Elon Musk argues with Tesla fans: how important is range?

Created: 03/08/2022 08:43

By: Marcus Efler

Tesla is under pressure from the competition when it comes to range.

Elon Musk responds with an assessment that irritates many of his customers.

Austin (USA) – Actually, Elon Musk has every reason to be relaxed.

The Tesla CEO sold some of his shares when the price was not weakening, and the approval for the Gigafactory in Grünheide has now arrived.

However, Musk now has a discussion to deal with, in which the position taken by the Texan by choice is particularly astounding.

It's about the tiresome issue of range, which electric cars don't seem to get rid of anytime soon.

Tesla used to be the brand that showed the competition where to go – namely only after a few hundred kilometers to the charging station.

Sophisticated batteries and software for energy management only made Tesla drivers smile mildly at other e-cars that had to crawl to the nearest power source after 200 kilometers.

This discipline was correspondingly important and sales-promoting for Tesla.

Thoughts on range: Tesla boss Elon Musk.

(Iconic image) © Patrick Pleul/dpa

Elon Musk argues with Tesla fans: how important is range?

But the tide has turned – and apparently so has Elon Musk's opinion.

Because new electric cars like the Mercedes EQS, the Lucid Air or the Nio ET5 shine, at least according to official information, with spectacular values ​​that make 1000 kilometers no longer seem like a utopian goal, and put Tesla under pressure.

But the pioneer is also happily involved in the arms race with its planned new battery technology for the Cybertruck and the new Roadster.

So it is all the more surprising for many Tesla disciples that Elon Musk is questioning the point of a long range, as reported by 24auto.de.

A year ago you could have made a Model S with 600 miles, but then 99.9 percent of the time unnecessary battery mass would be transported: "Even our 400+ mile range is more than almost everyone will use," tweeted the boss .

A good 640 kilometers should be enough, after all, drivers would have to take a break anyway.

Elon Musk argues with Tesla fans: is 400 miles too much?

He received tens of thousands of likes, but also many critical answers.

"Some of them drive in areas where there are no superchargers," posted one user, for example in Alaska and Canada.

Another succinctly explained: "Elon, I don't care about acceleration.

I want more range.” And taxi drivers also demanded a higher range.

It is also not very likely that Tesla will stop trying to achieve longer ranges in the near future - especially since the value in everyday traffic and at low temperatures is significantly lower anyway.

However, Elon Musk is not alone in questioning ever longer non-stop distances: this topic is apparently also being discussed internally at BMW.