Is this the future for Class A's?

Rick Jay wrote:
Chainwright,

As one of those "Baby Boomers", my comments are that I've seen technology come and go, for a variety of reasons. What was it, about 2010 or so, 3D Televisions were becoming all the rage. People started buying them in droves. Well, try to find one now. Seven years later and the technology is officially dead.

And you can say "Yeah, but this is Tesla, they're too big." Well, Sony, Samsung, LG, etc. who all pushed the 3D technology are also pretty big.

I think electric vehicles will continue to have a presence in the market. I just don't think it's going to happen as quickly as many think. The electric vehicles need COMMON charging technology and FAST charging, measured on the order of how long it takes to fill a tank with gasoline. Proprietary charging technologies will do nothing to advance the cause. The EV manufacturers need to form a consortium such as was done for USB & MIDI computer interfaces. Get everybody onboard with a standard. If Ford's only worked with Sunoco gasoline and Honda's with Texaco gasoline, can you imagine how that would lessen the appeal of the automobile?

There's a gas station almost on every corner, and even out in the boonies, you can usually get to one within reason. And even if you can't get the vehicle to a gas station, you can bring 5 gallons of gas to the vehicle pretty easily, which will get you moving again. EV charging stations will have to reach that level of market penetration before many feel comfortable purchasing one. They just don't meet the requirements many people need or want in a vehicle.

I'm not saying it won't happen, I just don't see it happening as fast. And, since I'm on the soap box, I think autonomous vehicles will see similar delays.

Yup, I'm a boomer...and I still remember paying over $3,000 for my first IBM PC compatible with DUAL 5 1/4" floppy drives and no Hard drive. The dot matrix printer was another $1000. Ouch. And those were 1985 dollars!!! (On Edit: I just used an inflation calculator and $4000 in 1985 dollars is equivalent to more $9000 in 2016 dollars. Double OUCH!!!!)

So, yeah, some of us "old timers" have played the "bleeding edge technology" game several times over our lives, and we'd rather put our money into things which have a better chance of long-term viability. Gasoline will be around for a long time. But I'm not 100% confident that a battery made for an EV available now will have a replacement available in 10 years. That's important for me as we tend to keep our vehicles 15-20 years, at least.

As an electrical engineer, I enjoy reading about the advancements in this technology, I just don't see it being adopted as quickly as others.

~Rick

I hear ya Rick. I'm a gen X. Fortunately or unfortunately (point of view) I have traveled a LOT since I was 3. I lived abroad in various countries 1/2+ of my life. I saw Alternate forms of Energy powering machines 40 yrs ago. All the while over here, we're still "stuck" on, Mainly, 1 Form of Energy. Technology Advances at a far too fast rate for us to still, after sooo many yrs, be stuck on Gasoline. Ok, let's throw out the Hybrids, let's through out the EV's, You mean After over 100 yrs on gasoline, this is the best we can do? WE used to be the Innovators of the world. Advanced technological discoveries used to be OUR middle name. And now, every time something that could benefit society is invented, something that is money saving, It's Produced in Japan or Korea, Or Sweden. A few other countries are about to make Gas a thing of the past in the next 10 to 15 yrs. Why aren't we among those? what's holding us back?