugly by comparison. The hump of the hood looks porpoise-like, and the back seat no doubt feels like being in the trunk with that rising window sill line. But clearly Mazda was trying to emulate the Model S with some of the touches like the upswept rocker wrinkle.

“The no buttons thing is also taken too far, sometimes people wear gloves”

++++

We see mainly what we look for...

Thanks for a really different perspective in this article. It is really silly that I-80 hasn’t yet been populated with superchargers, and I’m sure they are coming soon (this year?), but you made a great trip out of it. You could also have gone a bit south to I-70. I’ve been sneering at self-driving features, but you…

Given a range of 250 miles, there’s no need for a supercharger where you are. They need to be on the way to where you are going. Home charging really has to be practiced to be appreciated. That said, Rochester is one of the places I like to go (from DC), and I’m looking forward to one popping up in Harrisburg and…

Thanks for a very thoughtful meditation on the subject! I think you are right about anonymity being the root problem, which is the reason I disapprove of aliases in online discussions. The requirement to be real is a huge attraction to Facebook, for me at least.