Just thinking out aloud here:
Usage cycle is 250 miles (400km) and then 3.5 hours charge time. So I guess that maximum average speed is around 250mi (400km) every 8 hours, or about 30mph (50km/h). OK to dash out to Costco or Ralph's, but pretty poor if you're planning a coast-to-coast tour.
During one cycle, the car would put about 150kW-hours onto the asphalt. Now, to charge it would require that the same 150kW.h be replenished in 3.5 hours, requiring power consumption of 150/3.5, or about 43 KW. At 110 Volts, that's 43000/110, or about 390 Amps! Most houses can't use more than 150 Amps, before the system overloads, and given that you'll be using 30-50% to run other houshold appliances, ovens, etc., means that you've probably got 100 Amps to spare for the car. Or about a one-fourth of what's needed for a 3.5 hour charge. So the charge cycle will be more like 14 hours.
And just imagine how much of the earth's resources you burnt while earning the $100,000 to pay for the machine!
Oh, and you pay up-front for the end-of-life recycling. I somehow doubt whether, when you return the car to them 5 years from now, and they're barely solvent, that they will borrow the not insubstantial quantity of cash required to safely recycle it.
And the "1 cent per mile" claim. C'mon! Just to ammortize the purchase cost will be more than a few dollars per mile!
Don't get me wrong. I think that the Tesla Roadster raises the ante, and would love to own one. But they shouldn't try to sell it as a "green" conscious thing. It's simply an expensive toy, and WOW, 0-100km/h in 4 secs! It outperforms it's look-alike Lotus Elise cousin... That's the unique selling point! Not that it's an environmentally friendly alternative.
Forever the cynic...
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