20 thoughts on “Tesla P85D “Insane Mode” launch reactions”
I’ve always wanted to test drive one. My fiancée got a ride in one a month ago, and loved it. Now they just have to come down in price.
More people should be seeing this, especially in my home state, where a dealership association has gamed a congenitally corrupt state government into banning direct sales of Tesla. I’d very much like to see these local mooks lose significant business.
Electric is real and, all things considered, Tesla’s timing this whole thing to perfection.
Test drove one two weekends ago. It is “insane” indeed. The first half, I rode in the passenger seat and was shooting video with my iPhone 6 – it flew out of my hand, just like it did for the girl in the back seat. I have the Model S S85, and its extremely impressive as well, best purchase I’ve ever made, but it’s got nothing on this thing! Shawn, I guarantee, if you drove the P85 or even the S85, you would be sold. I rented one in Vegas a years ago, and it was over – I HAD to buy one. It ruined me forever, every gas car I drive seems broken.
I’m stealing that last sentence.
The Tesla is such a useless, silly product. Some day in the future we will be looking back at it and wonder why anyone ever cared about it at all.
How about making an electric car that works, is cheap, and will last a long time instead of silly braggadocio cars for rich Californians?
It’s been possible to make good electric cars for years, but all the companies making them went broke one by one because no one wanted to buy one and the big auto makers held them down.
Now the market is finally here, but instead of making a reliable car that would get us off of our gas addiction, we have this sports car nonsense that won’t do anything for anyone (except a few rich dudes).
Electric cars have been “real” for a long while now. Tesla is just the first RICH guy’s electric SPORTScar is all. It won’t change the world, save the environment or anything like it. It’s a sports car. For rich guys.
Guys who already have a regular car for the most part and just take the Telsa to the beach to impress girls or show off how rich they are.
Calm down. Tesla doesn’t have the huge resources of a Ford to manufacture an inexpensive electric car. He’s building up his business on rich guys and iterating his designs towards more affordable models.
GM’s EV-1 was killed by politics, not by lack of interest. The market has always been here, but independents have had to fight both big automakers and dealers’ associations. Blaming Tesla for taking an approach that allows Musk to build his business gradually is just silly.
Agreed [I was an EV-1 “owner” for six years in Arizona].
Exactly. Also, he couldn’t compete with the big manufacturers. He’s found his niche that allows him to build and improve and innovate rather than just die quickly.
As far as I know Tesla is the only one doing this work, too. There are other electric car companies, but they aren’t shipping much if anything yet, and, frankly, most of them are ugly with battery life that’s laughable. The big companies are content playing in the hybrid space, with only the Chevy Volt being all-electric (I think? They certainly don’t have the general mindshare of Tesla). Their other efforts are focusing on hydrogen fuel-cell tech,and last I knew Big Oil was pushing that since they were the ones converting oil into hydrogen for the fueling stations –not exactly a game changer in dependence on oil that way.
Fuel cells are always fifteen years away. They’re a dodge automakers have used for decades to avoid change. Kind of like Verizon promising to build FIOS coverage, getting tax breaks for the promise, then not building it.
You have my envy.
Because we liven a world where only the rich matter… and “rich” is a relative term (obviously more disposable income than you, but…), a Tesla is no more expsensive than the Audi, BMW, or Mercedes is competes with from a performance perspective; and it is a lot cheaper than the cars “rich Californians” actually drive.
Never thought anyone went into business to sell products to everyone; successful companies make the best they can, for the best price they can and continue to evolve the product and make it better (not necessarily cheaper). If it is worth the price, people will buy it; if it is a great product, people will save enough to buy it. If the business plan was realistic, and enough people buy in, company survives; those who can afford the product support the company, those who cannot, complain.
Think Apple vs. Dell; sell a few premium products or a ton of cheap ones… Sorry you feel left out; car is not for you.
That’s freakin’ crazy. Kinda want one. And yes, noted that traditional auto dealerships feel VERY threatened.
Honda did develop a Hydrogen fuel cell experimental, with a limited release in California. But it’s since fallen out of the spotlight.
Concept cars mean about as much to me as Microsoft Home-of-the-Future videos. And fuel cells never made much sense to me as a consumer solution.
Well, at least they managed a step up from “Auto Show” Concept Car… and actually got some of these on the road. But we’ll see what happens down the road… so to speak. But the problem with all the high-tech solutions – is what’s the resource footprint and industrial infrastructure required to support any given tech? Plug-in electric cars – famously including the Tesla – have the ultimate caveat – where and how was the electricity generated?
I am writing this in a Mac Pro, and I have no illusions about the sharp point of the global resource pyramid I am sitting on. And being in West Virginia, I expect that some of the electicity I am running this beast on was coal-generated.
Is coal-generated electricity a reason to avoid using electric cars? Or is it just a reason to reform campaign-finance laws?
I’ve always wanted to test drive one. My fiancée got a ride in one a month ago, and loved it. Now they just have to come down in price.
More people should be seeing this, especially in my home state, where a dealership association has gamed a congenitally corrupt state government into banning direct sales of Tesla. I’d very much like to see these local mooks lose significant business.
Electric is real and, all things considered, Tesla’s timing this whole thing to perfection.
Test drove one two weekends ago. It is “insane” indeed. The first half, I rode in the passenger seat and was shooting video with my iPhone 6 – it flew out of my hand, just like it did for the girl in the back seat. I have the Model S S85, and its extremely impressive as well, best purchase I’ve ever made, but it’s got nothing on this thing! Shawn, I guarantee, if you drove the P85 or even the S85, you would be sold. I rented one in Vegas a years ago, and it was over – I HAD to buy one. It ruined me forever, every gas car I drive seems broken.
I’m stealing that last sentence.
The Tesla is such a useless, silly product. Some day in the future we will be looking back at it and wonder why anyone ever cared about it at all.
How about making an electric car that works, is cheap, and will last a long time instead of silly braggadocio cars for rich Californians?
It’s been possible to make good electric cars for years, but all the companies making them went broke one by one because no one wanted to buy one and the big auto makers held them down.
Now the market is finally here, but instead of making a reliable car that would get us off of our gas addiction, we have this sports car nonsense that won’t do anything for anyone (except a few rich dudes).
Electric cars have been “real” for a long while now. Tesla is just the first RICH guy’s electric SPORTScar is all. It won’t change the world, save the environment or anything like it. It’s a sports car. For rich guys.
Guys who already have a regular car for the most part and just take the Telsa to the beach to impress girls or show off how rich they are.
Calm down. Tesla doesn’t have the huge resources of a Ford to manufacture an inexpensive electric car. He’s building up his business on rich guys and iterating his designs towards more affordable models.
GM’s EV-1 was killed by politics, not by lack of interest. The market has always been here, but independents have had to fight both big automakers and dealers’ associations. Blaming Tesla for taking an approach that allows Musk to build his business gradually is just silly.
Agreed [I was an EV-1 “owner” for six years in Arizona].
Exactly. Also, he couldn’t compete with the big manufacturers. He’s found his niche that allows him to build and improve and innovate rather than just die quickly.
As far as I know Tesla is the only one doing this work, too. There are other electric car companies, but they aren’t shipping much if anything yet, and, frankly, most of them are ugly with battery life that’s laughable. The big companies are content playing in the hybrid space, with only the Chevy Volt being all-electric (I think? They certainly don’t have the general mindshare of Tesla). Their other efforts are focusing on hydrogen fuel-cell tech,and last I knew Big Oil was pushing that since they were the ones converting oil into hydrogen for the fueling stations –not exactly a game changer in dependence on oil that way.
Fuel cells are always fifteen years away. They’re a dodge automakers have used for decades to avoid change. Kind of like Verizon promising to build FIOS coverage, getting tax breaks for the promise, then not building it.
You have my envy.
Because we liven a world where only the rich matter… and “rich” is a relative term (obviously more disposable income than you, but…), a Tesla is no more expsensive than the Audi, BMW, or Mercedes is competes with from a performance perspective; and it is a lot cheaper than the cars “rich Californians” actually drive.
Never thought anyone went into business to sell products to everyone; successful companies make the best they can, for the best price they can and continue to evolve the product and make it better (not necessarily cheaper). If it is worth the price, people will buy it; if it is a great product, people will save enough to buy it. If the business plan was realistic, and enough people buy in, company survives; those who can afford the product support the company, those who cannot, complain.
Think Apple vs. Dell; sell a few premium products or a ton of cheap ones… Sorry you feel left out; car is not for you.
That’s freakin’ crazy. Kinda want one. And yes, noted that traditional auto dealerships feel VERY threatened.
Honda did develop a Hydrogen fuel cell experimental, with a limited release in California. But it’s since fallen out of the spotlight.
There we go….
http://automobiles.honda.com/honda-fcv/
Concept cars mean about as much to me as Microsoft Home-of-the-Future videos. And fuel cells never made much sense to me as a consumer solution.
Well, at least they managed a step up from “Auto Show” Concept Car… and actually got some of these on the road. But we’ll see what happens down the road… so to speak. But the problem with all the high-tech solutions – is what’s the resource footprint and industrial infrastructure required to support any given tech? Plug-in electric cars – famously including the Tesla – have the ultimate caveat – where and how was the electricity generated?
I am writing this in a Mac Pro, and I have no illusions about the sharp point of the global resource pyramid I am sitting on. And being in West Virginia, I expect that some of the electicity I am running this beast on was coal-generated.
Is coal-generated electricity a reason to avoid using electric cars? Or is it just a reason to reform campaign-finance laws?