A tweet showed up in my feed earlier with a screenshot of an article by The Telegraph. The quote in the screenshot said, “Tesla cars are almost all-electric, connect to the internet and can do a limited amount of driving with no need for a human, such as parking themselves.”
This just in! pic.twitter.com/eeZXANeMhz
— Coffee Table Tesla (@coffeetabletsla) May 19, 2020
The article in question was from a major British news outlet and was talking about Tesla insurance. When I read the article, I saw that the error was fixed, but this made me want to go over the difference — I know quite a few people who think a Tesla is just a fancy car and nothing more, like a Maserati or something. I’ve seen a few FUD tweets that would hint that Tesla isn’t an electric car or that it’s not as good as the other EVs out there. This brings me to the definition of 100% electric versus mostly electric or almost all-electric.
The way my own mind is wired, the latter, to me, refers to hybrid electric vehicles that use both a gasoline/diesel engine and electricity. For those curious about the actual definition, Energy.gov breaks it down: All-electric vehicles include Battery Electric vehicles (think Tesla) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (think hydrogen).
I know that most of the readers here know that Tesla is an all-electric vehicle, but sometimes, a quick reminder can be refreshing — especially for those who are interested in researching the facts. In fact, once this article is published, I plan to use it to educate several of my friends, their friends, and so on who may not know that Tesla is more than just a car that has self-driving capabilities.
Tesla and all other battery electric vehicles simply use energy or electricity that is stored in a battery pack to power its electric motor, turn the wheels, etc. When the juice is out, as with your phone, the owners plug their cars in. Many Tesla owners have wall chargers or just use their dryer outlet to charge their cars. (You can use a normal electricity outlet, but it is a bit slow and inefficient — using at least a plug fro a dryer makes a big difference.) When my friend Wade went on his road trip all over North America — and even drove to the Arctic Circle from Arizona — he had to overcome several charging challenges, but he did so beautifully.
The idea that Tesla is a space-age car or a fancy car for the rich will always seem to haunt the company’s reputation since, at one time, it was just for the rich. In fact, it was primarily so due to Elon Musk’s Master Plan — the goal was to create something that only a select few could afford and then use the money gained from that to make something a bit more affordable and so on until Tesla was serving the masses. As you can see, it’s clearly working. As for the space-age part, that is accurate and cool. Who wouldn’t want a vehicle that seemed like your own personal spaceship? Jetsons era, we’re looking at you.