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How long does it take to charge one? Do you have time to go eat while it's charging? I wouldn't be impressed with a car that I drive to town, then wait 30 min while charges so I can come home.

Tesla pick ups
http://newatlas.com/tesla-elon-musk-electric-semi-pickup-truck/49013/

Batteries are designed for -4F° -110F° and are also being used for powering homes with solar panels
http://newatlas.com/tesla-battery-powerwall/37283/
Tesla charging stations
http://newatlas.com/tesla-supercharger-cost/46309/
Tesla's new solar panel idea, in addition to the solar shingles
http://newatlas.com/tesla-new-solar-panels/48905/

The Doc who did my varicose surgery had a $100,000 Tesla- and had just bought a base model for his son... Both live in South-Central Alaska.

Can't see either the vehicle or the price myself, but then I'm che--um- economically minded.

Tesla...Would be worth nothing and would be bankrupt if not for Obama gov't funding.

Those stations are there because people from the coasts use them to get from one coast to the other. Tesla basically stuck superchargers every 120 or so miles on east/west interstates because the real range of the car is a bit over 120 miles. In other words, you can drive 120 miles and then have to stop for about 45 minutes to charge, then hit the road again.

I reluctantly admit that I bought a Tesla a few years ago. It made sense for us because we live in the SF Bay Area and there were a ton of perks, including access to HOV lanes, that cut my wife's 3 hour daily commute to about an hour.

Tesla makes a good urban car, but that's where it ends. I once, and only once, made the mistake of trying to drive the Tesla from the Bay Area to my land in Montana (near White Sulphur Springs). I drive fast when I can, so I was able to drive for about an hour and a half before I needed to hit a supercharger. Drive 1.5 hours, sit in a charging stall for 45 minutes, repeat for 1000 miles. NO THANKS. My truck has a 36 gallon fuel tank and goes 600 miles between fueling stops (assuming I don't have to take a piss break, but even then, it doesn't take me 45 minutes to piss).

No doubt about it, the Tesla is a very cool car, and very quick, and I have no doubt that electric cars will be the future. But they ain't the present, and when Tesla has to make a mass market, affordable car that actually works for the way most people drive, they are going to run hard into a brick wall. That time will be later this year, when they start delivering the Model 3.

One day, Ford, GM or some other car company will buy the assets of bankrupt Tesla and incorporate the very cool tech into a car that works for the masses.

How many cars can it build per year?

Bwahahaha

At 100,000 dollars I can buy 3 nice trucks. When they need a recharge I just use the nearest gas station.

It's a fad, it will pass just like all other fads.

I wouldn't own one of those metrosexual cars on a dare...

Our modern gassers didn't appear over night. If they keep working on it, they might come up with something really useful. It just takes a lot of work and money. Most of this high tech stuff is beyond the abililties of the back yard inventor.

They are becoming common on the roads here, but this is a unique pocket. Tesla dealer in the area and really aggressive lease options.
If you sit behind the wheel, you would like you were in a Lexus. Well appointed, nice styling, quiet. No issue with reliability have I heard about - yet.
Time will tell, but eventually lectric cars will rule. Electrice motors have the same HP and torgue from 0 to infinity. Better performace and less noise.

Agree with your analysis but a bunch of other people to date thought it was a great idea to short it and that is the reason it is where it is.......they got their nuts squeezed off. I think this is what happens every cycle. They start putting up a stock with no earnings and people look at it and say "no way", put on shorts, and armed with easily available short interest data, the big guys squeeze them, the momo guys buy the stock cause its going up and presto, you have a stock like Tesla valued more than GM and Ford.....and dead bears everywhere. Thus one of the great wall street cliches....."The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent". Hell, this current cycle has given rise to etf's that attack "most shorted" names.

The current market reminds me of what I have read of the "nifty fifty" market of the 1970's except this time it is the so called "FANG" stocks which are holding up indexes like the qqq. When all of the computers try to get out at the same time and they break its gonna be a humdinger. Maybe we got a little preview last Friday. The wildcard this time around is going to be government intervention. Its hard for the market to run out of money when the fed prints it and gives it to them. No one knew what QE was in prior cycles but that is what makes the "its different this time" mindset. I think at some point they gotta crash it so they can buy it again just like always but timing is going to be critical and difficult. Reminds me of another cliche....."everytime I think I have the key to the market, some sonofabitch changes the lock"!

How do the batteries perform during below zero temperatures? Anyone know?

Good question. Not realy an issue in ATL. Hasn't been sub zero in my lifetime. Now when I lived in Michigan.....

I'd have to turn in my oilfield trash/baseball loving/copenhagen dipping card if seen in one of those things.

There are bunch around here and a new service facility has opened ~20 minutes from my house. I do not see them going away.

I'm thinking, in terms of an investment, Tesla's days are numbered. It has a beyond-ridiculous valuation. It's a niche company right now but it's basically doing the initial heavy lifting for the industry it's in. Once the charging infrastructure and initial technological hurdles are taken care of, a bunch of other companies like Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota etc, will jump in and make a similar product for half the price. At that point, who the hell in their right mind is going to pay 400 bucks a share for this company???

Maybe, but isn't that like saying that Walmart is going to just bowl over Amazon by getting into that space? That sure isn't happening the way Walmart wanted it to.....

There are very few examples of big, established companies that are able to enter new industry technologies and come out on top. GE under Jack Welch was one example. Even some companies billed as "innovation" companies are unable to adapt. Think Hewlett-Packard and even IBM. Most end up like smoking hulks on the side of the road of improvement....

Is it really better performance? Can they be used in mud and snow? A helluva lot of the country isn't at all like Atlanta, or other city, for matter. I can think of huge swathes of the country that don't have charging stations. Do any of them have the performance to go on a 500 mile one-way trip without charging it halfway along the journey? Could I drive one around in, for example, Chariton County, MO, or Todd County, SD, for a day without stopping to recharge the batteries? Those are profoundly rural areas, without much in the way of paved roads. Both places have cold, bitter, wet, muddy winters, can they handle that? Can they manage the snow up north in Minnesota or Wyoming?

To date, I have only seen ONE electric vehicle on the road here right outside Louisville, a Chevy Volt, driven by an oldtimer (even older than me), who only used it around the little town he lived in. It could NOT make a round trip to Louisville and back.

Maybe in the future they will be feasible, but there's a huge amount of work before they will "rule". I am NOT sold on a vehicle that ties me up with an extension cord. (Yeah, I know they don't use extension cords, but the main theme is the same).

I've seen the charging stations mandated by California in some of their national and state parks, but being tied to where charging stations abound doesn't seem like a smart thing, either. It's not likely Americans will wanna give up their independences achieved with fossil-fueled vehicles.