[Ron D]

Having taken an interest in the thread I happened to pay more attention to a news item last night advising that up here in Canada we have a little over 18,000 charging stations across our country which is the largest impediment to adoption citing we need some 400,000 to make Evs work across the nation. Its a big a$$ country and all but seemed a little high to me. For S&Gs I visited the Tesla Canada website and found out that good old Alberta where I reside doesn't offer any provincial rebates on EV purchases though I wasn't surprised given we are the oil and gas capital of Canada...

[Tyson]

“There are still a lot of unknowns in our future concept of operations, that we need to consider. How we plan our mines, how we charge our equipment, how we manage power demand and the skills we will need as part of this transition"

This is in its conceptual stage

I know for example just to charge a small fleet of 10 EV semi trucks, you basically need your own electric substation. They would have to build a plant from solar and wind just to charge those batteries for that one mine operation. And the issue is with current technology one charge will not get a mine truck through a whole shift at the mine. So these concepts are still pretty far off. Not saying it cannot be done, but I don't think the diesel will be going away any time soon.

Oh I agree, diesel will be around for a while, if for no other reason that the sheer scale of diesel in place now.  Changes at large scale, take time.  But man, what an exciting time to be alive! 

[VinceT]

Oh I agree, diesel will be around for a while, if for no other reason that the sheer scale of diesel in place now.  Changes at large scale, take time.  But man, what an exciting time to be alive!

They have a chance to do it right, in the spirit of the OP like Nicola Tesla wanted free energy for all, or at least affordable and clean.

[Early B.]

In the medical field, there's a common phrase: "Do no harm." Perhaps the tech world should adopt the same slogan because much of modern technology creates more problems than it solves. The planet is getting hotter literally every day and making more EVs or diesel-powered vehicles will do little to solve this problem. The earth is fighting back due to overconsumption and mankind is losing the battle. The fact that I'm typing this message on one of several computers I own to share my thoughts to complete strangers is indicative of wasteful energy.   

[charmerci]

The coming solid state battery tech will be a real game changer. Unfortunately, it's going to be a few years too slow down the road. For now it'll be 6-700 mile range with 15 minute charging.

[HAL]

We will see Sodium Ion batteries before the Solid State batteries become the norm.  Those use no rare earth materials at all.  What they will talk about is sodium, sulfur and carbon in the battery container.  Materials available anywhere on the planet.  You can get the sulfur from smoke stack scrubbers.

CACI has them in production and BYD is using them in EV's in China. 

This is the Gen I batteries, the Gen II's are supposed to be about 4x a LiIon storage capacity.  Weights more but still 4/3 ratio of storage to weight.

Hopefully this will take the stress off harder to mine and refine materials.

[Tyson]

Tesla's already use batteries with no cobalt in the majority of their cars - https://electrek.co/2022/04/22/tesla-using-cobalt-free-lfp-batteries-in-half-new-cars-produced/

And they stopped using rare earth minerals in their electric motors completely as they now have a new state of the art hairpin motor design - https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/03/teslas-improved-new-hairpin-motors-and-catl-m3p-batteries.html

[Tyson]

I've been driving my new Model Y for about a week now and the ride quality is exceptional.  It drives like a combo of a Jaguar (smooth) and a Porsche (sporty). 

[jpm]

Do you enjoy the 1 pedal driving yet or are you still getting used to no coasting? I do love how the brake pads never seem to wear out on these cars.

[HAL]

I drive my MYLR in Hold mode all the time and love it!  Let folks call it electric go cart mode, it works well and hardly ever use the brakes.

Handled great on the road course as well.  At 4.5 months in and 7500+ miles and still a great car to drive.

[Tyson]

Do you enjoy the 1 pedal driving yet or are you still getting used to no coasting? I do love how the brake pads never seem to wear out on these cars.

1 pedal driving reminds me of when I used to drive a manual transmission (back in the 90's) and I would downshift gears to slow down the car.  This is the exact same feeling. 

Coming from an automatic (my last car), it took a few days to get used to the 1 pedal driving but now that I've learned it, I actually like it better than the 'coasting' style.

[Denton J]

My mother in law has a Tesla (not sure which model) but is selling it because she is close to getting the Tesla truck.  She offered to let me have her place in line for the Tesla truck but she fell in love with it and decided to keep her place in line.

The only EV I would consider owning is the Tesla truck.  I'm not a fan of EVs but the truck is nearly a tank, lol.

[Stercom]

I guess Teslas (probably most EVs) won't take or hold a charge with current battery technology if the temperature drops too low. Can you imagine all the Teslas stranded in airport parking lots in Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston, New York.....I guess you need to tow them inside to warm them and THEN charge it.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/tesla_owners_in_deep_freeze/

[DavidS]

I have a Model Y since October.  Test drove a bunch of cars and trucks late summer and fall - Tesla was easily best of the bunch (including their sales process) - wasn't really close for me despite a 3-4 month process.  Loving it but still in the honey moon period.  I am on west coast - just in the middle of a cold snap and no doubt range is diminished, charging is slower - maybe from 4 hours to 6 hours for full charge, and the regenerative braking goes away when really cold (most I have used the brakes in 4 months of ownership).  I don't do any long range driving in the winter - wouldn't be the vehicle I would choose if I had to do this.

By the way the stereo is pretty brilliant as well - streaming Tidal - loving having my music for trips I do, also best sound I have heard in a vehicle.

I have buddy on wait list for the truck - he is pumped for it.  Still haven't seen one in the wild - looking forward to that.

[mcgsxr]

I guess Teslas (probably most EVs) won't take or hold a charge with current battery technology if the temperature drops too low. Can you imagine all the Teslas stranded in airport parking lots in Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston, New York.....I guess you need to tow them inside to warm them and THEN charge it.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/tesla_owners_in_deep_freeze/

Fair comments - though interesting to note that gas pumps were also failing in the recent cold snap in Alberta.  Plus the 12v battery in an ICE car can also fail.

Still curious about EV's but driving ICE vehicles for now.

[Tyson]

I have a Model Y since October.  Test drove a bunch of cars and trucks late summer and fall - Tesla was easily best of the bunch (including their sales process) - wasn't really close for me despite a 3-4 month process.  Loving it but still in the honey moon period.  I am on west coast - just in the middle of a cold snap and no doubt range is diminished, charging is slower - maybe from 4 hours to 6 hours for full charge, and the regenerative braking goes away when really cold (most I have used the brakes in 4 months of ownership).  I don't do any long range driving in the winter - wouldn't be the vehicle I would choose if I had to do this.

By the way the stereo is pretty brilliant as well - streaming Tidal - loving having my music for trips I do, also best sound I have heard in a vehicle.

I have buddy on wait list for the truck - he is pumped for it.  Still haven't seen one in the wild - looking forward to that.

Yes, Tesla hired a bunch of the engineers from Bang & Olafson to work full time on designing the stereos on the Tesla cars.  The sound is pretty damn good, you are right!

Re: taking and holding a charge, it's -10 in CO right now and zero problems with my car. 

After going through a few cold snaps and a few snow storms I can say the Model Y is performing brilliantly.  WAY better traction control than my old AWD Acura MDX. 

Also, 2 unexpected cool things re: winter.  First I am super happy to not have to stop at a gas station anymore.  I never realized how much filling up the gas tank sucked (in the winter) until I didn't have to do it anymore.  I wake up every morning and my car is 'full'.  Love it.

Unexpected cool thing #2 - I can warm up my car in my garage, from my phone, while I'm getting ready inside the house.  This is awesome.  With my old MDX, I'd have to drive around for several minutes waiting for the engine to warm up. 

1 warning, re: Teslas in the winter/snow.  Spend the $$ to get actual snow tires.  The 'all weather' tires that Teslas come with SUCK in the snow.  With proper winter tires, it handles better in snow than anything else I've driven, including my mom's Subaru. 

These are the tires I got for the Model Y - https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=VikingContact+7&partnum=545TR9VC7XL

[Denton J]

There is a Tesla truck close to my block.  I was behind him on the way home. It looks sharp!

[FullRangeMan]

Pegaso Spanish electric truck from 1952.

[Denton J]

It looks like a VW bus.  Tesla truck update, I seen another one by Cheesecake Factory near the Highlands Village.

The Tesla Trucks are starting to pop up.

[HAL]

The 2023 Model Y Long Range has the B&O designed 13 speaker with sub music system.   Read that the latest standard Y rear wheel drive version will not get the sub.

Fun thing I found out is that B&O uses DSP Concepts Audio Weaver to run the audio system. Same software development system as the dspNexus 2x8 system.