- Julio Lugo
Audi appears to be reorganizing its model lineup specifically to rob me of the A5 Sportback E-Tron.
This is how it’s done.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article290009339.html
California’s power grid emerged from a nearly 3-week record-setting heatwave relatively unscathed & officials are crediting years of investment in renewable energy-particularly giant batteries that store solar for when the sun stops shining.
Battery storage on the macro and micro level needs to become the thing. On the macro level, grid-serving batteries act as instant peak power supply when the grid is taxed by demand. On the micro level, having solar/wind generation and battery backup in individual buildings - be they factories, offices or homes - can keep the lights on when the grid fails or if the local connection is knocked out by a windstorm.
Texas generates more wind power than anywhere else in the US (for the same reason that Roy McAvoy had an unfinished swing), has/had a $30 billion budget surplus and has Tesla based right here in Austin. It shouldn’t be that hard.
We have two large Tesla batteries. Just from our experience, it’s not a perfect answer. It takes planning to make them work well in a power outage, and even with planning it doesn’t work perfectly.
Part of the problem is that you’re not going to ignore the batteries when the grid is up. We use them to help run things at night, for instance, and every morning we’ve drawn down some percentage of the storage–usually it’s set to draw down 80%. That means that unless we know that an event is going to occur, and plan ahead, our batteries are going to be drawn down unless an event happens during the daytime. Ours will recharge in part from the grid, but if they recharged solely by solar, that means we’d have to plan ahead for a sunny day between us and the event, and then not use the batteries.
Our household batteries, big as they are, aren’t really enough to run our house through an entire night. When an outage occurs we have to go around and start shutting things down. We have to turn up the air conditioning temps, turn off the ice maker and the wine closet, turn off all the computers, unplug all the charging stations, turn off the tv . . . The only thing we can safely run are the refrigerators and some lights. That’s ok, but it’s not perfect.
In the daytime the solar will actually charge just a bit even if it’s raining, so by day 2 of Beryl we had enough solar for minimal household usage and just a bit of recharge. By day 3 we were able to run the dishwasher in the afternoon and think about turning the air conditioner down from 78. Again, nothing wrong with 78, but normally I’d run 75.
I wouldn’t switch to a generator from batteries, we never lost the refrigerators or wifi, but there are things about them that I really wouldn’t have thought about.
They also cost about $40k and have a life expectancy of about 10 years.
Uhhh…let me help you out here:
"We have to turn up TURN OFF the air conditioning temps, turn off the ice maker and TURN UP the wine closet, turn off all the computers, unplug all the charging stations, turn off the tv . . .
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Good real world info Neil.
FYI, there are “smart” breaker boxes that are designed to work with home solar/battery installations that can take care of a lot of the work of turning off areas of the house under certain triggering circumstances, or because you said so through the app. But that’s a further expense. of course.
Being able to run the AC at all during a prolonged power outage is a big win. $40k’s worth of a win? That depends on the individual. But no amount of prepping is going to survive a 10-day outage in 100º weather, so just being able to keep your fridge going and run A/C for a while each day is something your neighbors probably would’ve sold a kidney for.
This guy has a system that powers his entire house and he estimates a 10-years to get back to even (not pricing in the peace of mind etc.).
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San Antonio-Houston-Dallas triangle.
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I like this a lot.
That 2-mode tailgate is pretty cool.
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Profits down 45%, shares down 12%.
Not an electric per se, but I just bought a 2025 Camry XSE hybrid and am enjoying it. I’ve used a fair amount of gas in the 10 days or so I’ve had it mainly from just driving around and trying the features out but I’m still getting 40+mpg. Really nice car, the first “new” car I’ve bought since 2010 so there have been some advances in technology since then.
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Elon Musk is suing former advertisers on Xitter for choosing no longer to advertise on Xitter.
Next he’ll sue everyone who doesn’t own a Tesla for not owning a Tesla.
What he really wants to do is sue all the women who wouldn’t date him.
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Good point. HUUUUUGE incel energy here. Which goes a long way to explaining the truck.
Thinking of buying an E Tron GT and I’m growing increasingly concerned about rapid depreciation. I can get a 2023 model with 6,500 miles for 45% below original sticker. I admit to knowing very little about the market for these vehicles, but wouldn’t this be a pretty big red flag? Or am I reading too much into it?
I’m not an EV expert, but I think that’s not far off of the depreciation of any new car. Typically about 20% when the tires hit the road off the lot, and then then about 15% every year after that.
I can’t sugar-coat it; right now, EVs depreciate hard out of the gate. Much of that heavy depreciation hits in the first year.
The value of used Teslas has collapsed because the prices of new Teslas have been slashed in an effort to prop up sales. While Tesla is sinking, every other EV manufacturer is growing sales, so that’s a thing unique to Tesla (mostly because Elon has let his batshit flag fly).
Perhaps because the vast majority of used EVs on the road at this moment are Teslas, the soft demand for them both new and used is tainting the entire used EV market. Maybe it’s just that the people who buy used cars are just not into EVs - if you live in an apartment or have only street parking available, good luck finding somewhere to plug it in.
The only long-term concern for EVs (of which I’m aware) is battery degradation. While it is a real thing, it is averaging out to about 1% per year in older models. So, in 10 years, your 300 mile range is now 270 miles. Meanwhile, during those 10 years, you’ve never had to pay for an oil change.
@das can give you the full run down on the E-Tron GT experience. Right now, if you want a new EV, you just have to grab your ankles and take the depreciation. Or you can buy a 1-year old EV and stick it to some poor sod who bought new.
Thanks. It just looked strange to me. I’ll let someone else eat the first year. I’ll go look at the used one. I appreciate the feedback.
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I’ll start by saying this: My eTron GT is the best car I have ever owned. By far. I absolutely love it. It is a great time to pick up a slightly used unit at a great price. @Limey is right, the current depreciation hit is market force driven, not based on the quality of the car. So, it’s a great opportunity to get in at an advantageous time. The only down side is the car gets a fair amount of attention so you have to be ready for that going in. The upsides are many. Feel free to PM me with any specific ownership ??'s you might have.
Edited to add: Here’s a glamour shot from the beach, when the car was in “offroad” mode. It usually sits lower than this, which is another thing to keep in mind. It is wide and low. That takes a little getting used to.
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