Is/n't Tesla literally/figuratively crashing?

[6souls]

Two bills currently awaiting approval in the MN Legislature will charge Electric Car owners $85 to $125 a year to help cover the lack of gasoline being purchased
As a bonus, this will allow free use of the official quick lane (MNPass)
http://midwestenergynews.com/2017/03...tric-vehicles/

[Niiro]

I know a lot of people might get up in arms over such a thing but taxes on gasoline are often what pays for road maintenance.

If you have an ever increasing number of people using the roads but not paying that tax (or paying significantly less of it despite driving as much) it creates a problem.

[6souls]

What is getting people upset is that MN has just over 4000 registered electric car owners. So it's not like the loss is even significant.

[Melena]

California is considering something similar, but also raising the gas tax and registration fee's due to the fact our roads suck ass. Of course as soon as this passes, they will probably divert existing money to other shit so our roads still won't be fixed and we are still paying the most for gas vs any other state not named hawaii or alaska.

[TummieGaruda]

California is considering something similar, but also raising the gas tax and registration fee's due to the fact our roads suck ass. Of course as soon as this passes, they will probably divert existing money to other shit so our roads still won't be fixed and we are still paying the most for gas vs any other state not named hawaii or alaska.

Yeah I remember hearing that there is about $130 billion backlog of repairs. They want to raise gas tax and tie it to infation, and charge $100 extra a year per car on the road when it comes time to renew registration.

[synistar]

I think CA car registration fees are going to stay flat while they target only electric cars for a fee hike. The state gas tax was not indexed to inflation, so that's probably going up. Also having better MPG cars have killed the revenue stream. Something is gonna get rammed through. But fuck I hate all these damn potholes especially after this rainy season.

Edit: beaten by 2 minutes.

[archibaldcrane]

Don't they need 2/3rds statewide vote via referendum to raise the gas tax?

[Niiro]

How the hell do you have trouble with road maintenance in CA, you don't even have seasons.

[Melena]

How the hell do you have trouble with road maintenance in CA, you don't even have seasons.

Heavy, heavy traffic in the majority of areas plus rain and wind. A lot of our infrastructure was not designed to handle the amount of cars on the road. Hell in San Francisco you can expect a 3 mile trip to take 15-20 minutes by car

[synistar]

Also trucks dominate the roads near the ports/freight corridors tearing everything up to hell. And like was said earlier, transportation has been severely underfunded because the state's gas tax value/vehicle has gone down because almost everyone is driving more fuel efficient cars compared to when it was first introduced. Example: my dad went from driving a 94 suburban that got at best 8mpg highway to a newer Toyota Sienna that gets ~30+mpg. California gets 4x less from him now in gas tax.

Now imagine that with hybrids or the like that get 50mpg vs cars in the 90s that got at best 30mpg. A lot of lost revenue for the same or higher volume of cars.

[Krazy]

Our roads don't get fixed in NY either. They just throw up Rough Road signs everywhere.

[Emphasis]

Our roads don't get fixed in NY either. They just throw up Rough Road signs everywhere.

If they even bother. A lot of the pot holes can pass as mini craters.

[Krazy]

Oh I know. I swerve so much on my way to/from work I'm surprised I don't get pulled over for a sobriety check.

[Ragnus]

Was on the way back from Long Island yesterday and was wondering this same thing. Turned to my wife and asked her what they hell they use all that tax money for.

[6souls]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39485200

Tesla now has a higher market value than Ford. $49B vs $46B.

[Salodin]

Does ford do anything substantial other than cars like Tesla does?

[archibaldcrane]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39485200

Tesla now has a higher market value than Ford. $49B vs $46B.

http://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/4/...rd-stock-price

[archibaldcrane]

Does ford do anything substantial other than cars like Tesla does?

Tesla's battery-making is a positive for company value mainly because they control their supply chain better (not because of the nascent home/grid storage business). SolarCity is probably a net drain on the value after debt is accounted for at the moment.

It's all about the cars, and where the market thinks they will be 3-4 years from now.

[TummieGaruda]

Tesla's battery-making is a positive for company value mainly because they control their supply chain better (not because of the nascent home/grid storage business). SolarCity is probably a net drain on the value after debt is accounted for at the moment.

It's all about the cars, and where the market thinks they will be 3-4 years from now.

Speaking of their cars, a lot has been happening over the last few weeks. Tesla shut down their production line at the end of Feb to make way for parts validation on the line that would build the Model 3. Apparently they were satisfied with the results that they were skipping beta production and went straight to producing release candidates. Elon released a blurry video of a release candidate driving in the parking lot, however this week there were about 3 sightings of the release candidates around Palo Alto.

[archibaldcrane]

It really is just a scaled down Model S.