Why I am critical of Tesla

Mind you, I don't hate the car.  It is very attractive in a number of ways.

But it is a feel good car, not a practical car.  Time is not likely to solve this problem either.  Since 2004, I have been following energy news, and during that time , I noted promises that Tesla will get its prices down.  But it hasn't really.  It is still too expensive for the mass market.  It will likely stay that way, unless something changes.

Cheaper batteries with longer ranges?  It is taking a long time. Why not try a differrent strategy?

Well, the one big advantage of an electric car is its efficiency with electricity.  Something like 90 percent of the electricity moves the car.  It far outpaces gasoline, which at best is in the 30 percent range.  The Tesla gets 4 miles per kilowatt hour, which is quite good.  Compare the cost per mile using electricity this efficently versus using gas. The Tesla could be close to an order of magnitude cheaper for its energy consumption.  That will save tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the vehicle.

This efficiency could be used to make the car more affordable.  But the use of solar power destroys that proposition.  Solar city?  No, that is more feel good without a real solution.  The intermittency of solar doesn't eliminate the need for fossil anyway.  It would be cheapest to use only coal fired plants to produce the cheapest electricity and to give a cost advantage that could make up for its high sticker price.  But to do that takes away the feel good aspect of its appeal.  Coal is dirty, and that doesn't help with feeling good about reducing carbon.

No, the solution would require a compromise of sorts.  You would need an energy source cheaper than coal, without the carbon, and a way to still feel good about it without busting the piggy bank.  And you would need a delivery system for that energy.

I suggest LFTRS for the energy source, and the delivery system would entail building  charge lanes into the highway system.  You wouldn't use the existing grid.  This would be new infrastructure.  How to manage such a new system could be the trick.  I believe that it could be done.

If the electricity was brought directly to the vehicle, it could charge the battery on the fly.  That would solve the charging time issue and the range anxiety issue.  You wouldn't need as big of a battery either, which would help with the cost of the car.  The battery is the most expensive part of an electric car.

You would have to accept some radioacive waste, but that is manageable.  The LFTR reduces waste by a hundred times.

The feel good attractiveness doesn't have to go away because it would be a real solution for the real world.