Siming Jiang

UWP 1

Word Count: 2068

Tesla: The Future of Vehicles

Inventing a car that is completely powered by electricity has always been an

engineer’s dream. In 1996, the General Motors launched the first emission-free car

called the Electric Vehicle 1 (EV1), and it was a hit among people in California.

However, due to a possible conspiracy by the car companies, oil companies, and

wealthy capitalists, California Air Resources Board (CARB)’s regulations were

repealed “with an oil friendly Bush administration in power” ("Who Pulled the Plug

on the Electric Car?" n.d.). The EV1 was pulled and destroyed. Moreover, the great

scientist Tesla had driven a completely electric car but his theory was recognized as

“demonic, delusional or a scam” ("Who Pulled the Plug on the Electric Car?" n.d.).

Electric cars were, in a word, dead.

Nevertheless, the research and data of electric cars were saved, and in 2003, Tesla

Motors, Inc. was founded. After 10 years, the company first gained extraordinary

attention for its new products, the Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car, and Model S,

a fully electric luxury sedan. Surprisingly, the company opened dealers in mainland

China and started shipping the Model S over at the beginning of this past February.

News and reports about Tesla have overflowed the media, claiming that this car

will win over all the other luxury fuel-burning cars. With the refined technology on

battery life, appealing shape, and huge market potential, the future of this company

indeed seems promising. However, is Tesla already good enough to take over the

market? Not quite yet. Tesla needs more time to win consumers’ trust and build up its

reputation.

Thus, to prove my opinion, the topic of this essay will focus on analyzing

advantages and disadvantages of the new Tesla, and then make a prediction of its

performance in the automobile market in the near future.

Advantages of Tesla

1: Appealing exterior styling and interior design.

The exterior styling looks really attractive. The design of the body is smooth,

enabling constant speed and motion, and this feature is just as good as other sedans.

According to the official website, the car is equipped with a glass panoramic roof,

which blocks 98% visible light and 81% in terms of heat, and the unique roof can

open wider than any other roofs, keeping the cabin comfortable in the hottest days.

This car is really smart because without a key, the door handles and the charging port

will be hidden, offering more protection from theft and robbery (teslamotors.com,

n.d.). What’s more, the highlight of interior design is groundbreaking. A 17-inch touch

screen replaces the traditional small screen and physical buttons of a generic center

console. The bigger size makes it easier for driver to control the settings and

performance of the vehicle, and the design of touching pad instead of pushing buttons

alleviates the distraction during driving, ensuring safer driving conditions. It’s

reckless to say that this is the most fashionable vehicle ever designed, but the exterior

and interior do appeal to the customers. They combine to form a graceful, elegant, and

smooth entity, which is primarily an advantage of this new-released vehicle.

2: Electricity is almost free compared to gasoline.

There’s a joke by my friend: “Life gets harder when the price of gas exceeds my

GPA”. Truth is, although the price of gasoline fluctuates up and down, it goes up

gradually over the years because of scarcity, inflation, and of course, the unbalanced

power of big oil companies in the market. “I remember when I first got in the U.S.,

gas was as cheap as 20 cents per gallon, and those days are gone,” my aunt recalls.

The price of the gasoline varies by location. For example, the price of Shell Oil’s V-

Power product is 3.775 USD currently in Davis, and it goes up to 4.255 USD in San

Francisco (shell.us, 2014). Unfortunately, vehicles are essential tools for travelling,

and life would be impossible for many if they were without a car, which makes the

consumption of gas a huge proportion of transportation spending, and it is frustrating

when the price of gas goes up. At this point, the advantage of a Tesla electric vehicle

is obvious: It does NOT depend on fuel, but only electricity, dirt cheap electricity. The

price of electricity in California ranges from 6.73 Cents kWh to 16.47 Cents kWh by

data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) website, and it takes 85

kWh to charge a Tesla battery from empty to full, resulting in a peak cost of 14

dollars. The unit cost of electricity is 0.047 dollars per mile, and it’s nothing

compared with the unit cost of gasoline: 0.296 per mile by simple calculations. With a

similar energy supply duration, the price of electricity rolls over that of gasoline. In

the future, the price of gas will increase as it runs out, but electricity will be cheaper

because of the utilization of multiple energy generators such as tide power, solar

power, and nuclear power. Thus, choosing the cost-saving energy becomes a smart

way reduce the burden of owning a vehicle, and Tesla now gives the best option.

3: A Tesla car is “emission-free” and environmentally friendly.

When I went to Los Angeles for winter break, I almost got sick just by breathing

the air in downtown. On a sunny day, one can easily observe the dust cloud

surrounding the city. Air pollution is becoming more and more severe for many

industrial regions, including my home city Dalian where there was a toxic cloud

blocking the sun for several days. According to the book Air Pollution and Health, the

essential pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), and Carbon

Monoxide (CO) all come from the combustion of fossil fuels (Holgate, 2002). The

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that several laws and actions are

under enforcement to ensure the quality of air and save our planet from air pollution,

and vehicles have to take annual exams in order to stay on the road. Although the

regulations do have effects, air pollution by cars is still severe due to the enormous

amount of automobiles producing tailpipe gas. Tesla, however, is “emission-free.”

The word “free” is in quote because electrical generation plants do produce emissions,

but when accounting for all emissions, starting from the gas or oil well where the

source fuel is extracted, all the way to the final consumption of electricity by the car’s

motor, we find that the electric car is significantly more efficient and pollutes less

than all alternatives.

The charts above demonstrates the Tesla’s efficiency is much higher than vehicles of

other power types, and its emission is the least among them (Eberhard, 2006). Note

that the test target was Tesla Roadster, and the efficiency might have improved even

more in the brand new Model S. In the long run, if more Tesla cars appear on the road

instead of fuel-burning cars, air pollution will be reduced or at least the main

contributor will not be tailpipe gas. Meanwhile, other ecosystems will also benefit

from reduced air pollution since the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and

biosphere are all connected. As a result, we will have a better environment to live in,

and Tesla motors can help us achieve this.

We have looked at several advantages a Tesla has compared to other vehicles that

makes it a perfect car. On the other hand, we must now exam the practical issues and

technology barriers Tesla have.

Disadvantages of Tesla

1: The high price limits Tesla’s popularity.

A Mercedes Benz GLK 350 Model has a starting price of 37,480 USD. There’s

no argument that Benz is a luxurious brand, and this crossover model is very practical

for long distance travel. In other words, the fame and quality deserve the price. On the

contrary, Tesla Model S is a new-born sedan, and it starts around 80,000 USD, which

is more than twice of the price. Thus, buyers have more to risk when purchasing a

Tesla, and the risk comes from performance uncertainties, safety concerns, and

services after the purchase. What if the car’s performance is not as good as described

on the website? What if there’s a critical fault in design and it doesn’t emerge until a

certain mileage? And what if the car needs to change engine oil and one has to drive

such a long distance to reach a dealer? Moreover, the high price amplifies these

negative speculations because buyers are not sure whether their investment will pay

back enough or not. In order to draw consumers’ interest, the company decided that

the “the Model S will be the same price in China as in the United States” (Groom,

2014). It’s more like a must for company rather than an ethnical will. After all, the

company has not built up a good and strong credit in the market, and the dear price

really limits the population that can afford this car and try it out.

2: Long charging times and little station availability reduce the mobility of Tesla.

My trip to LA took almost 6 hours, and the refill time was only about 5 minutes,

which was not a big deal. However, recharging a Tesla at home takes about 5 hours by

data on the official website, and it takes at least 20 minutes to recharge in a

supercharger station if one travels long distances. If I forgot to charge the car the night

before, I would be staying at home for the whole day and risk losing my job. In long

distance travel, 20 minutes doesn’t seem long, but currently there are only 78

supercharger stations in North America, which is definitely inadequate to satisfy the

need for recharging. The company provides an option of battery swap, and

exchanging the battery for a fully charged battery is less than half the time to refill a

gas tank. The question is, does one want to pay for a battery exchange? The cost

might be minimal compared with the accumulated gas price in the long run, but safety

concern again plays a role. What if the new battery is a bad one? Or the mileage on it

is much higher than the old one? Qualities of all the replacements may vary.

According to the official website, coverage of the supercharger station will reach up

to “98% of the US population and parts of Canada” in 2015 (teslamotors.com, n.d.),

but this does not include all the cities. For example, the closest supercharger station to

Davis will be located in Vacaville, which is a half-hour driving, and it’s not

convenient for me if I want to have a quick recharge rather than staying at home for a

few hours. As a potential customer of Tesla, I want to travel without worrying about

recharging my battery at all. And I’m positive that this is the expectation of many

consumers who are interested in purchasing a Tesla Model S sooner or later. Thus,

Tesla has to worker harder to accelerate the process of building more supercharger

stations and improve the technology applied to the battery. Otherwise, Tesla will just

become a high-tech toy car one can drive in the backyard.

Future: Bright but with some barriers to break through.

The invention of Tesla indicates that the era of electric cars has come,

threatening the empire of oil companies and the industry of arrogant luxurious vehicle

brands. The revolution of going from fuel-burning to electric power is not avoidable,

and Tesla is the leading force of it. It may not take over the market swiftly because the

price is too high for everyone to buy and it’s a lot harder to recharge the vehicle.

Earned a score of 99 out of a possible 100 in the magazine's tests, Tesla was described

as “Consumer Reports' best car ever tested” (CNN, 2013). However, Tesla will

overcome the difficulties in the end with incremental refinements of the battery and

more supercharger stations covering the country. Plus, the appealing design, dirt

cheap power source, and environmental-friendly character will help Tesla attract and

convince more people. The price seems high for now, but it’s definitely worthy if

considering how much it saves on gas.

In conclusion, Tesla is not ready to overthrow the old-fashioned car industry right

now, but as time goes by, with more improvements, Tesla will change people’s

opinions and belief about electric cars completely, resulting a whole structure of

Transportation.

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