Alternative Fuel

Drive Time

…OR:

You could buy a second-hand VW Jetta TDI for less than half the price of a Tesla.  The Jetta has a 20-gallon diesel fuel tank which will take you over 500 miles, and which will burn those 20 gallons of diesel more efficiently with a lower carbon footprint than the generator takes to burn 9.  And at 30,000 miles, you won’t have to spend a further $10,000 to replace its battery.

Just a thought.

26 comments

  1. England or Pennsylvania ??? Doesn’t really matter. either way there is no mention of whos paying for the diesel. Based on the photo, it doesn’t look there is some sort of payment system, just plug in your own connection cable and suck up that “Carbon Free ” electricity.

    I suspect that the council members bought themselves a fleet of personal Teslas and now they figured they can both virtue signal and fuel them all on taxpayers dime at the same time. They must be pretty secure in their positions and think the voters are complete idiots to demonstrate the hypocrisy of ” Carbon Free ” electric vehicles so clearly. At least in my town they when thru the theater of covering the school parking lot with a huge canopy of Solar Arrays. ROI for the Project is ……. well ….never, but that didn’t stop them.

    ….oh …… and 500/20 = 25 mpg —- 300/9= 33 mpg Tesla is actually better than the Jetta

    1. Actually, my old Jetta TDI gave me over 600 — 640 or thereabouts — but I don’t know how the newer ones perform.

      But if we’re going to go all cost-accountant, add the cost of wasted productivity of waiting for the Tesla battery to charge v.s the 5 minutes to fill a tank with diesel…

      1. My 2001 Jetta TDI rendered 41 around town and 50 all highway (sold it at 250K miles).
        The 2005 Passat wagon clocks 36 around town and 46 all highway – has 140K
        The 2015 Passat sedan with the DSG transmission is pretty consistent 40 around town and 45 all highway. It is the heaviest of the lot so I am not unhappy. Has 66K.

  2. but doesn’t the Tesla put on a pretty light show that you use to show off to anyone who will listen and then it never gets used again?

    These glorified golf carts are part of restricting people’s movements. They take too long to recharge so ifyou want to go any great distance, you’ll have to get shoved onto a train or plane.

    JQ

  3. Kim,
    There you go, using common sense again. The kind of people who do things like this wouldn’t know common sense if it waltzed up and french kissed their anus. Time to get out the tar and feathers again.

    1. Common sense has been so rare I’ve taken to calling it “horse sense”, but people tell me all sorts of hare-brained things horses do, so I don’t know what to call it. “Motherwit”? We can tell from the internet where “Florida Man” gets his “superior intellect.”

  6. Yup, which is why I own two TDi Passats currently and am considering importing a diesel Tiguan or 2018 Passat Wagon since the bloody models are not imported to US, Canada or Mexico. Grrrr.

  7. Of all the stupid ideas that are part of ‘alternative/renewable energy’ the battery-powered car ranks high. The batteries are an environmental nightmare, there isn’t enough raw material for the batteries in proven sources to build enough cars for Britain, much less the world. They aren’t going to charge fast enough to be practical in the near future.

    They’re toys for the faux-morally-superior set.

    1. My brother wants one, but it is patently for the purpose of keeping up with the rich friends his wife wants to have and acting all virtuous. Previous to his marriage he was a motorhead and kept his sports car running by cruising junkyards.

  8. I rather like my own idea for a low-emission vehicle. Coaches, pulled by gelded Leftists instead of horses.

  9. Am I the only one having trouble believing a Tesla will go 300 miles on a charge in the dead of winter in New England (or any place else where the temperature goes below 30*F or above 95*F for extended periods of time)?

    1. Lots of people with you, including me and a guy who owns a $69,000 to $92,000 Tesla S:
      “…The temperature outside hovered around 35 degrees Fahrenheit and we kept the inside of the car at 68 F. My calculations show that we got 258 miles with 100% of a full charge (325 miles with 126%)! No where near the 405 miles of range advertised. And that doesn’t even account for leaving enough charge to be able to safely reach a charger. … we had hoped that these conditions wouldn’t result in a 36% drop from the 405 miles advertised.”
      – https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/extremely-disappointed-with-model-s-range-when-driving-on-the-highway-at-35f.247666/

      That 9 gallons of diesel will get you ~360 miles in a 2016 Honda Civic, a 2016 BMW 328TD, or a 2016 Mercedes-Benz E250 Bluetec.
      And you can refill and be on your way again in about 5 minutes in the diesel vs. a very best recharge time of 4-4.5 hours in a Tesla S with special charging equipment and a 240V, 40A supply.

      1. And that five minutes includes a trip to the rest room, snacks, and a cleaning of the windows.

  10. Good temporary solution for areas where the grid doesn’t yet support the installation of charging points, or where they’re temporarily unavailable due to for example road construction.

    As a permanent solution it’s a tad silly, but no less so than trucking in fuel from halfway across the country to refill cars.

  11. People who write this drivel need to understand a simplified version of the Laws of Thermodynamics.
    1) You can’t win
    2) You can’t break even
    3) You can’t get out of the game
    I know, even that is beyond them.
    Do you suppose that generator uses urea to leave the exhaust minty fresh? Me neither.

  12. Maybe I’m missing something here. When I read the text in the posted image, I assumed it was satire, but the comments seem to indicate others were not reading it that way. Is Lancashire City Council actually using standalone diesel generators as charging stations? I find it unlikely, but I’ve been surprised before.

    1. It wouldn’t surprise me, but I guess it’s a temporary solution.
      If they’re like many places here they have many policies in place to promote their employees buying or leasing EVs as company cars and private automobiles (from tax incentives to bonuses and part payment by the company/department).

      Previous company I worked for had a shortage of charging points for a while as a result of such policies (they couldn’t get them installed fast enough). Having these units as a stopgap until charging stations hooked up to the grid were installed would have been a solution for the month or two it took for the ordered charge points to arrive.

      And whatever you think of EVs politically or environmentally, they’re lovely to drive in my experience.
      Quiet, responsive, comfortable (depending on model, obviously), and in cities help reduce local pollution (mostly NOx and partially combusted carbohydrates) even if on a global level they don’t do much of that.

      I like my EV, nicest car I ever had. Bought it because it’s economical for my situation, especially with gas prices what they are here (2 Euro per liter at the moment) and the tax incentives help a lot too.

  13. I can remember getting 42-47mpg with a Datsun 510 hatchback back in the early ’80s. That was while driving from Little Creek VA to Tampa FL on a regular basis.

  14. Um,
    Notice that NOWHERE is it stated, even approximately, the TIME required to burn 9 GALLONS
    of diesel !!
    Unless they are using engines that could otherwise be used in say a D9, you are going to be cooling your heels for several HOURS at a minimum and that’s provided you aren’t ‘in line’ behind one or more other idiots who bought into this ‘beyond stupid’ idea.
    You are still running the damn thing on FOSSIL FUELS, diesel, coal or natural gas and the hypocracy of that, because of stupidity, ignorance ( which can be fixed ) or adherence to some ideological pipe dream ( which CAN’T be fixed ) is so loud it could replace air horns !
    The ‘grid’ which is supposed to support this pipe dream, just as soon as everyone gets recharging outlets in their homes, apartments or high rise residences (!) is ALREADY overloaded ! Don’t believe it ? Ask some of the people in California, Texas and elsewhere how last Febuary went
    with blackouts, brownouts and just plain FAILURES due to demand.
    There will have to be MASSIVE increases in electrical production in this country to even BEGIN
    to support a significant part of the population using these glorified golf carts as a primary mode of transportation. That increase isn’t going to come from wind mills ( they’re not turbines )
    and solar panels or even pixie dust and unicorns ! It will come, if at all, from nuclear ( gasp ! ), and/or so called ‘fossil fuels’ and ANY increase in production today, by either method, will be fought tooth and nail by idiots whose knowledge of science, physics, electricity etc is based on what they were taught by Big Bird !!

  15. Someone sent me a picture of a gas-powered truck towing a diesel generator charging an electric car.

    Yup, the future is stupid.

    1. I was thinking of a Tesla towing one of these things. I don’t think that’s how diesel-electric trains work, though. Stupid is too kind a word here.

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